Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS025008S
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00:00 [uplifting music]
00:11 ♪♪♪ 00:14 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:15 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:17 We're glad to have you with us today. 00:19 We are continuing to look at God's love and justice. 00:22 And today, we are looking at lesson number 8. 00:25 Lesson number 8 is "Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence." 00:30 What does all that mean? Well, you're about to find out. 00:32 Let's begin with prayer. 00:34 Father, we wanna thank You for bringing us together today 00:37 and giving us an opportunity to learn more about You 00:39 through our study of Your Word. 00:42 We ask that You will bless us and help us 00:44 to be able to rightly represent You to the world 00:47 as we better understand You and Your character of love. 00:50 We thank You, in Jesus' name, amen. 00:53 We're grateful to have with us once again the author 00:55 of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson, John Peckham. 00:58 He is an associate editor of the "Adventist Review" 01:01 and also a research professor 01:03 at the Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. 01:07 John, welcome back once again. 01:08 >>John Peckham: Thank you, my pleasure to be here. 01:09 >>Eric: So this week, we're looking at "Free Will, 01:12 Love, and Divine Providence." Now, some of those terms 01:15 are probably gonna be a little bit unfamiliar. 01:17 I think most people understand what love is, 01:19 and they've got a decent understanding of free will, 01:21 but we're gonna dive into something 01:22 called divine providence here. 01:25 How does this concept of divine providence, 01:27 how does it influence the way that we view this relationship 01:31 between God and human free will? 01:34 >>John: Yeah, well, let's put on the table a definition 01:38 of what we mean by divine providence. 01:40 And a good way of entering into that is from Matthew 6, 01:43 Jesus' words in Matthew 6, beginning with verse 25. 01:45 >>Eric: "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, 01:49 "what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, 01:52 "what you will put on. 01:53 "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 01:57 "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap 02:00 "nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 02:04 "Are you not of more value than they? 02:06 "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit 02:08 "to his stature? 02:10 "So why do you worry about clothing? 02:12 "Consider the lilies of the field, 02:14 "how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 02:17 "and yet I say to you that even Solomon 02:19 "in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 02:22 "Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, 02:26 "and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, 02:28 will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" 02:32 >>John: So, here we see Jesus pointing out 02:34 that God takes care of His creation. 02:35 He takes care of the birds, the lilies of the field. 02:37 They don't work, and yet they're arrayed 02:40 even greater than Solomon. 02:41 And so, all these verses point out that God provides, 02:45 and that's actually the core concept of providence. 02:48 A more theological definition is it's God's way of governing 02:52 and working in the world with regard to what takes place, 02:56 what He does, what He prevents, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 03:01 Now, this very concept is a very biblical concept. 03:05 It is thoroughly biblical that God provides. 03:08 In fact, in the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, 03:12 you have the story where God commands Abraham 03:15 to sacrifice his son. 03:17 He never actually intended for Abraham to sacrifice his son 03:21 Isaac, but it was a test of Abraham's faith. 03:24 And so, Abraham makes the preparations, 03:27 and he's on the way up the mountain with his son Isaac, 03:30 and Isaac is told they're going up to make a sacrifice, 03:34 but Isaac isn't told what the sacrifice is to be. 03:37 And on the way, Isaac looks around, and he says, 03:39 "We don't have anything for the sacrifice. 03:42 We don't have a ram." 03:44 And he asked his father Abraham, 03:48 "Why don't we have the sacrifice?" 03:50 And Abraham's response is, "The Lord will provide." 03:55 And in that story, He does provide. 