.
On facebook, a friend wrote:
“Fear believes the worst is going to happen… faith believes the best is already on its way”
Someone responded:
When your perspective is telling you it’s the worst, that’s when you need your faith to rise. Faith is always needed if we’re going to achieve what we’re called to. Faith allows us to do good despite our less than ideal circumstances because we see what is available to us through Christ.
I still don’t believe that God is in control. I’ll believe otherwise if you can show me in scripture that he is. In the mean time I choose whether or not I get out of bed in the morning. I choose whether to use my words to encourage others or tear them down. I’m pretty sure God has given me a great deal of control over what happens in and around me.
If he were in control there would be no point in us doing anything because God would be taking care of it, there would be no point in relationship with God because we wouldn’t be expected to do anything (there’s the issue: saying God is in control releases us from any responsibility to bring his kingdom to earth).
If God were in control, would there be all the problems there are in the world? Saying God is in control is saying he is not good and that is a fallacy.
Yes, God is all powerful and could take control, but if he did then what would be the point in existing? You have a greater purpose. Start walking in it!
FYI: I can’t take credit for a lot of this. Much of it is just reiterating what Bill Johnson says in Face to Face with God
Then there was this response:
———————————-
Very good points – but here’s a question. If God ISN’T in control, then does that mean His plan might fail – and what is fore-told in Revelations might not happen? Aren’t we assured that in the end, God will defeat the enemy?
Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.”
Other ways that is read include, “that all things work together for good to those who love God, who;” or
“that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good—with those who.”
Note: this assurance is predicated to those that Love God, and this last version of the verse makes it clearer that we are working with Him to bring about good. Our relationship with Him comes with the expectation of participating in His work. (and striving to not hurt others)
God, as you said, is capable of controlling everything, but allows man free will. Maybe this is all about the big picture – not the small,( re: daily free will choices – getting up from bed, or deciding to commit a crime, etc.) The big picture is our unbreakable relationship and life with God – if we choose it.
If Hell is separation from God – we are assured we will never be separated, and He is working with us through all things for good in that direction. Rom 8:39 “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Some of “those that Love Him” and have purposed to work for Him abbreviate that thought – rightly I think – into our assurance that “God is in control.”
And you are right – Faith is needed if we’re going to achieve what we are called to.
_______________________________________________________________
I need to address the thought that if God is in Control, there is no point for relationship -
Relationship with God, as pointed out in Romans 8:28, involves Him working with us, through us, etc. – to bring about His will and good -
that’s what the Holy Spirit is all about.
We choose relationship with Jesus Christ. There is our free will. But God IS the Master when we do that – he is our LORD – and we are His servants. Therefore, He IS in control.
There is No relationship without accepting His Lordship!
Further, we can NOT do good on our own – we need the Holy Spirit. According to Romans 6, we die – our flesh dies with Jesus Christ – and then we are raised up again new with Jesus Christ – (just as He was raised up again) – to live a New Life, with Him.
Rom 6:22 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”
This is the Relationship: we can do nothing without Christ (God/Holy Spirit) in Us:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. [For when we abide in Him -- and He in us -- He shows us His will and that's all we long for!]
“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” John 15:3-10
Abiding in Him, and He in us – involves letting go of ourselves, and allowing Him – in control – to work through us.
So I think Mr. Johnson, in his book ‘Face to Face with God,” was very wrong about there being no point to relationship if God is in Control. It’s reversed – there would be no point to relationship if he WASN’T in control -
Follow us on Twitter! 
Theology of Atonement – Part I, the History
.
For reasons only God fully understands, shed blood was a vitally important event throughout the Old Testament. The Blood of Atonement, and its importance are mentioned about one hundred times within the books of Law and the prophets.
What is Atonement? The Hebrew word for atonement, “Kaphar,” means to cover, expiate, condone, placate, or cancel. It has been translated as “appease,” “pardon,” “purge,” “make reconciliation,” “put off,” and of course, “atonement.” Another word for atonement, “Kippur”, means expiation and is translated, simply, “Atonement.”
The primary Old Testament passages that deal with the theology of Atonement include the account of Abel in Genesis 4, the account of Noah in Genesis chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9, Abraham and Isaac in Gen. 22, Israel leaving Egypt, Exodus 12, and Mount Sinai in Exodus chapters 19-30. Leviticus 1-4:1-35 describes the rituals of atonement, and Leviticus 16: 1-33 describes the Great Day of Atonement. Other important passages include Gen. 3:15 and 30:10; Lev. 5:1-19, 6:1-37, 16: 1-34, 17:11, and 23:27-32; 2Ch. 29:24, Isa. 53, and Dan. 9:24-27.
The History:
From the first, animal sacrifices were a shadow of the Great Atonement to come. The connection between the two was very real. The Mosaic books, History, Prophets and Psalms, when discussing blood sacrifice, provide prophetic foreshadowing of the atonement the Messiah would make for us all. Beginning with Genesis 3:15, a passage describing enmity between the woman and the snake, we see the first point where we see prophecy and violence occur together.
Blood sacrifice is a clear and well-understood fact of life in the early chapters of Genesis. There is nothing in ordinary way of thinking that would lead men, back then or now, to believe that sacrifice would somehow please God more than anything else. Yet, the first act of worship recorded in the Bible, the animal sacrifice Abel offered to the Lord in Gen. 4, was said to be acceptable to God, and Able is known as the first “Believer.” This first mention of sacrifice does not give the impression it was a new invention of Abel’s. Shed blood was described in a way that showed it was offered by divine appointment, not just Abel’s will.
Next, the Flood in Genesis chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 was both a clear example of God’s deadly judgement on sin as well as another example of the clear understanding early man had concerning sacrificial rites. At the time of Noah, the difference between clean animals and unclean animals was obviously well understood, as Noah classified them as such. In addition, Noah’s first act after leaving the Ark was to offer a burnt offering to the Lord.
Bloody sacrifices maintained a conviction of man’s guilt and a dependence on God’s forgiving grace. They taught that reconciliation could be obtained in no other way but through God’s divine justice. But they also symbolized God’s mercifulness, in that an animal victim could serve as a substitute. The offending worshipper must die, without possibility of living in fellowship with God, unless a sin offering were offered which removed it. On that ground, the sinner could be restored. From the beginning, as hard as it is for modern man to understand, blood sacrifice was a gracious, God appointed ritual given as a way to reconcile with God.
In Gen. 22, Abraham and Isaac had a divine appointment on Mount Moriah. As much as Abraham grieved the task set before him, he understood that only by killing his son could he be obedient to God. This was not arbitrary. There was a deeper meaning to what was going on than just the task that sat before him. Abraham and Isaac both understood the purpose of sacrifice, as sacrifice had long been a part of their lives, as well as the truth that most men understood at that time: that the only way to be fully consecrated to God was through a death. Blessedly, Isaac’s life was spared and a ram was substituted. By the ram’s blood, Isaac was figuratively raised from the dead.
In chapter 12 of the book of Exodus, Israel prepares to leave Egypt. What was done for one person on Mount Moriah will now be done for a nation. So the nation of Israel, God’s first born, spreads blood from a paschal lamb on its doorposts. Many people die that night, but not God’s redeemed people. God had told them, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” That night, the people of Israel learned that life is possible only with the killing of a substitute lamb and the sprinkling of that substitute’s blood. The Passover night illustrates the importance of the blood to God.
Part II Continues with the History -
.