Ths leads me to raise a nest of questions that have long interested me:
1. Does the "sovereignty" of God necessarily entail the idea that God
"controls all things" (events, processes, etc.)? How does one move from
"sovereignty" to the concept of "control"?
2. Would this concept of divine "control" (or governance?) mean that God
directly causes each "event" to happen?
3. In the extreme, then, would God's sovereignty lead inevitably to a
concept of divine "micromanagement" of all of the affairs of the Creation?
4. If God micromanages all events and processes in the Creation, then are
there no authentic contingencies?
5. If God micromanages all events and processes in the Creation, then do
creatures ever do anything themselves?
6. If God does all and creatures do nothing, what happens to the ideas of
authentic creaturely being, or of creaturely responsibility? Would not God
now be responsible for all that happens (since he is said to "control" all
things)?
I do not raise these questions to "pick a bone" with anyone. I raise them
because I believe that they are extremely important questions and deserve
to be treated with great care and precision. If we choose to continue this
discussion, we will have to pay great attention to our vocabulary, lest we
misunderstand one another or overlook important theological concerns.
Howard Van Till