03:57 He provides a ram in place, which, of course, symbolizes 04:00 providing Christ in our place to forgive our sins. 04:03 But that language, "the Lord will provide," in Hebrew, 04:07 it's "Yahweh Yireh," it literally means "the Lord sees." 04:10 The Lord sees. And when the Lord sees, He acts. 04:14 When He sees a need, He actually takes action. 04:17 And the language of providence is just a Latin form 04:20 of "the Lord sees." You can actually see it. 04:22 "Pro" means "before," and the "-vide" part is 04:23 like "video," what you see. 04:25 And so, you have the Lord seeing, 04:27 meaning He is going to provide. 04:29 Now, when it comes to free will, this gets a bit tricky 04:31 because there's more than one model of divine providence. 04:34 You could have a model of divine providence 04:36 in which God causes everything to happen 04:39 the way He wants it to happen. 04:40 Let's call that a one-dimensional view 04:42 of divine providence-- everything is up to God. 04:45 You could have a view in which God causes some things 04:48 to happen, but He also grants humans free will. 04:51 And so, some things that happen are not up to God 04:54 because if God grants humans free will, 04:56 then what they do is not going to be up to God 04:58 to control everything. 04:59 And let's call that a two-dimensional view 05:01 of providence. And where we're gonna go in these lessons, 05:03 especially in the weeks to come, 05:05 is beyond those two to a three-dimensional view 05:08 of providence that actually recognizes 05:10 there's not just humans who have free will, 05:12 but there's celestial agents like good angels 05:15 and fallen angels or demons that are working 05:17 behind the scenes in ways that we don't always see 05:20 but have a huge impact on the world. 05:23 So, if you have one of those views of free will, 05:25 yes, God is in control in an overarching sense, 05:28 but there may be many things that occur 05:30 that God does not want to happen. 05:32 >>Eric: Okay, so let's go with one of those ideas here, 05:35 that God determines all events, that it's all up to Him. 05:39 What are some of the theological implications, 05:41 if that is the case or if that were the case? 05:44 What does that look like when we look 05:46 at, like, human desires and things along those lines? 05:49 >>John: Yeah, so a thorough going determinism is 05:53 the view that God causes everything, like you said, 05:55 including even our choices. 05:57 Now, this is very problematic, I believe, theologically, 06:00 and I believe it doesn't fit with the Bible. 06:02 Now, to be clear, there are many Christians 06:03 who believe this, and they believe this, 06:06 and they also don't think that God is therefore 06:08 the author of evil or culpable for evil. 06:11 They would not want to say that. 06:13 So, to be fair to them, we don't wanna put words in their mouth. 06:16 But from my perspective, it's very hard to see 06:19 how both of those things could be true. 06:21 If God determines everything-- including human decisions 06:24 and even human desires, which, of course, 06:26 after the Fall, at least, include sinful desires-- 06:29 you have a big problem with the character of God. 06:32 I don't see any way that you can escape the conclusion 06:35 that God is the author of evil, 06:36 that God causes evil, that He even causes 06:39 the evil desires in your heart and in my heart. 06:42 And this just doesn't fit at all with what scripture teaches. 06:45 For example, if we look at Habakkuk 1:13 together-- 06:48 if you'd be willing to read that for us. 06:50 >>Eric: "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, 06:53 "and cannot look on wickedness. 06:55 "Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, 06:58 "and hold Your tongue when the wicked devourers a person 07:00 more righteous than he?" 07:02 >>John: So, we see in that text that the latter part 07:03 is asking actually about why God doesn't do more 07:06 to stop evil, this question of providence 07:08 that we're going to be unpacking in lessons to come, 07:10 but the first part says God is too holy 07:12 to even look on evil. 07:14 So, if He's too holy to even look on evil, 07:18 how could He be the cause of sinful desires and evil actions? 07:22 It doesn't fit at all with what the Bible teaches 07:25 about God's character. 07:27 It also doesn't fit with the way 07:29 the Bible describes God's reactions to sin, 07:32 and even instances where His own covenant people 07:36 don't do what He wants them to do. 07:38 So, for instance, in Psalm 81, verses 11 through 14, 07:42 God says, "My people would not heed my voice, 07:46 "and Israel would have none of me. 07:49 "So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, 07:52 "to walk in their own counsels. 