Sovereignty of God in Christianity

Sovereignty of God in Christianity can be defined as the right of God to exercise his ruling power over his creation. Sovereignty can include also the way God exercises his ruling power. However this aspect is subject to divergences notably related to the concept of God's self-imposed limitations. The correlation between God's sovereignty and human free will is a crucial theme in discussions about the meaningful nature of human choice.

Definition

Theological dictionaries give fairly uniform definitions of the notion of God's sovereignty. At first, it can be seen as His "absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure."^[1] With more nuances, it can be seen as the teaching "[...] that all things come from and depend upon God. [...] [It] does not mean that everything which occurs in the world is God's will."^[2] More precisely, it can be defined as a twofold concept: "First, it may be seen as the divine right to rule totally; second, it may be extended to include God's exercise of this right. As to the first aspect, there is no debate. Difference of opinion arises in respect to the second aspect."^[3]

According to these definitions, God's sovereignty in Christianity can be defined as the right of God to exercise his ruling power over his creation. The way in which God exercises his power is subject to differing views. Calvinists typically view this exercise as an inherent aspect of the broader concept of sovereignty.^[4] Conversely, non-Calvinists may also integrate this exercise of power within the concept of sovereignty^[5] or consider it distinctly, then through the concept of divine providence.^[6][7]

The sovereignty of God must be distinguished from God's eternal attributes. For example, God's omnipotence is his quality of having unlimited power. This attribute is not contingent upon something else other than God himself, and is therefore one of his eternal attributes.^[8] God's sovereignty, as the right to exercise his ruling power over his creation, is contingent upon his creation. God's sovereignty was only first expressed after a creation existed to be expressed upon. If the sovereignty of God is considered one of his attributes, it is a temporal one.^[9] God's sovereignty should then be seen as his right to express his eternal attribute of omnipotence over his creation^[10] qualified by his other eternal attributes such as omnibenevolence and omniscience.^[11]

Theological views

Perspectives on God's sovereignty in action

Throughout history, Christian theologians have advocated for a free-will theodicy.^[12] Besides, the question whether God's way of expressing his sovereignty is consistent with meaningful human decisions which are free from compulsion is a significant theological question in Christianity.^[13] The debate on this question was first clearly expressed by Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century.^[14] The debate has continued through various forms notably through the Calvinist-Arminian debate until today.^[15] Theologians have subsequently articulated various perspectives on how God's exercise of sovereignty corresponds to distinct self-imposed limitations.^[16][17]

Early Christian views

The Greek church fathers believed in classical free will theism and opposed theological determinism as a means of exercising God's sovereignty.^[18] For instance, Saint Maximus the Confessor (c. 580 – 13 August 662) argued that because humans are made in the image of God, they possess the same type of self-determinism as God.^[19] The theological tradition before Augustine (354 – 430) uniformly emphasizes the freedom of the human will.^[20] However, Augustine expressed God's sovereignty as his continuous control and unifying governance over the universe.^[21]

Catholic views

Christian teaching on providence in the High Middle Ages was most fully developed by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica (1274). It viewed the concept of providence as a care exercised by God over the universe.^[21]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993) express the concept of God's sovereignty as his rule over his creation, allowing human libertarian free will and co-operation with him: "God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' co-operation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, [...]".^[22]

Eastern Orthodox view

In general, Eastern Theology places much more emphasis on human freedom and less on God's sovereignty than do the Augustinian and Reformed strands of Western theology. Orthodox view of human free will is close to the Wesleyan-Arminian view.^[23]

Reformed view

Orthodox Reformed (both historical and Edwardsian) view God's sovereignty as expressed through theological determinism.^{[24][25][26][27]} This means that every event in the world is determined by God.^[28] As the Westminster Confession of Faith put it: "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass."^[29]

From this perspective, God alone possesses free-will in the sense of ultimate self-determination.^[30] Moreover, God acts through voluntarism in its nominalist sense.^[31] This means, what God does is good not because it is guided by his character or moral structure within his nature, but only because God wants it.^[32] Besides, Calvinism affirm a soft determinism involving semicompatibilism, which implies the compatibility between human responsibility for an act and its determination by God.^[33]

Concerning salvation, Calvin expressly taught that it is God's sovereign decision to determine whether an individual is saved or damned.^[34][35] He writes "By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death."^[36] Indeed, human actions leading to this end are also predetermined by God.^[37]

