Is God and His Providence Machiavellian?

What does the Bible say about providence? Providence is like God's invisible hand, making sure that He is glorified. Matthew 10:29-31 paints a great picture of the doctrine of providence. “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows.                      If God cares about the death of two tiny birds, how much more does He care about the lives of those who He created in His own image? In our fallen self-centered minds, having our life already planned out for us makes us seem like robots. However, it is comforting to know that God will make everything right for those who trust Him. (Romans 8:28; Revelation 3:21)

This was my original view of providence, taken from my blog “Popology.” I used the example of Blaise Pascal and J.R.R. Tolkien, by way of Peter Jackson, to back up my view. But by studying Bible Doctrine, my view of providence has been challenged and has expanded, especially in regards to evil in the world.

For example, God’s providence is for everyone, not just believers. This brings up a paradox. If God is the ultimate cause of everything in this world, is he the ultimate cause of evil? For example, God told Pharaoh, “I will harden his heart (Exodus 4:21). But God didn’t directly do evil through Pharaoh. He used Pharaoh’s evil of slavery to bring a greater good: the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. Joseph clearly states this in Genesis 50:20, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” Joseph was wrongfully sold into captivity by his brothers and lived a gloomy existence in an Egyptian prison after he was yet again wrongfully accused of adultery. Even his friend, Pharaoh’s butler, didn’t vouch for his release. However, in the end, Joseph became one of the most powerful men in Egypt and saved his brother from Egypt.

However, taken at face value, God seems Machiavellian. In his pamphlet The Prince (which is sandwiched between John MacArthur and C.J. Mahaney’s Humility on my bookshelf), Niccolo Machiavelli wrote about the ends justifying the means. He used the example of corrupt Italian cardinal Cesar Borgia, who used the church treasury to carve out an empire in North Italy for his father Alexander VI. Despite the actions of those who claim to be Christians, God doesn’t operate by these principles.

If God was an earthly king, Machiavelli would love Him because he is a ruler that is both feared and loved (52). Proverbs 1:7 says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This kind of fear is not cowering before a merciless tyrant, like Nero, who killed his wife and mother. Fearing God is willingly submitting to His will and leaning on Him for guidance in daily life. God is our father (Galatians 1:4), but He is also Lord of the universe who has power over both the hills and plains, unlike the weak deities of Israel’s Syrian neighbors (I Kings 20:28).

But tyrants can be fathers too. Julius Caesar adopted his nephew Octavian to succeed him after his death and be his son. But Octavian had merits; he was a descendant of the Julii, one of the most prestigious families in Rome. When God adopted us as sons and daughters, we had no merits (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 64:6). Paul writes, “ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps even for a good man someone would even dare to die” (Romans 5:7). A lot of people would die for their family or friends but not for a stranger without a hint of charisma.

However, God’s love is called agape in Greek. There are three words for love in Koine Greek. Eros means lustful desire and comes from the name of the son of Aphrodite, goddess of love and sex. Adelphos means brotherly love. This is love for a family member or someone close to you. Agape love is unconditional and is exemplified in 1 John 4:10, “ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” We have to power to make choices that have real consequences (Romans 1:27; 6:23), but God calls us to be saved because we have a sinful nature (Romans 3:10). “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). This verse shows that election wasn’t an invention of Paul because God initiates the saving process by “knocking.”

God doesn’t use evil ends to bring about good means. He can’t sin or tempt anyone (James 1:13). But he gives humans free will to do both good and evil after Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden (Genesis 3:7; Isaiah 66:3). This free will is under God’s providence, which controls even “chance events”, like rolling a die (Proverbs 16:33). When we sin, it’s our faults, not God’s, and we have to confess our sins and ask for his forgiveness (1 John 1:9).

In conclusion, there can be no crystal clear explanation for why there is evil in the world. But if we had a God that could be placed in a box and explained away, would He really be God? We must trust in God’s sovereignty and wisdom because “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Freedom to Fail Response: Learning to Pick Ourselves Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLCbv5K0WU&feature=related

At the beginning of the 2005 film Batman Begins, young Bruce Wayne falls into a deep pit full of and breaks his arm. His father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, pulls Bruce out of the pit and tells him, “And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” When Bruce’s parents die, this quote becomes his motivation to become a symbol of terror for criminals, Batman. Bruce goes into exile and loses his company to bureaucrats, but he picks himself up, saves Gotham from the Legion of Shadow and returns Wayne Enterprises to its former glory.

                If Bruce Wayne didn’t have the freedom to fail, he would probably continue to live off his parent’s trust fund and live the life of a typical billionaire playboy. His failure to avenge his parents’ death leads him on a personal quest to find out that justice must be tempered with compassion.

                Failure is a pivotal part of the human experience. We touch the stove and find out that it’s hot. Thomas Edison attempted to create the light bulb 10,000 times and failed 10,000 different ways before inventing and patenting the incandescent light bulb. Like Mr. Goodwin said, a lack of failure signals the end of scientific and artistic advances.

                In American public schools, failure has been removed to keep up graduation rates for government funding. For example, Virginia public schools do not have complete A/B/C/D/F grades until junior high.  The grade ‘F’ is no longer describing as “failing” but merely “unsatisfactory.” 

