A High and Lofty View of God

It seems that the modern church has a very low view of God. Despite how it may seem at first glance, when one really looks at the modern doctrines taught from pulpits and on TV, there is a serious lack in how people view the sovereignty of God. Many seem to present a God that is on His throne, but when you look at the nitty-gritty of what they teach, He is actually on their throne, and not His own. He is presented as a God who can, and is, manipulated by men.

Man's Authority Over God?
For example, one teaching about prayer is that when we pray we are giving God permission to act. Excuse me. If God is God, how in the world can we give Him permission to act? That would imply that we have authority over God. That would mean that God is not sovereign.

Tied in with this teaching is that God gave over His authority to man in the Garden of Eden, but we then gave it over to the devil who now has authority over the earth. Now the devil is superior to God? If the devil is superior then why in the book of Job did he have to go to God to obtain permission to test Job? In fact, was it not God who told the devil about Job's faithfulness in the first place? (see Job 1:8) All the bad things that happened to Job were only done because God gave the devil permission to do them.

If the devil is in charge of this earth, then why did Jesus say in Matthew 10:29: 

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

True, in 2 Corinthians 4:4 the devil is given the title, "god of this world," as well as similar titles "prince of the power of the air" in Ephesians 2:2 and "ruler of this world" in John 12:31. However, a little understanding of Greek is necessary here to understand these phrases.

The word often used for world in Greek [kosmos], has two meanings: 1) orderly arrangement, and, by implication, 2) the earth as a planet and all its inhabitants. However, this is not the word used in 2 Corinthians 4:4. Here the word aion is used, which means age. The devil is called the god of this age in Corinthians, and the god of the orderly arrangement, or government, in John. He is not in charge of the world as a planet. If he was, then he would be in charge of the sparrows falling to the ground.

Satan does indeed have a considerable influence on the faith, thoughts, ideals, opinions, goals, hopes and views of people. He also has influence on philosophies, education, business, poilitics and religion, but he does not rule the world completely. In fact, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 28 that all authority in Heaven and earth has been given to Him (v18). If the devil had that authority, then Jesus would be a liar, and we all know that is not possible.

God, in His infinite wisdom has allowed satan to operate in this world within boundaries that God Himself has set. When the Bible says that satan has power over the world (age / government), it means that he has power over unbelievers alone. Believers are no longer under the devil's rule, but have been tranferred into the Kingdom of Light (see Colossians 1:13). Unbelievers, however, have been held captive "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26), lie in the "power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19), and are controlled by Satan (Ephesians 2:2).

God's Exercising of Authority
AW Pink put it best in his book, The Sovereignty of God: "Sovereignty characterizes the whole Being of God. He is Sovereign in all His attributes."

Every aspect of God's character, and everything that He does is sovereign. He is in authority over absolutely everything, and his authority is far higher than any other authority. Take a look at what Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 about Jesus' authority:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (vv18-23).

A key phrase is in verse 21 - "far above." Jesus is not just the next one up in the ladder as though we can just climb up there to be equal, or even above, Him, but rather that He is infinitely higher than any authority. That means above governments, kings, pastors, the devil, and all mankind. And yet we read in verse 23 that this absolute authority has been given to the church to be its head. Christ as our head is a gift, and then we turn around and try to usurp that power? How ridiculous.

We see that God is sovereign in how He exercises His power. He does what He wants, when He wants, where He wants and how He wants to. We have absolutely no right whatsoever to demand of God, or to dictate to Him the what, when, where and how of His actions. He needs no permission from us. If anything, we need the permission from Him to do what we want.

We also see God's sovereignty in who He delegated His power to. We read of many accounts in the Bible where people exercised great power that was not of their own. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform mighty acts. Even in the New Testament we see that it is the Holy Spirit who decides who receives what gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:11). We are not given every single gift, nor do we have access to whatever gifts we want. God gives them as He wills.

God is sovereign in the area of mercy. As we read in Exodus 33:19, God will show mercy on whoever He chooses. This is a hard pill to swallow, but if God chooses not to have mercy on us, we have no right to demand it. God is God and we cannot dictate mercy to Him. As belivers we have already received great mercy through the cross that we had no choice in whatsoever. It is a gift from God, and again, who are we to demand it?

Attached to this is that God is also sovereign in His exercise of love. God loves those of His choosing, not ours. Think about it, as a sinner who has turned his back against God, did you in any way deserve to have God love you? As a non-believer that did not know anything about God could you even imagine someone loving you as you were? We cannot demand that God love us, nor can we expect Him to love or not-love someone else because of the way they act or speak. As Ephesians 2:3 tells us, we were children of God's wrath. There was nothing about us that drew God's love to us. Therefore it is something that came from Him and and is according to His desires, not ours.

God's sovereignty is seen in His grace. The mere definition of grace shows this - it is unmerited favour. If it is unmerited, then what can we do to receive it? Who are we to demand it? We are not entitled to grace in any way.

Conclusion
God is sovereign, and He is in charge of everything. All that happens on this earth is because He has willed it. The reason why He answers our prayers, and don't forget "no" is still an answer, is because He chooses to. We have no right whatsoever to demand anything from God, and we certainly have no right to try and be above God. To do so is not only undermining the sovereignty of God, but it is also in direct disobedience of the first two commandments - you shall have no other gods before me, and you shall not make for yourself an idol and worship it.

