When Prophecies Fail to Materialize

Jesus taught, and his disciples believed, God’s kingdom would be established on earth in the first century, and he would reign as king in this restored kingdom of Israel (https://muddlingthroughtheuniverse.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/1st-century-21st-century-expectations/).

It obviously didn’t happen, and now, almost two thousand years later, I think it’s worth pondering if God changed his mind, or if he knew all along it wasn’t going to happen.

Let’s consider the story of Jonah. God told Jonah to tell the inhabitants of Nineveh that their city would be overthrown in 40 days (Jonah 3:4); however, because they turned from their evil ways, God relented and did not do what he said he would.

If God knows all aspects of the future, it’s hard to see how he was not being dishonest and deceptive when he stated, unconditionally, that the city would be overthrown. It seems those who argue for unlimited omniscience would have to say that although God fibbed, the end justified the means.

On the other hand, those who believe God knows the future partly as possibilities would say God’s statement of destruction was completely truthful, but when the Ninevites unexpectedly repented, God changed his mind.

Fast forward to AD 29 or 30 when Jesus told his disciples that although he did not know the day or hour of his return, he would return while some of them were still living (Matt. 10:23, Matt. 16:28, Mk. 9:1; Mk. 13:30, Lk. 9:27, Lk. 21:32).

Was Jesus wrong as C.S. Lewis posited, or was he saying exactly what God told him to say? If it was the latter, did God already know Jesus would not be returning in the first century, or did God change his mind and not send Jesus back to earth because the Israelites by and large refused to repent?

If it was the latter, when did the resurrected Jesus learn about the change of plans, and how did he take it? Presumably better than Jonah, right?
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Related Posts:
Jesus’ Return & Reign
Open Theism vs. Molinism

Everything Happens for a Reason

It’s called “Cause and Effect.” Everything that happens is an effect, and effects cannot happen without prior causes. This is true regardless of whether or not we can identify the causes.

Colds are caused by viruses, earthquakes are caused by shifting plates on faults, crime is caused by criminals, good grades are caused by studying, etc.

Everything happens for a reason, but typically there are multiple reasons and a causal chain of events. While this fact makes it difficult or impossible to definitively state, “Here is the reason this happened,” it usually doesn’t prevent us from identifying some of the reasons.

Now, here’s where it gets convoluted. People sometimes use the phrase “Everything happens for a reason” as a cliché to express an optimistic belief that everything that happens will ultimately produce a positive effect.

Although a positive mindset can help us get through difficult times, we have to be careful to examine our beliefs to ensure they are built on solid foundations.

Consider this scenario: A child is raped and then murdered by a pedophile. This tragic situation causes a parent to commit suicide as a result of overwhelming grief and guilt.

Obviously, the effect on this person was negative, but should we try to salvage the cliché by suggesting that the next link in the chain (or the one after that) will have a positive effect? Or should we point out that although the first tragedy led to a second tragedy for one parent, it caused the other parent to spend less time on social media and more time with his or her remaining children?

The answer to both questions is a solid “NO.”

The fact that everything happens for a reason does not mean that everything is orchestrated by a higher power or that everything will ultimately have a good or positive outcome. On the other hand, it does not mean that a “good” effect cannot come from a “bad” cause.

Often, good effects are produced by good causes (if you study hard, you get good grades), and bad effects are caused by bad causes (if you don’t study, you get bad grades). BUT there is no guarantee that life will work this way! So never, ever, Ever tell a person who experienced a tragedy that “Everything happens for a reason!” Although this cliché is usually intended as an encouragement, the fact that in real life everything does not have a happy ending will likely cause the hearer to feel that you are being callous and minimizing their pain.

It’s perfectly fine to express the fact that everything happens for a reason (at appropriate times), but to go beyond that simple truth and assert that everything is caused by a higher power or everything will ultimately have a good outcome is pollyannaish, illogical, and often very hurtful.

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Related Post:
Why doesn’t God do more?

Deism or Theism?

