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There are over one hundred and twenty references to the sovereignty of God and the Naves Topical, under God>Sovereignty, lists them. The study is not a short/quick study. I have often seen the question published on the net, Why Does God Permit Evil? This is not an unreasonable question for any person, lost or saved, to ask. In my opinion it is a required subject for the Christian to learn to answer.
Now, as demonstrated in the study of God's Sovereignty, He is sovereign over the entire Earth and all of it's happenings. At the same time, if we have studied the scriptures much at all we know that there is no evil in God for He is good and good and evil are opposites. A yearly read through the book of Job will give us a good reason and material to meditate upon in the matter of what God does and does not do as well as what God will permit outside of His perfect will (2Pet. 3:9.) God uses everything that happens on the Earth to call lost men to repentance and salvation.
Job was a righteous man in everything he did and still, God permitted Satan to kill his children, destroy the fruits of his labor and to afflict him with horrible pain and suffering. What was God doing? God never allows Satan to afflict His saints unless there is Spiritual growth to be had. Job 19:1-12 shows us that Job thought God had done this to him but to Job's credit he refused to curse God (Job 2:9-10.)
In the end of it all, Job knew that God had and would always rescue him and Job's faith was multiplied when it was all said and done. And God did not leave Job in that condition but made him better off than he ever was before.
So, how does that relate to us today? I offer you a true life example. I went to Vietnam in June of 1966 and in September of that year I found my best friend after an eighty-one mm. mortar had exploded on his chest. Up to this point I was an alcoholic atheist but as I stood, cursing the God I refused to worship, He spoke to me. God said, Why curse me, you don't even believe! My lack of knowledge of the Spiritual life immediately changed. I wasn't a Christian, but for the next 23 years I was a seeker. I had become a Deist and was seeking the one true God.
Does God permit Satan to do evil? It's difficult to argue against the Bible since it is he very Word of God for His believers. God permitted an action that has influenced my life for the past 44 years and as a result of that I have learned that it is a terrible thing to be found, judged by God. I also learned that man is not as supreme as he wants to be but that instead that we are, all of us, in need of God and His mercy. In war I have seen, what is perhaps, a very small example of God's wrath. Am I saying my friend suffered God's wrath? Directly or indirectly, yes. So did I!
I know that the folks that teach, come to Christ and all your troubles end right there, are not teaching the truth o God's word. Have I been attacked by Satan since I converted and bowed my knee in submission? You can certainly believe I have. I am often guilty of upsetting the 'God is love crowd' by teaching the hard doctrines of God, because while it is so very true that God is love, there is so much more to understand about God. I have been serious about my study now for better than 19 years and what I have learned about God has opened the way to so very much more that I do not know and understand yet. I will study the rest of my life and yet I know that if I live another 65 years I will still be studying God, trying to know Him better and still not know everything about Him.
There is true evil in this world, I have seen it. I've held a 6 month old in my arms as it died of the gun shot wounds, that's evil! But out of it all, I have learned to never curse God but to move forward, just like the soldier the US Army trained, and to work toward God's perfect will as He opens and closes doors. God is good and as His soldiers, the Good War is our fight.
Now, as demonstrated in the study of God's Sovereignty, He is sovereign over the entire Earth and all of it's happenings. At the same time, if we have studied the scriptures much at all we know that there is no evil in God for He is good and good and evil are opposites. A yearly read through the book of Job will give us a good reason and material to meditate upon in the matter of what God does and does not do as well as what God will permit outside of His perfect will (2Pet. 3:9.) God uses everything that happens on the Earth to call lost men to repentance and salvation.
Job was a righteous man in everything he did and still, God permitted Satan to kill his children, destroy the fruits of his labor and to afflict him with horrible pain and suffering. What was God doing? God never allows Satan to afflict His saints unless there is Spiritual growth to be had. Job 19:1-12 shows us that Job thought God had done this to him but to Job's credit he refused to curse God (Job 2:9-10.)
In the end of it all, Job knew that God had and would always rescue him and Job's faith was multiplied when it was all said and done. And God did not leave Job in that condition but made him better off than he ever was before.
So, how does that relate to us today? I offer you a true life example. I went to Vietnam in June of 1966 and in September of that year I found my best friend after an eighty-one mm. mortar had exploded on his chest. Up to this point I was an alcoholic atheist but as I stood, cursing the God I refused to worship, He spoke to me. God said, Why curse me, you don't even believe! My lack of knowledge of the Spiritual life immediately changed. I wasn't a Christian, but for the next 23 years I was a seeker. I had become a Deist and was seeking the one true God.
Does God permit Satan to do evil? It's difficult to argue against the Bible since it is he very Word of God for His believers. God permitted an action that has influenced my life for the past 44 years and as a result of that I have learned that it is a terrible thing to be found, judged by God. I also learned that man is not as supreme as he wants to be but that instead that we are, all of us, in need of God and His mercy. In war I have seen, what is perhaps, a very small example of God's wrath. Am I saying my friend suffered God's wrath? Directly or indirectly, yes. So did I!
I know that the folks that teach, come to Christ and all your troubles end right there, are not teaching the truth o God's word. Have I been attacked by Satan since I converted and bowed my knee in submission? You can certainly believe I have. I am often guilty of upsetting the 'God is love crowd' by teaching the hard doctrines of God, because while it is so very true that God is love, there is so much more to understand about God. I have been serious about my study now for better than 19 years and what I have learned about God has opened the way to so very much more that I do not know and understand yet. I will study the rest of my life and yet I know that if I live another 65 years I will still be studying God, trying to know Him better and still not know everything about Him.
There is true evil in this world, I have seen it. I've held a 6 month old in my arms as it died of the gun shot wounds, that's evil! But out of it all, I have learned to never curse God but to move forward, just like the soldier the US Army trained, and to work toward God's perfect will as He opens and closes doors. God is good and as His soldiers, the Good War is our fight.
