Are You a Deist?

Dec22

Does God actually control the circumstances of our lives, or do “bad” things just happen to us because we live in a sin-cursed world?

Randomness, luck, chance, fate. This is modern man’s answer to the age-old question, “Why?” Of course, if one dismisses the whole idea of God, as many do, then there is no other alternative. Many, while not dismissing the idea of God, have fabricated a God of their own speculation. Seventeenth-century deism constructed a God who created a universe and then walked away to leave it running according to its natural laws and man’s devices. Many people today are practical deists.

Even Christians often think as deists today. Many accept the concept that God is sovereign but believe that He chooses not to exercise His sovereignty in the daily affairs of our lives. As one writer put it, “We know that God is sovereign, but we also know that, in His sovereignty, God has placed us in a world of sin and suffering from which we have no immunity,” and again, “God’s love … for us, does not place us in a protected position.””

If God controls the circumstances of the sparrow, how much more does He control the circumstances that affect us? God does not walk away and leave us to the mercy of uncontrolled random or chance events.

Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts –  Jerry Bridges

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7 thoughts on “Are You a Deist?”

  1. B.W.
    I am grateful for this post. I have taught my kids there is no such thing as luck; everything that takes place is orchestrated by the Almighty One. Most have a hard time accepting that because the ‘god’ they know is one-sided…usually he’s nothing but love. As you well know, that’s not the God of the Bible. GOD is love, as well as holy and righteous: HE does as HE pleases

    lyn

    Berean Wife Reply:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 9:53 pm

    Lyn,

    I have heard so many pastors even say that the Lord had nothing to do with things like 9/11 or Katrina. One was just the result of sin and the other was the result of nature. But how can that really reassure someone? I mean really, everything is running totally out of control? Personally it is more reassuring to me to know the Lord is in full control and not one thing will happen without His allowing it.

    We happened to see a sign this weekend which said “Don’t Tempt F8” so I had to explain what was meant by fate. Thankfully my children thought it was rather a foolish idea. 🙂

    Berean Wife

  2. If God controlled everything he would be the author of evil. So if you aren’t a Deist, you’re a blasphemer. Plus Deism about God being just, whereas Christianity is about God being unjust. The base doctrine of Christianity is that God will send everyone to hell whether they actually deserve it or not (both the man who told one little white lie and the childmolestor get the same punishment, eternity in hell). So since God is unjust and wants to punish us way beyond the punishment we actually deserve, we need Jesus to save us from mean ole Father God. But Deism says since God is just his punishment of sin will be proportional to how bad our sins actually were. But, oh, Deists must be bad because that sort of common sense might lead to morality. I mean if people no longer believed in magical erasure of sin that would let you off scott free if you believed (while all unbeleivers even if they are the best morally will burn forever and ever), if I say people saw that personal responsibility existed, they might actually live good lives, and we sure don’t want that! We just want a bunch of drones sinning to the max and spouting platitudes like “Jesus is the answer.” What was the question? What is the name of the man whose doctrine Christians have rejected to follow a Pharisee named Paul?

    Berean Wife Reply:
    December 23rd, 2010 at 9:48 am

    Rey,

    As Jesus so often said:

    “Have you not read?”

    Matthew 12:3, Matthew 12:5, Matthew 19:4, Matthew 22:31, Mark 12:10, Mark 12:26, Luke 6:3.

    It appears you have not read the Bible or if you have you’ve just picked choose what you want to believe.

    I would suggest you read something like the Attributes of God – AW Pink for a summary of what exactly the Bible says about God. You are believing in a God of your own making.

    Herein we find proof for the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override everything else. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself” (Ps. 50:21) is God’s charge against them. They think only of a “god” patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Such is the holiness ascribed to the Divine nature and character in Scripture that it clearly demonstrates their superhuman origin. The character attributed to the “gods” of the ancients and of modern heathendom are the very reverse of that immaculate purity which pertains to the true God. An ineffably holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing makes more manifest the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is infinitely and immutably holy. His own idea of sin is practically limited to what the world calls “crime.” Anything short of that, man palliates as “defects,” “mistakes,” “infirmities,” etc. And even where sin is owned at all, excuses and extenuations are made for it.

    The “god” which the vast majority of professing Christians “love,” is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the “indiscretions” of youth. But the Word says, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity “(Ps. 5:5). And again, “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7:11). But men refuse to believe in this God, and gnash their teeth when His hatred of sin is faithfully pressed upon their attention. No, sinful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the Lake of fire in which he will be tormented for ever and ever.

    For one sin God banished our first parents from Eden. For one sin all the posterity of Ham fell under a curse which remains over them to this day (Gen 9:21-22). For one sin Moses was excluded from Canaan, Elisha’s servant smitten with leprosy, Ananias and Sapphira cut off out of the land of the living.

    God says:

    Isaiah 46:10 (ESV) … declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

    Matthew 20:15 (ESV) Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

    Romans 9:18 (ESV) So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

    You are quite wrong about the Character of God. God sent His Son to pay the penalty of sin for all who will believe.

    True believers don’t sin to the max. Those are false converts which will hear:

    Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)
    21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
    22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
    23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

    If you deserve Heaven why did Jesus have to die for “good people”?

    But see there is no “good people”.

    Romans 3:10-17 (ESV)
    10 “None is righteous, no, not one;
    11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
    12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
    13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
    14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
    15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
    16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
    17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

    Might better reevaluate your stance since you are counting on your own goodness and not Christ.

    Berean Wife

  3. B.W.
    another example is the weather. I heard the weatherman blame the recent excessive rainfall in Cal. on the ‘pineapple express’. Mother Nature gets blamed for extreme weather when in reality it’s Father God. To continue to ignore the lesser judgments like severe and deadly weather will cause even greater shock when God unleashes the full force of His final, end time wrath.

    lyn

    Berean Wife Reply:
    December 23rd, 2010 at 9:59 am

    Lyn,

    You are exactly right. Mother Nature has to be blamed for the weather and the problems it causes. Otherwise final judgment might really be bad compared to simple weather and “natural” tragedies if there really was a God in control. Hell will be worse than any Katrina, Haiti, and other disasters combined. People should be in fear and trembling at the future judgment God will direct towards those who are not His.

    Berean Wife

  4. rey,
    God uses evil to fulfill his purpose…example, Pharaoh.
    All of mankind is wicked, evil, God-hating and deserving of hell. One must understand the attributes of God, especially his holiness to comprehend our own utter unworthiness. Christ died and rose from the dead to reconcile dead-in-sin sinners back to a holy God.
    God is also sovereign, nothing happens apart from his knowledge.

    lyn

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