R.C. Sproul

That statement doesn't divide Presbyterians from Methodists or Lutherans or Anglicans, and it doesn't distinguish between Presbyterians and Islamic religion or Judaism.

It's a distinction between theism and atheism.

It's a statement simply, a declaration of the absolute sovereignty of God.

What I tried to get these young people to see was this, very simply, that if God is not sovereign…

God is not God.

If there is one maverick molecule in the universe, one molecule running loose outside the scope of God's sovereign ordination, then ladies and gentlemen, there is not the slightest confidence that you can have that any promise that God has ever made about the future will come to pass, or that anything Jesus ever said would happen would in fact happen.

because that could be the grain of sand in the kidney of Oliver Cromwell that changes the course of history, that one maverick molecule.

Now, why do I say that about the Philistines?

Because the Philistines allowed for the possibility that an event in this world could be caused by chance.

They were allowing a maverick molecule.

And if they allowed for the possibility of a maverick molecule, then they were allowing for the possibility of a God who's not sovereign.

And a God who's not sovereign...

is a God who is not God.

I might add that after that comma, it says that God does freely and immutably ordain whatsoever comes to pass, but not in such a way as to do violence to human decisions and human freedom, or that He works always apart from secondary causes.

We're going to take that question up about how God's sovereignty and His providence works through the choices and the decisions of human beings.

We're not finished with this topic,

But to say that God doesn't ordain everything is to say that there would be certain things over which God isn't sovereign.

I'm not saying that God immediately jumps down and throws your child in front of that car that runs over it and kills it.

But ladies and gentlemen, even in a tragedy like that, the Lord God omnipotent could have reached down and pulled your child out of it and chose not to.

He ordained, if you will, to allow it to happen.