Is there a purpose for every thing that happens?

Either God is omnipotent, omniscient and sovereign - or He isn’t.

Amen!

If God does all things according to the purpose of His will, then everything (even a hole in your sock) has a purpose. Everything may not have a grand, eternity shaking purpose, but it has a purpose.

Let me use a personal illustration that reflects Chip’s point.

11 years ago, I preached at a church in Jamaica on a Sunday morning and the end result was that I was hired by a ministry.

The story of how I came to preach that morning has some ‘hole in the sock’ details:

The church was celebrating an anniversary and a pastor from PA went to Jamaica to speak at the event. He thought the event was the morning service and was to return on an afternoon flight.

Arriving he found that the event was an afternoon service, so they moved him to the morning (non anniversary) service.

The Sat. he broke his foot and had to be airlifted back to the US, so the church was without a speaker for both services.

Because of our connection to the church I volunteered to preach and early Sun. morning wrote an outline (from memory) of a sermon I had preached elsewhere. I planned to be at a different church in the morning and was called out of that service to go and preach at the first church.

The pastor’s flight arrangements and broken foot had nothing to do with me, but the ripple effect of those events has had a significant effect on my life, and therefore have purpose.

You have to define sovereignty then. Either sovereign means unlimited in any way or not. Either God is absolutely sovereign or He isn’t. God uses every event to accomplish His purposes. He orchestrates all events without ever forcing anyone to do anything against their own will. They remain personally responsible (and accountable) while He remains sovereign. But it would be false to intimate that God’s sovereignty is somehow limited in that He has to respond to me in anyway by waiting for me to make my decisions about something.

I think this discussion is really about God’s providence. I doubt any of would deny that God uses secondary means to achieve His will. I have appreciated Michael Horton’s discussion of providence from his systematic theology (350-372). I think he covers this delicate area better than anybody I’ve read. Horton notes:

God does not fulfill all of his purposes directly. In fact, it is His ordinary course to employ means, whether human beings or weather patterns, social upheavals, animal migrations, various vocations, and a host of other factors over which He has ultimate control.

Did God intervene directly in history to place a hole in your sock? No. Is there a decretive purpose for the hole in your sock? Who knows? Does it profit to speculate about the ultimate purpose for the hole in your sock? No.

It is also important to realize that the very act of prayer presupposes that God is sovereign over every contingency of nature and history, another point Horton makes. If you deny that God works all things according to the council of His will (Eph 1:11), typically through secondary means we will often not perceive or recognize, then you’ll be forced to admit that prayer is at best a cathartic activity with no real purpose.

This idea of God’s providence is a framework that we each need to explore with grace. That doesn’t mean I can explain why your sock has a hole in it, Ed, but I’ll trust God that He has a purpose. Maybe you’ll have opportunity to invite the cashier to church when you buy some new ones!!

There is a balance to both our views. I do indeed see that Scripture teaches God’s providential control over human history, while at the same condemning men for their sins. This is obviously a mystery beyond our comprehension. God is sovereignly, yet man is responsible for his own sin. Who can fathom this?

This chronology of events from Scripture is particularly helpful to me on this matter:

God brings Babylon to Judge Judah:

Hab 1:6: For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.

And yet, God will judge Babylon for her sins and lust for conquest:

Isa 14: 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD.

Hab 2:7-8: Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

God brings Medo-Persia to judge Babylon:

Isa 45:1-13. Cyrus is God’s “anointed,” (Isa 45:1). Cyrus will break down doors of bronze and bars of iron, symbolizing Babylon (Isa 45:2). Cyrus fulfills God’s will and equips him, “though you do not know me,” (Isa 45:5).

God stirs up Cyrus (Medo-Persian ruler) to let the Israelites return to Jerusalem!

Ezra 1:1-7:

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Exploring the Biblical framework of this seemingly unsolvable problem is very interesting. For instance, the prophets repeatedly plead with Israel and Judah to repent and turn to Him. Yet, Ezekiel make it clear that God will take the initiative to redeem His people!

Eze 36: 24-26:

24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

There’s tension on both sides of the divide, Brother! I am keeping a running chart on the sovereignty-free will framework as I do devotions. It has been a very interesting experience!

It is more than obvious that God was sovereignly and purposefully involved in all the examples you cite, Tyler. It seems quite a stretch to assume that every hole in every sock is equally purposeful, though one particular hole might be.

Job is an interesting case study here. God was in control of the situation even though Satan was the one guilty of malignancy. Is God’s permission to Satan and control over the time and extent of activity a decree? Satan was not acting outside of the “counsel of God’s will” in the matter.God knew, God planned, God used the development as part of His plan to accomplish his purposes, both immediately in the lives of the players and eternally as part of scripture.

If you’re willing to say God uses secondary means to achieve His will, then at what point will you stop and say “this isn’t God using secondary means, this is just a meaningless occurrence?”