07:54 "Oh, that my people would listen to me, 07:56 "that Israel would walk in my ways. 07:58 "I would soon subdue their enemies, 08:00 and turn my hand against their adversaries." 08:04 Now, if God is causing everything to happen, 08:07 including human decisions and human desires, 08:09 this kind of statement seems very disingenuous, right? 08:12 Where God is lamenting the fact 08:14 that His people have rejected Him. 08:16 He wills one thing, and they do the other. 08:18 And He's calling for them, "Oh that they would listen to me! 08:20 Oh, that they would turn to me!" 08:22 But if He's really the one controlling that 08:24 in the background, 08:25 this makes no sense, and worse than making no sense, 08:28 it makes God to be rather deceptive, and again, 08:31 I don't see how to escape the view 08:33 that He's actually the cause of evil, culpable for evil. 08:37 >>Eric: So, let's build on that just a little bit. 08:40 The existence of evil itself, kind of it challenges this idea 08:44 that everything happens according to God's will, 08:48 if we're gonna be completely honest. 08:50 And again, there are many Christians 08:52 who, of course, take a different viewpoint. 08:54 But how does this help us to understand more accurately 08:58 the biblical viewpoint here? 09:00 >>John: Yeah, I think based on the building blocks 09:02 we have already and some that we will continue 09:03 to put on the table as we continue, 09:05 we can see that if God cannot even look on evil, 09:09 then, given there's evil in the world, 09:11 this, it cannot be the case that everything 09:13 is happening according to God's will. 09:15 Now again, to be fair, there are Christians 09:17 and theological systems where they say, 09:19 "No, evil is a part of God's will in the sense 09:23 "that He determines everything to happen 09:25 the way He wants it to happen." 09:26 Some of those views are known as "Felix Culpa" theodicies, 09:31 and that just comes from a Latin phrase that means, 09:33 "Oh, happy fault." 09:35 And so, there's a part of the Christian tradition that says, 09:37 "Oh, it was actually better that sin and evil came into the world 09:40 "because then God brings some greater good from that evil, 09:44 "and therefore God determined all of these things to happen, 09:47 maybe even determined them to happen for His glory." 09:50 But I think that is a very problematic account 09:54 because number one, it makes evil 09:56 a stepping stone for good, and it still makes 09:59 God the author and the cause of evil. 10:03 And here I wanna look at Romans 3, verse 8 10:05 because I think this gives us an indication 10:08 of how we should relate to that kind of approach 10:11 to the problem of evil. 10:12 >>Eric: "And why not say, 'Let us do evil that good may come'? 10:15 "as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. 10:19 Their condemnation is just." 10:21 >>John: Yeah, so Paul there points out this idea, 10:24 "Should we do evil so that good may come?" 10:26 And the answer is certainly not. 10:29 And if that's the case for us as mere humans-- 10:32 we should not do evil so that greater good comes-- 10:34 certainly that principle is gonna be true 10:36 for the very source of goodness 10:38 and the source of love. 10:39 So we cannot, I think, hold the view 10:41 that God causes evil in order for good to come. 10:45 That would make evil almost like an instrumental good, 10:48 and it would raise serious problems. 10:52 In fact, what we will see as we go along 10:54 is that God grants free will, 10:55 which requires the possibility of evil 10:58 if anyone exercises that free will in a wrong way, 11:02 and that part's not up to God, 11:03 but it doesn't include the necessity of evil. 11:06 No one needs to exercise their free will in a wrong way 11:09 in order for the kind of free will to be in place 11:11 that's needed for love. 11:13 And so, the biblical theodicy, which is a view 11:16 of God's goodness in light of evil-- 11:17 that's kind of what the term "theodicy" means-- 11:19 the biblical theodicy or the biblical approach 11:22 does not have God causing evil. 11:24 He doesn't want evil. He hates it more than we do, 11:27 and He doesn't want it in His good creation. 11:29 And He is very, very thorough and consistent 11:34 in His attitude toward evil and injustice. 11:37 >>Eric: I think as we continue going through, 11:38 not just this week's lesson, 11:39 but the ones to come, that's gonna become 11:42 more and more apparent. 11:43 Now, share with us a little bit about the companion book. 11:48 That book goes into deeper detail on this subject 11:50 and many other subjects. 11:52 Why would somebody wanna pick up the companion book 11:54 to this quarter's lesson? 