Hello Mike,

I have been studying the writings at the web site and have a question. Since God is sovereign and controls everything including our actions, why does He tell us to be obedient? Does He cause us to be obedient or not to be? Does He cause only those very elect that He has chosen to overcome and rule and reign and the rest into lake judgment? If I sin it is sin in me (the beast) doing it and not God causing me to sin? Please help with comments as I feel as though you have the mind of Christ. Thanks!!

God Bless!!!!

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement.

You ask, “Since God is sovereign and controls everything, including our actions, why does He tell us to be obedient?”

The answer to your question is that God tells us to be obedient so He can hold us accountable for the actions that He knows we will perform because of the fact that He created us weak. God does not force us to sin. He doesn’t have to force us to sin. You don’t force a dog to bark, a cat to meow, a rooster to crow or a man to lust after a woman.

A dog barks willingly, a cat meows willingly, a rooster crows willingly and men voluntee r to lust after women in their hearts. All of these things come from the heart. And this is how God created ‘the heart.’

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitfu l above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

So man will invariably sin. It takes the spirit of God to give man the desire not to sin. It is God who causes all men to do either good or evil:

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings [ good or evil] are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue [ good or evil], is from the Lord
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen [ It is God who shapes us] in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Psa 51:5 is not a condemnation of sex in marriage. It is a comment on how God made Adam. God created a sinning machine.

We sin because we are carnal by birth. And this is what we are told of the carnal mind:

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Contrary to the lies of Babylon, God created Adam with a carnal mind. Therefore Adam is not responsible for being a sinner. God is responsible for creating an evil creation. He plainly informs us of that responsibility on His part, but with one voice our greatest theologians deny this plain statement by God Himself:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

All of Christendom believes the words of Billy Graham, in the National Cathedral immediately following the fall of the World Trade Towers: “God does not make evil.” God Has literally blinded the eyes of all the ministers of Babylon to this truth:

Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

All of this being true, God holds man ‘responsible’ for nothing. Maybe that is why you will not find the word ‘responsible,’ anywhere at all in scripture. But you will find these words:

Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Mat 18:23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Luk 16:2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
1Pe 4:5 Who [ Those who live “in the flesh- verse 2] shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

Joseph tormented his brothers in his own presence. But he did it for their good. In the end he made them give account, but he did not hold them responsible for their own evil actions against him.

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Joseph’s brothers suffered many long years even after Joseph revealed himself to them. But in the end Joseph saved his entire family from certain death in a famine. At the end of it all Joseph, a type of Jesus Christ, gives us a most remarkable revelation of the purpose for all evil:

Gen 50:20 But as for you [ all mankind], ye thought evil against me; but God meant it [ all evil] unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much [ all] people alive.
Gen 50:21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

My detractors cannot see the difference between responsibility and accountability. I am certain that Joseph’s brothers were very glad that they were not responsible for their actions. They, as all men will be, gave an accounting of their actions for the things that the Great Cause of all things had caused them to do.

“… ye thought evil against me; but God meant it [ that very evil] unto good…”

I hope I have answered your question to your satisfaction.

Mike