{"id":419,"date":"2011-04-24T17:34:33","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T22:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rogereolson.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2011-08-18T19:27:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T19:27:34","slug":"church-fires-holocausts-and-gods-intentions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2011\/04\/church-fires-holocausts-and-gods-intentions\/","title":{"rendered":"Church fires, holocausts, and God's intentions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A recent Associate Press article out of North Carolina reported on wild fires that burned homes and churches.\u00a0 My local newspaper published a \u201cbox\u201d highlighting the following quote by a member of a church that burned: \u201cThere is nothing that happens that God does not intend to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

I went to the internet attempting to discover if the church is Reformed and was unable to establish that.\u00a0 However, I have reason to doubt it.\u00a0 The church SEEMS to be African-American and Pentecostal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a decidely\u00a0non-Reformed church and denomination\u00a0with this contradiction all around me.\u00a0 When something seemingly bad happened people said what that church member said about his church burning down.\u00a0 But when they talked about hell they absolutely denied that God wants anyone to go there.<\/p>\n

I wonder how that church member, quoted above and in the AP article, would qualify that statement if at all.\u00a0 What if his child or grandchild (I have no idea of his age) died a horribly painful death\u00a0of a terrible disease?\u00a0 Would he then say \u201cThere is nothing that happens that God does not intend to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

I remember feeling confused about such pat sayings as a child and young person, but I had the feeling that questioning it was wrong.\u00a0 My mother died at the age of 32 when I was 2.\u00a0 My brother was 5.\u00a0 Her death affected us both very negatively.\u00a0 She was a God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christian and hundreds of people were praying for her healing.<\/p>\n

I heard two explanations for why God \u201ctook her\u201d when I was growing up.\u00a0 One was it was God\u2019s punishment because my mother and father declined God\u2019s call to the mission field.\u00a0 Well, my father said neither one of them were ever called to the mission field.\u00a0 That was some crazy old woman\u2019s abusive statement.\u00a0 But the generally accepted explanation was that my mother had herself said she was willing to die if it would lead to her father\u2019s (my grandfather\u2019s) salvation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, I grew up hearing, but not entirely believing that\u00a0the God who supposedly loved me and cared about me caused my mother to die in the prime of life leaving behind two small boys who needed her very much.\u00a0 (As I said, our lives were deeply affected negatively by her death in ways I won\u2019t get into here.)<\/p>\n

But what confused me then was that the same people who said \u201cnothing happens that God does not intend to happen\u201d utterly rejected any notiont that God has anything to do with a person rejecting him and going to hell.\u00a0 This seemed to be the one class of events they would not attribute to God\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n

But then there were events like the holocaust.\u00a0 Gradually, as my co-religionists became more aware of such events in the world (many of them were poor and didn\u2019t read newspapers or watch news) they qualified \u201cnothing happens\u2026\u201d so that God was not responsible for the horrors of history in which innocent children, for example, died horrible deaths.\u00a0 That they attributed to sinful people rather than to God.\u00a0 But, of course, God allowed even these things for some mysterious, unknown and probably unknowable reason.<\/p>\n

Personally, I doubt the man whose church burned down really meant what the AP article quoted him as saying in some unqualified way.\u00a0 And yet I hear such things from the lips of non-Calvinists all the time.\u00a0 They say \u201cGod knows what he\u2019s doing\u201d\u00a0 or \u201cGod is in control\u201d when there\u2019s a car accident and a child dies or when a young mother dies leaving behind little children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of our non-Reformed churches still hold onto some foreign element of Calvinist theology\u2013meticulous providence\u2013inconsistently.\u00a0 I meet much opposition when I say \u201cGod is in charge but not in control\u201d\u2013even from fellow Arminians!<\/p>\n

Well, if they mean \u201cin control\u201d in the sense that nothing can happen without God\u2019s permission, then, we agree.\u00a0 But common, ordinary language of \u201ccontrol\u201d does not mean merely that.\u00a0 Most of the time when we use \u201ccontrol\u201d we mean manipulate, micromanage, cause to happen.\u00a0 Most of the time \u201ccontrol\u201d does not include reluctantly permit.\u00a0 To the extent that things in one\u2019s context happen against one\u2019s will, he or she is not usually considered \u201cin control.\u201d<\/p>\n

I suggest non-Calvinists adjust our language and stop saying things like \u201cThere is nothing that happens that God does not intend to happen.\u201d\u00a0 IF we really mean that, unqualifiedly, then we are really crypto-Calvinists!\u00a0 I realize I\u2019m talking about turning around the Titanic\u2013not an easy thing to do and it would take a very long time.\u00a0 But I suggest we non-Calvinists begin to correct our parishioners, students, family members and others who share our aversion to the manipulative, all-determining God of classical Calvinism when they use language more consistent with that than with our own free will theism.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent Associate Press article out of North Carolina reported on wild fires that burned homes and churches.\u00a0 My local newspaper published a \u201cbox\u201d highlighting the following quote by a member of a church that burned: \u201cThere is nothing that happens that God does not intend to happen.\u201d I went to the internet attempting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch fires, holocausts, and God's intentions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent Associate Press article out of North Carolina reported on wild fires that burned homes and churches.\u00a0 My local newspaper published a "box"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church fires, holocausts, and God's intentions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent Associate Press article out of North Carolina reported on wild fires that burned homes and churches.\u00a0 My local newspaper published a "box"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2011\/04\/church-fires-holocausts-and-gods-intentions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Roger E. 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