The Lord Or Luck Series

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A speculator, who won and lost money by instinct, was

discussing success with a business man who had done very

well. They were discussing whether success was attained by

planned judgment, or by mere luck. The business man said

judgment, but the speculator held out for luck. He pointed

out to the business man that he was a forty-niner, and that

that was an adventure, but he responded that it was not so

for him for it was planned. "Well then," said the speculator,

"You came to New York just when the investment of your

money would bring the highest returns, that was luck."

"No," insisted the business man, for it had been his own wise

judgment. After several more examples to which he

received the same reply, the speculator concluded, "Well,

you'll have to admit you are mighty lucky to have such good

judgment."

The whole issue of providence and chance; sovereignty

and free will; the Lord or luck, is a complex one, but one

that we must think about seriously since it governs much of

our attitude toward life and circumstances. Lack of thought

at this point causes many Christians to be very inconsistent

in their ideas. Sometimes we are like the professor who was

going to lecture on the III World War. He announced his

two major points in his introduction. First he said we will

consider why there will be no war, and second we will

consider what to do when it comes. Christians get into the

same fix when they say nothing is of chance, and then

condemn gambling because it is not of God. We want to

look at the sailors method of accusing Jonah as a starting

point to try and reconcile the concepts of luck and the

sovereignty of God.

I. IS LUCK REAL?

The sailors certainly did not think that casting lots was a

matter of luck. They wanted to know on whose account the

storm had come, and they believed that the gods revealed

their will through the lot. Since, however, this practice as

not in conformity with belief in the one true God, we must

recognize that their views amounted to superstition. These

sailors did not make this up for this occasion. It was a

practice of life, and they had doubtless made other decisions

by lot. Are we to suppose that all decisions of ancient or

modern pagans are guided by the Lord, as this one was? If

so, then we are led to the conclusion that superstition was

not wrong after all, and that the pagan world was guided by

God by superstition, as was His chosen people by revelation.

This conclusion is contrary to all the facts, for the vast

majority of pagan practices and superstitions were an

abomination to God. God did use this particular event of lot

casting to reveal His will, but certainly He did not do so in

all cases. Most pagan decisions were decided by what we

would call luck. They were events which were not decided

by God's will, but by chance causes which were not known

or predictable. In other words, many innocent people

suffered as being guilty not because God willed it but

because foolish men made their decisions on the basis of

chance. It was deciding which of two men accused of

murder would be guilty by the flip of a coin. People use to

determine guilt by binding a person up and throwing them

in the river. If they drowned they were presumed innocent,

and if they floated they were presumed guilty.

I cannot believe that all such folly has been the will of

God. It has, instead, been the result of blindness to His will.

I am convinced that all that happens in life is not God's will,

for if it was, it would be meaningless to pray thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus taught us to pray this,

therefore, it is clear that God's will is not always done on

earth as it is in heaven. This makes me question the easy

and superficial attitude of many Christians who say nothing

happens by chance, or there is no such thing as luck. If they

mean that nothing happens without a cause, then all can

agree, for every effect has a cause. But to say that all causes

are God' s will is to contradict the clear teaching of His

Word that sin is not His will, and the effects of sin are not

His will.

Events and things that happen that are not intended by

God, and are not caused by the will of man, is what I mean

by luck. Calvin believed that all that happens is the direct

will of God. He even rejected the idea of God's permissive