Concerning prayer, from an Edwardsian Calvinist view, it can be seen as a predetermined means for a predetermined purpose.^[25] More generally, from the majority Calvinist view, prayer can't change by itself what is predetermined by God.^[38] Specifically, prayer for salvation will not change the predetermined damnation of some.^[39][40] Nor will prayer for salvation cause the predetermined salvation of the elect.^[41][42]

Arminian view

Arminianism accepts classical theism, which states that God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.^[43] In that view, God's power, knowledge, and presence have no external limitations, that is, outside of his divine nature and character.^[44]

Besides, Arminianism view on God's way of expressing his sovereignty, i.e. his providence, is based on postulates stemming from God's character,^[44] especially as fully revealed in Jesus Christ.^[45] On the first hand, divine election must be defined in such a way that God is not in any case, and even in a secondary way, the author of evil. On the other hand, man's responsibility for evil must be absolutely preserved. Together these two postulates are viewed as necessary to correspond to the character of God^[46] and describe the manner in which God chooses to manifest his sovereignty when interacting with his creatures:

On one hand, it requires God to operate according to a voluntarily limited mode of providence. This means that God deliberately exercises sovereignty without determining every event.^[47] On the other hand, it requires God's election to be a "predestination by foreknowledge".^[48]

In that respect, God's foreknowledge reconciles with human free will in the following way: Human free will is limited by original sin, though God's prevenient grace restores to humanity the ability to accept God's call of salvation.^[49] God's foreknowledge of the future is exhaustive and complete, and therefore the future is certain and not contingent on human action. God does not determine the future, but He does know it. God's certainty and human contingency are compatible.^[50]

To Arminians, then, the decision to believe and repent is a decision which a sovereign God granted to humanity. Thus, free will is granted and limited by God's sovereignty, but God's sovereignty allows all men the choice to accept the Gospel of Jesus through faith, simultaneously allowing all men to resist.^[51]

