Sunday, March 14, 2010
Taking God's Sovereignty Too Far?
Today in our Sunday school class, the teacher spoke on the subject "What every Christian should know about SIN". Naturally, the subject of evil, it's origin, and effect on creation was high on his list of discussion topics.
The teacher, coming from a strongly Calvinistic viewpoint, emphasized the soverignty of God while maintaining that God allowed sin, but did not originate sin. From this perspective, there really is no reason sin must exist, except to create a problem for which there is only one solution: Jesus Christ.
This is obviously (at least to me) a pretty weak argument, and I suspect most who hold to it would recognize this. That's why the age-old fall back of "mystery" is so often peddled as the stop-gap between our common sense and the weaknesses of a particular theological position.
During the Q&A portion of the class, someone brought up the solution to this problem I think is most viable: That evil is the result of God's choice to give us the ability to sin; Evil exists in the world because a world without freedom is a world without love. We were created by God to love him, and true love cannot be forced.
The response from the teacher was something about being cautious that we don't undermine God's sovereignty, and the mystery of the balance between God's control over everything (including our choices) and the fact that God holds us responsible for our choices.
Why is it so horrible to suggest that God might choose to limit himself, specifically that he might limit his power over our own choices?
It's not like there isn't any biblical precident: The doctrince of divine kenosis (self-limiting) in the person of Jesus is well known and accepted. Why is it so scandalous to suggest that God would choose to limit himself in other ways? Isn't that the story of Adam and Eve; That God gives them the REAL choice to obey or not? Haven't we distorted this story into something else in order to defend the soverignty of God?
And I won't even mention open theology. (oh, wait... I just did)
Am I missing something, or is it plainly obvious that God's choice to limit himself does not diminish his sovereignty in any way?
What's the big deal?
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2 comments:
Great post - I simply can't imagine why self-limitation is considered to be an external impingement upon His nature. Calvinist arguments are a lot stronger when they stick with proof-texts, it seems.
There are things that Calvinists have issues with, one of those things is free will. Most I think see free will as being Armenian, or going to open theism, and that God is not completely sovereign. Such ideas are antithetical to Calvinists, because they don't see how God can limit his sovereignty so that his creation can do as they choose. There a position in the middle of God controls everything, and God controls nothing, which the God in both of those extremes is not worth worshiping. I agree with you, God's choice to limit himself does not diminish his sovereignty in any way, I would say it shows his sovereignty.
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