{"id":8090,"date":"2025-02-06T08:38:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T16:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=8090"},"modified":"2025-01-17T15:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T23:43:12","slug":"sovereignty-fatalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/02\/sovereignty-fatalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Belief in God\u2019s Sovereignty Mean We Must Be Fatalists?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

The EPM staff posted this video on Facebook of my answer to the question, \u201cWhen Someone Dies Young, Did They Die Before Their Time or Did They Die at the Appointed Time?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nA commenter replied: \u201cWhat about babies who die by abortion? I cannot believe God\u00a0would ordain a child to be killed by abortion. If everything is pre-ordained, why worry about fighting against anything, like abortion? God ALLOWS Satan to do so much and wants us to take\u00a0responsibility for standing up for what is right. Otherwise, we are all just puppets.\u201d<\/p>\nI appreciate the honest questions this commenter asks. Yes, the question of how human choice and divine sovereignty can coexist is big and difficult, but it\u2019s also vitally important for Christians to consider.<\/p>\nThe philosophy of fatalism holds that everything, including evil, suffering, and damnation, happens inevitably, with human beings powerless to effect change. Fatalism predominates among many (not all) Hindus and Muslims. The Arabic term\u00a0Insha\u2019Allah<\/em>\u00a0implies that whatever happens is God\u2019s will.<\/p>\nUnfortunately, some Christians\u2014hyper-Calvinists, for instance\u2014also reason like fatalists: \u201cIf people are elect, God will save them; if they are not, no effort to convert them can bear fruit. Therefore, missions and evangelism are senseless.\u201d<\/p>\nBut Christianized fatalism doesn\u2019t end there. I have heard this logic on several occasions, though in language less blunt than my paraphrase: \u201cA sovereign God decrees racism, slavery, and sex trafficking; they exist, and His will cannot be thwarted, therefore they are His will\u2014so why should we battle them? To do so would be to fight against God.\u201d<\/p>\nI\u2019ve been told by several evangelical pastors that we should accept abortion as God\u2019s way of populating Heaven, since if those aborted babies were allowed to live, most of them would never be saved.<\/p>\nIn contrast, the Bible calls upon people to choose to take action, speak up for, and help the poor and needy (see, for example, Proverbs 31:8\u20139 and James 1:27). This is the polar opposite of fatalism.<\/p>\nAlbert Einstein said, \u201cThe world is too dangerous to live in\u2014not because of people who do evil, but because of people who sit and let it happen.\u201d Some of that stems from indifference, some from fatalism.<\/p>\nSince God can use even evil for His glory, if I try to stop a sin, am I in danger of trying to thwart God\u2019s will? No, because God commands us to intervene to stop injustice, so that His moral will can be done.<\/p>\nScripture teaches that humans make real choices and that we must resist evil, yet God remains sovereign in a nonfatalistic way. He offers us choices and encourages us to pray that He bring about changes, and to do what we can to change our lives and the world itself. God uses the proclamation of His Word to save the lost (see Romans 10:14\u201315). Paul says, \u201cWe are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:20).<\/p>\nThis is not the language of icy predetermination that supposes God has no passion to reach the lost, or that human beings have no role in His plan to do so. Any theological position that prompts us to think otherwise is foreign to God\u2019s Word and to the original followers of Jesus.<\/p>\nSome professing compatibilists talk like hyper-Calvinists. (Many Calvinists call themselves \u201ccompatibilists\u201d \u2014which is what I actually am, by the way\u2014because they too believe human free will is compatible with God\u2019s sovereignty. Yet they see this compatibility in different ways than Arminians do.) They minimize human choice, as if it were invented by Arminians rather than God. Isn\u2019t it disingenuous for a compatibilist to imply that God\u2019s sovereign determination negates rather than embraces meaningful human choice? Why does God reward those who help the poor and share the gospel, and hold accountable those who don\u2019t? Doesn\u2019t it glorify God more to see Him as sovereign over a universe full of choice-making creatures than as a puppeteer?<\/p>\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. If God wanted to do so, He is fully capable of being a puppet master, sovereignly pulling every string of every creature in His universe to do exactly what He wants, all the time. That view of reality appears to be supported by some Scripture passages taken in isolation. But such a view is not taught by the larger context of the whole\u2014of Scripture\u2014nor by our human experience. I believe if we carefully listen to all God has to say, He\u2019ll surprise us with the breadth, depth, and beauty of what He has revealed about both His sovereignty and our meaningful choice.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EPM staff posted this video on Facebook of my answer to the question, \u201cWhen Someone Dies Young, Did They Die Before Their Time or Did They Die at the Appointed Time?\u201d A commenter replied: \u201cWhat about babies who die by abortion? I cannot believe God\u00a0would ordain a child to be killed by abortion. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":8093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3496],"tags":[1710,6116,80],"class_list":["post-8090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sovereignty-and-free-will","tag-choice","tag-fatalism","tag-sovereignty"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Does Belief in God\u2019s Sovereignty Mean We Must Be Fatalists?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scripture teaches that humans make real choices and that we must resist evil, yet God remains sovereign in a nonfatalistic way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/02\/sovereignty-fatalists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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