Faith without religion.
Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom: A Biblical Exploration
In a recent teaching, we delved into the complexities of divine sovereignty and human free will, exploring how these concepts have sparked theological debates for centuries. The discussion centered around Acts 4:27-28, where the early believers prayed to God, acknowledging His predetermined plans. This passage has been pivotal in debates about predestination and free will, with interpretations ranging from God as a sovereign despot to the more flexible Open Theism.
The teaching emphasized that while God is all-knowing and in control, He operates through holy means, valuing freedom and choice. This perspective challenges the notion of God as an earthly sovereign, highlighting His inability to lie or be tempted by evil, unlike human rulers. The discussion also touched on the biblical truth that God desires all to be saved, underscoring His love and justice.
The session concluded by contrasting the Old Covenant’s physical manifestations of God’s presence, like earthquakes and fires, with the New Covenant’s spiritual realities. Hebrews 12 was cited to illustrate the transition from a tangible, fear-inducing relationship with God to a spiritual, unshakeable kingdom established through Christ. This shift invites believers to examine their faith, ensuring it rests on the unshakeable foundation of God’s eternal kingdom.
Teaching Script:
Welcome
Prayer
Music
Silence
Acts 4.28
Milk
January 17 2016
Alright, we left off last week with the believers in the first church, the Bride of Christ, praying to God who they called their despotace.
We talked all about that.
The last line of their prayer that we read was verses 27-28 where they said:
Acts 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Young’s Literal Translation puts verse 28 this way:
“to do whatever Thy hand and Thy counsel did determine before to come to pass.”
It’s a passage, along with others that support it, and then others that challenge it, that has caused division among Christians for centuries.
Upon it hang debates about predestination, free-will, and the like.
It’s interesting that they address God as a despotace at the beginning of the prayer because the way that word is understood and interpreted today is exactly how some see God – as a sovereign despot who has determined how things will go in this world and there is nothing on earth any one can do about it – He determined it and it will come to pass.
At the polar opposite of this view (among believers) are men like Greg Boyd who teach something called Open Theism which states that God does not know everything nor does he fully determine them before hand.
Between these views lie all manner of hypothecation with the best of them using scripture to support themselves.
What happens in the wake of all of these ideas and teachings is they must wind up describing “an end-result upon human beings.”
Remember this line, that these teachings all wind up describing ““an end-result upon human beings.”
When we think about it this is really all that matters to us, right? Whether or not God is this or that or does this or that is only important on how it effects the end result upon us human beings, His creations.
So, let me give you an example of how the way we see these things effecting the :
“end-result upon human beings.”
If we take the Calvinist idea that God has determined all things from before the foundation of the world and is sovereign and always gets his way AND THAT there is absolutely no free will among men to choose Him – but that God either elects some people to be His and saves them or that He does not with the others, the end result upon human beings is:
“God has elected to save some and God has elected to let the rest burn forever in hell.”
On the other hand, if we believe that God allows for men and women to freely choose Him, knowing before creating them who would choose Him and who would not, we run into another:
“end-result upon human beings.”
God created people full well knowing that they would NOT choose Him and therefore in some sense created them for hell (because he created them knowing they would not choose Him in the first place).
So, what are the absolutes in scripture that if we are going to accept the Bible as the Word of God and not operate outside of it, about God relative to the end result upon human beings?
First, I believe from scripture that God is, and always has been, all-knowing.
For Him to lack knowledge is, in my estimation, to view Him as capable of being surprised and throws His governance of the universe into chaos – at least some sort of chaos. He is a God of order – to be such He must be all knowing.
Secondly, being all-knowing I am convinced that He is in absolute control of all things. I am convinced that His ways are always accomplished and if He determined something like the death and resurrection of Christ before it occurred that it would occur.
So what is prayed here is absolutely correct (verse 27-28):
“For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
Now, back in the 16th Century rulers and kings were called Sovereigns. It meant an all powerful potentate with absolute, unlimited, unbounded power to do or say whatever he wanted.
