Missing Pieces (3)

It is funny how many Catholics respond to me when I mention the sovereignty of God with a comment like "we're not Calvinists, you know?!" Yes, I know. Trust me, I was protestant for years and know the Calvinist errors inside and out (as well as their Catholic counterparts, the Jansenists). Some of my closest friends who disowned me when I converted and became Catholic were Calvinists.

The problem is that Calvinists are not the only ones who believe in the sovereignty of God. St. Augustine was not a Calvinist and he taught often about the complete sovereignty of God. St. Thomas Aquinas had similar views. It is completely possible to believe that God is absolutely sovereign without becoming a fatalist (as most Calvinists and Jansenists are).

In fact, there are so many references in Holy Scripture to God being in complete control of the world, and Him being the One Who controls history that the burden of proof is definitely on those who wish to deny it. According to Aquinas and others, if God is not sovereign, then He is not God. So then, the "missing piece" that we all have to deal with is the fact that we do not understand how God's sovereignty can be in full control of all things and yet not conflict with our free will (St. Paul had no problems with this idea in Romans 9 -- go read it).

The resistance to God's sovereignty comes mainly from the temptation to be able to say "I know all things" while we each know that God threatens that idea. We are tempted as Eve was (the devil did say "you will be like God") because we too want His power. So we do not even have all the pieces when it comes to how God is working "all things together for our good". Rather than seeking how to maintain control (when we really never can), let us each seek to find that encouragement from knowing that since God is sovereign, we do not need to fret about "the stuff". He has got this.