God Is In Absolute Control of Everything AND EVERYBODY
By Curtis Pugh
of Poteau, Oklahoma
Is God in control of this world and its
people? Is God in control of government leaders? Is God at war with the devil?
Is there a possibility that the devil may win? Does God have a plan? Is He able
to do His will? Is God saving His chosen people? Or is He trying to save
everyone? Logically we must say that God is a failure if He is trying to save
all mankind for more are lost than are saved. We have God’s revealed will in the
Bible. It tells us what is sin and what is right. Men do not live according to
that revealed will of God: they never measure up. But God also has a secret or
unrevealed will: an eternal plan. To accomplish His secret will God allows men
to do what they want as long as it pleases Him. God even allows men to sin in
order to accomplish His unrevealed will. They can sin because God allows it.
They may not know it, but they fulfill His predetermined secret will even in
their rebellion against His revealed will, the Bible. They still sin. They were
responsible for their sinful actions. But it was God that allowed them to sin
and predetermined that they would do what they did – all in order to bring about
the fulfillment of His plan and prophesies. The Bible in both the Old and New
Testaments teaches that God is in absolute control of all things and all men.
That is why Paul could write:
“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. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren”
(Rom. 8:28-29). If God is not in control, those two verses and others in the
Bible could not be true. How could all things work together for good to God’s
children if nobody was in control bringing about those things that are good for
them? Even loving human parents seek to be in control of all things that pertain
to their children. They try to keep them from harm and to provide good things
for them. And so it is that God has a plan: an unrevealed plan. He carries out
that plan in every detail. Because God is in control of all things and all men,
the Bible says two different times that wicked men were unable to do what they
wanted because it was not yet God’s predetermined time for them to do so.
Speaking of the Pharisees trying to kill the Lord Jesus, the Bible says:
“Then they sought to take him: but
no man laid hands on him, because
his hour was not yet come”
(John 7:30). Again in John 8:20 we read of a similar incident:
“These words spake
Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in
the temple: and no man laid hands on
him; for his hour was not yet come”. Peter publicly preached to these very
Jews about God’s control and their sin in killing the Lord, saying:
“Him,
being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God,
ye have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain”
(Acts 2:23). God determined beforehand
the exact time and means of the death of the Lord Jesus. He even prophesied it.
He did not force men to sin in slaying Him. The men did it because they were
wicked. They were responsible. Peter not only preached about God’s absolute
control, he prayed about it in these words,
“The kings of the
earth stood up, and the rulers were
gathered together against the Lord,
and against his Christ. 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”
(Acts 4:26-28). Even wicked men do exactly what God has
already predetermined to be done. God does not force them to do it. Yet they do
that which God wants done. Wicked men killed Christ, but they did God’s will.
They violated the revealed will of God, but accomplished His secret will.
Back in the days of the prophet Daniel
King Nebuchadnezzar said this about God:
“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?”
(Dan. 4:35). The king learned those things by experience as well as revelation.
God has His way in Heaven and among all people on the earth. That means nobody
can stop God from doing what He wants to do. That means the inhabitants of the
earth do His secret will. God works this way: He allows man’s wrath, for
instance, to cause them to do what brings glory to Him, but restrains men from
going beyond His will even in their anger. This is stated in the following
verse:
“Surely the wrath of man shall praise
thee: the remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain”
(Ps. 76:10) It is written,
“...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?”
(II Chron. 20:6). The Bible says God
even controls tornadoes and storms:
“...the
LORD hath his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm...”
(Nah. 1:3). All things and all men are in God’s control!
God says that He will do all His
pleasure – whatever He wills, that He will do. This is clear from the following,
“...I
am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like
me, Declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and
I will do all my pleasure: Calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man
that executeth my counsel from a far
country: yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass; I have purposed
it, I will also do it”
(Isa. 46:9-11). God is bringing all things to pass just as He determined from
the beginning. Whatever God purposes He does. God is able to do what He wants to
do. In the last quoted verse it was prophesied that God would raise up a far
away Gentile king to accomplish His will regarding the Jews. He did that very
thing!
In Bible days, kings did as they
pleased. They were sovereign. Their orders were carried out whether to kill or
allow to live. And yet consider what God said about His control over kings:
“The king’s heart is in the hand
of the LORD, as the rivers of water:
he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Pro. 21:1). God controls the courses
of rivers and He controls the hearts (desires, plans, will) of kings. They do as
He pleases. In fact the Bible reveals that it is God who places kings,
presidents and even dictators in power. God
“...removeth kings, and setteth
up kings...”
(Dan. 2:21). God controls even wicked dictators. He is able
to control all men and He does that very thing.
Do you believe the Bible? It says God is
in absolute control of all things and all people. God does as He pleases –
including saving whom He wants to save when He wants to save them. He is able to
work both outwardly upon men and inwardly within men. Paul wrote of this,
saying:
“For it is God
which worketh in you both to will
and to do of his good pleasure”
(Phil. 2:13). God is absolutely in control! It is wickedness and blasphemy to
say that puny men must “let God” do anything! God does not need you to “let Him”
do anything! You cannot stop Him from doing what He pleases! He is the all
powerful God! He is the Sovereign! Give Him the glory! He does all things well!