Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
What If God Is Not In Control?

What If God Is Not In Control?

Last updated on: April 19, 2018 at 8:44 pm by Keith Giles

What If God Is Not In Control? 2018-04-19T20:44:18+00:00 Keith Giles

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Quite often, we comfort ourselves during difficult seasons of our life, with the assurance that God is in control. What we mean by that is, although we are powerless to change our situation, God is somehow at work behind the scenes to make sure everything works out ok in the end. So, we may have lost our job, or discovered someone we love has cancer, or miscarried our third child, or declared bankruptcy, or something else disturbing, and it’s all ok because, we tell ourselves, “God is in control.”

But, what if we’re wrong? What if God is NOT in control at all? What if bad things happen and God isn’t orchestrating anything at all behind the scenes?

First of all, I feel the need to point out that it’s entirely possible for God not to be in control and yet, at the same time, for God to be working behind the scenes to make everything work out better for us in the end. In other words, God’s ability to bring a blessing out of our chaos isn’t dependent upon God being in complete control of the universe. It’s very possible that God’s power is more about an ability to influence events and people in more subtle ways without the need for God to necessarily control events or people. Does that make sense?

Authors like Thomas Jay Ord and Mark Karris, for example, suggest that God’s nature is uncontrolling love. If this is so, they argue, then God is not in control of the universe, but God is very much involved in our daily affairs, all the same. So, God does not – and even cannot – make anyone do anything against their will, simply because to do so would be to cease being God. In other words, God’s nature is expressed in an uncontrolling love for everyone. So, God, by definition, is not able to coerce anyone to do anything, nor would God ever even want to do such a thing. Instead, God does everything possible, within the boundaries of this uncontrolling love nature, to show us a better way, without imposing anything upon us.

This means that we are responsible – fully and completely – for our own actions. God makes suggestions. God shows us a higher love. God stands with us. God walks beside us through the valley of the shadow of death. God remains alongside us whether we choose wisely, or foolishly. God never wavers as our constant source of strength. But, in all of this, the one God is not doing is controlling anyone, or anything, in any way. Because that’s not who God is.

I’ll confess, this is a hard one for me to accept. Mainly because, in my own personal life, I have experienced several unexplainable miracles. Many of those miracles really seem to be examples of God stepping in and forcibly controlling the outcomes of otherwise horrific or tragic events.

For example, God stopped me in my tracks one evening as I was walking down a road. It felt as if a giant hand was pushing against my chest. I was half-way between the prison honor camp, where my band was about to play a concert that evening, and the La Tuna Federal Prison fence, (which was surrounded by guard towers). I had decided to walk down to the fork in the road to meet my fellow band-mates who were running late. I figured they might miss the turn, as the drummer and I had done, and I wanted to make sure they found us.

But, then I felt that hand on my chest, so I stood frozen in place for about ten minutes and wondered what was going on. All I knew was that I should not move, but I did not know why. Not until the prison chaplain turned the corner on the two-lane road coming out of the prison and pulled up right next to me and asked, “What the hell are you doing?” did I learn that there had been a bed-check which revealed a missing prisoner. That sent the prison into lock-down.

“Do you see that guard up there?” he asked, thumbing back over his shoulder towards the large gray tower about 50 yards away. “There’s a sniper with your head in his sights right now asking for permission to open fire because they suspect you’re the missing prisoner heading for the main road.”

So, that’s why God stopped me in my tracks.

Another example of when God apparently stepped in and controlled things was when my Dad fell off the roof of our mobile home and landed on his head, shattering and pulverizing three vertebrae in his neck. The doctor’s looked at the x-rays and told him he would have a 50/50 chance of being paralyzed for life – but only if the greatest spinal surgeon in the world did the surgery. Of course, that surgeon was in Moscow, so his odds dropped significantly from there.

A few days later, my Dad went through a CAT scan machine, just minutes after our Southern Baptist Pastor and one of his deacons, had prayed for him. When the results of the scan came back, the doctor told my father he was sorry. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “I’m holding your x-rays in my left hand showing the damage to your three vertebrae, and in my right hand I’m holding your CAT scan which shows you have no damage whatsoever.”

