Is God in Control?

When bad things happen, some Christians say, “God is in control.” Are they right? Yes and no. It depends on how they apply it. If they mean God controls things in the individual lives of his people, they can be right about that. The Apostle Paul wrote, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8.28). Yet God allows his people to disobey him, and he does not make them do that.

If people say “God is in control” regarding his plan for this creation, they are right. For example, God had a “definite plan” for Jesus to be “crucified and killed” (Acts 2.23). And God will further accomplish his plan for Jesus to rule the world in peace as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19.16). But is God in control of this world now?

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the U.S. Constitution guarantees all Americans a right to same-sex marriage. This new, federal law overturns laws in several states that prohibited same-sex marriage. Most American Christians have vehemently opposed this court ruling mostly because they believe the Bible forbids homosexuality, identifying it as a sin, and the Bible says marriage is only to be between a man and a woman (cf. Matthew 19.4-6). Some Christians have said of this situation, “God is in control?” Are they right?

No, if they mean by it that God is in control of this world. He certainly is not. This world has been in rebellion against God ever since the first humans disobeyed God by sinning against him. Three times the Johannine Jesus spoke of Satan, the Devil, as “the god of this world” (John 12.11; 14.30; 16.11). Also, the Apostle Paul identifies Satan as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4.4 NRSV and throughout). In all of these verses in the Greek New Testament, kosmos is used to refer to the world system. Otherwise, Satan could not have tempted Jesus by offering to give him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor,” of which Satan said to Jesus, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4.8-9). Satan had the authority to do that because he is “the god of this world.”

Only at the end of this age will God intervene and take control of this world. It will be as when he divided the waters of the Red (Reed?) Sea, and all of Pharaoh’s armies drowned in it. Moses and the Israelites then sang, “The LORD [likely “Yahweh”] is a warrior; the LORD is his name” (Exodus 15.3).

Isaiah says at the the end of this age/world, “The LORD goes forth like a soldier, like a warrior he stirs up his fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes” (Isaiah 42.13).

Then will come to pass the psalm, “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples [Gentiles] plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rules take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed [Heb. mashiach=Messiah], saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill'” (Psalm 2.1-6). “Zion” refers to Jerusalem and its environs. “My king” refers to Messiah Jesus.

Zechariah refers to this moment by saying when the nations’ armies gather in the land of Israel to annihilate the nation and beseige Jerusalem (Zechariah 12.2-4; 14.1-3), “Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east,… Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him” (14.4-5). “His feet” refers to the feet of Jesus as Yahweh’s agent, mentioned earlier as “my shepherd” (13.7).

When Jesus ascended to heaven, two angels immediately appeared and said to his disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1.11).

When Jesus returns the second part of the following prophesy by King David about Jesus being his “lord” will come true, “The LORD says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes” (Psalm 110.1-2). Then their enemies on earth will say, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne [God in heaven] and from the wrath of the Lamb [Jesus]; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6.16-17).

Before then, God had not reigned in this world. Yes, the earth as well as the rest of the universe had always belonged to God as creator. And God had reigned in his kingdom, which partially existed in the hearts of his people living on earth. But there is a big difference between God’s kingdom and this world.

When Jesus returns there will be “loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever'” (Revelation 11.15). “Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, singing, ‘We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath has come'” (vv. 16-17). Not until then will God be in control of this world, and from then on he will reign over it forever and ever.