                The purpose of grades is to show a student his or her weak points in a subject, and how he or she can remedy these weaknesses. But by caring more about self esteem than academic ability, public schools are doing a poor job of preparing students for college or the work force. In college, professors don’t chase students and beg for late assignments; they fail them. At a fast food restaurant, like McDonalds or Chick Fil A, if an employee shows up late for work or cannot handle the speed of the work, they are fired. I worked at Chick Fil A for three days because I couldn’t keep with the fast pace of the restaurant’s kitchen. My employer didn’t care about my self esteem, just making a certain amount of breaded chicken at a certain pace.

                To better prepare students for the “real world”, they must be forced to repeat a class they fail or take a comparable class in the summer. By taking some of their “break” away, students will find out that failure has consequences, but they can learn from failure to work harder and strive for excellence. Teachers must remember that teenagers make mistakes and need to teach them not just for Advanced Placement tests and SOL but to learn from their mistakes.  To solve any kind of problem, paint a great painting, write a great book, or make breakthroughs in science, one must be prepared to fail many times. Public schools must allow their students to fall and pick themselves up. That is the essence of he American dream.

Hallelujah Part 2

Sorry, for the long delay guys, but school and basketball have kept me busy. Here's the 2nd part of my analysis of the famous pop song "Hallelujah" that was written by Leonard Cohen, made popular by Jeff Buckley, and covered my artists of many different styles and genres.

In the first part, I described the background behind this song, the first and the simple chorus " Hallelujah". Part two will cover verse two.

" Your faith was strong, but you needed proof."
There are three ways to look at the latter verses of this song. The song could be Cohen continuing to instruct the young musician as he or she grows up (most likely he). It could also be a completely different person that Cohen is writing about. Or in a strictly literal sense, someone could take this song at face value and look for the Biblical allusions.

Infused with the "secret" song of King David, the young musician has become closer to God, but as he matures, he begins to question why he believes what he believes. This is very similar to the logic or dialectic stage in classical education where the young teenager begins to ask questions and argue about why they believe something or why they should learn something. This musician has technical skill but wants proof of the existence of the God that David is writing about.

Cohen could be moving on and writing about a completely different "hallelujah" in part two. This male character used to be a strong believer in something. Whether this is Christianity, Judaism, karma, or the "power of love", he has some source of truth in his life. However, as he begins to interact with people who believe differently (E.g. college or a new job), he has doubts about absolute truth. This line describes the obsession with scientific knowledge. Every "educated" person wants empirical proof on everything, even when some things like evolution and the existence of God can't proven true or false.

" You saw her bathing on the roof/ Her beauty in the moonlight overthew you."

I love the Canadian Tenors version of this song because they substitute "you" with a beautiful Vancover "ya." Bathing on the roof is a clear reference to the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. King David took a break from war, and while he was chilling out on his roof, he saw a beautiful woman bathing naked. Because he was an absolute monarchy under God's theocracy, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and got her pregnant.

David got Bathsheba pregnant which led to the death of her child, his eldest son Amnon, and a revolt by Absalom. But this "lady" could stand for many things other than sexual lust. In a musical sense, it could be fame. When musicians become rich, they sometimes depart from their roots and "sell out." For example, Metallica, which began as a heavy, fast,and erudite thrash band from San Francisco (Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets) started to become more commercial by making a music video ("One"), cutting their hair and getting pictures made by Anton Corbijn, and suing Napster.

I think this mysterious woman is a stand-in for any kind of temptation
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" She tied you to a kitchen chair/ She broke your throne and cut your hair"
Cohen manages to cleverly intertwine the stories of David and Bathsheba, and Samson and Delilah in these lines. Delilah was a Philistine woman and Samson's partner in Judges 16. She seduced him with her beauty and love, and Samson told Delilah the secret of his great strength: his luscious locks.

Earlier, Samson was able to break free from the cords Delilah bound him with. Now, after he broke his sacred vow to never shave his hair, Samson undergoes extreme humiliation. He isn't tied to a chair, but a millstone where cattle would grind wheat. Once the mighty savior of Israel, Samson is now a slave to their worst enemies: the Philistines.

After his affair with Bathsheba, David also suffered. He lost their first child, conceived in adultery. Then, his oldest son Amnon raped his virgin daughter Tamar, and his third son Absalom killed Amnon. Later, Absalom usurped David's throne and forced the old king to go into exile.

" And from your lips, she drew the hallelujah"

Once you give into temptation, the tempter controls your life. Samson lost his sight and strength when he let Delilah cut his hair. He managed to kill many Philistines in death, but his lust cost his life. The hallelujah in this verse could mean someone's soul or psyche, their innermost being.

When someone does something based on feelings or desires, they let someone else have ownership of their soul. When Paris captured Helen in the Trojan War, he violated the traditional guest-host relationship in the Mediterranean world. By giving into his desires, Paris caused his own death, the death of brother Hector and father Priam, and the fall of one of the most powerful cities in Asia Minor.  

That's why one must have balance between the head and the heart. "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20). Giving into any kind of physical lust can destroy the outward and inner person. The second verse of "Hallelujah" uses the examples of Samson and David to illustrate the downfall of a good man and a good musician by the power of desire.

 " Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver. As a bird hastens to the slaughter, so he does not know that it will cost him his life. (Proverbs 7:22-3 NASB)