I grew up hearing and believing that if you listened hard enough, you could hear the still small internal voice of God. I heard church leaders say prayer was supposed to be 2-way communication and that God desired to guide us via divine personal communication. So after years and years of trying but never hearing God, I became a deist somewhere around the age of 20. And I remained a deist for almost 10 years. I believed God put things in motion, never intervened, and just watched from a distance.

Fast forward a few decades …

I’ve recently been pondering whether or not my current beliefs align with deism, a position I abandoned in my late twenties, or classical theism, a view that accepts the possibility of special revelation and miracles. And I think I’m actually somewhere in the middle.

Both deism and theism allow for a view of providence that I consider both reasonable and possible: The creator could exercise influence, not as interventions, but as natural, built-in providence. Here I’m thinking along the line of Molinism, where we could say if God knew the prayers specific people would freely choose to pray throughout history, the creator could have chosen—prior to the creation of this world—to answer some of those prayers so that the answers would come about naturally in this world at the proper time.

However, it seems to me deism expresses too much certainty about what God does and doesn’t do. Although there is variation within deism, most forms of deism rule out miracles. (This includes divinely inspired writings.) But how could a person rule out God’s activity in this universe through supernatural intervention with any degree of certainty?

Mind you, I’m not saying miracles happen. (I’m skeptical of supernatural claims.) What I am saying is God might be actively involved in this world to bring about a desired outcome and miracles might happen.
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Note:
Although I don’t call myself a deist, my agnosticism regarding God’s nature is closer to classical deism than classical theism. I think humans know far less about God and God’s nature than scripture and creeds affirm.

Related Posts:
Please Stop Saying “God Told Me”
What Does God Want Me To Do?
God doesn’t intervene

Did God Call Me?

Some Christians say, “God called me to be single,” “God called me to marry so and so,” God called me into ministry,” “God called me to be a missionary in Africa,” etc. Many Christians today teach that God gives people unique, specific convictions to do certain things (God’s call), and if Christians don’t obey these feelings, they will be outside of God’s perfect will.

Is this language biblical? Has God already determined our futures? Should Christians expect to receive personal calls or revelations from God regarding future events?

This language is by and large not biblical; it is a false teaching that has spread from pentecostalism to many mainline Protestant denominations.

There are no examples in the Bible of God speaking through internal feelings, impressions, nudges, or convictions. Conversely, when Jesus “called” Saul as an apostle, it was an external, spoken directive! And the Apostle Peter said the Holy Spirit spoke through Prophets. We also see examples throughout the Bible where God speaks through dreams and visions and angels. In addition, scripture gives examples of God making his will known nonverbally through sacred objects such as the Urim and Thummim and through the casting of lots.

The teaching that God has specific calls for Christians that are definite, verifiable, obligatory, and not influenced by people or situations and are communicated via internal convictions isn’t scriptural. Furthermore, this teaching has led to frustration, confusion, guilt, and disillusionment as Christians struggle to “discern God’s call.”

It is time we stop telling Christians to figure out God’s call/s for their lives, and instead encourage them to use their God-given talents, skills, and desires to honor God in all that they choose to do.

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Related Posts:
Deism or Theism?
What Does God Want Me To Do?

When God is the scapegoat

Here is an argument many Christians would agree with:

1. God is sovereign
2. Therefore, God controls all things
3. Therefore, everything that happens is God’s will

Does this argument seem like sound theology to you? Or does it strike you as troubling?

The problem with the argument above isn’t with the first two points (as long as we recognize “control” does not mean “cause”). The problem is that “God’s will” in the third point needs to be defined.

There are two aspects to God’s will: that which he desires because it aligns with his character and that which he allows, which does not align with his character.

For example, God wills that all people love each other unconditionally because this aligns with his character; however, when God allows people to rape, torture, and murder others, we recognize God does not desire these actions. Nevertheless, he allows them so he is willing that they be a part of his overall plan.

The problem with many Christians’ theology is they collapse the two aspects of God’s will and act as though everything that happens is what God desires and brings about; however, this is done selectively.

