Who is controlling the affairs of humanity today, God, or the Devil? Professing Christians agree God reigns supreme in heaven. However, in the world today, including many areas in backsliding Christianity, if not directly, then indirectly, the sovereignty of God over this world is denied. Through their philosophizing and theorizing men and women are trying to push God from the creative works of His hands. Not only is it denied that God created everything by personal and direct action, but few believe that He has any immediate concern in the affairs of humanity. Through willful ignorance and denial of the sovereignty of God, the impersonal and abstract laws of nature have replaced the Creator. Since, according to fallen humanity, the laws of nature have replaced the moral laws of the Creator we should not be surprised our nation is ruled by the degrading lusts of the hearts of mankind.
Throughout the Christian community, with an almost negligible exception, the theory is held that Satan is to be blamed for much of the evil that is in the world. This theory ignores or denies the responsibility of man, by attributing to Satan, what, in fact, proceeds from the evil hearts of mankind (Mark 7:21-23).
Let us take a moment and consider the existing condition of the world under the laws of nature, confusion and chaos confronts us on every side. Sin is rampant; lawlessness abounds; evil men and seducers are increasing (2 Timothy 3:13). Unrest, discontent, and lawlessness are increasing. Men’s hearts are “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26). Do these things look as though God has full control over the affairs of humanity or Satan?
After nineteen centuries of Gospel preaching, Christ is still despised and rejected of men, in the majority of modern pulpits He is dishonored and disowned. Despite frantic efforts to attract the crowds, the majority of the churches are being emptied rather than filled. In the light of Scripture, we are compelled to believe that the many are on the broad road that leads to destruction and that only few are on the narrow way that leads to life. Many are declaring that Christianity is a failure, and despair is settling in, and what about God, Does He see and hear? Is He impotent or indifferent? A number of those who are regarded as leaders in the Christian community claim the existing conditions in the world are beyond God’s control. From what is heard from the average pastor and evangelist today, the conclusion is, God is filled with benevolent intentions, yet unable to carry them out; that He is earnestly desirous of blessing men, but that they will not let Him? According to what we see in the Christian community Satan has gained the upper hand, and that God is to be pitied rather than blamed.
Everything happening in the world seems to indicate Satan has more to do with the affairs of humanity than God. However, if you are among the few that are walking by faith what is happening in the world is not based on what you see. If you evaluation of what is happening in the world is based on what is happening in the world you are not walking by faith. Walking by faith means that our thoughts are formed, our actions regulated, our lives molded by the Word of God, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). It is from the Word of Truth, and that alone, that we can learn what is God’s relation to this world.
Let us now take a moment and evaluate our world. We are living in an age of irreverence, and as the consequence, the spirit of lawlessness is engulfing the earth like some giant tidal wave. The members of the present generation are the most flagrant offenders, and in the decay and disappearing of parental authority, we have the forerunners of the destruction of civic authority. Therefore, in view of the growing disrespect for human law it should not surprise us that the recognition of the authority, the Sovereignty of the Almighty law-giver should recede more and more into the background, and the masses have less and less patience with those who insist upon them. In addition, conditions will not improve; instead, the surer Word of Prophecy makes known to us that they will grow worse and worse. Nor do we expect to be able to stem the tide of lawlessness, it has already risen much too high for that. All we can now hope to do is warn the people of the coming judgments, an unacceptable subject in an age of irreverence and lawlessness.
If we believe the plain and positive declarations of the Word of God there is no room for uncertainty. The plain and positive declarations of the Word of God declare, repeatedly, that God is on the throne of the universe; that the scepter is in His hands; that He is directing all things after the counsel of His own will. They affirm, not only that God created all things, but also that God is ruling and reigning over all the works of His hands. They affirm that God is the “Almighty,” that His will is irreversible, that He is absolute Sovereign in every realm of all His vast dominions. Only two alternatives are possible: God must either rule, or be ruled; sway, or be swayed; accomplish His own will, or be thwarted by His creatures. Accepting the fact that He is the “Most High,” the only King of kings, vested with perfect wisdom and illimitable power, and the conclusion is irresistible that He must be God in fact as well as in name.