11:55 >>John: Yeah, I have so much more to say on this topic. 11:58 We covered the problem of evil for a few weeks, 12:00 and we put seven points on the table 12:03 over the course of a few chapters. 12:05 But I can only really scratch the surface in the lessons. 12:08 Just like I wrote a lot more about divine love, 12:11 I've written an entire book on the problem of evil. 12:14 And in this companion volume, I include a condensed, 12:18 summarized version of that approach to evil 12:21 based on the Bible all the way through 12:23 that provides a framework for us 12:25 to wrestle with these big questions 12:26 and help others that are wrestling 12:28 with these big questions and maybe doubting God's goodness. 12:30 >>Eric: Good. So, we can pick that book up very easily. 12:33 You can pick it up in a variety of places, 12:35 one of which is on the It Is Written online store. 12:38 That's at itiswritten.shop, 12:40 again, itiswritten.shop. 12:42 You're looking for the companion book 12:44 to this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson 12:46 by John Peckham. 12:48 We're going to be back in just a moment 12:50 as we continue looking at this subject 12:52 that we're delving into here on week number 8 12:56 and getting a clearer understanding of how free will 12:59 fits in with God's character, the concept of evil. 13:02 We're gonna dive into that more deeply in just a few moments 13:06 when we come back here on "Sabbath School," 13:08 brought to you by It Is Written. 13:09 [uplifting music] 13:14 >>John Bradshaw: So, what is God really like? 13:17 To hear some people tell the story, God is a tyrant; 13:19 God is vindictive; God is hateful. 13:22 To hear some people tell the story, God is a murderer; 13:26 God is masochistic. That's what some people say. 13:29 Now, why would they say such a thing? 13:31 Well, you look into the Bible and in Noah's day, 13:33 God destroyed the entire world. 13:36 There may even have been billions of people 13:39 alive at that time. 13:41 God wiped them out. 13:43 Well, was that a one-off? 13:44 In the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, 13:47 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were destroyed by God's angels 13:54 in a night. 13:55 What is the character of God like? 13:58 You don't wanna miss "The Character of God." 14:00 We'll talk about creation, love, the cross, 14:03 and you'll know that God is love. 14:06 "The Character of God," 14:08 brought to you by It Is Written TV. 14:13 You know that at It Is Written 14:15 we are serious about studying the Word of God, 14:17 and we encourage you to be serious as well. 14:20 Well, here's what you do if you wanna 14:22 dig deeper into God's Word. 14:23 Go to itiswritten.study for the It Is Written 14:26 Bible Study Guides online, 14:28 25 in-depth Bible studies that will take you through 14:31 the major teachings of the Bible. 14:33 You'll be blessed, and it's something 14:35 you'll want to tell others about as well: 14:37 itiswritten.study. 14:39 Go further: itiswritten.study. 14:43 [uplifting music] 14:48 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 14:49 brought to you by It Is Written. 14:51 We're continuing our study of lesson number 8 14:54 under the larger subject of God's will and justice. 14:58 We're continuing to delve into divine providence, 15:01 free will, and love. 15:03 John, let me kind of get us into the second half 15:05 by asking this question. 15:07 When we look at the biblical evidence that exists, 15:11 does it tend to support or contradict the idea 15:14 that God's will is always being done in the world? 15:18 >>John Peckham: Yeah, this is a great question 15:20 because it's important to frame the question this way. 15:23 Because there are some who believe in determinism 15:25 or deterministic predestination who will still wanna say 15:29 that humans have free will. 15:31 And you might think immediately, well, that's rather puzzling 15:33 because isn't determinism the opposite 15:35 of God granting free will? 15:37 And it is, if you mean by that 15:39 that God grants creatures free will to do otherwise 15:41 than what He wants them to do. 15:43 So, the real question is whether God grants 15:45 that kind of free will. 15:47 They have another definition of free will that, for most of us, 15:50 intuitively doesn't match up with what freedom means. 15:52 I won't get into the technicalities 15:53 of that discussion here. 15:54 But the question is, does God grant us free will 15:57 of the kind that we can actually depart from His will, 16:01 that we can actually do otherwise than what He wants? 