Theology

15
Mar
2025

God’s Sovereignty: Does It Mean He Causes Everything?

God's Sovereignty

The opening verses of the book of Ephesians contains wording that has been a source of substantial theological disagreement among Christians for over 1500 years.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. 4 For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love 5 He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, (Eph. 1:3-5 BEREAN)1

A small but vocal group of Christians who follow John Calvin’s teachings claims that vv. 4-5 prove God personally selects each individual’s eternal destiny. This interpretation misunderstands two key points: the nature of God’s sovereignty and the idea that humans lack the ability to make their own spiritual choices. We must first work through these two ideas before attempting to understand what vv. 4-5 teach us.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Calvinism, Ephesians, Theology
29
Apr
2024

The Strange Story of Two Yahwehs

Two Yahwehs

In the first century AD, every Jewish child grew up knowing the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One” (Deut. 6:4 BEREAN). This verse stresses that there’s only one God. But strangely, in the New Testament, Jesus’s Jewish followers didn’t seem bothered by the idea of Jesus being God’s Son alongside God the Father. They remained unperturbed by the potential tension of acknowledging, for lack of a better phrase, “two Yahwehs.”

If we dig deeper, we’ll see that the real issue isn’t about two Gods. It’s about how we understand monotheism today versus what the Bible’s perspective on monotheism is. Subtle clues found in 1 Timothy 6:13-16 offer insight into the nuanced Jewish concept of monotheism.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in 1 Timothy, Theology
14
Nov
2022

Is It True That God Will Not Allow Sin In His Presence?, Part 2

In the previous post we observed that certain passages, which at first glance appear to suggest that God will not allow sin in His presence, have been misconstrued. The Bible is absolutely full of examples of God interacting with sinners. He was in their presence throughout all of biblical history. Let’s note just a few examples.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Misconceptions, Theology
07
Nov
2022

Is It True That God Will Not Allow Sin In His Presence?, Part 1

God Will Not Allow Sin

Conventional Christian wisdom says that God will not allow sin in His presence. People repeat this so often it is accepted by Bible students as a biblical fact. The following quote is representative of this idea:

“Because GOD hates sin and GOD is righteous, just and holy, His nature disallows Himself from coexisting with sin in His presence. For this reason, GOD must keep Himself separated from sin.”2

Is this true? Does the Bible really say that God does not allow Himself to be in the presence of sin? As a matter of fact, the Bible does not say this. It is a demonstrably false teaching, but where does this notion come from?

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Misconceptions, Theology
31
Oct
2022

Can God Change His Mind?, Part 2

Change His Mind

There are a few Bible passages which, on the surface, seem to say that God doesn’t change His mind. There are other passages which clearly say that God not only can change His mind, but that He has changed it on several occasions. In the previous article we noted that the passages which appear to say that God does not change His mind are in fact referring to occasions when God committed to a certain course of action that He would not deviate from.

God’s immutable nature doesn’t prevent Him from changing His decisions. He is sovereign and is free to change His decisions anytime it pleases Him. Reversing a decision is not equal to Him changing His nature. What about God’s foreknowledge? Does God’s knowledge of the future mean that things can only turn out one way?

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Theology