I recently heard a minister say something like this: “If you can’t accept the reality that God has told every lightning bolt where to strike, the only alternative is to believe that God has no control over nature.” This was his opening line of a message about God and natural disasters, and his position, clearly, was that God indeed ordains destructive, deadly events in nature, and, by ex-tension, every tragic death, whether by accident, disease, or violence, was ordained by God.
I think, however, that his opening line is a perfect example of a false dichotomy. The problem I have with this – what I call ultra-Calvinism – is I find no way around the conclusion that God ordains sin. Not so much regarding natural disasters, but certainly with regard to violence. If a person dies because a drunk driver crosses the median and hits his vehicle head-on, did God ordain the drunkenness? Of course not.
We live in a world surrounded by a thousand ways to die every day. Nature, in the form of dangerous weather, wild animals, bugs, viruses, bacteria, etc, is dangerous. Our infrastructure is dangerous (think gas mains, electrical lines, etc.). Our fellow man is dangerous. I agree nothing takes God by surprise, but I think the idea that God ordains every death as it happens runs counter to His promises.
Looking back at the example of natural disasters, I think of Jesus asleep in the boat with his disciples when the storm came up. Did God the Father ordain the storm that God the Son rebuked? And pure logic dictates that the God who said “You shall do no murder” can not ordain death by murder.
But does that mean He’s not in control? No! The faith position on this is simply: God, in His sovereignty, has delegated a great deal of authority to His children. Just as He told Adam and Eve to “… multiply; fill the earth and sub-due it”, He tells us to stand in the authority that He has provided us through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
God has made promises to me in His word. Those promises include healing, protection for me AND my stuff, abundant provision, divine guidance, long life, power over evil spirits, and most of all His personal presence by the Holy Spirit indwelling me. What does that mean? Do I have the authority to banish all sickness and disease from the earth? To send every demon screaming into hell? To cause hurricanes to dissipate before they make landfall? No.
It means I can claim His promises for me. I cannot make poison non-poisonous. But I believe that if I am poisoned, it will not harm me. I cannot make demons disappear, but I can cast them out of people. I cannot make the storm disappear from the face of the earth, but I can claim preservation and protection for me, my family, and my stuff.
I cannot answer why so many bad things happen to good, believing people. I can say with confidence, though, that many times it is because we are not actively appropriating the promises for our lives. And the only way I can find in the Bible to do that is to speak it. Claim it. You’ve heard me say it before: the “name it and claim it” moniker deserves a lot of the flack it has received. But the true word of faith message is this: “if God has named it, I can claim it.” And if I don’t claim it, if I don’t speak it out when I see a lack, a threat, or a need, that’s not God’s fault.
And let me emphasize this above all: we need to be more concerned with living lives that are pleasing to God than we are in keeping healthy, safe, and supplied. We need to speak the Word to that as well. Claim, by faith, the very life God has called you to live. Say, “I can hear the voice of the Spirit. I hear my master’s voice, and another I will not follow. I can do all things through Christ; that means I can always do the right thing and say the right thing, no matter what the world or the devil is tempting me to do. I am a blessing going somewhere to happen.”
When we are as passionate about being who we are supposed to be in Christ, and when we put our faith to work to that end, I believe we will find that this other stuff, or “all these things” will be added to us quite easily.
With you in Christ,
