1.
Efficacy: God’s controlling power always
accomplishes its purposes
a.
Nothing is too hard for God or impossible:
Genesis 18.14; Jeremiah 32.27; Matthew 19.26; Luke 1.37
·
Isaiah 14.24-27; Job 42.2; Jeremiah 23.20
b.
God’s word as his active agent to accomplish his
will: Isaiah 55.11
·
Isaiah 46.8-11; Daniel 4.35
c.
Imagery of potter and clay: Isaiah 29.16; 45.9;
64.8; Jeremiah 18.1-10; Romans 9.19-24
d.
Summary passages: Psalms 33.10-11; 115.3; 135.6;
Isaiah 43.13; Revelation 3.7
2.
Universality: God’s controlling power is
exercised over everything that happens in the world
a.
Natural world
·
Creation: Genesis 1.1-31; Exodus 20.11; Psalms
33.6, 9; 95.3-5; 146.5-6; Jeremiah 10.12; 51.15-16; Acts 17.24; Colossians 1.16
·
Events of the natural world: Psalms 65.9-11;
135.6-7; 147.15-18
“Notice the monergism in these
statements: these are things that God does, because they please him. He does not merely allow them to
happen; rather, he makes them happen.”[2]
·
“Chance” events and “accidents”: Proverbs 16.33;
Exodus 21.13; Judges 9.53; 1 Kings 22.34
·
Teaching and example of Jesus: Matthew 5.45;
6.26, 28-30; 8.23-27; 10.29-30; Luke 12.4-7
b.
Human history
·
Joseph: Genesis 45.5-8; 50.20
·
Exodus: Exodus 4-14
·
Joshua’s conquest: Joshua 21.44-45
·
Assyria: Isaiah 10.5-15; 14.24-27; 37.26
·
Babylonians: Habakkuk 1.6-11
·
Persia (and Cyrus): Isaiah 44.28; 45.1-13
·
Jesus Christ: Acts 2.23-24; 3.18; 4.27-28;
13.27-29; Luke 22.22
c.
Individual human lives: Jeremiah 1.5; Psalm
139.13-16; Ruth 1.13; 1 Samuel 2.6-7; James 4.13-16
d.
Human decisions: Exodus 12.36 (cf. 3.21-22);
34.21-24; Judges 7.22; Ezra 6.22; Proverbs 16.9; 19.21; 21.1; Daniel 1.9; John
19.24 (cf. Psalm 22.18)
e.
Sins
·
Hardening Pharoah’s heart: Exodus 4.21; 7.3, 13;
9.12; 10.1, 20, 27; 11.10; 14.4, 8
·
Hardening other people: Deuteronomy 2.30; Joshua
11.18-20; 1 Samuel 2.25; 2 Chronicles 25.20
·
Sending evil spirits: 1 Samuel 16.14; 1 Kings 22.19-23;
Judges 9.23; 2 Kings 19.5-7; 2 Thessalonians 2.11-12
·
Hardening Israel’s heart: Isaiah 6.9-10; 63.17;
64.7
--See also: 2 Corinthians
2.15-16; 1 Peter 2.6-8; Romans 11.7-8 (cf. Isaiah 29.10)
“In the New Testament, Jesus
quotes Isaiah 6 in Matthew 13:14-15 to explain why he uses parables: to enlighten
the disciples, but also to harden the wicked. This passage is also mentioned in John 12:40 to explain why
the Jews disbelieved miraculous signs.
So when God’s word brought a response of unbelief and rebellion, it did
not fail. God’s word never fails
to achieve its purpose (Isa. 55:11).
Rather, in these cases the word was accomplishing precisely what God
intended, difficult as that may be for us to accept.”[3]
·
Betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus: Luke 22.22;
Acts 2.23; 4.28; 13.27
·
Also see Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (pp. 322-327) for biblical data relating to
God’s ordaining evil.
f.
Summary passages: Lamentations 3.37-38; Romans
8.28; 11.33-36 (cf. Isaiah 40.13; Job 41.11); Ephesians 1.11
“But
it ought to be evident now that even if there are interpretive difficulties in
some of these passages, it is quite impossible to escape the cumulative force
of all of them. As B. B. Warfield
said with regard to biblical inspiration, the total evidence for it is like an
all-devouring avalanche. One may
deftly avoid a few rocks, but one cannot escape them all.”[4]
