Exegesis: all things do not happen for a reason.
I promised this exegesis a few days ago; an examination of the scriptures to discuss the matter of whether things happen for a reason or not. I'm posting it publically so I may share it in my Facebook as well as here.
Let’s begin with some background on the idea that all things happen for a reason. What causes people to believe this? First and foremost is fear. People are afraid to believe that bad things happen to them. Even me, when my fiancee died; I did everything I could to convince myself that God must have taken her home for a reason. There must be some silver lining in her death, right? Maybe God was strengthening me, or she was not actually the right person for me to marry, and God knew I wouldn’t listen any other way, so he called her Home. Right? Nonsense. God had plans for Cameron, and he was beginning to lay them out for her. He wanted her to go to Papua New Guinea to teach missionary children. What an exciting opportunity! Why would God tell her to do this, then call her Home right as she was getting ready to go? I’m not rejecting the idea because it hurt me; quite the contrary, coping with the pain should make me believe all the more that Cameron’s death had a purpose.
This same reasoning appears everywhere I go. “I got sick for a reason. God had something planned for me.” What’s really fun is when people who don’t believe in God, or any other sovreign deity, try to tell me that all things must happen for a reason. Whose reason? Does the Universe choose to beset you with trials? Maybe in the “Babylon 5” world, where all religions are merely different interpretations of the living Universe. But not in a true atheist universe. As for agnostics and deists, who don’t believe in an active, present and involved deity, there is no reason within a reasonable agnostic worldview why things happen for a reason to them, since $deity doesn’t do anything directly in the universe.
I’m not agnostic or deist, so there’s not a lot for me to reasonably say from that front. And as I don’t have a degree in comparitive religions, I’m going to leave out the worldview of non-Christian religions. What I am going to do with this study is an exegesis of the Bible, to see what God has to say on the idea that all things happen for a reason. Let’s begin with the famous Romans 8 passage, which I mentioned in my preliminary statement a few days ago.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28, NASB
This passage usually takes the cake as far as “evidence” that all things happen for a reason. Yet nowhere in the passage does it say anything to the effect that God causes all things to happen. Instead, it simply says that God works within all things to the betterment of His beloved people. We can go on with the verses immediately following:
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. - Romans 8.29-30, NASB
Ok, so now God’s in the predestination business. Again, this is a commonly misunderstood idea. Calvinists take both John Calvin’s idea of predestination, as well as Paul’s own teaching on the matter to mean that God used his sovreign will to pick and choose the people He would save. That would certainly fall under the concept of all things happening for a reason, wouldn’t it? Well, sure- if that were what the passage said. But it says God, who exists outside of time and can see all moments at once, knew your heart from the dawn of time, and knows whether you will accept Him or not. Therefore, he an opportunity before you to choose Him at the right time that you would do so. Again, let me emphasize that this is not God choosing for you. He’s giving you an opportunity and it is your choice to accept it or not. If all things happened for a reason, you wouldn’t have a choice at all in the matter. There is no salvation in being forced by God to accept Him, any more than in being forced by a crusader or a Templar to accept Christianity, unless you choose on your own to make that decision. No one else can call Jesus, Lord, on your behalf and earn you salvation.
Let’s look at another passage which is commonly used to justify the “For a Reason” belief. This one comes from the book of James, chapter 1.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. - James 1.2-4, NASB
The common misconception of this passage is that, because trials make one stronger, they must come from God. That idea is nowhere in this passage. Again, it simply states that God works within trials to help you endure them. Just as a muscle cannot be strengthened without first being torn down (this is really what we’re doing when we lift weights, damaging the muscle so it will grow back stronger), our spiritual muscle must face hardship at times in order to produce growth. If we never had a challenge in our lives, we would remain spiritual children, naïve and with no understanding of exactly how good God is. Instead, God allows us to experience hardship, in order that we might better understand his goodness and blessings.
