When something about God is called a DOCTRINE, it means that scholars have grouped some biblical principles together in a desire to explain how the Lord thinks or operates. In doing this, the scholars make a formal declaration that they've understood something about God the rest of us would otherwise overlook or misinterpret. Obviously, we're not able to go into the Word of God and find a particular DOCTRINE written down somewhere so we have to rely on others to teach us what a particular DOCTRINE means. But in sum, the original purpose of a DOCTRINE is to edify Believers so we can develop a closer relationship with God.

The Sovereignty of God DOCTRINE can be traced back almost 500 years to the ministry and writings of John Calvin. Calvin was born in France in 1509 to Catholic parents and in about 1533 he converted to a movement that became Reformed Protestantism. Calvin wrote extensively on many topics with a group of religious thinkers of his time but his was the name that eventually became associated with the Reformed Movement and their entire body of work came to be known as "Calvinism." Thus, the Sovereignty of God DOCTRINE was a key tenet of "Calvinism."

A number of Commentaries speculate that the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE was originally influenced by a desire to present a THEOLOGY (a set of related religious DOCTRINES) completely opposite to Catholicism. Catholics believed that salvation came by good works; but Reformed Protestants wanted to show that salvation had nothing to do with works (or Catholicism) and that it came by grace from a totally autonomous God who controlled everything including decisions on who would be saved or not saved. John Calvin died in 1564 leaving behind a largely disorganized set of writings to be arranged and systematized into a cogent THEOLOGY by his survivors and successors.

Now since a DOCTRINE is manmade it ought to pass an important test in order to be declared valid: it MUST not be contradicted by even one verse in Scripture. But the truth is "Calvinism" has been opposed from the beginning on scriptural grounds by a number of THEOLOGIANS including Martin Luther who discovered in the Bible years before Calvin was even converted to Protestantism that FAITH is the way to salvation. And, over the years many other scholars have had difficulty matching up the tenets of the Calvinist THEOLOGY to the ENTIRE Word of God.

Looking more closely at this DOCTRINE, the first question that causes discomfort for many teachers is that you can't find the word SOVEREIGN in the Strong's Concordance. There's not one Hebrew or Greek word that was translated SOVEREIGN or SOVEREIGNTY in the KJV. Some of the more recent translations use it but almost always together with the word LORD as in the redundant phrase SOVEREIGN LORD. But the Hebrew and Greek words in those places are correctly translated in the KJV as LORD GOD.

So we need to go to the dictionary for the definition and we find there that SOVEREIGN has the following relevant definitions:

- chief of state in a monarchy
- having supreme rank or power
- self-governing or independent
- superior in strength or efficacy
- royal in rank, power or authority

Certainly God is all of these but the concept of "controlling all things" is NOT among the definitions. A monarch can be supreme in power and authority but not able to control everything that happens in his royal territory. He may try to control all things but no SOVEREIGN head of state can actually do it. Therefore, the word SOVEREIGN is misused by the Church in the title of a Doctrine that wants us to accept that God controls all things on the earth. It's also misused in modern translations of the Bible probably because the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE influenced the translator-writers. The word in both Hebrew and Greek that DOES convey God's ability to control all things is LORD. So it would have been more accurate to have named it the LORDSHIP OF GOD DOCTRINE.

Therefore, the question is not whether God is able to control all things. Friend, the LORD is definitely able to control whatever He wants to control. In short, PLN will stipulate that God is ABLE to control all things. But, the important question about this DOCTRINE is this: does God actually utilize His ability to control all things on the earth as the SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD DOCTRINE wants us to accept?

The answer starts with another question: do you believe you have been given the ability to make choices and decisions? Do you have a WILL that you can exert when faced with alternatives? Now there are some really "deep thinkers" in the Body of Christ who want us to believe we don't really have the ability to make our own choices because some outside influence such as the devil or the flesh or our environment or religion or some other factor dictates how we exercise our WILL. Or, some of the hardliners from the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE might tell us that God makes all the decisions so our so-called choices are of no relevance. But if you truly want to understand what the Word actually says, PLN recommends that you keep it simple, let the "deep thinkers" talk to each other and just look to the Word of God for yourself. The Holy Spirit will help you understand it.