There are passages of scripture, that taken in and of themselves appear to describe as a sovereign God, a potenetate who has the ability to do anything. These verse include (but are not limited to):
Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Isaiah 40:23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
2nd Chronicles 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
Zechariah 4:6 “saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
Taking the non-biblical term sovereign in hand and reading these passages we can easily believe that God is Sovereign like a sovereign potentate.
And so back in the 16th Century Calvin took the term Sovereign and assigned it to God in the way that we would understand an earthly ruler of absolute power.
As frightening as this next statement may seem upon hearing it, I would disagree with Calvin. In fact I would go so far as to say that earthly potentates have much more power and leeway to act than God.
What?
Remember, I believe with all I have that God does and will have victory. Ultimate victory over all things. So He is supreme.
But to assign the same characteristics to him that we give men on earth who are seen as sovereign potentates is unsound.
For example, did you know that God cannot and will not lie like a potentate will?
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
So compared to an earthly sovereign, God cannot lie.
Therefore according to this passage God will always do what He says – earthly Sovereigns aren’t relegated to this. They can say one thing and go back on it anytime they want!
Hebrews 6 and Titus 1:2 says it’s impossible for God to lie. Sovereigns have much more liberty.
James says that God cannot even be tempted with evil. Did you know that?
James 1:13 says “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”
So let’s reread those passages that seem to describe God in terms of earthly sovereignty.
Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
True! He does whatever He hath pleased BUT HE HAS NOT PLEASED TO DO EVIL NOR DARKNESS unlike a man.
Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
True! He directs and leads and guides full well knowing the outcome. But it does not say he forces.
Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
The passage proves God, through all sorts of means, gets His way, has victory – but it does not in any way say He brings things to pass without the interference of the actions and freewill of Man.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Again, in faith we TRUST that God – our good, loving, non-lying, trustworthy God – amidst all the evil and barriers in the world – will make all things work out for good for those who love Him and who “he called according to His purposes.”
He will have victory. But this does NOT make Him a sovereign like an earthly king.
By the way, did you catch that last line – “whom he called according to His purposes.”
What are His purposes? To do good or to do evil? Keep that question in mind as we continue to address this issue.
Isaiah 40:23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
That word “bringeth” shows that He works in and around and through things ultimately bringing them to an expected end WHILE allowing others out of His will to do their damage.
This is an important point because if we just take the description of Him as sovereign we wind up having to say:
God wanted that child to drown or God caused this accident to take the life of my Mom when in reality in His wisdom and knowledge has allowed things to happen TO bring about a victorious end.
2nd Chronicles 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
Again, none will withstand Him, but they will try – and they will have minor wins – but He will have the ultimate victory.
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him,
Again, we may be tempted to read this with the presuppositional idea that God is like an earthly sovereign. But I would suggest that He is better. Because He is always good, He is always loving, and He will always have ultimate victory in and through these means and not through the means of Man.
I mention all this because it is key to understanding the fact that God DOES accomplish His will and ways and He is victorious.
But the next question is how?
One argument paints him as having His way come hell or high water and boom! All had better accept it. It’s from God.
This notion is a flow over from Calvin assigning the sovereign characteristics of ruler men to loving God.
So, we agree that God is all knowing.
And we agree that God does get His ultimate way.
But how?
This brings us to another Biblical fact about God – He is Good. All Good.
He IS love.
He IS just.
He IS merciful.
He is longsuffering.
He is Kind, Patient and He loves the world.
All biblical teachings of God.
If He is Good (and He is) I am convinced that He is not despotic, He does not force, and He adores freedom – it is one of His highest priorities.
We see the free-will of human kind manifested in the lives of our first parents.
God gave them choice. Period. To say otherwise is to support a very ugly picture of Him.
But even the Calvinist has to agree that the first man had choice – and that this is the modus operandi of God.
Another fact of the Bible is
God desires all to be saved and that none would perish.
