Is God in Control? Part 1

A country wins a military battle. Another area of the world is devastated by an earthquake. Someone wins millions of dollars in the lottery. A student fails a college entrance exam. A driver is injured in a car crash. Too often, well-meaning Christians have an answer for any event, good or bad: “God is in control.” Is that what the Bible really says?

If by the phrase, “God is in control” you mean only that 1) God created the heavens and the earth and all living things in them, 2) He set everything in its course within the natural confines of time and space, and 3) He created man in His own spiritual image, giving him dominion over His creation—then I would agree with you. Because although popular among Christians today, this saying by its vague and all-encompassing terminology has taken on significant meaning that contradicts the scripture.

I have heard this expression used variously as a platitude (a “comfort” to know that God controls everything), part of the basis for a whole belief system (predestination), and an explanation for why evil things happen to good people (God testing them). To help straighten out this convoluted thinking according to the written Word of God, we’ll explore some of what God has to say on the subject in a four-part series on “Is God in Control?”

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

God’s revelation of Himself, His written Word, clearly states that He created the heavens and the earth. He is the one and only Creator.

Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

This truth can be found throughout the whole Bible. As Creator, God is Lord over all His creation.

I Chronicles 29:11:
Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.

Psalm 103:19:
The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Matthew 6:13:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 

Acts 17:24:
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth…

God Set Everything in Its Course

God is eternal, the life-giving Spirit Who is not confined by time or space. As Creator, He certainly had complete control over the act of creating! He designed the natural creation to be the perfect home for man.

Isaiah 45:18: ESV
For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

As Lord of heaven and earth, He set all things in their courses in time and place according to their purpose in blessing and service to man.

Acts 17:24-26:
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed [time], and the bounds of their habitation [place].

Genesis 1:14:
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven [place] to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years [time].

How did God do all this? I don’t know. I only know what I’ve read in His Word, and that’s what I’m sharing with you. Who am I to question God? Did I have any control over my own physical birth? Nobody asked me if I wanted to be born into this world. God says I’m just asking for trouble when I question the design or quality of His handiwork.

Isaiah 45:9,10: ESV
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?
Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

God Gave Man Dominion over His Creation

We’ve seen the Who of creation—God, the eternal, life-giving Spirit. He is the Creator and Lord above all His creation, which is the What we are discovering in His Word. We’ve addressed the Where and When as the bounds of creation. We’ve touched briefly on the How of creation. Now finally, an answer to the Why of creation can be found in the very essence of God, for God is love.

Remember I said previously that I didn’t ask to be born? Yet as I grew up I realized how thankful I was for my life and for a father and mother who loved me. As a parent myself now, I can hardly describe the love I have for our son. But a parent’s love cannot compare to the depth of God’s love for us.

I John 3:1; 4:8,19:
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
… God is love.
We love him, because he first loved us.

God formed man of the dust of the earth and made man to have breath life (Genesis 2:7). He also created man and woman in His own image, with spirit (John 4:24), to dwell in His creation. Why? To share in His love. Adam and Eve were not merely two more living animals dwelling on the earth; they had the likeness of God, His spirit within.

Genesis 1:26,27:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

A complete man or woman—body, soul, and the spirit of God within—originally had the ability to live freely in God’s perfect creation under His lordship and direction. With everything set up in heaven and earth, the Lord God by His grace set man in position to be “a little less than God” in authority and dominion over His creation.

Psalms 8:4-9:
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels [Elohim, God], and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! 

Genesis 1:26:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

We have finally come to the “control” issue. God had bestowed dominion over all the earth and every living thing in it to Adam as the first man and to Eve, his wife. Within that responsibility, God set forth 1) man’s work, 2) the blessings and abundance of life produced, and 3) God’s command that the exercise of man’s dominion is ultimately and continually subject to God’s guidance and direction.

By giving mankind dominion, God authorized the work they were to do.

Genesis 1:28:
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

Genesis 2:15:
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

By giving mankind dominion, God provided His blessings and abundance to them.

Genesis 1:29-31:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

 Genesis 2:9:
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

By giving mankind dominion, God gave man the authority to exercise that dominion.

Genesis 2:16,17:
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Man’s Choice to Love and Obey God–Or Not

God gave man a choice. He could either preside over God’s creation by obeying Him or he could choose not to obey God’s command. God, Who is all love and gives only life, was showing Adam that he must follow Him as Lord over all to continue in the blessed life that God had entrusted to him. God gave Adam the authority to choose for himself between life or death.

Since then, God in His mercy has spoken at various times and in different ways to give this same choice to every man or woman who has ever lived on earth (Hebrews 1:1-3). Moses made this choice pretty clear to Israel in their day.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20:
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

The way of life for man is to love God as Lord over all, and to obey Him by walking in His ways and keeping His Word. To worship and serve any other god leads to death. The Book of Romans warns against the worship of the creation in place of God, the Creator.

Romans 1:20-25:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

We choose to only worship and serve the Creator. God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son for us. Because we have chosen to accept the salvation offered us in Jesus Christ, we have the ability to worship the Lord our God Who is over all. Today as born again believers, we have the gift of holy spirit and can worship Him in spirit and in truth.

John 4:24:
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God created the heavens and the earth and all living things in them so that mankind could enjoy them. He set everything in its course within the natural confines of time and space so that we could have God’s  peace and order in our lives. And He created man in His own spiritual image, giving him dominion over all His wonderful creation. As we continue to choose to walk in the way of life here on earth, we share the love of our heavenly Father so that others may see His goodness, and then choose for themselves the true and living way—His Son, Jesus Christ!

NEXT TIME: Is God In Control? Part 2: Who Is the God of This World?