Allowance does not mean causation, either. God did not cause Job’s suffering, but it came from Satan. It did not come with a reason, nor did God give Job a reason. He simply said, “Who are you to question me; the created demanding an answer from the Creator. But worship me, and I will bless you.” When Job did worship God, despite his hardships, not only did God strengthen him, but he blessed him with twice what was taken away from him during his trials.
Another famous passage where God’s sovreignty is misinterpreted as the cause of suffering comes in the very first book of the Bible, way back in Genesis. Jacob had twelve sons. But ten of those sons hated their second-youngest, Joseph. He was Daddy’s favorite, because he was the first son of Rachel, his favorite wife. His brothers, extremely jealous, plotted to kill him. But Judah, the wisest of the brothers, argued not to kill him but to make it look like they had, then sell him into slavery. Slave traders took Jospeh to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, a high official in the kingdom. Potiphar’s wife tried to have an affair with her slave, but when Joseph was too virtuous she blamed him for trying to molest her, and Potiphar threw him in jail. After many years, Joseph was released and ended up being the prime minister of Egypt, just in time to save his brothers from famine.
This story is commonly used to suggest that all of the hardship that Joseph went through was God’s sovreign plan, in order that He might save His people from famine and death. Joseph’s famous line to his brothers certainly seems to agree, on the surface:
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” - Genesis 50.20, NASB
The brothers caused Joseph’s harships, but God, in his sovreignty, turned it into something good. He could just as easily have sent Joseph to Pharoah as a free interpreter of dreams, but here was a passageway already available. He strengthened Joseph’s virtue and endurance in Potiphar’s household and in the prison, so that he would be a shrewd and wise prime minister. He then turned Joseph’s suffering into great opportunity, and introduced Pharoah to him at just the right moment to bring him out of his hardship and trial. This is God’s sovreignty. It was certainly not God’s will that Joseph-- or any other of his people suffer, but he used their suffering to strengthen them for the time when He could use them for His purposes. Again, he foreknew that Joseph would fall into this position, and in so doing, he predestined him to save his people, and then called him to serve God’s purpose. Nowhere does the Bible indicate, and it would be a fallacy to acknowledge it that way, that God caused Joseph’s suffering. Yes, God may be sovreign, but he is also loving and merciful, and that means that He does not cause suffering.
So there is the real heart of the matter. God is sovreign and is capable of causing all things. However, He instead chooses to work within the things that happen, to use them to better His own people and make them stronger. And after all, which is a better proof of sovreignty, that God can cause both good and bad things to happen, or that God can work His divine plan, in spite of anything bad that might happen? Clearly, the latter is both better evidence of sovreignty, and brings more glory to God.
One final passage should complete my exegesis, and that is my life verse.
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. - II Corinthians 12.7-10, NASB
Paul’s thorn, and we may never know what that thorn was, overwhelmed him. He struggled daily with this mysterious ailment of heart and soul, and possibly also of body and mind. But rather than remove it from him, God simply said, “I am bigger than this issue you’re facing. I love you anyway, and I will continue to strengthen you despite this weakness. Paul celebrates God’s sovreign choice, and accepts the thorn, as well as the strength he receives from God’s grace. For in his own weakness, God was able to work to make Paul strong. Thus, the credit goes to God, not to Paul, for the work he did. Just as God had Joshua destroy the city of Jericho through shouting and trumpets, so that the people would know it was God who acted and not Joshua, God chose to act through a weak tentmaker, rather than a strong, healthy man who could claim all of his work was done on his own.
Again, in order for things to happen all for a reason, the passage would have to say, “God gave me a thorn in the flesh to torment me.” But it does not; instead, it says, “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.” The ailment, whatever it was, came not from God, but from Satan. Just as with Job, Paul’s torment was allowed by God, but caused by Satan. In other words, it was outside of God’s divine action but not outside his abilities to continue to use Paul for His work.
So through all of this, one can see that God’s sovreignty is not threatened by the fact that He does not cause all things to happen. On the contrary, God is glorified that, even through things that are outside His own divine will, He can still act to bless His people and to complete His divine plan. No, all thngs do not happen for a reason, though God can bring reason into all things. And He does.