16:03 And one simple way of asking and answering that question 16:06 from the Bible is to ask, 16:08 does God always get what He wants, 16:10 or is God's will always fulfilled? 16:13 And there are a number of passages 16:15 that answer that question clearly. 16:16 So, I wanna look at a few of them, just three of them here, 16:19 first, beginning with Luke 7, verse 30. 16:22 >>Eric: "But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected 16:24 "the will of God for themselves, 16:26 not having been baptized by him." 16:29 >>John Peckham: So, you notice in that passage, 16:31 it just says explicitly 16:32 they "rejected the will of God for themselves." 16:36 And that is one of the primary Greek terms for "God's will," 16:40 "boulé," or just for any "will," but also used for God's will. 16:43 And they directly reject God's will. 16:45 So, explicitly in that text, God's will is not done. 16:49 Then in Matthew 23, verse 37, you have Jesus Himself 16:53 lamenting over Jerusalem and saying this, 16:55 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets 16:59 "and stones those who are sent to her! 17:01 "How often I wanted to gather your children together, 17:05 "as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, 17:07 but you were not willing!" 17:11 And in that verse, that's the other 17:13 primary Greek term in the New Testament for "will" 17:15 that's used both when it says "how often I wanted"-- 17:18 that's of Jesus' will, "theló"-- "but you were not willing"-- 17:22 and that's the same verb, "theló," 17:24 just with a negative particle. 17:25 And so, Christ explicitly wills one thing, 17:29 and they will the opposite. 17:31 So, again, quite clearly, humans have the ability 17:33 to will otherwise than God actually prefers. 17:37 And this is nowhere more clear than when it comes to salvation. 17:41 God wants to save everyone, but sadly, not everyone is saved. 17:45 We see this in, for instance, 2 Peter 3:9, 17:47 which is one of my favorite verses in Scripture. 17:50 >>Eric: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, 17:53 "as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, 17:57 "not willing that any should perish 17:59 but that all should come to repentance." 18:01 >>John: He's not willing that any should perish. 18:04 And yet, sadly, tragically, we know that, 18:06 according to Scripture, some will finally perish 18:08 because they exercise their free will 18:10 otherwise than God desires. 18:12 So, these are just three examples of many in Scripture 18:15 that teach very clearly that many things happen 18:19 that God does not want to happen. 18:22 That means God has unfulfilled desires. 18:24 And the only way that could be possible 18:27 is if humans or other creatures 18:29 are acting differently than God actually prefers 18:32 that they will act. 18:34 And that's just explicitly taught in these texts 18:37 and many other passages of Scripture. 18:39 God wants only good. 18:41 Whenever someone does evil, that's always an example 18:44 of His unfulfilled will. 18:47 And that's helpful for us when we think about providence. 18:49 Even if we don't know much more than that at the beginning, 18:52 we can at least take confidence in the fact 18:54 that God doesn't want things to be this way. 18:57 There are so many people who struggle with evil, 19:00 and they think of God's providence 19:01 on the one-dimensional view and they think, 19:03 "Well, why is God doing this?" Or, "Why is God allowing this?" 19:06 Or, "Is there something that God is trying to teach me?" 19:09 And while it's true that God can sometimes bring good 19:13 as a follow-up after evil, that's not the same thing 19:18 as God Himself causing the evil or wanting the evil. 19:21 We can be clear that God doesn't want any of those things, 19:24 and it's not supposed to be this way. 19:27 >>Eric: So, what would be some of the dangers, 19:30 the theological pitfalls of taking the position 19:34 that absolutely everything that occurs, 19:37 even tragedies, are a direct result of God's will? 19:41 >>John: Yeah, here again, I think there's no way 19:44 to escape the conclusion that it makes God culpable for evil. 19:49 Not only that, you have the problem 19:51 that this is going to kind of baptize, 19:54 if you will, all the kinds of evil things 19:57 that humans and others do. 19:59 And so, you can even look at the history of the world. 20:01 All kinds of atrocities are done in God's name, 20:04 and then whoever's a victor in war 20:06 or in any kind of atrocity, 20:07 well, God must have been on our side, right? 20:09 Because otherwise these things wouldn't happen. 