The idea of a “senseless tragedy” represents a worldview completely incompatible with Christian thought because it assumes that something happens without a purpose or without a meaning. And if God is god, and if God is a god of providence, and if God is sovereign, then nothing ever happens that in the final analysis is senseless.” — Dr. RC Sproul.
I. God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeable ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. EPH 1:11b: Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will
JAM 1:13: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. [Bible verses are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.]
1JHN 1:5: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
JHN 19:11: Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
PRO 16:33: The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
II. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions; yet has He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.
ROM 9:10–13: when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
God not only governs nature, but also raises nations up and brings them down.
ISA 45:1–13.
1SAM 16:14: But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.
Q: Does God create evil (evil, calamity, wickedness)? Does God send “evil spirits?”
WCF V,vi
JAM 1:13: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
Q: Is God the author of sin? Is “creating calamity” different from “tempting someone?”
“That he is Lord of all, and there is nothing done without him (v. 7): I form the light, which is grateful and pleasing, and I create darkness, which is grievous and unpleasing. I make peace (put here for all good) and I create evil, not the evil of sin (God is not the author of that), but the evil of punishment. I the Lord order, and direct, and do all these things.” — Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1997.
1TM 4:10b: who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
RO 8:28: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
MT 16:18: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Q: Does God play favorites?
Q: In light of God’s sovereignty, why bother praying? In light of God’s sovereignty, how should we therefore live?