Present-day conditions call for a new examination and new presentation of God’s omnipotence, God’s sufficiency, God’s Sovereignty. From every pulpit in the land, it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives, that God still observes, that God still reigns. Faith is now being tested. What is needed now, as never before, is a full, positive, constructive setting forth of the Godhood of God. Without a doubt, a world-crisis is at hand, and everywhere men are alarmed. However, God is not. He is never taken by surprise. An unexpected emergency does not confront Him, for He is the One who works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11). Hence, though the world is panic-stricken, the word to the believer is, “Fear not.” “All things” are subject to His immediate control: “all things” are moving in accord with His eternal purpose, and therefore “all things” are “working together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Yet how little is this realized today even by the people of God. Many suppose that He is little more than a far-distant Spectator, taking no immediate hand in the affairs of earth. It is true that man is endowed with power, but God is all-powerful. It is true that, speaking generally, the material world is regulated by law, but behind that law is the Giver of the law and the Administrator of the law. Man is but the creature. God is the Creator, and endless ages before man first saw the light “the mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6) existed, and before the world was founded, made His plans; and being infinite in power and man only finite, His purpose and plan cannot be withstood or altered by the creatures of His own hands.
It is true life is a profound problem, and that we are surrounded by mystery on every side; but we are not like the beasts of the field, ignorant of their origin, and unconscious of what is before them, we have the sure Word of Prophecy, of which it is said “you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).
In this age of irreverence and lawlessness, we need to heed the Word of Prophecy that did not have its origin in the mind of man but in the Mind of God. As we turn to this Word we discover a fundamental principle which must be applied to every problem; instead of beginning with man and his world and working back to God, we must begin with God and work down to man, “In the beginning God.” If we begin with the world as it is today and try to work back to God, everything seems to imply that God has no connection with the world. However, beginning with God and working down to the world, much light, is cast on the problem. Because God is holy His anger burns against sin; because God is righteous His judgments fall upon those who rebel against Him; because God is faithful the solemn threatening of His Word are fulfilled; because God is omnipotent none can successfully resist Him, still less overthrow His counsel; and because God is omniscient no problem is too difficult. In view of His inflexible justice and immaculate holiness, we could not expect anything other than what is now happening before our eyes.
In this age of irreverence and lawlessness, it is important we understand that the heart can only rest upon and enjoy the blessed truth of the absolute Sovereignty of God as we exercise our faith in God. Through our faith in God, we can endure the disappointments, the hardships, and the heartaches of life by recognizing that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind. However, so long as we are occupied with any other object than God Himself there will be neither rest for the heart nor peace for the mind. But when we receive all that enters our lives as from His hand, then, no matter what may be our circumstances or surroundings, we shall be enabled to say, “The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me” (Psalm 16:6). That is the language of faith, not of sight or of sense.
However, if instead of bowing to the testimony of the Word of God, if instead of walking by faith, we follow the evidence of our eyes, and reason, we shall fall into a quagmire of atheism.
Granted that there is much in this world of sin and suffering which appalls and saddens us; granted that there is much in the providential dealings of God which startle and stagger us; that is no reason why we should unite with the unbelieving world who says, “If I were God, I would not allow this or tolerate that,” etc. Better far, in the presence of bewildering mystery, to say with the psalmist, “I have become a mute, I do not open my mouth, because it is You who have done it” (Psalm 39:9). Scripture tells us that God’s judgments are “unsearchable,” and His ways “past finding out” (Romans 11:33). It must be so if faith is to be tested, confidence in His wisdom and righteousness strengthened, and submission to His holy will foster.
Here is the difference between the man of faith and the man of unbelief. The unbeliever is of the world, judges everything by worldly standards, views life from the standpoint of time, and weighs everything in the balances of his own carnal making. However, the man of faith brings in God, looks at everything from His standpoint, estimates values by spiritual standards, and views life in the light of eternity. Doing this, he receives whatever comes as from the hand of God. Doing this, his heart is calm in the midst of the storm. Doing this, he rejoices in hope of the glory of God.
We are well aware that what we have written is in open opposition to much of the teaching that is current both in religious literature and in the representative pulpits of the land. We are well aware that the claim of God’s Sovereignty opposes the opinions and thoughts of the natural man, but the truth is the natural man is unable to form a proper estimate of God’s character and ways, and it is because of this that God has given us a revelation of His mind, and in that revelation He declares, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8, 9). In view of this Scripture, it is only to be expected that much of the contents of the Bible conflict with the sentiments of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God.
