In this blog, I will cover the second half of A.W. Pink's work, The Sovereignty of God. Now that I have finished the book, I would recommend this book to anyone who has any questions about the subject addressed. Pink addresses questions that a most pertinent to the subject and gives an insightful and clear answer. When I was reading this book (from a grammatical standpoint), there were times when I thought I was reading C.S. Lewis. Obviously, there would be some theological distinctions, but my point is that it is a rare thing to find clear and concise writers ( unlike myself!).

I picked up Pink again in chapter 8 where the question of man's will and God's sovereignty are weighed. Pink argues that Man does have free agency, but man's will is bent towards sin and would never choose God. Furthermore, Pink argues that Man's will is not sovereign over the mind. In fact, this type of language is not used in Scripture! Scripture refers to the inner man as the "heart." It is the heart that governs the will and not the other way around. This was very insightful for me because it seemed that this topic was so difficult and beyond understanding, whereas Pink makes a clear and compelling argument. Between the Arminian and myself, it comes down to presuppositions! Overall, I recommend this chapter to whoever is wrestling with this "dilemma."

In the next chapter, Pink balances God's sovereignty with prayer and how they are agreeable with each other. Pink addresses a problem within the church. Many believe that our will is able to trump the will of God! In other words, many Christians will assert that prayer will change the purposes of God and completely undermines Scripture in Ephesians 3:11. In my mind, a God who changes His mind by every whim of a prayer is very disconcerting, nor is it the God of Scripture. Our God does have a plan and it will not be thwarted. Pink points out this may be our misunderstanding of the chief purpose of prayer. He states that the chief purpose of prayer is to honor God. Asking God for our needs is not primary.

For the next two blog posts, I would like to focus on an author that is not known to many in the evangelical world. In fact, this author was not well known until his death in 1952.

However, his writings have endured. Pink wrote many great books and the one I would like to focus on is The Sovereignty of God. There are a couple of elements I would like to point out. First, Pink is easy to understand. It is obvious that Pink was a down-to-earth pastor before anything else. Secondly, Pink is very pastoral. He is not simply trying to give the reader a nugget of theological truth, but is calling and compelling the reader to adhere to the truths. His words read like a sermon, much like our contemporary pastor today, John MacArthur. In this blog, I would like to briefly cover the first seven chapters.

The first chapter attempts to answer the question: is God in control or is the Devil? Simple question, but it one that many Christians ask. The question can be answered differently based upon one's view of God. Many view God as One who can be disappointed and One who can be caught off guard. Pink's answer to this "dilemma" is well said: "...it all depends if you are walking by faith, or by sight" (pg. 7). From this point on Pink directs us to Scripture. Pink's conclusion is that all things are worked together, both good and bad, according to the will of God. Pink is right! Scripture is full of passages explicitly stating that everything (yes, everything!) is in His control. The question then that comes to mind, "is this your view of God?"

In the next chapter, Pink defines the sovereignty of God as such:

"To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God."

This is a very simple, yet most profound statements I have read up to this point in his book. To say that God is sovereign is to declare all of God's excellencies! To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is in control and there is nothing you can do about it (I do not mean that in a negative sense, but in a matter of peace). What a joy it is to know that God knows what we are going through because He is the One doing it!

The following chapter is the shortest of them all (4 pages total!); however, the truth is profound. Pink's flow of argument is if God is the Creator of all the cosmos, then He must have absolute sovereignty over it. God made all things according to His own good pleasure. When people ask, "Why did God make the mouse or the elephant the way He did?" Because He wanted to. He did it because it brought Him pleasure.

In the next chapter, Pink develops this idea more. Not only did God create the cosmos, but He is actively involved in how it is to operate. If God were not actively involved, it would be reasonable to conclude that creation would eventually destroy us. Who holds the waves of the sea? Who prevents hurricanes from developing year around? Pink goes further in stating that God governs animals and even governs man! Are we to say that Man is out of God's control? Scripture is clear in this point as well. Now, how that plays out with man's free will, that will be discussed next week.

In chapter six, we get to the heart of Pink's book: the sovereignty of God in salvation. This is the next rational step if we are to accept the truths from the previous chapters. Scripture is clear here as well when it states that God is the One who is calling a people. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Pink brought up the issue of foreknowledge which I found very enlightening. There are some who argue that God's election is based on God's foreknowledge that some would come to believe in Christ. I understand where this position is coming from because they are trying to preserve man's free will, but I think it is still unbiblical, as Pink points out. How can one who is dead (Eph. 2:1) in sin make a choice to accept Christ, or for that matter, do anything that is not sinful? Dead people and things are unresponsive, it is God who must perform the greatest miracle: saving a soul from hell. This causes me to be overwhelmed with gratitude and joy, knowing my God chose me!