For instance, Christians would likely unanimously disagree with the idea that God desired and brought about the rape of a child by the uncle babysitting her; however, many Christians are quick to excuse poor judgment and irresponsibility by citing God’s sovereignty. For example, Christians in ministry might do a lousy job of meeting goals and then say, “Even though our organization is now suffering, it must be what God desires since he is sovereign.”

Although the phrase “God is sovereign” is seldom used to excuse that which is evil, it is often used by Christians to sidestep accountability and avoid culpability.

And when we do this, we are simply making God our scapegoat.

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Notes:
1. God is often made the scapegoat when it comes to diseases, also. It’s not unusual to hear Christians say things like, “God is sovereign so he desired (and created) this person to be autistic, bipolar, with Down syndrome, etc.”

2. When God is not the scapegoat, Satan (the Enemy) often is. I addressed that here: Satan and demons.

Related posts:
What does “God is in control” mean?
Is cancer God’s will?
“Permit” does not mean “cause”

God doesn’t intervene

The question, “Why doesn’t God intervene?” suggests a God in heaven who does nothing more than observe, but it’s possible God is actually constantly at work sustaining his creation so that his plan will be fulfilled; however, because God works in and through the laws of nature, we fail to recognize his providential activity.

Consider the following quotations:

The presence of God in nature does not mean that God is here and there in the world performing miracles, but that the whole cosmic movement depends constantly upon the divine will and is an expression of the divine purpose. In like manner the presence of God in history does not mean exclusively, or mainly, that God is working signs and wonders upon occasion, but rather that God is carrying on the great historical movement and working his will therein. ~Borden Parker Bowne

Creation, though gifted by God with a gapless developmental economy (not missing any capacities that would be needed to realize the historical formation of all structures and life-forms) is always open to God’s action in it and to God’s interaction with it. Therefore, there is here no questioning of God’s power or freedom to act in or interact with the creation…(Note: In this view miracles are acts freely performed by God for their timely revelatory or redemptive value, not obligatory acts needed to compensate for earlier omissions.) ~Howard Van Till

In light of the limits of science and the full range of our rich human experience, we can easily conceive of God acting in our world, in the world wonderfully described by the sciences. God acts not in supposed gaps in the laws of nature, but rather in and through the laws themselves. They are expressions of God’s creative activity in nature. In some way God fashioned them to be what they are — what science discovers them to be. Then God uses them — including laws of chance, such as those involved in evolution by natural selection — in fashioning all that he creates. Or rather, God sustains creation in its automatic operation, letting it explore all its possibilities and become fully what it can be. ~William R. Stoeger

God has given nature the ability to sustain and develop itself (which I feel is entirely consistent with the Biblical assertion that God sustains everything – through the constancy of the laws of nature) and THIS view of nature gives us the capacity to decode and uncover its mysteries.
If God is constantly tinkering with nature when we are not looking, then science degenerates into meaningless speculation. ~Perry Marshall

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Note: Usually when people ask, “Why doesn’t God intervene?” they are questioning why God is not miraculously intervening in a particular situation. I’ve addressed this issue here: Why doesn’t God do more?

Related Post:
Deism or Theism?

Does God’s knowledge of the future lead to determinism?

Here’s an excerpt of a Q&A from William Lane Craig’s website that tackles this question:

Question:
Could God know before the creative decree, what Pilate would FREELY choose if he were placed in all the biblical conditions? (namely crucify Jesus, or not)

~Guillaume

Answer:
So in the case of what Pilate would freely do in circumstances C, we stipulate that C must be fully specified, including the whole history of the world up to the time of choosing. In virtue of the antecedent’s being fully specified, the counterfactual of freedom will be true or false.

The counterfactual “If Pilate were in C, he would freely do A” can be true or false only if that statement is determinate in the sense that C is fully specified. But the fully specified circumstances are not causally determining circumstances. On the contrary, they’re stipulated to be freedom-permitting circumstances. How an agent would freely choose is not determined by the circumstances he is in. It is simply up to him what he will do. So don’t confuse a proposition’s being determinate with an action’s being determined.

