God is sovereign in creation, providence, redemption, and judgment. It is a central declaration of the Christian faith and, in particular, of reformed theology. God is the King and the Lord of everything. Express this truth in another way: nothing happens without God wanting it to happen, wishing him even before it happened and wanting it to happen as he does. To say this seems to imply that something is doctrine expressly reformed. But the essence of this statement is no different from what the Creed of Nicea says: “I believe in God the Almighty Father. “To say that God is sovereign is to express his omnipotence in all areas.
God is sovereign in creation. ” In the beginning, did God create the heavens and the earth?(Genesis 1. 1). Apart from God, there was nothing. And then there was something: matter, space, time and energy. And the latter existed ex nihilo?out of nowhere. The will to create was entirely god’s. The execution was entirely up to you, wasn’t there?Need?metaphysics to create; happened by God-free action.
- God is sovereign in providence.
- Does traditional theism insist that God is omnipotent.
- Omniscient.
- And omnipresent? Almighty.
- Omniscient and present everywhere.
- Each declaration is a variant of divine sovereignty.
- Your power.
- Knowledge.
- And presence ensure that your goals are achieved.
- That your goals are achieved.
- And that your tracking of all events is (for God at least) essentially “safe.
- “.
God’s power is not at all in the sense that God can do everything (absolute powers); on the contrary, God’s power ensures that he can do everything logically possible. “He cannot renounce himself,” for example (2 Timothy 2:13).
Some people object to the idea that God knows all events before they happen. This vision, according to some, deprives humanity of its essential freedom. Open theists or theists of free will, for example, insist that the future (at least in their specific details) is somehow “open”. Even God doesn’t know everything that’s to come. Can you make predictions, like a cosmic poker player, but you can’t know absolutely. This explains why open theists suggest that God seems to be changing his mind: God adjusts his plan based on new information from unpredictable events (see Genesis 6,6-7; 1 Samuel 15,11). Reformed theology, on the other hand, insists that no event surprises God. For us it is “luck or chance”, but for God it is part of his decree. “Luck is on your knees, but does every decision come from the Lord?(Proverbs 16:33). The language of scripture that portrays God by changing our minds is an adjustment for us and the way we speak, not a description of a real change in God’s mind.
God is sovereign in redemption, a fact that explains why we are grateful to God for our salvation and pray for the salvation of our friends who are spiritually lost, if the power to save is in man’s free will, if he truly resides in his ability to save himself, without needing help, why do we ask God to “vigorize” , “save”?or “regenerate” The fact that we constantly thank God for people’s salvation means (let us admit it or not) that belief in free will is inconsistent.
God is sovereign in judgment. Few passages of Scripture reflect God’s sovereignty more strongly in the choice and disapproval than Romans 9:21: “Or does the potter have any right over the mass, to make a vessel of honor, and another to dishonor?”At first glance, this may seem unfair and arbitrary, as if God is playing like a child with the petals of a flower: “He loves me, he loves me, he loves me, he loves me. “In response, some people have affirmed that God has the right to do what He wants, and we should not criticize Him? asks that Paul himself anticipates (Romans 9:20). Others considered that if God gave us what we deserved, we would all be condemned. Therefore, choice is an act of grace (not just sovereign). But in any case, our salvation shows the glory of God: “For him, for him, and for him are all things. So for him, eternal glory, amen!? (Romans 11:36).
The affirmation of divine sovereignty is not made without other issues being addressed.
First, there is the question of evangelism: if God is sovereign in all matters of providence, what is the purpose of human effort in evangelization and missions?God’s will will certainly be fulfilled, evangelized or not, but we dare not reason which way. In addition to the fact that God commands us to evangelize, then are we going to make disciples of all nations?(Matthew 28. 19)? This reasoning ignores the fact that God carries out his sovereign plan by human means and instruments. Nowhere in the Bible are we encouraged to be passive and inert. Paul commands his readers of Philippi: ‘Develop your salvation with fear and trepidation; Why is it God who acts in you both to love and to do according to His goodwill?(Philippians 2: 12-13).
Secondly, there is the question of ethics. We are responsible for our actions and behavior. We are guilty of transgression and praiseworthy for obedience.
Third, in relation to civil power and authority, there is the question of God’s sovereignty in the determination of leaders and government. God has ordained that civil governments be systems of justice, goodness, and peace, to punish the wicked and praise those who do good. (Romans 13: 3; 1 Peter 2. 14). But this is also true for the powers of perverse and corrupt regimes that violate the principles of the government itself; these are also under the sovereign rule of Almighty God.
Fourth, on the question of origin and the continuity of evil, God’s sovereignty finds its most serious problem. May God not prevent evil from existing seems to question his omnipotence or benevolence. Some non-Christian religions try to solve this problem by stating that evil is imaginary (Christian science) or illusion (Hinduism). Augustine and many medieval thinkers believe that part of the mystery could be solved by identifying evil as a deprivation of good, suggesting that evil is something without existence in itself. Evil is a matter of ontology (existence). Reformed thinking on this subject is summed up in Westminster’s Confession of Faith:
From all eternity, God, by the wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and immutably commanded all that will happen; However, God is not the author of sin and the will of creatures is not violated; the freedom or contingency of secondary causes is also not abolished, but is established (3. 1).
God is the root cause of all things, but evil is the product of “secondary causes. “In the words of Joo Calvin: “First of all, it should be noted that God’s will is the cause of all that is happening in the world. ; and yet God is not the author of evil,” he adds, “so the immediate cause is one thing and the distant cause is another. “In other words, God cannot do evil and cannot be blamed for evil, even if it is part of His sovereign decree.
God is sovereign and in his sovereignty shows his majestic glory. Without this, we would have no existence, no salvation, no hope. Gloria Soli Deo.
On 31 October 1517, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther hung at the door of the castle church in his small town of Wittemberg, Germany, ninety-five thesis denouncing the distortion of the Gospel, the sale of indulgences, the corruption of the church and called the Christian to repentance and faith. I didn’t imagine this would be revolutionary.
When asked about his positions, Luther kept his conscience captive to the Word of God and stood firm.
He made regular reforms, and the light of scripture finally flooded his mind, leading him to understand something that would completely change his life and the course of history His soul was reborn and entered through the open doors of paradise when he realized that we are justified only by faith; rather, under the yoke of the law and born a slave to sin; now I live by faith, free from the law, free of all and slave, for love, of all.
The reformer knew that this was the true treasure of the Church: the most holy gospel of God’s glory and grace; Justification for faith would become the article by which the church would stand or fall. A non-negotiable teaching of the scriptures and, before the Word, everyone had to yield. So peace if possible, but truth at all costs.
It was these convictions that led the peasants and princes in Germany to embrace faith in Christ and sign their protest in 1529, when they were challenged to abandon the Reformation, today we are always called to fight this good battle, yet our struggle is not against blood and flesh. We don’t fight according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our militia are not carnal, but powerful in God to destroy the fortresses. Our victory over the world: faith. Our weapon of combat: the truth of the gospel. We are all beggars, but we know that our God is a strong tower and that His Word will not return empty and will do everything.
& Quot; Protestants & quot; is the theme of our 33rd Faithful Conference of Pastors and Leaders (Statement of Faith). Join us in hearing and proclaiming the glorious truths of the gospel as we praise God for 500 years of the Protestant Reformation.