The are camps in the institutional church and outside that hold to a false sovereignty concept.

The concept simply is that God determined or controls everything that happens. It usually gets defended with statements that says if He doesn’t control and determine everything then He isn’t God or they make His controlling and determining everything make Him seem more glorious.

But what do you become when you determine or control everything someone does? A puppet master! And if you explain it in a way that it seem less directly controlling but make it seem more glorious, then you still get a puppet master, but a glorious one.

If we believe God has a relationship with us and we with Him, then this controlling and determining will not make sense. If you have a God that has feelings, who can get angry, who gets grieved, repents and changes His mind, then you cannot have a puppet master God.

‘But God never changes’ you might think, yes, He doesn’t change in character, but He can change His mind, just ask Abraham, Moses and Jonah for example.

Another problem with God being in total control is that all blame also goes to Him, all the worlds evil. Theologians have been trying to marry God controlling everything without Him being the cause of evil for many years – no logic reasoning will work that out.

A son does not glorify his father by exempting himself from all responsibility or accountability, instead he embraces it and sees it as an amazing privilege(bible calls it grace). So why try put it all on the Father? Give Him glory for the privilege, but then take accountability for it.

The bible doesn’t say we have nothing to do with our salvation, it says we can’t attain it by law(dead work), instead we get it by faith. Faith is something we walk by! It means you trust something(Someone) enough to take action on it.

I don’t know about you, but I want to live in response to the Father, have Jesus see the reward of His suffering through my life lived! Actual life lived out, not metaphorical victory, not just spiritual life hidden for no one to see, but a light shining for all to see inside you and me! Jesus is real, not just a book or a doctrine we idolize.

Take what He is giving you and shine!

~Carlo Merrick