Freedom In Christ Church - Garden's Guest

The Warfare Worldview
By George Pogue, Jr.
(Excerpts from Dr. Greg Boyd – Is God To Blame?)

In my previous articles we have examined the traditional outlook of God’s “sovereign will”, i.e. The Foundational Lie, which suggests that God has taken part in the willful allowing or planning of horrific, catastrophic or painful events in the world including sickness and disease. Last month we spent considerable time uncovering the problems with the Blueprint Worldview -the assumption that there is a specific divine reason for every event that takes place- both good and bad. This month then, will be devoted to the alternative viewpoint – the Warfare Worldview.
Let’s start by stating why Jesus came to the earth. The Bible in I John 3:8, says that Jesus came “to destroy the works of the enemy.” Jesus didn’t come to declare everything already manifests God’s “sovereign” will. Rather, He came to establish God’s will, because the world was not and still does not consistently reflect His will. Jesus came to confront and eventually overthrow everything that does not line up with God’s will. Jesus’ ministry therefore, reveals a “Warfare Worldview”.
How does the all-powerful God’s creation become a war zone? Who is He battling? How does the “Savior” of the world end up suffering at the hands of His creation? Heavy questions, but we can begin by considering that God’s purpose in creating the world was to display His love. In achieving this purpose, it required that His creation – humans and angels possess “free will “.
Humans are to glorify God by expressing His love and authority as we rule the earth. God wants to be Lord over all creation, but because He is a God of love, He doesn’t want to do this like a dictator. Of course, he could have created a world where we have to do His will, but it would have been a creation without love.
God wants to rule His creation through these free will agents, who through love apply His sovereign will to the earth. God created us in “his image”, that we “might have dominion” and “subdue” the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). We are to do this in a small way, as God does it on the large scale. We are to rule over the portion of the cosmos that He has given to us.
Love however, is a choice and with a choice, comes the ability to say no. Love simply cannot be coerced or programmed into people. This is why God created the world. The whole of creation is meant to express the love of God. It exists to glorify God.
If we weren’t free to choose, God wouldn’t have had to command us to “subdue the earth”, He knew with free will, also comes the risk of rejection. Adam and Eve had this choice in the Garden of Eden and the Bible repeatedly confirms that people are created with a measure of freedom.
God’s frustration, regret and disappointment with His people permeate the scriptures. King Solomon is said to have done “what is evil in the sight of the Lord.” Jeremiah tells us that God’s people had “a stubborn and rebellious heart”.
God told Samuel, that He regretted making Saul a king, because he turned his back from following the Lord. God eventually had to remove him from office. The Israelites continually caused God much heart ache. He on many occasions expressed his disappointment and even surprise at their stubbornness.
In all of these instances, each of these people had the power to accept or reject God’s will. Their rebellion was not part of divine blueprint. They were not fulfilling God’s sovereign will by rebelling against Him. They were rebelling precisely because they were rejecting God’s sovereign will.
When people refuse God’s plan for their lives, it’s not because their destruction fits into God’s mysterious blueprint for creation. To the contrary throughout their lives God works to save them. God truly grieves when the people He loves choose to resist Him.
When people decide to cause suffering and act in other evil ways, it makes sense to ask, why they made the decision. But it is not reasonable or necessary to wonder why God had them make the decision. Free agents make their own decisions. Free agents devise their own plans and the decisions and plans of these free agents; do not necessary express God’s decisions and plans.
Jesus taught, “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Similarly, Jesus taught that it was out of a person’s heart that “evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness and slander” arise (Matthew 15:19). These are not things that God desires or intentionally plans for His creation. They originate in a person’s own heart.
God’s plan has always been that we would align our will with His will. But because His plan is a plan of love, this alignment could not be programmed or coerced. The possibility of rejecting it had to exist. If love is the end, freedom must be the means to that end.
This month we have discussed human freedom and its connection with evil in the world. To fully account for the war torn nature of this creation we need to understand that God created angels as free agents, as well. This will be our focus for next month’s article.