My Dad laughed and said, “I know what happened. Jesus healed me!”

So, in those two examples, it’s hard for me to understand how God did not control things to change what was about to happen. If God hadn’t stopped me in my tracks, I’d probably have been shot dead that day. If God did not heal my Dad, he’d be paralyzed from the neck down.

I have other personal testimonies like these. Stories of God’s divine intervention and miraculous healing where I can only say that God was, most certainly, in control.

So, what do I do with this? Is God in control? If so, in what way? Is God’s nature uncontrolling love? Then, if so, how and why did these healings take place? What stopped me in my tracks on the road that afternoon?

For some people, the idea that God doesn’t control anything is easier to believe than miracle stories like these. But for me, the idea of God’s uncontrolling love makes sense theoretically – I actually embrace the idea – even though my problem is reconciling this concept with the miracles I’ve experienced.

This leaves me with several uncomfortable options: Either God is in control of everything, but only chooses to intervene occasionally, or God is not in control of anything and miracles are unexplained and random accidents of nature, like glitches in the matrix or hiccups of physics. Or, maybe as a third option, God is not in control of people, but God is in control of nature and this control is limited by factors we don’t completely understand.

I don’t know. Honestly, I’m really not sure what to think.

It’s very hard to understand why my friends Richard and Mary-Anne weren’t healed of their cancer, but my Dad was healed of his crushed vertebrae. It’s hard to reconcile why one friend’s daughter came back to life after being dead on the operating table, but another friend’s father died suddenly.

These questions have no easy answers. Some people believe they’ve got it all figured out. They reduce everything to an oversimplified definition of faith and contend that there is some mystical formula that everyone can take advantage of if they only believe in the right way or pray the magic words in the right tone of voice. But I don’t believe any of that.

To me, there are no formulas. Things happen: good and bad. We can’t explain it. We can’t control it. We can only thank God that we don’t have to go through any of it alone. He is with us. He promises never to leave us, nor forsake us. Whether the storm passes or we pass through the storm, Jesus is there in the boat with us.

That’s enough for me.

Keith Giles is the author of several books, including “Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb”. He is also the co-host of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean. He and his wife live in Orange, CA with their two sons.

Unlock exclusive content including blog articles, short stories, music, podcasts, videos and more on my Patreon page.

Please, join me at one of these upcoming events:

*Organic Church Conference with Neil Cole, Ross Rohde, Dan Notti and Keith Giles on Saturday, May 12 in Long Beach, CA. Register here>

*Jesus, the Bible and the Holy Spirit Conference with Jon Zens, Tom Atkinson, and Keith Giles, on May 18-20 in Seattle, WA. Register here>

*The Nonviolent Love of Christ: How Loving Our Enemies Saves The World, with Joshua Lawson and Keith Giles on Saturday, June 16 in Portsmouth Ohio. Register here>

*Crucifying Our Politics with Keith Giles on June 24 in Cleveland, OH. Register here>

Cosmic Christ

Following Jesus

General Christian Topics

Previous Post

April 18, 2018

What Makes Our Experiences Real?

Next Post

April 20, 2018 The Ordination of Bread and Wine

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Biblicism Christian Politics Cosmic Christ Deconstruction Discipleship Dispensationalism Divine Unity Ekklesia End Time Stuff Eschatology Evergreen Following Jesus Gender General Christian Topics Gnostics God's Love Gospel of Judas Gospel of Mary Gospel of Philip Gospel of the Kingdom Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Truth Hell Historical Jesus Inner Circle Investigative Reporting Islam LGBTQ Issues Marriage Mental/Emotional Health Mystery Non-Duality Philosophy Podcast Poetry Politics Poverty Preemptive Love Prophecy Psychology Quantum Theology Racism Reconstruction Satire Sex Technology Theology Uncategorized Universalism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for large-scale evangelistic crusades?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Orthodox Methodists Quakers Evangelicals

Books by This Author Books by Keith Giles

See All Titles »