History and Sovereignty

Even children know a good history book when they read it. My favorite history books are those which show connections between influential people, people who had formerly existed in separate spheres in my mind, or make connections between the mundane events in history and the pivotal ones, showing that history is not just a series of unrelated names and dates.




While recently studying Michelangelo, my boys and I learned that he was raised in the home of the famous Medici family. One of the children he was raised with later became Pope Leo X, the same pope who used the sale of indulgences to help pay for the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo worked as an architect on St. Peter's. The sale of these indulgences is what led Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses, which is considered by many historians as the start of the Protestant Reformation. Luther was later excommunicated by this same Pope Leo X of the Medici family.

While studying the history of England, I read about King Charles II of England's attempt to ban the newly introduced coffee and coffeehouses, issuing A Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffeehouses. In coffeehouses, he reasoned, defamation against his government was spread, so coffeehouses should be banned. When it looked as if people would revolt and overthrow the monarchy (as they had during his father's reign, King Charles I, who was eventually beheaded), he withdrew the ban. This King Charles II is the same one who kept John Bunyan imprisoned for preaching without a license. Prior to this, as a youth, John Bunyan was stuck in a moat and was helped out by a stranger, who later he found out to be Oliver Cromwell. This is the same Cromwell who was in charge of the army which overthrew the monarchy of King Charles I. It's amazing how intertwined events and people are.

In our own small sphere, we don't always see the lives which are affected by our words and our actions. But that doesn't make it any less real. The one who plants and the one who waters isn't necessarily there to see the growth of the fruit (I Corinthians 3:6-7). But that doesn't make the fruit any less real. 1 Peter 3:16 explains that a watching world will be put to shame by the good conduct of believers, and as my pastor has reminded us often while preaching through I Peter, our conduct matters. Yet though we know that our conduct matters, we also know that God is sovereignly orchestrating all of history for His glory.

Philippians 1:29 tells us that God has granted that His people should suffer, and He has granted us faith. We should acknowledge His sovereign control over all our suffering. We should acknowledge Him as the giver of faith. That God has ultimate and immediate control of the best that can happen and the worst that happens speaks to everything in between. God is in control of all of history. That's why Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”




In Chosen By God, R.C. Sproul makes the point that when the soveriegnty of God is taught, people sometimes consider that the same as teaching Calvinism. But in actuality, teaching that God is sovereign is simply to teach theism. A god who is not in control is not God.

We don't always like to think that the events which cause our pains and our joys are under the control of a sovereign God. We would rather, at times, have the outcome be determined by our feeble power and foresight, because we think that we really do know what is best. But praise God that those things which He has purposed in Himself are accomplished, and that our obtaining His inheritance does not depend on our work, but on His.