I believe we’re left with these truths:

1. Scripture teaches God is sovereignly in control of His creation

2. Scripture does teach God uses secondary means to bring about His will

3. Scripture doesn’t explain where the limits of His use of secondary means stops

We won’t ever wrap our heads around how this all works. I’ll attribute everything to God and stop there. I’m not sure what practical good comes about from speculating about holes in socks, though!

I would like some discussion over where you believe the line stops for God using secondary means. Don, you point out the tension in my own argument but have not given your own explanation! Where is the threshold? I don’t believe Scripture establishes one. Isn’t it just better to attribute sovereign control to Him, and admit we cannot understand it? That’s where I come down on the issue.

Sovereignty doesn’t demand causality or purpose for every event in the universe. I firmly believe that God is big enough to actively control every event in the universe. I also firmly believe that God chooses not to actively control every event because God is not the author of sin. I suspect that he leaves the wearing out of socks to the vagaries of random chance and the natural effects of wear and tear. I don’t think he much cares about such matters, though he could.

I am content to leave God’s direct purpose to those events he has clearly revealed to be his purpose in the Word. Beyond that, I don’t worry about it. I don’t need to know what God ha not told us.

I’m not going to blame God for anything that happens, though, since he has clearly said that he is not behind some things, I.e. God does not do evil. Since that is true, I cannot affirm there I a purpose for everything, and my suspicion is that there re many trivial things that just happen.

Sorry for typos, stupid ipad

On a regular keyboard, so hopefully a little clearer…

Sovereignty doesn’t demand causality or purpose for every event in the universe. I firmly believe that God is big enough to actively control every event in the universe. I also firmly believe that God chooses not to actively control every event because God is not the author of sin. I suspect that he leaves the wearing out of socks to the vagaries of random chance and the natural effects of wear and tear. I don’t think he much cares about such matters, though he could.

I am content to leave God’s direct purpose to those events he has clearly revealed to be his purpose in the Word. Beyond that, I don’t worry about it. I don’t need to know what God has not told us.

I’m not going to blame God for everything that happens, though, since he has clearly said that he is not behind some things, i.e. God does not do evil. Since that is true, I cannot affirm there is a purpose for everything, and my suspicion is that there are many trivial things that just happen.

I hope that’s a little clearer.

The statement “there’s a purpose for everything” if truly believed would lead to fatalism. It is inescapable. No one really believes that and the Scriptures clearly teach that some events happen that God doesn’t actively will (though God is sovereign).

The word “will” is not in the original. The context speaks of the Father’s knowledge, not purpose.

Don, the context is broader than simple knowledge. Jesus is assuaging the disciples’ fear of potential harm. There is no comfort in simply knowing that God is aware. The comfort is that God is aware and in control of even the smallest things, so He can be fully trusted in the dark and dangerous situations these men might face for the Gospel. Commentaries on Matthew 10:29

Barnes: “Without your Father.” That is, God your Father guides and directs its fall. It falls only with his permission, and where he chooses.

Broadus: Our Lord’s line of argument here is in precisely the contrary direction to that which men often follow on this subject. They will say that no doubt God controls great matters, but that it is questionable whether his care extends to such little things as the concerns of an individual man. Jesus says, God takes care of the smallest and most trifling things, and therefore we may be sure he cares for a man, who is so much more important.

Calvin: Christ gives a very different account of the providence of God from what is given by many who talk like the philosophers, and tell us that God governs the world, but yet imagine providence to be a confused sort of arrangement, as if God did not keep his eye on each of the creatures. Now, Christ declares that each of the creatures in particular is under his hand and protection, so that nothing is left to chance. Unquestionably, the will of God is contrasted with contingence or uncertainty {1 }, And yet we must not be understood to uphold the fate of the Stoics, {2 } for it is one thing to imagine a necessity which is involved in a complicated chain of causes, and quite another thing to believe that the world, and every part of it, is directed by the will of God. In the nature of things, I do acknowledge there is uncertainty: {3 } but I maintain that nothing happens through a blind revolution of chance, for all is regulated by the will of God.

Clarke: Without the will of your Father: της βουλης, the will or counsel, is added here by Origen, Coptic, all the Arabic, latter Persic, Gothic, all the Itala except two; Tert., Iren., Cypr., Novatian, and other Latin fathers. If the evidence be considered as insufficient to entitle it to admission into the text, let it stand there as a supplementary italic word, necessary to make the meaning of the place evident.

All things are ordered by the counsel of God. This is a great consolation to those who are tried and afflicted. The belief of an all-wise, all-directing Providence, is a powerful support under the most grievous accidents of life. Nothing escapes his merciful regards, not even the smallest things of which he may be said to be only the creator and preserver; how much less those of whom he is the Father, Saviour, and endless felicity!