20:11 And so, you have a lot of consequences 20:14 for the way you think about history, 20:16 the way you think about providence, 20:17 almost anything is justifiable because after all, 20:21 it's God's will, and He would prevent it 20:24 if He didn't want it to be that way. 20:25 And here I think we need to introduce a distinction 20:29 between God's ideal will 20:32 and between what we might call God's remedial will, okay? 20:36 So, sometimes Scripture speaks as if everything happens 20:40 according to God's will. 20:42 This is one of the teachings, for example, in Ephesians 1:11, 20:44 talks about God's plan and how He works all things 20:47 after the counsel of His will. 20:49 How can that be true at the same time 20:52 that we have all these passages we already read 20:54 where God often does not get what He wants? 20:57 His will is often not accomplished. 21:00 And this is possible if you recognize 21:02 that sometimes God's will is talking about 21:04 what He actually prefers to happen, 21:06 what He would prefer from any time forward; 21:09 we can call that God's ideal will. 21:11 And at other times it's talking about what we might call 21:13 God's remedial will. 21:15 And God's remedial will is God's will 21:18 that takes into account other factors, 21:21 including the free decisions of creatures. 21:23 And so, that will is not His ideal will 21:26 because creatures often make bad decisions, 21:28 but then God makes a plan to bring out the best outcomes, 21:32 given those decisions, 21:33 including their bad consequences. 21:35 Now, some that are watching this, they might be familiar 21:38 with some of those cooking competitions 21:41 that are sometimes on television 21:42 or other places where you have a number of chefs, 21:44 and they're in a competition. 21:46 And sometimes they're given a specific set of ingredients 21:50 that they must use. They can make any dish they want, 21:52 but they have to use this set of ingredients. 21:54 Then they can add other ingredients 21:56 and make whatever dish they want. 21:58 Now, in that analogy, most of the ingredients 22:01 are gonna be chosen by them, but there's going to be 22:02 some set of ingredients that they are not choosing. 22:05 In a somewhat analogous way, if God grants creatures free will, 22:08 and human decisions 22:10 and other creatures' decisions have consequences, 22:12 that means there's gonna be a number of ingredients 22:14 in history, if you will, 22:15 that God Himself is not choosing. 22:17 And so, in God's remedial will, He is causing a lot of things, 22:21 and He's adding a lot of things that He chooses, 22:23 a lot of ingredients, if you will, to history. 22:26 But there's also the consequences 22:27 of all the decisions of creatures, 22:29 including the bad ones, that are also gonna be 22:31 ingredients in history. 22:33 And here, that is what we refer to as His remedial will. 22:36 So, we can both say often His will is not fulfilled, 22:39 if we mean by that His ideal will, 22:40 and yet His remedial will, which takes into account 22:44 what creatures will freely do, 22:45 that will finally be accomplished, 22:48 and God will bring about the best good 22:49 that can be brought about, given everything that He knows. 22:52 Now, one example, I think, of this can be found 22:55 in the story of Joseph. 22:56 And if we read a particular text there, Genesis, 50 verse 20. 22:59 this text is often interpreted in a couple different ways, 23:02 but I think we've seen enough evidence already 23:04 as to which way we should interpret this passage. 23:06 >>Eric: "But as for you, you meant evil against me; 23:09 "but God meant it for good, 23:10 "in order to bring it about as it is this day, 23:13 to save many people alive." 23:15 >>John: So, this is Joseph, who was actually speaking 23:18 to his brothers after they come and he's in Egypt. 23:21 He'd been sold into slavery by his brothers, 23:23 and through a series of events and God's providence, 23:25 he had been elevated to be a leader in Egypt 23:28 and actually had prepared through dreams 23:30 that God had given, and he's put in place to prepare 23:33 to set aside a bunch of food for famine 23:35 that ends up sparing not only Egyptians 23:37 but many surrounding nations, 23:38 including the covenant people of Israel. 23:40 And so, finally the brothers come, 23:42 it's revealed who Joseph is, 23:43 and of course, by that time they've learned their lesson, 23:46 they are repentant, 23:47 and Joseph says this to them: "You meant it for evil, 23:49 but God meant it for good." 23:52 And you can see God's providence working in this story, 23:54 that even though there are evil events, 23:56 like his brother selling him into slavery, 23:58 God works around those and with those 24:01 to bring about good in the end. 24:04 Now, there are some determinists who read this text and say, 24:06 "Oh, this is evidence that God caused everything." 