GOD CANNOT BE LOVE AND BE IN TOTAL CONTROL AT THE SAME TIME: IT’S IMPOSSIBLE
Steve Harmon
The reason why Christians get stumped when talking to an intelligent Atheist on the subject of God’s character is because of this issue. The believer maintains the position that God is love and is in total control at the same time. It only takes a pragmatic thinking Atheist 2.5 seconds to figure out the absurdity to that concept. The Atheist is thinking of children who have been brutally murdered and tortured, wondering, where was this Loving God when this happened? If He was in total control then a loving God would not permit such behavior. The Atheist is right. A loving God would not permit such behavior if He was in total control. I already talked about this before. God could be in total control but He has chosen not to because He wants humanity to have to ability to choose.
Where do Christians get such twisting thinking? It comes from something called Reformed Theology or Calvinism. Many seminaries are full of Reformed theology teachers. People go to the seminary, get their brain filled with this teaching and then become the Pastor at one of your local churches. It is my belief that this teaching is the most damaging of all teachings because it’s root is in so much of what we believe about God. When something goes wrong we instantly blame God for not protecting us. We blame God for getting us sick or allowing us to get sick. We get angry at God when somebody dies because we think God let them die. So basically, the major problem with this theology is that we will attribute the all bad things that happen in life to God. That’s a recipe for disaster. The last thing you want to do is be angry and hate God. Not because it’s going to earn you lighting strike but because you will cut off relationship with God. You do that, you will sink hard and Satan knows it.
Years ago I came to the point where I became furious with God. I had believed He was in total control and had made my life difficult. I was so ready to walk away from Him. I took a drive out to Malibu and back. When I drove back I called my mother. She had a vision of me. She saw me, and then in front of me was this demon. Instead of feet, this demon had wheels. God told her the reason why it had wheels was because, “This one leads to destruction swiftly.” I knew exactly what it meant. It meant that I was about to do something that would cause great damage to my life that may not be reparable. I knew demons were tormenting me, but I didn’t care. If God is in total control then demons are just pawns of God. I had a choice to make. I chose not to go off the deep end and outright rebel against God.
The point of the story is that because of me believing that God was in total control, I was thinking God was purposely making my life hard. When a person believes that, rebellion is almost a sure thing. When you rebel against God you become the destroyer of your own world. Satan sits back and laughs because He was actually the one making your life hard, while getting you to think it was God. Remember, it is Satan who is the one that kills, steals, and destroys. God is the one who binds up the broken hearts, proclaims liberty to those who are in prison, gives sight to the blind, and tells you that His favor is all over you. God is not in total control because He chose not to be, even though He could have been. He takes control when His church releases Him through their words and hands because that’s how He designed it. One thing we do know for sure.. GOD IS LOVE..