One thing God says CLEARLY in His Word is: "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So CHOOSE life in order that you may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19). According to this scripture people apparently DO have the ability to choose between at least two alternatives: to obey and receive the blessing and life or to disobey and receive the curse and death. The entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is about God challenging people, Believers in particular, to make the right choices. What are the Proverbs about? What are the ministry of Christ and the Holy Spirit about? What were the Apostles saying? If our choices don't count for anything, why do we even need the Word of God? Aren't we constantly faced with choices between correct and incorrect conduct?

Friend, it should be obvious from both the Word and from self-evaluation that God has given you your own WILL with the ability to make choices. God made you with a soul that contains your mind, your WILL and your emotions. You can choose life or death. You can choose light or darkness, Jesus or the devil, obedience or disobedience, blessing or curse. Therefore, if you acknowledge that you DO have the ability to make your own choices, then the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE begins to fall apart because it's based on 500 year old writings that said "God makes ALL the decisions." Yes, the Holy Spirit leads you to righteous decisions, but the Flesh and the devil can lead you into sin. In the final analysis your own WILL is in the middle between the Spirit and the Flesh and you can choose one or the other (Galatians 5:16-17). Therefore, if God has created you with the ability to choose, He has chosen to NOT control all things on the earth. He will NOT control you. He will NOT impose His WILL over yours; you are free to make your own choices (Galatians 5:13) and then live by the results. Accordingly, it would be totally inappropriate to say that God ALLOWED something negative to come into your life that was a result of your own conduct.

The question you should be asking now is: can we confirm from Scripture that our Father God, Creator of the Universe, actually does NOT control EVERYTHING on this earth?

After God created the earth and all its contents and inhabitants, He gave the Man in the Garden DOMINION over everything on the earth (Genesis 1:28). DOMINION means to rule and reign over something. In other words God DELEGATED His authority over the earth to Mankind. At that point God rested from all His work (Genesis 2:3) and allowed the Man to use the Blessing he had received to fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). Since God was resting He had no intention of making all the decisions Himself; the Bible says He had ceased from His own works (Hebrews 4:4) leaving to the Man the responsibility of making the necessary decisions to carry out his assignment.

In time the man and the woman sinned. They made the wrong choice AGAINST GOD'S STATED WILL and as a result God's delegated authority was passed to Satan who then became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) replacing Adam in that capacity. Indeed the Bible says that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). Their wrong choice also resulted in their spiritual death (separation from the presence of God) just as He had promised would happen if they disobeyed His one requirement (Genesis 2:17). And in turn, that separation has been passed on from generation to generation and is referred to as Man's Sin Nature. Now of course we're able to regain the presence of God in our lives when we make the DECISION to receive Jesus as LORD. But Satan is still the god of this World and will continue to be until Jesus returns to the earth to establish His rule (Revelation 19:15-16 and 20:2-3). And so, what the Bible actually says is that Satan and his kingdom of darkness are the ones controlling events in the World which contradicts what the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE declares.

Could the Lord God kick Satan off the planet now if He wanted to? Of course He could and when Jesus returns He will take care of the devil once and for all. But for the present He's chosen not to because He won't violate His own Word that delegated His authority over the earth to mankind. In other words, He has chosen to bind Himself to His own covenant of delegated dominion, otherwise THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO NEED FOR JESUS TO COME and rescue men from the domination of Satan (Acts 26:18) and darkness (Colossians 1:13) and death (1 Corinthians 15:54-55) and from our broken relationship with God (2 Corinthians 5:18). We should also consider that Jesus tarries in His return to earth while He waits patiently for people to make their DECISIONS because once He returns there will no longer be an opportunity for people to choose life and the Blessing over death and the Curse.

Now when Believers are born again, the Bible says we're redeemed from the Curse (Galatians 3:13). You can find all the elements of the Curse listed in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and they include among other things sickness, disease, natural disasters, indebtedness, poverty, etc. This means that by FAITH (Galatians 3:11) our redemption includes total deliverance from ALL these conditions and confirms that Satan is the source of all things from the Curse that appear on the earth today instead of our Father God. But you have to be a Believer to receive deliverance. Non-believers in the World are still subject to the Curse and it's the devil that's sending it, not God. What Believers have to do in order to manifest their deliverance is to live by FAITH, resist the devil to make him flee (James 4:7) and try to live life according to the principles of life one finds in the Bible. It's incorrect to say that God ALLOWS negative circumstances to come into our lives because He already sent Jesus to take care of the Curse and now it's our responsibility to use the authority we can find in Ephesians, Chapters 1 and 2 and other places in the Word to establish our complete victory in Christ.

