Last night I listened to some wonderful missionaries from South America tell about how persecuted the evangelical churches have been in Columbia this last decade. He said over 300 pastors had been assassinated by kidnappers and narco-terrorists. He then told an inspiring story about a big burly terrorist who interrupted a church service. He was draped in hand-grenades, had two pistols stuck in his belt, and carried an automatic rifle in a sling around his shoulder.
The pastor boldly approached the man, shook his hand and asked how he could help him. The power of God moving through the pastor’s hand staggered the man. As the pastor and others in the church helped him to a chair, he said, “I can tell you are a man of God; please pray me”. The pastor and others laid hands on him and his weapons and prayed for God to save him. When they were done, he left the church without harming anyone and asked them to continue praying for him. The missionary ended this story by praising God and saying, “God is in control!”
I loved this story, but I found myself wondering if God was equally in control when hundreds of other pastors were assassinated. If we say yes, we are forced to admit these two examples of his control are quite different. We are not likely to share the murder of these other pastors as reasons for praising God even though we might thank God for their faithfulness in the face of death. Of course, our ways are not God ways, and the martyrdom of pastors in Columbia has fueled tremendous growth. So should we see these murders as part of God’s sovereign plan?
I think the parable of Jesus in Matthew 13 is helpful. In the parable of the wheat and tares the master’s servants come to him and say, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” The master answered, “An enemy has done this!”
Some Christians would look at the tares and say, “Praise God for tares! He works in mysterious ways! We are finite and can’t understand the inscrutable wisdom of God in mixing in all these tares!” Such a response seems spiritual even though unbiblical. I have often heard people at prayer meetings conclude a long list of terrible things with “But God is still in control!” Much on their list, however, seemed to be stuff more likely under the control of God’s enemy.
It is certainly true that despite all the enemy can and does do, God’s will and kingdom will triumph! And God is able to take all the enemy throws at us and work it for our good and against Satan’s purposes. But Jesus himself refers to Satan as “the ruler of this world.” In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.
Rulers, even evil spiritual ones, control some stuff—stuff God isn’t controlling. Scripture declares there will come a day when all things are made subject to Christ—a day when all things are put under His feet, a day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus is Lord. But not yet. Right now the world is a battlefield where God is taking territory heart by heart.
God controls some things, Satan controls others. Sometimes Satan afflicts God’s people with terrible things. It is okay to say like the master in the parable, “An enemy has done this!” It is also okay to not understand why in some instances God intervenes and defeats the enemy and in others God doesn’t. We can rejoice when a narco-terrorist is stopped in his tracks by God’s power. We can also mourn that Satan stirred the hearts of evil men to assassinate pastors. There is much Satan controls, but God is on the move.
In this battle there are real casualties, but no suffering for Christ goes unrewarded or unfruitful. And death, Satan’s most powerful weapon against us, is only that which ushers us into God’s presence. We should respond to this whole question of what God does or doesn’t control by making certain God controls us and by becoming warriors who discern the battle raging about us.