Speaking of God Paul says in 1st Timothy 2:4
“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
Peter adds:
2nd Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
So, we have what I believe are some admitted biblical facts. And we have to take them and decide what they say about God – His person, His intentions, His ways – and how His being “effects the end results of all human-beings.”
I propose the scripture says:
God is all-knowing and always has been.
That God is in control of all things.
That God is all powerful but only in and through holy means, which includes a love of freedom and choice.
That by His foreknowledge of our freewill choices elects all of us to certain things.
That His elections are good and founded in love. And that
His desires are that none would perish but that all would be saved.
In other words, by and through His foreknowledge of our freewill choices God elects all of us to places and things as a means to bring about His good will, that none would perish.
John 3:17 says plainly:
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Paul says in 1st Timothy 4:10
“For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.”
In this view, God
Is loving
Is fair
Is all knowing
Is victorious
Is all powerful
Allows for consummate free will
Created all with His victory in mind
And allows the model established in the Garden of Eden to remain (free-will) while electing those who He knew would choose Him to bring about the reconciliation of all to Him (through His Son) in the end.
So when someone asks, “IS God all powerful?” The answer is, “yes – but only in Holy ways.”
Q: “Did God know the beginning from the end?” A: “Of course He did.”
Q: “Does Man have free-will?” A: “Yes!”
Q: “Does God elect people?” A: “Most definitely – according to His foreknowledge of our choices!”
Q: “Does God love us – all of us?” A: He does. So much so He gave us His Son.”
Q: “Is God victorious over the will of man and Satan?” A: “Of course – in the end. He wins and loses to none.”
So getting back to our verse in Acts 4, the believers in the first church, the Bride, are praying and say:
Acts 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Did He force them? Never. Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Romans and the people of Israel all did “whatsoever God’s hand and His counsel determined before (by His foreknowledge of their ways) to be done.
At verse 29 their prayer continues and they say:
29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Now as we continue to read this prayer is seems (doesn’t have to be) but it seems like the believers were praying for the apostles.
At verse 29 we read:
29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings (of the Sanhedrim): and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
I realize that Peter could actually been the voice in this prayer and includes himself in the prayer in the third person, saying (and speaking of himself)
“grant unto thy servants.”
It happens all the time in scripture – and did with Jesus too.
But the prayer says look at the threats of the rulers against us (or them)
“and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word (LISTEN – verse 30)
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
In other words by taking this all together what the petition seems to be is:
“Allow these servants to have the ability to preach thy word BY . . . BY you, God, stretching your hand out and healing and showing signs and wonders in the name of Jesus which will cause people to then listen to their words.”
Luke does not give us a formal ending of the prayer but continues on at verse 31 to say:
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Okay, the word which is translated “was shaken,” (SALYOO-O) is used in scripture to describe the actual shaking of the sea (through waves), trees by wind and earthquakes.
It seems that this was an earthquake but we don’t know if it was:
Geographical
Just the house they were in, OR
Something they all experienced, as it were, in the Spirit.
Whatever it was they probably regarded this as an answer to their prayer or as an evidence that God would be with them as they’ve requested.
Remember, the book of Acts is a book of transition from one economy (that of the Old Testament) to another (that of the New).
Signs and wonders, fires and clouds and earthquakes were always seen by the Jews as evidence of God.
They were not alone in this – ungodly pagans viewed similar events in nature as signs of a god of terrors.
It is often said by anthropologists that religion is Man’s response to the uncontrollable and terrible acts of nature which include thunder, lightening, flood, and earthquakes.
So it is not wonder that right after praying to God (who to them still related to them through signs – remember, they were praying that the apostles would continue BY HIS HAND to perform signs and wonders as a means to get people to hear) that for an earthquake to hit was a sure sign of the His presence.
We’ll read in chapter 16 of Acts where Paul and Silas were imprisoned and an earthquake set them free – another tie-in to the way God worked among the nation.
We read in Psalm 68:8
“The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.”
Again we are talking about the Old Covenant, which was really still thriving here in Acts 4 with its signs and wonders and shakings as the New dispensation of
Grace and spirit was still around the corner.