As Romans 1 tells us, those that do this have been given over by God to the lusts of their hearts to impurity for they have exchanged the truth of the sovereign God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature (me, myself and I in this context), rather than the creator.

Binding and Loosing

There are two verses in the book of Matthew, where a serious misinterpretation of the meaning of the verses has permeated the modern church and the prayer lives of many.

The verses in question are Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." (16:19)
"Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." (18:18)

The Widow's Mite

"And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on." - Luke 21:1-4 (parallel passage - Mark 12:41-44)

This passage is often taken in isolation and is often interpreted and preached as though it is giving us an example on how to give. Though this may seem to be a good example of giving, it is actually out of context for the passage for the following reasons:

1. The offering refered to here was not an offering commanded by God. In fact, there is only one mention of any offering like this in the Old Testament and its purpose was to repay those who repaired the temple (see 2 Kings 12:4-18). The only purpose it seems for this offering was to pay the priests.
2. Notice that Jesus did not commend the widow for what she did, nor did He say something like, "Go and do likewise." Knowing people's hearts, if what she did was for a good motive, it would seem likely that Jesus would have mentioned something about it, but it is noticably missing. Nor did He make any comment like, "The Father will provide."
3. Look at the events prior to this account. Jesus was in the court or women, on the east side of the temple. This was the closest the women could get to the holy places of the temple that were forbidden to them. Here people gathered around to hear teachers like Jesus. There would have been many people around to hear Him. In Luke 20, Jesus was tested a couple of times by the chief priests, scribes, elders and saducees tested Jesus. Then in verses 45-47 we read (or Mark 12:38-40): "And while all the people were listening, He said to the disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses, and for appearance's sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation."

Jesus here is teaching about the scribes who were parading about in the synagogues as though they were the bee's knees.

Calling God Allah?

Is it OK to call God Allah as some missionaries in Muslim countries say is OK to do?
For me the matter is simple, however I will try to expand on it below. Sorry if things tun out to be a little long-winded, but I will try to be as brief as possible. I have included the references that I know to where things are found within the Qur'an.
In my mind there is no other way to look at this subject than as blasphemous, and is a transgression of the third commandment: "you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain", for one basic reason:
The concept of a name in the Bible is not just a title that you call someone so you know how to address them when you speak to them, but it incorporates the very character of that person and often includes details about the person with regard to their heritage, role or activities.

Session 7: Knowing God - The Interpretation of the Bible

One of the issues that people seem to grapple with when it comes to looking at the doctrine of the Bible is that of how do we interpret it? Are we meant to take things literally, or are we to merely draw out the concepts or principles and apply them to our lives? Or is there another way to go about it?
This is an issue that needs to be addressed before one can move forward in looking at the other doctrines contained in the Bible, for example God and Jesus. However, it is an issue that is not often covered in many general theological text books and is often left to specialised text books that deal with hermeneutics or homiletics.

However, if one is going to arrive at the correct message of the Bible, one must use a method or system of study. Without one it is easy to end up with puzzling and chaotic application of the Bible. Those who reject a methodic study of God's Word either has ulterior motives, or has been duped into thinking that he can find the truth without it.

Session 6: Knowing God – The Authority of the Bible

Authority is one of the issues that is hotly debated in the post-modern age we are living in. Even within the Catholic Church there has been some questioning as to the authority of the papacy. In post-modern thinking, external authority is often refused recognition and one's own judgement has become the final authority in most matters. However, in Christianity this is an issue that needs to be recognised and dealt with and is based on what has already been discussed in previous sessions.

Session 5: Knowing God – The Inerrancy of the Bible

The inerrancy of Scripture is one of the debates that seems to be ever present in an age of scientific and historical discoveries. It is one of the areas that is often attacked first when dealing with the authority of Scripture, therefore it is the first issue that we will cover in this regard.

Session 4: Knowing God – The Doctrine of Inspiration

What do you understand by the word “inspiration”?
Is it merely a motivation like one would have after a great athlete had given an inspirational speech? Is it what you feel when you hear an encouraging tale of how someone overcame cancer? Or is it more than that?
In order to fully understand inspiration, we first need to fully understand some key words that are often associated with the subject.

Session 3: Knowing God through Special Revelation

Since General Revelation refers to the knowledge of God that is available to all mankind, it suggests then that all man has some form of knowledge of God based on either creation, history or the conscience, special revelation refers to those acts of God whereby He reveals Himself and His will directly to specific people.
Why was this special revelation necessary? The answer lies simply in the fact that man has lost the relationship with God that existed before the fall. Knowledge of God therefore has to be learned in a more fuller, direct way, and had to go beyond the initial or general revelation that is all around.
This is seen in five key areas:

1. Personal Experience
2. Miracles
3. Prophecy
4. Christ
5. Scripture

Session 2: Knowing God through General Revelation

How can one truly know God? How does He reveal Himself to man?

There are two basic classifications of revelation. Firstly there is what is known as General Revelation. This is God communicating about Himself to all people at all times and in all places.

Then there is Special Revelation. This involves God's particular communication and manifestations of Himself to particular people, at particular times. These revelations are only available to us today through particular sacred writings.