God's Providence in Preservation

[Guest]

A glance at God’s sovereign choice in the Old Testament:


Deuteronomy 7

A Chosen People
7:1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, 2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
12 “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. 22 The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

Is God “unfair” for choosing Israel and not “the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,”?

Does God’s unconditional election of Israel make a mockery of “love”(see verses 6-8]?

Were the Israelites “better” than everyone else in the world? Please remember that everyone came from Adam and Eve and then through Noah and his sons (and their wives).

Why don’t Pharaoh and the Egyptians get the same treatment from God that He gives to the Israelites?

Is God free to set His love on whomever He pleases?


In Christ,

Haas

[Guest]

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibr ... 678/Audio/

John Piper audio link to interview on NPR following the Tsunami in 2005

[Guest]

More Job:

Job 10:1-2
10:1 “I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.

verse 8
8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.

Verses 18-19
18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.

Job 12:9-10
9 Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.

Verses 23-25
23 He makes nations great, and he destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and leads them away.
24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
25 They grope in the dark without light,
and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Job 13:15-16
15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face.
16 This will be my salvation,
that the godless shall not come before him.

Verse 23
23 How many are my iniquities and my sins?
Make me know my transgression and my sin.

Job 14:5-6
5 Since his days are determined,
and the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6 look away from him and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

In Christ,

Haas

[Guest]

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD: A PRECIOUS AND PRACTICAL DOCTRINE
Savoring the Sovereignty of God in the Life of George Mueller


One of the great joys of ministering in one church for twenty years is that you get to see people pass through the darkest seasons of life, leaning on the sovereign goodness of God, and come out the other side with unshakable faith and joy. The sovereignty of God is a most precious doctrine. It is the strong wood of the tree that keeps our lives from being blown over by the winds of adversity. It is the rock that rises for us out of the flood of uncertainty and confusion. It is the eye of the hurricane where we stand with God and look up into the blue sky of his mastery when everything is being destroyed. “When all around my soul gives way,” this is all my hope and stay.

The word “sovereignty” (like the word “trinity”) does not occur in the Bible. I use it to refer to this truth: God is in ultimate control of the world, from the largest international intrigue to the smallest bird-fall in the forest. Here is how the Bible puts it: “I am God and there is no other….my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isaiah 46:9-10), author’s translation). “[God] does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What doest thou?” (Daniel 4:35, RSV). “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father: (Matthew 10:29). “He is unchangeable and who can turn him? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me” (Job 23:13-14, RSV). “Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases: (Psalm 115:3). “[He] works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Romans 9:15). “You ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that” (James 4:15).

One reason this doctrine is so precious to believers is that we know that God’s great desire is to show mercy and kindness to those who trust him. “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good…with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:40-41, RSV). God’s sovereignty means that this design for us cannot be frustrated. Nothing, absolutely nothing, befalls those who love God and are called according to his purpose, except what is for our deepest and highest good (Romans 8:28, Psalm 84:11).

Therefore, the mercy and the sovereignty of God are the twin pillars of my life. They are the hope of my future, the energy of my service, the center of my theology, the bond of my marriage, the best medicine in all my sickness, the remedy of all my discouragements. And when I come to die (whether soon or late) these two truths will stand by my bed and, with infinitely strong and infinitely tender hands, lift me up to God.

George Mueller has been admired for 150 years as a great man of faith because of the work he did, especially with orphans in London. Not as many know that he lived his wonderful life in utter reliance on the cherished truth of God’s sovereignty. When Mueller’s wife of thirty-nine years died, he preached her funeral sermon from the text “Thou art good and doest good” (Psalm 119:68]. He recounts how he prayed when he discovered she had rheumatic fever:

Yes, my Father, the times of my darling wife are in Thy hands. Thou wilt do the very best thing for her, and for me, whether life or death. If it may be, raise up yet again my precious wife—Thou are able to do it, though she is so ill; but howsoever Thou dealest with me, only help me to be perfectly satisfied with Thy holy will. (Autobiography of George Muller [London J. Nisbet and Co., 1906], 442)


The Lord’s will was to take her. Therefore, with great confidence in the sovereign mercy of God, Mueller said:


I bow, I am satisfied with the will of my Heavenly Father, I seek by perfect submission to his holy will to glorify him, I kiss continually the hand that has afflicted me….Without an effort my inmost soul habitually joys in the joy of that loved departed one. Her happiness gives joy to me. My dear daughter and I would not have her back, were it possible to produce it by the turn of a hand. God himself has done it; we are satisfied with him. (Autobiography, 444, 440)

This is the preciousness of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

Taste and See, pp. 266-268
John Piper

[Guest]

God is in ultimate control of the world, from the largest international intrigue to the smallest bird-fall in the forest.