God is good, all the time.
All the time, God is good.
-=TK
Let’s begin with some background on the idea that all things happen for a reason. What causes people to believe this? First and foremost is fear. People are afraid to believe that bad things happen to them. Even me, when my fiancee died; I did everything I could to convince myself that God must have taken her home for a reason. There must be some silver lining in her death, right? Maybe God was strengthening me, or she was not actually the right person for me to marry, and God knew I wouldn’t listen any other way, so he called her Home. Right? Nonsense. God had plans for Cameron, and he was beginning to lay them out for her. He wanted her to go to Papua New Guinea to teach missionary children. What an exciting opportunity! Why would God tell her to do this, then call her Home right as she was getting ready to go? I’m not rejecting the idea because it hurt me; quite the contrary, coping with the pain should make me believe all the more that Cameron’s death had a purpose.
This same reasoning appears everywhere I go. “I got sick for a reason. God had something planned for me.” What’s really fun is when people who don’t believe in God, or any other sovreign deity, try to tell me that all things must happen for a reason. Whose reason? Does the Universe choose to beset you with trials? Maybe in the “Babylon 5” world, where all religions are merely different interpretations of the living Universe. But not in a true atheist universe. As for agnostics and deists, who don’t believe in an active, present and involved deity, there is no reason within a reasonable agnostic worldview why things happen for a reason to them, since $deity doesn’t do anything directly in the universe.
I’m not agnostic or deist, so there’s not a lot for me to reasonably say from that front. And as I don’t have a degree in comparitive religions, I’m going to leave out the worldview of non-Christian religions. What I am going to do with this study is an exegesis of the Bible, to see what God has to say on the idea that all things happen for a reason. Let’s begin with the famous Romans 8 passage, which I mentioned in my preliminary statement a few days ago.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28, NASB
This passage usually takes the cake as far as “evidence” that all things happen for a reason. Yet nowhere in the passage does it say anything to the effect that God causes all things to happen. Instead, it simply says that God works within all things to the betterment of His beloved people. We can go on with the verses immediately following:
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. - Romans 8.29-30, NASB
Ok, so now God’s in the predestination business. Again, this is a commonly misunderstood idea. Calvinists take both John Calvin’s idea of predestination, as well as Paul’s own teaching on the matter to mean that God used his sovreign will to pick and choose the people He would save. That would certainly fall under the concept of all things happening for a reason, wouldn’t it? Well, sure- if that were what the passage said. But it says God, who exists outside of time and can see all moments at once, knew your heart from the dawn of time, and knows whether you will accept Him or not. Therefore, he an opportunity before you to choose Him at the right time that you would do so. Again, let me emphasize that this is not God choosing for you. He’s giving you an opportunity and it is your choice to accept it or not. If all things happened for a reason, you wouldn’t have a choice at all in the matter. There is no salvation in being forced by God to accept Him, any more than in being forced by a crusader or a Templar to accept Christianity, unless you choose on your own to make that decision. No one else can call Jesus, Lord, on your behalf and earn you salvation.
Let’s look at another passage which is commonly used to justify the “For a Reason” belief. This one comes from the book of James, chapter 1.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. - James 1.2-4, NASB
The common misconception of this passage is that, because trials make one stronger, they must come from God. That idea is nowhere in this passage. Again, it simply states that God works within trials to help you endure them. Just as a muscle cannot be strengthened without first being torn down (this is really what we’re doing when we lift weights, damaging the muscle so it will grow back stronger), our spiritual muscle must face hardship at times in order to produce growth. If we never had a challenge in our lives, we would remain spiritual children, naïve and with no understanding of exactly how good God is. Instead, God allows us to experience hardship, in order that we might better understand his goodness and blessings.
Allowance does not mean causation, either. God did not cause Job’s suffering, but it came from Satan. It did not come with a reason, nor did God give Job a reason. He simply said, “Who are you to question me; the created demanding an answer from the Creator. But worship me, and I will bless you.” When Job did worship God, despite his hardships, not only did God strengthen him, but he blessed him with twice what was taken away from him during his trials.