24:08 But I would say, I think actually we have 24:11 good reason to believe the opposite, 24:13 not only because God doesn't cause evil things, 24:15 but also because God wouldn't need to work 24:17 in this circuitous way to save people from a famine 24:20 if He was causing everything. 24:22 He could just directly provide food, 24:24 if there was no other impediments, 24:25 or not have a famine. 24:26 He wouldn't need Joseph to be sold into slavery, 24:28 unless there's a number of other factors that He is working with. 24:31 And I think the story itself shows that God is working 24:34 even with the bad decisions, but then He works to bring about 24:37 the best outcome He can out of that situation. 24:40 >>Eric: Let's talk for a moment about omnipotence. 24:42 It's a word that we regularly associate with God, 24:45 and I think rightly so. 24:47 How do we reconcile this idea of omnipotence 24:50 with human free will? 24:55 Does God limit His own power, His own influence on things 25:01 if He is omnipotent, but there is free will, 25:03 and we've got all these different dynamics going on? 25:05 >>John: Yeah, so first we should be clear that 25:07 the Bible does teach that God is all-powerful. 25:10 So you have text like Jeremiah 32:17 25:13 that says there is nothing too difficult for Him. 25:15 You have texts in Revelation that over and over again 25:18 God is just called the Almighty, and there's a Greek term, 25:21 "pantokrator," that just means all-powerful. 25:24 And so, there's no question about God being all-powerful. 25:26 And yet to the extent that He grants creatures free will, 25:30 that's going to morally limit His action. 25:32 Because if God makes a promise, will He always keep it? 25:37 Of course He will, right? 25:38 In fact, it would be impossible for Him 25:41 not to keep His promise because of His character. 25:43 This is just the teaching of Scripture. 25:44 We can see, for example, 2 Timothy 2:13. 25:47 >>Eric: "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; 25:50 He cannot deny Himself." 25:52 >>John: He cannot what? "He cannot deny Himself." 25:55 So, He cannot do anything that goes against His nature. 25:58 And His character, His nature is love. It is goodness. 26:02 The Bible also teaches very clearly in Titus 1:2 26:06 that God cannot lie. 26:10 And finally in Hebrews 6, verses 16 through 17, 26:14 you have this statement that effectively says 26:17 that it is impossible for God to break His promises 26:21 or impossible for God to lie, given His perfect nature. 26:25 So, this means if God makes a promise or a commitment, 26:29 His future action is gonna be morally limited 26:32 in keeping with those promises or commitments. 26:35 And the God of the Bible is nothing if not a covenantal God. 26:38 And over and over again, in Psalm 89 and other places, 26:41 God says, "I will not break my covenant. 26:44 I will not allow my word to fail." 26:48 And so, if God makes a commitment or a promise, 26:50 it's going to limit His future action. 26:51 That's sometimes called divine self-limitation, 26:54 but it doesn't remove His sheer power. 26:55 He still has the power, but He morally limits Himself 26:58 to act in accordance with the promises 27:00 and commitments that He has made. 27:02 >>Eric: So, we have taken a substantial dive 27:05 into this subject today 27:07 and one that I think is going to at least spark 27:11 an interest in people to dig just a little bit deeper 27:13 and go a little further on, 27:15 especially as we continue our studies 27:17 through this 13-lesson journey. 27:21 But the lesson doesn't end today. 27:23 The studies don't end today. 27:25 We are continuing on as we look at God's love and justice 27:30 and how these two concepts, how these two ideas co-exist 27:34 and how they can help us to understand more clearly 27:37 that God is indeed a God of love and a God of justice. 27:41 We're glad that you are joining us on this journey, 27:43 and we look forward to having you join us 27:45 once again next week as we continue delving 27:49 into this incredible subject, as we continue learning more 27:52 and more about God, His character of love, 27:56 His power, His justice, 27:59 everything that helps us to understand who God is. 28:03 And we look forward to having you join us again 28:06 when we come together next time here on "Sabbath School," 28:09 brought to you by It Is Written. 28:11 [uplifting music] 28:25 ♪♪♪ 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
Revised 2025-02-13