And remember in that agrestic agrarian economy such things were standard operation between God and His people.
Fires
Flood
Shaking
But all of these would (and should) transition to the individual by the spirit.
Fires that burn in the heart
Flood of the Spirit washing over us.
Fear and trembling from the soul over the power and love of God.
Because we are Bible reading people we often find ourselves looking for similar physical interactions and evidences and wonders in our own lives and the culture in which we live.
People love a great physical proof.
But such things were to end – at the end of that age, which would culminate in all of that type of thing – fires, earthquakes, winds, clouds, wars, etc – coming in at once upon them.
The genesis of God’s presence being evidenced by earthquakes seems to have come from Sinai when the children of Israel gathered and Moses went up.
This is why the Psalmist wrote:
“The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.”
But let me take you to a really interesting set of passages to wrap today up with.
Go to Hebrews chapter 12 with me. I’m going to read out of the RSV version because it is easier to explain from it than from the King James.
In Hebrews 11 the writer has been talking all about faith and giving all sorts of examples from the Old Testament of great men and women of faith.
Then in verse one of chapter 12 he concludes, saying
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us”
And from that point he speaks about how to endure discipline and chastisement from the Lord, and to endure trials.
Then at verse 18 he reminds his reader and says (Ready – read this with me, it VERY important to the Christian world-view):
(verse 18) “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,
19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers plead that no further messages be spoken to them.”
Who is he speaking of? The Children of Israel when they were gathered at Mt. Sinai waiting on Moses. The writer say,
You have NOT come to such a place that can be TOUCHED, that burned and was dark and had tempests (from the presence of God). It was so terrifying that the people pleaded that the messages being spoken to them would end! Got it? (verse 20-21)
20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
Let me describe what they faced even further, he seems to say – those people couldn’t endure the command that if a beast even touches the mountain it was to be killed – a command that was so terrifying that even Moses said:
“I tremble with fear.”
Got that picture of what it was like for them there and under the Law? Well remember, this economy was still in operation when the first believers were praying together. But the writer of the Book of Hebrews now adds (at verse 22
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels,
This is describing a very spiritual place, not one of mountains of shaking fiery dirt and fear but one that is heavenly. And he says,
BUT YOU HAVE COME – meaning by faith, this is where you have arrived. (Verse 23 he adds)
23 and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 and to Jesus (who at the point of this writing had ascended), the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.
So he makes a comparison between the former economy – the old that shook with fire and was on earth – to the New, located and centralized and governed from heaven. (Verse 25
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they (the Nation of Israel) did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth (speaking of Moses), much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. (Jesus from His heavenly thrown).
Now listen to how the writer makes a comparison between the events of the Old Covenant:
26 His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”
The writer of Hebrews is quoting from the Old Testament book of Haggai where God promises to shake EVERYTHING up one more time – but instead of just earth like He did at Sinai – or even here in Acts 4 – He will also shake the heavens, which is symbolic of all things being shaken up.
And as a means to clarify in verse 27 the writer of Hebrews adds:
27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Do you know what that is saying? Its saying that all of these things where God once related to man through –
Earthquakes, fires, temples, man-lead priesthoods, things of the physical world – would be shaken ONE LAST TIME – whether they be in heaven or on earth (LISTEN- HE SAYS IT)
“IN ORDER THAT WHAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN MAY REMAIN!”
God gave us, in and through the work of His Son, a Kingdom what cannot, cannot will not be shaken.
That is the Kingdom we belong to! Belonging to it ought to cause each of us to ask:
What things in my faith, my walk are shakeable? Because whatever they are, they do NOT belong to the Kingdom He has created and given you.
Get it?
If you are placing your faith on men? Shakeable.
Money? Shakeable.
Power? Shakeable.
Listen to how the writer wraps it up! He says (LISTEN)
28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe;
29 for our God is a consuming fire.
WORKBOOK
We’ll leave it off here and pick it back up
Q and A
Prayer