Another famous passage where God’s sovreignty is misinterpreted as the cause of suffering comes in the very first book of the Bible, way back in Genesis. Jacob had twelve sons. But ten of those sons hated their second-youngest, Joseph. He was Daddy’s favorite, because he was the first son of Rachel, his favorite wife. His brothers, extremely jealous, plotted to kill him. But Judah, the wisest of the brothers, argued not to kill him but to make it look like they had, then sell him into slavery. Slave traders took Jospeh to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, a high official in the kingdom. Potiphar’s wife tried to have an affair with her slave, but when Joseph was too virtuous she blamed him for trying to molest her, and Potiphar threw him in jail. After many years, Joseph was released and ended up being the prime minister of Egypt, just in time to save his brothers from famine.
This story is commonly used to suggest that all of the hardship that Joseph went through was God’s sovreign plan, in order that He might save His people from famine and death. Joseph’s famous line to his brothers certainly seems to agree, on the surface:
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” - Genesis 50.20, NASB
The brothers caused Joseph’s harships, but God, in his sovreignty, turned it into something good. He could just as easily have sent Joseph to Pharoah as a free interpreter of dreams, but here was a passageway already available. He strengthened Joseph’s virtue and endurance in Potiphar’s household and in the prison, so that he would be a shrewd and wise prime minister. He then turned Joseph’s suffering into great opportunity, and introduced Pharoah to him at just the right moment to bring him out of his hardship and trial. This is God’s sovreignty. It was certainly not God’s will that Joseph-- or any other of his people suffer, but he used their suffering to strengthen them for the time when He could use them for His purposes. Again, he foreknew that Joseph would fall into this position, and in so doing, he predestined him to save his people, and then called him to serve God’s purpose. Nowhere does the Bible indicate, and it would be a fallacy to acknowledge it that way, that God caused Joseph’s suffering. Yes, God may be sovreign, but he is also loving and merciful, and that means that He does not cause suffering.
So there is the real heart of the matter. God is sovreign and is capable of causing all things. However, He instead chooses to work within the things that happen, to use them to better His own people and make them stronger. And after all, which is a better proof of sovreignty, that God can cause both good and bad things to happen, or that God can work His divine plan, in spite of anything bad that might happen? Clearly, the latter is both better evidence of sovreignty, and brings more glory to God.
One final passage should complete my exegesis, and that is my life verse.
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. - II Corinthians 12.7-10, NASB
Paul’s thorn, and we may never know what that thorn was, overwhelmed him. He struggled daily with this mysterious ailment of heart and soul, and possibly also of body and mind. But rather than remove it from him, God simply said, “I am bigger than this issue you’re facing. I love you anyway, and I will continue to strengthen you despite this weakness. Paul celebrates God’s sovreign choice, and accepts the thorn, as well as the strength he receives from God’s grace. For in his own weakness, God was able to work to make Paul strong. Thus, the credit goes to God, not to Paul, for the work he did. Just as God had Joshua destroy the city of Jericho through shouting and trumpets, so that the people would know it was God who acted and not Joshua, God chose to act through a weak tentmaker, rather than a strong, healthy man who could claim all of his work was done on his own.
Again, in order for things to happen all for a reason, the passage would have to say, “God gave me a thorn in the flesh to torment me.” But it does not; instead, it says, “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.” The ailment, whatever it was, came not from God, but from Satan. Just as with Job, Paul’s torment was allowed by God, but caused by Satan. In other words, it was outside of God’s divine action but not outside his abilities to continue to use Paul for His work.
So through all of this, one can see that God’s sovreignty is not threatened by the fact that He does not cause all things to happen. On the contrary, God is glorified that, even through things that are outside His own divine will, He can still act to bless His people and to complete His divine plan. No, all thngs do not happen for a reason, though God can bring reason into all things. And He does.
God is good, all the time.
All the time, God is good.
-=TK