Does God Control Everything? (Crucial Questions, #14)

by R.C. Sproul

they want to know not only whether there is providence, but whether it is cold and unfeeling or kind and compassionate.

But the mentality of our day seems to be that in matters of religion, truth is insignificant. We learn truth from science. We get good feelings from religion.

In our day, however, we have focused so intently on the immediate activity of cause and effect that for the most part we have ignored or denied the overarching causal power behind all of life. Modern man basically has no concept of providence.

The Hebrew word translated as “created” is a form of the verb bara, which means “to create, make.” This word carries with it the idea of sustaining. I like to illustrate this idea by referencing the difference in music between a staccato note and a sustained note.

The God who made the world and everything in it … gives to all mankind life and breath and everything … for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (vv. 23b–28a). Paul said that everything God creates is completely dependent on God’s power, not only for its origin but for the continuity of its existence.

We do not usually hear about a God who commands obedience, who asserts His authority over the universe and insists we bow down to His anointed Messiah. Yet, in Scripture, we never see God inviting people to come to Jesus. He commands us to repent and convicts us of treason at a cosmic level if we choose not to do so.

if God is not sovereign, God is not God. If there is even one maverick molecule in the universe—one molecule running loose outside the scope of God’s sovereign ordination—we cannot have the slightest confidence that any promise God has ever made about the future will come to pass.

The great message of atheism is that “chance” has causal power.