So the Molinist concurs wholeheartedly with you that “if Pilate has libertarian freedom, then regardless of ALL the right biblical conditions, he can still choose one way or the other.” Absolutely! He can choose one way or the other; but he will choose one way. If he were in C, he would freely choose A, though he could choose not-A instead. Don’t confuse what someone would do with what he could do or think that because he would do A he could not do not-A.

There’s no lack of information in such a case either. So long as the circumstances are fully specified, the counterfactual will have a truth value, and God, as an omniscient being, must know it. He knows what is the truth value of every proposition, regardless of our ignorance.
~William Lane Craig

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/misconceptions-about-middle-knowledge#ixzz4cMUTEULW

What does “God is in control” mean?

When Christians say “God is in control” (or “God is sovereign”), most mean he is in charge and he has a plan that will be fulfilled. He sees the end from the beginning and providentially orders history so that his purposes are ultimately achieved through human free decisions.

“God is in control” does not mean that everything God permits pleases him or aligns with his moral will. This is why Jesus told his disciples to pray that God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

If we use the phrase “God is in control” to imply that God is the cause of all that happens or is pleased with all that happens, we blaspheme God’s name!

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Related Posts:
Parable of the Religious Fool
When God is the scapegoat

Parable of the Religious Fool

A pastor and his young teenage son were spending a weekend hiking and camping in Glacier National Park. Only two hours into the second day’s hike, a large grizzly came out of the underbrush and charged at them. The pastor fell to his knees and prayed, “Almighty God in heaven, maker of the universe, please tell me if it is your will for me to shoot this beast with my gun.” Meanwhile his son was frantically rummaging through the leaves for the can of bear spray that had fallen from his small shaking hands.

The grizzly made short work of them.

After watching this horrible event from heaven, God turned to the throne on his right and said to Jesus, “That’s why I raised you from the dead and put you in charge. I love them…but I need a break from these morons.”

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Here’s a related parable that makes the same point:

The Parable of the Flood

A very religious man was once caught in rising floodwaters. He climbed onto the roof of his house and trusted God to rescue him. A neighbor came by in a canoe and said, “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll paddle to safety.”

“No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me.”

A short time later the police came by in a boat. “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll take you to safety.”

“No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me.”

A little time later a rescue services helicopter hovered overhead, let down a rope ladder and said. “The waters will soon be above your house. Climb the ladder and we’ll fly you to safety.”

“No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me.”

All this time the floodwaters continued to rise, until soon they reached above the roof and the religious man drowned. When he arrived at heaven he demanded an audience with God. Ushered into God’s throne room he said, “Lord, why am I here in heaven? I prayed for you to save me; I trusted you to save me from that flood.”

“Yes you did my child” replied the Lord. “And I sent you a canoe, a boat and a helicopter. But you never got in.”

~author unknown

Did God vote for Trump?

Now that the election is over, some Christians are claiming that Trump’s win proves that God was more pleased with Trump than the other candidates on the ballot.

Franklin Graham said on his Facebook page that God showed up and it was the intervention of his hand that caused Trump to win. And thousands of his followers have agreed with him.

The lack of logic here is baffling!

Would Franklin also say that President Obama’s wins in 2008 and 2012 meant God showed up and intervened so Obama would be elected? Would Franklin say God showed up and intervened to put the democratically elected Nazi party in power in 1932?

Since the beginning, humans have been trying to claim that their victories proved God’s favor. When our tribe wins, we say God intervened on our behalf and caused this to happen. And when our tribe loses we say…what? That God didn’t feel like showing up?

Trump won because he received over 59 million votes and these votes clinched him enough electoral votes to win.

Was God rooting for Trump? Did God intervene to make Trump win while preventing others from winning? Who knows. There is no evidence that God intervened.

People need to stop making outlandish and unverifiable claims about God being on their side.