God may be "in ultimate control", but that doesn't imply that He is the cause --- the author of every event. To affirm so, is the ultimate in blasphemy. For events include every fit of rage, every torture, every rape and murder of little girls. To suggest that God is the author of such events, that He willed them, that He caused them ---- what greater blasphemy could we utter? To suggest to those who are close to such events that God did it in order to achieve some mysterious "deeper purpose" or to "teach someone a lesson" (without revealing what that lesson is), is not only ludicrous, but it has turned many a person against God, and resulted in many blaming God for their suffering in life.

Here is how the Bible puts it: “I am God and there is no other….my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isaiah 46:9-10), author’s translation). “[God] does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What doest thou?” (Daniel 4:35, RSV).

The fact that God will accomplish His purpose and that no one can stay His hand, is true. But this in no way is support for the concept that He is the author of all events, including the evil choices of man.

[Guest]

Paidon,

Are you suggesting that the inspired writer of Job is uttering blasphemy? (All Scripture is God breathed, the Holy Spirit inspired the writers etc).

Job 42
42:1 Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 “I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”

10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.12 And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.(emphasis mine)

I do pray that people would carefully consider how they share God's sovereignty over all events when someone has suffered unspeakable evil.

But what would you say? God created the person that did that to you, but he chose not to stop it? Or God was powerful enough to speak everything into existence but then He took is hands off? He just wound the thing up and let it go. Or God was surprised by how evil his little sovereigns became and he could never have any influence in each sovereigns little choice before it happened? Is someone really comfortable with an all powerful God that isn't quite powerful enough to "control" what he made? It ultimately comes back to God no matter how you slice it.

I would much rather lovingly point someone to Scripture (when the time is right). Because eventually the questions about evil and God will come. Maybe not right after the suffering event happened, but eventually they will be asked.

The most severe suffering was planned by God for God:

Isaiah 53
53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.



Romans 8:26-30
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

(bold and underline emphasis mine)

Blessings in Christ,

Haas

[Guest]

Paidon wrote:

How horrible it would be if God were really as John Piper portrays Him! What an injustice to His character!

Would the Bible be portraying an injustice to God's character?

No. Thus I conclude that God is not as John Piper portrays Him.

Paidon,
Are you suggesting that the inspired writer of Job is uttering blasphemy? (All Scripture is God breathed, the Holy Spirit inspired the writers etc).

I am suggesting nothing of the kind. There is a sea of difference between God not preventing an event from occuring because of His great respect for the free will of man whom He created in His image, and God causing every event to occur, including the heinous acts of murder, torture, and rape.

In Job's case, God seemed to have been trying to show Satan that Job would remain faithful no matter what Satan did to him (within limits established by God). It is interesting that Job's "friends" had to offer sacrifices for their wrong doing because, like the Calvinists, they attributed false traits to God's character.

After Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done." Job 42:7,8

Notwithstanding what God said about Job having spoken of Him what was right, it seems that even Job, like Calvinists, had mistakenly thought his troubles were caused by God. Job had pride, attributing his righteousness to himself instead of to God's enablement. Young Elihu knew better. It is written that:

... Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong. Job 32:2,3

Elihu said:
For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, and God has taken away my right;
in spite of being right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water, who goes in company with evildoers and walks with the wicked? For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.’
Therefore, hear me, you who have sense, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.
For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them. Truly, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. Job 34: 5-12

Elihu also said:

Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked. For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God." Elihu continued and said:
"Do you think this to be just? You say, ‘I am in the right before God.’
If you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned? Job 34:36-35:3

God rebuked both Job and his "friends". But God did not rebuke young Elihu. Indeed, Elihu spoke to Job much the same as God Himself did!

