Hi Mike,

Thanks for your response on the animal thing. I’m still struggling with this sovereignty issue. Although I probably know the answer already; are you saying that the answer of the tongue is true for every man, woman and child of all time, and if so at what age does that start? I mean is he in control of the baby’s first words and all the stuff that comes of our tongues or is it just our answers? Because it’s not as if the baby’s tongue is answering anybody; it’s just babbling on about whatever. Could there be something in that scripture that I am not aware of because it says the answer of the tongue is of the lord and at what age do we start to answer, and I suppose that everything is an answer depending on how you look at it.

What I do know is this beast is not coming off his throne without a good fight. I must admit that although I have many problems that need to be dealt with, this one is the biggest, and I feel that if I could just accept this, then life would be a lot easier for me. Although I know that this is a big one for most people, it just has me very confused. And to know that this beast that won’t go off without a good fight was put there by God just confuses me even more. I want to finish by saying I am sorry to go on about this, but if you could give me anything else on this subject, I would greatly appreciate it.  May God continue to bless you in this marvelous work you are doing. I really do think you’re a wonderful man, and you will probably give the glory to God. I sometimes pray that my piece of clay would become like yours, and I know it will all in God’s time. Thanks again, Mike, and the good Lord be with you and those around you and continue to give you the strength to carry out his work that he has set before you.

All the best, S____

Good morning S____,
You ask me to bear with you as you struggle to get a grasp on the total sovereignty of God.

Let me tell you that it took me two long years and many heated discussions with my friends and my own sons, before I could accept the fact that God actually does know the very number of hairs in my head, and He knows every sparrow that falls to the ground. As a good friend of mine put it, “God doesn’t know the number of hairs in my head because he has counted them, He knows the number of hairs in my head because He predetermined how many hairs I would have and when each of those hairs would fall out.” The same is true of the sparrows. God has predetermined how many sparrows there are on any given day, and He has predetermined exactly when each of them will “fall to the ground” and die.

Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

“All things” means every molecule. A well know Calvinist, who sadly teaches that ‘Predestination and God’s sovereignty means that most men are predestined to eternal hell fire,’ correctly stated, “If there is one maverick molecule in the universe, then God is not sovereign.” He is exactly right about God being totally sovereign, but He is dead wrong about the product of that sovereignty.
In this e- mail you are asking me “Is He in control of a baby’s first words, and all of the stuff that comes out of our tongues… at what age do we begin to answer?”

As you go on to surmise, “the answer of the tongue,” does not mean, a well thought out and well constructed answer, what “the answer of the tongue means is what ever comes out of a man’s mouth, good or evil, coherent or incoherent, “is of the Lord.”

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

If we do what the whole world does and we think that “the wicked” is someone other than ourselves, then we have missed the entire message of that verse. It is “the wicked” man within my own flesh, and “the wicked” man within your own flesh, who “God has made for the day of evil” within each of us that is under discussion in this verse. God really is “working all things after the counsel of His own will.”

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

This is not true only for God’s elect. This is true for all men. “God makes wicked men for the day of evil.” As the Calvinists all point out, if God knows in advance who is His elect, then that means that He must also know in advance who is not elect. That is exactly what “ all things after the counsel of His own will” means.

I hope this helps you to see that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will. The resistance you are experiencing to this Truth is just what you are thinking it is. It is nothing less than a spiritual struggle for your very life. The beast which sits on Christ’s rightful throne in our hearts will not relinquish his usurped position without a fight. All of our doubts about God’s ability to cope with so very much information, is nothing more or less than our beast within trying to make God as finite as we are. God is not finite. We may not be able to understand how that is possible, but that is the Truth of His words:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Isa 40:15  Behold, the nations [ are] as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
Isa 40:16  And Lebanon [ is] not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
Isa 40:17  All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
Isa 40:18  To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

We cannot “liken God” as to our own finite and limited selves. God is not finite or limited. Keeping track of every molecule of the universe and every utterance of every mouth is not an exacting task for God. It is second nature to do so. That is who he is. God is not jealous because sees He someone as competition. He is jealous because we need to know the Truth that He alone is worthy of our worship. We need to be brought to see that our very desires, for good or evil, are His work. We cannot make good decisions based on bad information, and for us to believe that we bring anything to the table is very bad information. It is a lie.

I will close with this verse which states clearly that every day each of us lives and what we do – the good and the evil, in every one of those days – was “written in His book… before there were any of them.”

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Your brother in Christ,
Mike