Gill: some copies add, “which is in heaven”; meaning, that one of them should not be shot, or be killed, without the knowledge, will, and pleasure of God. The design of Christ is to assert the doctrine of providence, as reaching to all creatures and things, even the most minute and worthless: … from whence it may be strongly concluded, that nothing comes by chance; that there is no such thing as contingency with respect to God, though there is to men, with respect to second causes; that all things are firmly ordained by the purpose of God, and are wisely ordered by his providence:

Matthew Henry: A bird falls not into the fowler’s net, nor by the fowler’s shot, and so comes not to be sold in the market, but according to the direction of providence; your enemies, like subtle fowlers, lay snares for you, and privily shoot at you, but they cannot take you, they cannot hit you, unless God give them leave.

So a lot of Calvinists think the text is about God’s directive purpose? What does that prove?

Jesus is encouraging the disciples in this text. This is how the Calvinist encouragement sounds: “don’t worry, guys, God controls the death of every sparrow and he’ll kill you when he wants to,too”

Small comfort.

Don, how is the Father’s mere knowledge a comfort if that is the extent of the content?

Don, when the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness for 40 years, God kept their shoes from wearing out, and their clothing from getting old. So God can control the wear and tear of our shoes and clothing.

Don, do you think that people should pray to God for protection when they travel on a plane?

Does God actually protect those people who prayed for protection?

If so, how does God protect that person when a plane is merely moving according to the laws of physics?

“Don, how is the Father’s mere knowledge a comfort if that is the extent of the content?”

I’m a different Don but if I may share…

For me, just knowing God makes everything in my life work toward my ultimate good (which I take to mean my ultimate conformation to the image of Christ) totally removes my need to worry whether He actually does put holes into my socks, flattens my tire before work, etc. Besides, the Fall explains most of that just fine.

My point is, it’s my reactions to what happens, leading to increasing Christlikeness, that I’m to be preoccupied with, not with trying to discern whether every event is directly from God or not. To do that misses the point of it all and, besides, I simply cannot know 100% for sure. He hasn’t told me. But He HAS promised to turn it for my ultimate good. That’s enough for me.

As to sovereignty: It is my conviction that the God of the Bible is so completely in control of His creation that He CAN allow much of what goes on it to happen without His direct second-by-second direction, yet despite that He remains 100% in charge of it all, at all times, with absolutely no threat to His rule or plans. That, if I may say so, is a far larger, more generous, more faith-full and more biblical view of our Father than the comparatively paltry and (imo) frightened child’s view that says He *must* control *all* randomly floating gas molecules in deepest space else He ceases to be God. I’m not aiming that at you; I just know that tends to be more or less the modern concept of “sovereign” which, instead of glorifying Him, tries to lock God into MAN’S conceptual box of what MAN thinks a truly sovereign God can and cannot do. And that is to be lamented, if not repented (imo).

A long and fruitful day for me, hence the delay in replying.

First, to Christian Cerna - you need to read my earlier comments more carefully. God can do anything he wants me to do, including ordaining me to type this answer. I don’t deny that at all. You seem to think I do, but you are misunderstanding me.

Second, to Chip re Matthew 10.29: I agree that the Lord is assuring the disciples of the Father’s ultimate control and their value to him so they need not worry about what men can do to them. That, however is not the same thing as saying that God wills their mistreatment as the mistranslation offered by pvawter suggests.

It is a comfort to know that my sufferings are known by the Father, that he will work all things to my good, ultimately, and he may allow me to suffer for his glory. In the midst of suffering the soul is tempted to think the Father is far away, does not know, does not care, has forgotten and abandoned. The Lord’s assurance of the Father’s knowledge is assuring. If the Father knows the death of sparrows (who are of miniscule value), I am assured the Father has not abandoned me.

Thanks Don Lee and Ed for your comments also. I think we are pretty well singing out of the same songbook.

Both sides on this issue appeal to mystery to some extent, confessing that we have assurance that His ways are above our ways. That is very refreshing. I came across this in Isaiah 55 the other day that is pertinent, whichever side of this theological divide you come down on:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The “Good” of Romans 8:28

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

This is one of my favorite Bible verses in terms of my confidence and encouragement in the Lord. It tells me that as a believer in Jesus I can respond confidently to someone who says, “How’s it going?” by saying, “It’s all good.”

Wait a minute! Could everything that’s going on in my life truly be all good ? Not for anyone this side of heaven, at least in the way some misinterpret the verse.

What it is saying is that all things (meaning all things) that take place in a believer’s life God will use for the spiritual growth of the believer, which may include trials, tribulations, blessings, convictions, sins (which need to be repented of), mercies, death of loved ones, persecutions, prosperity, witness opportunities, rejections, etc. The “work[ing] together for good” means that good will always come and bear fruit when I respond to whatever my situation may be in a way that is pleasing to God.

Confidence in that truth will not only heighten our joy in the blessings of God but will sustain us through the worst of tragedies. That makes it truly “all good.”

T. A. McMahon, The Berean Call