God is in Control

By Mark Farquharson

It may seem to many that God is not in control, or if he is in control then he is not in control of everything. When we look at the world today it can seem like it is out of control. With all the crime, drugs, gangs, violence, murder and evil in the world, one could argue that things are out of control. Most christians would argue that God does not control the evil, only the good. There is another force in the world and his name is Satan. Surely he is in control of all the evil in the world. However if that is the case then he is surely winning against the forces of Good.

Crime has increased in the last 60 years, greater than the population increase. There has been an increase in the number of people who just look out for number one. Deforestation is going on unchecked, we are destroying the world. There has been a rise in on screen violence, sex and nudity.

More people are start to believe that there is no god at all, that everything just come about somehow.

In the past God flood the world, to get rid of all the evil of the world. Surely at the rate it is going it is almost about time to destroy mankind again and start over. Was this because God was not in control, that God had lost control?

NO!!!!

If God had lost control then was Satan in control, and if so, how did he let the under dog, God, regain control by flooding the world, or was it part of Satan’s plan, and God is no long in control, in fact he hasn’t been for sometime, in fact ever since that time in the garden with Adam and Eve.

You can see how this is a floored argument. God didn’t flood the world because he had lost control to Satan, the flood was all part of the original plan of God, God was still in control right up to the flood, and still IS IN CONTROL!

God never lost control of the world, but it seems this is what most christian churches are teaching. God is running around after the world trying to regain control from Satan. That is what there saying if you look into it, most of the world is going to Hell, and is being lead there by Satan, so Satan is in control, and God might as well just be a bystander.

BUT how can this be? God created Satan, Satan can not be stronger than God. Satan is NOT in control, and he is not leading most people to hell, in fact there is NO Hell to lead people to. If it does not exist then he can lead no one there, and it does not exist.

Christians readily agree that God is in control of the good, but not the bad. Many would agree that he is in control of natural disasters, but not many would say he is in control of the bad also. How can that be, they would argue.

Create evil:

Isaiah 45:7 Forming light and creating darkness, Making prosperity, and creating misfortune,—I—Yahweh, who doeth all these. REB

Misfortune translated in other versions as evil.

Strong’s Hebrew:

7451 ra` rah from 7489; bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral):-- adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease(-ure), distress, evil((- favouredness), man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief(-vous), harm, heavy, hurt(-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief(-vous), misery, naught(-ty), noisome, + not please, sad(-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked(-ly, -ness, one), worse(-st), wretchedness, wrong. (Incl. feminine raaah; as adjective or noun.).

How can this be? God creates evil, surely this only refers to disasters, not to evil forces and people.

Evil actually means 'a calamity’, we all know that God brings about calamities, like natural disasters. However God also brings about calamities like the worldwide flood, and these are considered judgements. God also judges nations by having one nation attack another nation. When judgements where brought on Israel in the old testament a lot of the time the judgement was that a nation would attack Israel and carry the people off. God is in control of all nations, and makes the ruling party or person decide that the nation should go off and attack another nation.

Amos 3:6

Or a horn be blown in a city, and, a people, not tremble? Or calamity happen in a city, and, Yahweh, not have wrought with effect? REB

Calamity is also translated from ra` rah.

Job in the book of Job in the bible has a lot of bad things happen to him, but who does this to him, and who is in control? As we see in the bible it is Satan who does this to him. Job loses his children, his cattle, and ends up sick. Satan does all that to him, and God makes him better, gives him more cattle and gives him more children. However there is more to it, because it is God who not only allows Satan to do all this to Job, but actually selects Job to go through this. Satan comes to God, and it is God who actual tells Satan how far he can go each time. It is not Satan who is in control here, but actually God. At anytime God could have said that you will not do anymore, in fact God could have stopped Satan at the beginning.

Moses is in Egypt trying to persuade the evil ruler to let his people go. After each plague the evil ruler does not let the people go, until finally he does, only to pursue them. However who is controlling the evil ruler?, Satan or God?

God, it is actually God who is controlling the evil ruler. God is the one who hardens Pharaoh’s heart each time, after each plague, making him not let the people go.

Proverbs 16:4 Everything, hath Yahweh made for its own purpose, yea, even the lawless one, for the day of calamity. REB

“Lawless” is translated in other versions as “wicked”

Proverbs 16:4 'Yahweh has made everything for its own pertinent end, yea even the wicked for the day of evil.' CLV

Here we learn that God has made the wicked for the day of evil or calamity.

God does not sin by using and bring evil, in fact he never sins, evil is a

necessary part of his plan. This evil from the hands of God is never wrong, evil from men is usually always wrong.

But why is all this evil out there, what is God ultimately using it for? Evil is used to educate us to

appreciate all the good. Out of This will come innumerable blessings that will go on forever, without end.

Don’t get me wrong Satan does have a great deal of control, but he is not at the top, he is not in control of everything. God is in control of everything, good and bad, God is in control of everybody and everything, including all the evil forces out there, including Satan.

How can this be?

Satan long thought of by many to be outside of God

’s control, is not, God is in control of Satan. This maybe hard to understand, and even hard to accept, but that does not make it untrue. If something where outside of his control, then we have a problem, and there is an element that can damage God’s plans.

If Satan is outside of God’s control then there is a force that can stop God from reconciling everyone to him.

God has been in control from the beginning.

God was the one who put the tree of Knowledge in the garden of Eden. He did not have to put it there so why did he? He was the one who created Satan, why create the Devil, if he knew what the devil would do? God knew what Satan would do, he knew all along, what Satan would do has been part of the plan of God from the beginning.

Satan will not always have the position he does, one day he will be removed and thrown in to the lake of fire along with all the other evil forces {evil spirits, demons}. Here they will be purified, cleansed, and will in the end be reconciled to God.

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