Many Believers think that God withholds or manipulates their prosperity in order to teach them something. But we ask you to consider the possibility today that this idea is coming from a 500 year old SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE that appears not be fully accurate. Would God be able to withhold our prosperity if He wanted to? Certainly He's able to do it but He doesn't need to, He doesn't want to and SCRIPTURE DOESN'T SUPPORT IT. Rather, the Word refers time-after-time to a loving, generous God who's trying to cause prosperity and abundance to flow TO His people so they can be a blessing to others and participate in the task of building the Kingdom of God. The Bible actually says that God DELIGHTS in our prosperity (Psalm 35:28), that He has given us the power to obtain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) and that Jesus voluntarily became poor so that Believers could have an opportunity to become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9) now in this life.

You should also consider that PLN can't find a scriptural basis for the concept that God ALLOWS financial difficulty to come into our lives to teach us things. If that were true we would all be under permanent financial insufficiency. No, as noted previously financial problems are part of the Curse (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), Believers have been redeemed from the Curse (Galatians 3:13), the devil administers the Curse as the author of ALL death, theft and destruction (John 10:10) and God would not/does not now make use of the Curse that He sent Jesus to redeem us from because it would demean the work that Christ accomplished at the Cross of Calvary. Indeed, to make use of the Curse would put God in a "conspiracy partnership" with the devil that would violate the whole concept of redemption.

Scripture DOES support though that God uses the Word and the Holy Spirit to teach us things. It's also true that God will USE our financial trials to teach us but He's not the author of those trials. Our trials come from our own choices, from the enemy and from those who persecute us. Trials are not God's best for our lives but when they come, and we're promised that we will experience them (John 16:33), He turns them for a positive purpose (Romans 8:28) and then helps us find an escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). And also, contrary to what many believe God does not cause or allow financial insufficiency for the purpose of building faith. No, the Bible says faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17) and by praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20). Those are His BEST ways for building faith. Nevertheless, when our own choices cause us to experience financial problems, God will then use them to demonstrate His faithfulness and try to turn them into a faith-building experience for us.

But friend, if you still insist on believing that God is causing or allowing your insufficiency then you should stop resisting Him and be content with where He wants you. Be consistent in your embrace of the SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD DOCTRINE. Rejoice in your insufficiency and indebtedness instead of trying to escape it.

God is definitely SOVEREIGN and He is also definitely LORD. He's well able to control everything that happens on the earth but PLN believes He elects not to so that Believers and the Church can share in the responsibility of carrying out His plans and purposes. Originally the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE was intended to edify and help new Protestants understand the Bible and even though it was an imperfect work of men, the objective was good. But somewhere along the way it became a Law for many people to the extent that some who read this article today will accuse PLN of heresy for taking issue with such a popular DOCTRINE. They will condemn us for our desire to encourage a better understanding of the things of God as well as to challenge Believers to study the Word to obtain their own knowledge and revelation.

Many Christians like the SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINE because it relieves them from the responsibility of making their own decisions, from blame when they make wrong choices and from the chore of resisting the devil. If God is making all the decisions for them, then why should they be concerned with making the right choices? As a result they've become passive in life and in their Christianity instead of asserting their authority over the enemy and enjoying the fruits of their victory in Christ.

The Truth is the Word of God says you can have something better; the way of the Word is the way of biblical prosperity and abundance by faith and love. The last question is: are you willing to change your mind, to withdraw your investment in a popular DOCTRINE once you can see that Scripture supports something entirely different? We encourage you to study it out for yourself and ALLOW the Holy Spirit to lead you to the Truth by His revelation.

Thanks for reading PLN today. We hope this message has blessed you and opened your understanding to the subject of GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. We'll be looking for you again in three weeks on July 4. In the meantime, may the Lord bless you and your family with the fullness of biblical prosperity and every spiritual blessing.

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Jesus I believe in you. I believe that you are the Son of God and that He raised you from the dead. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me for my sins and come into my life today.

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