Notes and references

Citations

1. Easton 1897.
2. Leonard 1991, ‌.
3. Oke 1983, p. 171.
4. Grudem 1994, p. 217. "God's exercise of power over his creation is also called God's sovereignty."
5. McCall 2008, p. 205. "With the great company of the saints, I understand any acceptable doctrine of divine sovereignty to include (at least) these elements: (a) God is omnipotent, (b) God is a se and (c) God is providentially active in governing and judging the world without being in any way threatened by it".
6. Walker 1911. "Providence is God Himself considered in that act by which in His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized."
7. Baaren & Stefon 2020. "Providence [...] indicates that God not only created the world but also governs it and cares for its welfare."
8. Lewis 2001, p. 10.
9. Flowers 2014. "For God to be in control over others there has to be others in which to control. He can’t display His power over creatures unless the creatures exist. Therefore, before creation the concept of sovereignty (or providence) was not an attribute that could be used to describe God. An eternal attribute is something God possesses that is not contingent upon something else. The eternal attribute of God is His omnipotence, which refers to His eternally limitless power. Sovereignty is a temporal characteristic, not an eternal one, thus we can say God is all powerful, not because He is sovereign, but He is sovereign because He is all powerful, or at least He is as sovereign as He so chooses to be in relation to this temporal world."
10. Flowers 2014, ‌.
11. Grudem 1994, p. 217, ‌. "Also God's power is infinite, his use of his power his qualified by his other attributes".
12. Plantinga 1974, p. 10.
13. Kärkkäinen 2017.
14. Warfield 1971, pp. 320–323.
15. Tenney 1975, Sovereignty of God.
16. Ryrie 1986, pp. 40, 43, 44. "Self imposed limitations include those things He has not chosen to include in His plan which he might have included as long as they were not contrary to His nature. He did not choose to spare His Son; He did not choose to save all people; He did not choose all nations in Old Testament times; He did not choose Esau; He did not choose to spare James (Acts 12:2). Though He could have done any of these things without being inconsistent with omnipotence, He did not choose to do so in His plan. [...] Ultimately God is in complete control of all things, though He may choose to let certain events happen according to natural laws which He has ordained."
17. Leonard 1991. "God has created a world in which freedom is a real possibility. His permissive will provides for human freedom and the laws of nature."
18. Olson 2009, p. 90. "The early Greek church fathers believed in freedom of the will and rejected determinism."
19. Bathrellos 2004, p. 167. "As regards the way in which self-determination must be understood, it is noteworthy that, for Maximus, the basis and archetype of man’s self-determination is the self-determination of God. As we have seen, Maximus argued that man is self-determining because he is made in the image of the divinity, which is self-determining [...]".
20. McGrath 1998, p. 20. "The pre-Augustinian theological tradition is practically of one voice in asserting the freedom of the human will. Thus Justin Martyr [c. AD 100- c. AD 165] rejects the idea that all human actions are foreordained on the grounds that this eliminates human accountability."
21. Walker 1911, ‌.
22. John Paul II 1993, Section II, Ch. 1, Article 1, §4 Providence and secondary causes, item 306.
23. Fairbairn 2002, p. 91.
24. Helm 2010, p. 230. "[I]t is reasonable to conclude that although Calvin does not avow determinism in so many words, he nevertheless adopts a broadly deterministic outlook."
25. Helm 2010, p. 268.
26. Clark 1961, pp. 237–238. "God is the sole ultimate cause of everything. There is absolutely nothing independent of him. He alone is the eternal being. He alone is omnipotent. He alone is sovereign."
27. Cammenga & Hanko 2002, Ch. 1. "The central truth proclaimed by Calvinism, Calvinism that is faithful to its heritage, is the absolute sovereignty of God."
28. Alexander & Johnson 2016, p. 204. "It should be conceded at the outset, and without any embarrassment, that Calvinism is indeed committed to divine determinism: the view that everything is ultimately determined by God."
29. Westminster Assembly 1647, ch. 3.
30. Piper 2016. "Only God has free will in the sense of ultimate self-determination."
31. Brice 2023, pp. 27–31.
32. Calvin 2008, 3.32.2. "For God’s will is so much the highest rule of righteousness that whatever he wills, by the very fact that he wills it, must be considered righteous. When, therefore, one asks why God has so done, we must reply: because he has willed it. But if you proceed further to ask why he so willed, you are seeking something greater and higher than God’s will, which cannot be found."
33. Alexander & Johnson 2016, p. 4. "Calvinists are committed to saying that moral responsibility and any sort of free will that is necessary for moral responsibility are compatible with whatever sort of determinism is entailed by Calvinist views of providence."
34. Calvin 2008, 3.21.5.
35. Calvin 2008, 3.23.1. "Those therefore whom God passes by [does not elect] He reprobates, and that for no other cause than He is pleased to exclude them."
36. Calvin 2008, 3.21.7.
37. Sproul 2011a, p. 37. "If God has decided our destinies from all eternity, that strongly suggests that our free choices are but charades, empty exercises in predetermined playacting. It is as though God wrote the script for us in concrete and we are merely carrying out his scenario."
38. Pink 2001, p. 217. "Prayer is not the requesting of God to alter His purpose or for Him to form a new one."
39. Spurgeon 1860. “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
40. Pink 2001, p. 101.
41. Packer 2003.
42. Pink 2001, p. 203-219.
43. Olson 2009, pp. 90–91.
44. Olson 2010b.
45. Olson 2014, p. 11.
46. Olson 2010a. "Classical Arminianism does NOT say God never interferes with free will. It says God NEVER foreordains or renders certain evil. [...] An Arminian COULD believe in divine dictation of Scripture and not do violence to his or her Arminian beliefs. [...] Arminianism is not in love with libertarian free will –as if that were central in and of itself. Classical Arminians have gone out of our way (beginning with Arminius himself) to make clear that our sole reasons for believe in free will AS ARMINIANS [...] are 1) to avoid making God the author of sin and evil, and 2) to make clear human responsibility for sin and evil."
47. Olson 2018, ‌.
48. Olson 2018. "What is Arminianism? A) Belief that God limits himself to give human beings free will to go against his perfect will so that God did not design or ordain sin and evil (or their consequences such as innocent suffering); B) Belief that, although sinners cannot achieve salvation on their own, without “prevenient grace” (enabling grace), God makes salvation possible for all through Jesus Christ and offers free salvation to all through the gospel. “A” is called “limited providence,” “B” is called “predestination by foreknowledge.”"
49. Picirilli 2002, pp. 42–43, 59-.
50. Picirilli 2002, p. 40.
51. Olson 2009, p. 142.

Sources

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