A facebook friend of mine posted a link to this article , Dear Christians, Stop Saying “Everything Happens for a Reason” which I found interesting. Even more interesting were the conflicting comments about the statement “God is in Control” by many Christians. There was evidence of these Christians taking sides. I’ve often wondered what can they all agree on ?
Carla Kisinger Brice ·
Such a very good and insightful article!
26 · Bryan Shufelt ·
And totally contrary to the Bible
Dwight J Beguin ·
Bryan Shufelt Really? How so?
Bryan Shufelt ·
Dwight J Beguin read my above post
Colby Robertson
He is always in control. Very insightful on His will in the midst of pain, suffering, loss, etc. Something we can know for a fact is His will, to draw closer to Him. Bad things happen in a broken world, He is still in control and makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose
Raymond Reid ·
No!!!!! God is NOT in control. There z no place in the Bible that teaches that God is in control. God is sovereign, but He yielded control in the Garden of Eden. Did u read the article? God is not responsible for what happens to us. Collectively, we are responsible for what happens to us. He allows the consequences of our actions to come full circle. All of us r guilty of our sins of commision, sins of omission, and most of all, our apathy.
EricJenny Harwell ·
Raymond Reid it seems to me that “for a God that is not in control” he interceded for people many time through out scripture. God is not ONLY in control but he also works everything for the good of those that love him.
I think this article only catches a glimpse of who God really is. I believe there is truth in it but only in part. Our faith is determined by ‘how we walk the path’ but God isn’t not in control because he doesn’t intervene as we would like
Brandon Greenberg ·
Works at Community Long Term Care
Raymond Reid Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist., Ephesians 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Steve Shunk ·
If God allows bad things to happen because it is part of his plan, and causes good things to happen according to his will, why pray for God’s involvement. Things will happen in accordance to his will regardless of any prayers.
CarlandJocelyn Griffith ·
Steve Shunk We don’t pray so that we can change God’s plan, we pray so that God can change us. We pray because He has commanded us to do so.
Lee Kern Choong ·
CarlandJocelyn Griffith
“We don’t pray so that we can change God’s plan, we pray so that God can change us”
But following the train of logic here, prayer will also not affect whether God decides to change you or not. He will change you regardless of what you do if it is part of His plan. You’re just hoping that He has planned something for you – which in this case raises the interesting conclusion that if prayer works, either God’s plans change based on who is praying to him, or our lives are entirely deterministic.
Rhonda Wheeler Courson ·
Works at Sylacauga City Schools
Raymond Reid, what you’ve explained is a Deistic world view, not a Christisn Theistic world view.
CarlandJocelyn Griffith ·
Lee Kern Choong But you left out the most important part of my comment. We pray because we are commanded to. Prayer is an act of obedience. Like many other aspects of our faith.
Nick Tu ·
Raymond Reid right on! Only “YOU” can save yourself while we can ask HIM to guide us!….just saying
Cherisse Wilson
Raymond Reid we are saved through faith, not by works. So it’s not us who is in control or doing anything, it’s the Holy Spirit. It’s law and gospel. You need more gospel!!
Jennifer Butler Wortman ·
Raymond Reid thank you. I personally believe that God views us as a science experiment in which he does not intervene in everyday life.
Ryan Heffernon ·
Raymond Reid everything falls under God’s sovereign will. So while yes, we have free will to do what we choose, it is all on the realm of God’s sovereignty. Did Christ accidentally get betrayed? Was it an accident that Isaiah prophesied that he would be betrayed and it wound up happening? Of course not. God may not have had a direct hand in it (because He can’t be in sin), but it was most certainly his will and under his watch. The arguments over this are so petty because we think it’s black and white. He either has all control or no control. The real answer is that God operates at a level that we can’t even fathom. So while we can’t imagine a world in which God gives us free will and also at the same time controls the depths of the universe, that is exactly what is happening. We act like we can understand God from our human rationale, which is ridiculous.
Lora Machiele
I believe God IS in control, but He also allows things to come our way that will challenge us and make us better as people to help others through our experience and hope we will let Him in on our walk through each and every journey. Keeping God in our daily walk is key in surviving ANY circumstance. If He is not in control, how do you explain Miracles?
no don’t answer that, I’m sure you’ll try to explain that away as well.
no don’t answer that, I’m sure you’ll try to explain that away as well.
Zana Renèe ·
Saying that God’s will is not an event, but how we respong is contradictory in my opinion. God allows things to happen so that we learn and grow from it and have a holy response according to His word. God is intentional, and therefore he allows everything to happen for a reason. God does not let things happen just because; the reason is for our growth and response.