Finally, Pink discusses in the next chapter the decrees of God. Many would not have a problem that God foreknows all things, but it is something different if God fore-ordained all things. To illustrate this, Pink pulls from 1 Peter 1:20 to argue that God decreed before the foundation of the world, the crucifixion would take place, even before the Fall. With this in mind, Pink give a great definition for prophecy:

"The hundreds of prophecies which are found in the New and Old Testaments are not so much predictions of what will come to pass, as they are revelations to us of what God has purposed SHALL come to pass."

Pink then distinguishes between how God deals with the righteous and the wicked. For the righteous, God is empowering and enabling them to carry out His will. For the wicked, God is preventing them from performing more wickedness than they would naturally do and sometimes will use what wicked men meant for evil and mean it for good. We see this in the story of Joseph in Genesis.

In the next post, we will wrestle with the notion of God's sovereignty and how that plays into our free will.

Throughout my walk with Christ and study of His Word, I have often pondered if it is possible for God to be completely sovereign and still allow man to be completely free. Basically, can man have free will and God elect a remnant?

In this work Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer delves into this question: how can we truly evangelize if God has already chosen a people to save? Can these two ideas be reconciled? Packer makes the argument that they can!

The book itself is small and succinct, totaling 135 pages (if this book were in a standard size publication, it would probably be around 80 pages). Even though it is succinct, no words are wasted and every sentence counts. The book is divided into four chapters: 1) Divine Sovereignty 2) Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility 3) Evangelism 4) Evangelism and Divine Sovereignty. I would like to address each of these chapters in this entry.

Divine Sovereignty

In his opening sentence, Packer informs the reader that he will not spend time giving biblical truths in support of this notion. He assumes that if you're reading the book, you are a Christian and you already believe in the sovereignty of God. This is proven by Packer in two areas: 1) the Christian's prayer life 2) the Christians salvation story. In prayer, the Christian is not trying to force God's hand or resort to a type of magic formula. Instead, the Christian prays because he is dependent and is in need of God's grace and help. In the Christian's salvation story, it is not God who gives thanks for your salvation, but just the opposite! The Christian always thanks God for saving their soul and not the other way around. With these presuppositions aside, Packer moves into the next chapter.

Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

In the opening dialogue, Packer acknowledges there is a dissonance when these two ideas are brought together. The word used is antimony, which means "a contradiction between conclusions which seem equally logical, reasonable or necessary." Packer argues that there is an antimony in theology, which seem to be irreconcilable, but can neither be denied. The unfortunate reality is that we have finite minds and we are trying to grasp a divine reality. Packer uses the illustration of light. Physic also face an antimony concerning light. One side says that light is a wave whereas the other side says light is a particle. Both sides have ample evidence for their view and it seems that they cannot be reconciled. How do we deal with this theological antimony? Packer gives us an answer:

"Accept it for what it is, and learn to live with it. Refuse to regard the apparent inconsistency as real; put down the semblance of contradiction to the deficiency of your own understanding; think of the two principles as not rival alternatives but, in some way that at present you do not grasp, complementary to each other." (28)

Paul recognized this issue and addressed it in Romand 9:19. What was Paul's answer? "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" We have this idea that God is not consistent with His thoughts. What makes this idea ridiculous is that this charge is coming from finite, sinful men! God does not need to answer to us; rather, we need to answer to God! Isaiah 55 also states that God's ways are higher than man's ways. Packer states that this is a reality that we have to deal with: we are not going to have a nice, clean-cut answer for our corrupt, finite minds. Rather, we should trust in the Lord and acknowledge that He is in control and is working out all things for good.

Evangelism

Packer opens the chapter with the question: what is evangelism? Packer pulls from the Archbishop's Committee, which is overall a good definition, but Pack says it can be simple. Simply put, evangelism is just preaching the gospel. Packer then uses Paul as a paradigm for what evangelism is more specifically. For example, Paul saw evangelism as a task appointed to him by Christ (1 Cor 1:17). Paul also saw evangelism as teaching the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result, Paul's aim in evangelism was to convert his hearers to Christ. How dos this look for us? Packer goes on in the rest of the chapter to give examples of how this mission of evangelism can be carried out (ex. personal evangelism, home bible study, etc.). Now the question must be asked: what is the message of evangelism, or the gospel? Packer simply states the gospel is a message about God, sin, Christ, and a call to repentance and faith. Packer then asks the question: what is our motivation to evangelize? First, it is to glorify God. Second, it is an outpouring of a love for our neighbor. Finally, how do we carry out sharing this message? There is controversy concerning the method, but this one truth should remain: the complete gospel should be presented.

Divine Sovereignty and Evangelism

Some may think there is an antimony between these two realities, but there is not. How are people saved? By the presentation of the gospel. There is no other way God brings a people to Himself without the direct hearing of the good news. This also does not lower the urgency of sharing the gospel because the fact still remains: people are going to hell. Also, knowing that God is sovereign gives us hope that this is not a feeble approach to save people, but is the work of Christ and it will be accomplished.