God said to Job concerning Leviathin:

Upon earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He beholds everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride." Job 41:33,34

This seems to be a subtle reference to Job himself being a "son of pride" since Jobe seems to have attributed his righteousness to himself, and not to the enablement of God. Job was so sure he was right that he even suggested to his "friends" that if he had an umpire (or lawyer) he could argue his case before the almighty and win! Thus Job had to repent:

‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:3-6

[Guest]

Paidon,

There is no doubt that Job was a sinner like all the rest of fallen mankind. As far as I can tell, you didn't interact with these texts from Job.

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.



9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.


11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.

Pretty explicit here that Job did not sin with his lips in regards to what he says here about God (no mention of pride in these two cases or of blasphemy against God).

Also pretty explicit that his family "showed sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him."(no mention from the inspired writer about blasphemy against God for what they said)

God, sovereign over evil and Satan, yet Holy, righteous, just and totally 100% without sin.

Paidon wrote:

There is a sea of difference between God not preventing an event from occuring because of His great respect for the free will of man whom He created in His image

I would love you to point me to the Scriptures that teach God's "great respect for the free will of man". If this is of utmost importance to God. Surely it is spelled out clearly and explicitly throughtout Scripture.


For the sake of your arguement, let's pretend that God did allow for evil because of "His great respect for the free will of man". We would have God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in community before the foundation of the world. Nothing else yet exists in eternity. God speaks and angels, man, and the entire universe come into existence. The possiblility for evil came from the perfect, sinless, holy, righteous God. When man [and angels] fell, all "hell" breaks loose and free will man starts wreaking havoc on each other. God could, but many times does not prevent these evil events. Yet when we take things all the way back to the source. God created these agents that murdered, raped, and pillaged (and He didn't stop them from doing it). Atheists scream injustice towards God all the time for this (especially after a natural disaster or terrorist attack).


Biblically, God had a very definite predetermined plan before the foundation of the world to cause unspeakable violence to His Son (the spotless lamb of God). This all before Satan and his demons rebelled and before Adam and Eve disobeyed in the garden. God is a God of amazing grace! And He is perfect and without sin.


Blessings in Christ,

Haas

[Guest]

God may be "in ultimate control", but that doesn't imply that He is the cause --- the author of every event. To affirm so, is the ultimate in blasphemy. For events include every fit of rage, every torture, every rape and murder of little girls. To suggest that God is the author of such events, that He willed them, that He caused them ---- what greater blasphemy could we utter? To suggest to those who are close to such events that God did it in order to achieve some mysterious "deeper purpose" or to "teach someone a lesson" (without revealing what that lesson is), is not only ludicrous, but it has turned many a person against God, and resulted in many blaming God for their suffering in life.

Let us think about this.

Isaiah 45:5-11
I am Jehovah, and there is none else, no God besides Me; I clothed you, though you have not known Me;
(6) that they may know from the rising of the sun, and to the sunset, that there is none besides Me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else;
(7) forming the light and creating darkness; making peace and creating evil (calamity). I Jehovah do all these things.
(8) Drop down from above, O heavens, and let the clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let salvation bear fruit; and let righteousness spring up together. I Jehovah have created it.
(9) Woe to him who fights with the One who formed him, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to its former, What are you making? Or your work, He has no hands?
(10) Woe to him who says to his father, What are you fathering? Or to the woman, What are you laboring over?
(11) So says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed him, Do you ask Me of things to come? Do you give command to Me about My sons, and about the work of My hands?

Amos 3:6 MKJV If a ram's horn is blown in a city, will the people not also tremble? If there is a evil/calamity in a city, has Jehovah not also done it?

First of all, Calvinism does not teach that God causes all things in the way Non Calvinists are saying it. The reason being, is the implied assertions being brought in, especially the Open Theist.

Implied is the idea that man is being forced or some such thing to act in evil ways, or has been programmed like some kind of robot without a will, thereby making God the primary cause of all evil and poor innocent man goes along for the ride and so called poor innocent people suffer as a result of all this.