Colby Robertson
Sin was not and is not God’s will, if anyone is tempted let hem not say God is tempting me, we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own selfish and evil desires. God doesn’t tempt into evil. So no not everything is God’s will. He does promise to make everything work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, but everything being God’s will is contrary to free will and the choice He gave us to believe and follow, or to continue in sin which is death. No sin and evil are not in God’s will, does He know it will happen yes, that does not mean He willed it to.
Colby Robertson
Remember it was man’s disobedience to God that brought original pain death and suffering.
Colby Robertson
Which I previously stated in another comment, one thing we always know is His will, is to draw closer to Him. If He doesn’t discipline us, we are not legitimate children.
Larry White ·
I can agree with some of what she is saying but as far as what went on in the Garden of Eden had to take place in order for human race to have option in al things. So that we could learn as God did and as Christ did as well when he showed us by example how we should live our lives upon this earth by his teachings. I agree that there is no silver icing on any situation. Rap, murder, car accident, or what every it may accur in our life. But we go through life and experience things for reason that reason is to learn from thos experience that we go through do we ask for them no does God mean them …See More
Brandie M Richards ·
Beautifully said.
Jay Lloyd ·
Mormonism denies the depravity of man. The god and jesus you serve are not the same as true Christians. It is nod about what you do or what we do that is answer. God chose to love me a rebellious sinner dead in my sin and worthy of His condemnation and showed me through Christ and His act of un fathomable love on the cross dying the death I should have died taking my sin on Himself oh what a savior! Jesus wrote a check with His very life’s blood and 3 days later we cheered because the check cleared! Salvation is free, but it’s not cheap. It cost God everything.
Toni Eddings ·
Jay Lloyd through my struggles coming to Christ from a non church background and dealing with bitterness I think we Christians should weir telling people that salvation cost God everything. It definitely wasn’t cheap or fun for Christ to come here and go through what he did for us but it most definitely didn’t cost him everything. It was a great act of love and I am NOT discounting that at all but He knew what was going to happen and how it would end which made His choice a bit different than my choices.
Yes, I know what the end will be BUT I didn’t come down from heaven so when I choose to c…See More
Yes, I know what the end will be BUT I didn’t come down from heaven so when I choose to c…See More
Hannah Marvel ·
I’d like to see Scripture backing up her thoughts… Her writing sounds as if she believes that God doesn’t have any involvement in the painful events that happen to us. God is ALWAYS in control, and He can allow harsh things to happen to us to grow us in our faith with Him. I believe the wise thing is to believe that God is all powerful, all knowing, and fully in control. He sees the big picture even when we can’t.
Raymond Reid ·
God z NOT in control. Not since the garden of Eden when He gave Adam and Eve free will. Once they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, God feared they would also eat of the Tree of Life, so He drove them out. If He was “in control”, He would not have feared that. (He could have removed free will, but that was not His decision. You can ask Him about that one day.) If God was in “control”, why didn’t He influence the heart of Pharaoh tofree the Hebrews. Instead, He killed all the first-born of Egypt. God z sovereign, but not in “control”. He has purposely limited His “control”. That z why Jesus will spend 1000 years judging us on earth even though Satan will already be bound. We cannot blame Satan for our son. It z in our own hearts.
Leah Anne Lowrey ·
I feel that anyone that wants to write blog or post anything dealing with God or the bible should back it up with correct interpretation of scripture
Larry Lee Webb
Luke 13:1-5 is worth considering – particularly the Tower of Siloam. I will not try to give an exergesis regarding these verses for only the Holy Spirit is able to help you with how we should interpret them, but I do think they are worth praying over, meditating on, etc. “In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity” (Love) – this phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (circa 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role – 1 Corinthians 16:14
The Divine Spark Within 
Good. Grief.
So much confusion.
If these people were intellectually honest (ie. if they truly applied their belief in some supernatural overseer to the actual world, to history) then they would have to conclude a wicked Creator.
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Exactly John ! As you describe in your book
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I read the article. Long-winded treatise to say, “God can’t be blamed for shitty things that happen to us (even though it’s supposed to be in ‘control’) – it’s wicked humans to blame!”
Makes me want to swear, and so do most of the people who commented. . .bah! 😦
Those responses all point to what I see as the problem with religion in general. You can THINK your way through most any moral problem and – BONUS – there’s a scripture to back up your individual ‘stand’. How lovely to never be wrong! (just like Yahweh/Allah, etc.)
Yup, JZ’s right. Again.
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Sheesh. My head is spinning. So many “experts” — so much babel. Clearly, they are representative of their beloved book of contradictions. The author of the article was no exception.
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