I’m involved in a healthy dialogue on God’s sovereignty and God’s providence with the stud blogger, Michael Spencer (aka Internet Monk).
He posted on what he believed about God’s sovereignty and God’s providence and so I asked him if he stood in the same vein John Piper’s comments on the Minnesota bridge collapse, which has resulted in a few more back and forth comments.
My main thing about asking the questions about God’s sovereignty and will is this:
I ask because I HAVE heard such answers given in the face of tragedy (which I don’t find helpful). And I ask this because I think this type of question, or the way the answer is framed, strikes to the heart of God’s character: are we saying that God wills/wants these types of things to happen? And I think it is worth exploring, because people in this world really do wonder just what type of God not only we serve, but also exists.
Why can’t we tell people that “stuff happens”, not because God isn’t in control, but that, as LeRon Shults puts it, there is absolute evil in the world and the existence of this evil permits evil and tragic acts? I don’t discount God deliberately moving through the circumstances of history and the stories of individual people’s lives to bring about an unfolding of his OWN will and purposes (be them macro or micro/individual). But if that’s the case, can Evil also deliberately move through the circumstances of history and the stories of individual people’s lives to bring about an unfolding of IT’S will??
Check it out and join in the conversation!