Let us get some perspective here.

God being the ultimate first cause of all things, we must also take into account secondary causes, not to mention the ordained motives behind God in His actions.
God works through means including sin! Gen 50:20

By secondary causality, I mean either men or such things as natural occurrences, even what we call natural disasters.

But, are these secondary causes, especially in the case of men, acting as volitional moral agents with a will, and are they flawed, disposed to evil, fallen and God haters by birth, choice ,practise and subject to the will of God in everything they do?

Yes.

The reformed position is that all men are fallen and have a desire to do evil and have a will that is not pleasing to God.

God, being not only sovereign over and through the will of man and his every move, is ALSO HOLY. Exo 15:11, Psa 93:5,

Being HOLY, as scripture affirms over and over, God is not subject to the opinions of men who think too highly of their so called freedom of will and so lowly of God’s sovereignty.

There is no higher standard for God to answer to.
It follows that all that God does, whether it results in the evil actions of men, or so called natural disasters of nature, there is divine intention and purpose behind everything that comes to pass, and we are explicitly told, that all things happen for the GOOD of them that love Him, those called according to His purpose.

But let me be as clear as I can be.
God is the Potter, and we are the clay, is the biblical picture.

When God works with this dirty lump of clay, called humanity, He moulds it whatever way He wants, and does so, for one of only two purposes, and both result in His glory!

One for the glory of His great grace, in them that are saved, and the rest as vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, to the glory of His justice.

Glory either way, and praise His marvellous name!

Now, getting back to man.
As a fallen creature, more often than not, God is restraining man's evil. This is something we take for granted, as it is something we do not see.
But, then God withdraws restraint and in so doing, man freely without compulsion, sins, and at the same time, God's will is being done.

As the sins of man only lead to evil, we believe that God has decreed the evil so that He works with this clay to bring about good, whenever and with whomever God desires to do so.

This is the God with whom we have to do.
A Holy God and a Good God.
An Unholy mankind and a bad mankind.

These are the facts.

Now if God is bringing good from evil, as scripture clearly teaches, and God has decreed to work with a humanity that is fallen, which scripture teaches, then it is our business to put our hands over our mouths and fear Him, rather than glibly spout out accusations of blasphemy.

Just maybe, man has too high of an opinion of Himself and way too low a view of God?
Maybe we tend to think that God is so much like us, a creature who winks at sin and acts more from emotion than reason and holiness?

Maybe those who think like that are the blasphemers?

Think about it.

Such things as rapes and murder and torture and any other kind of moral evil are all within God’s plan for His creation.

Imagine if these things are just purposeless? No rhyme nor reason as we are so often told.
A God impotent to do anything about such actions?

How do we offer any comfort to the grieving and those who suffer?
We just tell them how bad this situation is and tell them “in effect” that God could do nothing to stop it because He just loves man's free will too much to interfere with the evildoers!

Think about it!

No! It might be difficult. It might not be what we think people want to hear, but if we come alongside those in suffering and calamity, we can at least encourage them that this thing was not done in a corner. No!

God, who is pure and Holy, and who is working in the midst of an evil world, has a great plan unfolding for all those that love Him and follow Him.
Part of that plan is in bringing true and everlasting good out of temporal and evil situations. God is not asleep at the wheel, but rather He is driving His purposes onward and upward, no matter how bad things may get from our own tiny perspective.

We have real promises from Him. Comforting promises that would be utterly empty if He is not controlling every single thing that happens in this universe.

I hope in my moments of real need, God shall send a Calvinist to comfort me in my misery, and wake me up to the bigger picture, and not some Open Theist who can only tell me that God is just as surprised and as confused as I may be.

Away with such a god as that. I would rather have Anthony Robbins!

The true blasphemy, is a god that is only able to come alongside us with no real comfort, no real plan and no real answer to the problem of evil.

Of course, The God of scripture is NOT that god. For He not only is the first cause of all things, but He is so, with a plan unfolding to His glory and the good of all them that are called according to His purposes in Christ Jesus before the world was.

Mat 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

How the Open Theist god could sincerely say such a thing is the real blasphemy.

Mark