What does God Allow?
Question and Answer Session with Barry Bennet
Pam asks: “Is it Scriptural to believe God always wills or allows everything that happens, to have His will accomplished on earth?”
Barry Bennet answers: In other words, does God allow everything that is happening on the earth to happen, and does He will things to happen in order to accomplish His purpose?
Barry says, “This is a good question.”
Many Christians, pastors, and church leaders do not understand that God gave the earth to man. From the time of Adam (whom He gave the earth specifically, and all mankind through Adam), He allowed what Adam allowed. Adam allowed the serpent to convince him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and God did not intervene. He had already given His word, “If you do this, you will die.”
Adam did it anyway. He unleashed death, and with death came all kinds of corruption, sickness, poverty, ignorance, and suffering. All of the ills we see in the world today (including natural disasters), once sin was unleashed in the earth it created all of the problems we have today. All the problems on a cultural level, on a political level, on a natural disaster level, and on a personal level. All of the ills in our society can be traced back to Adam’s choice to become independent from Gods’ word.
God gave the earth to man. Psalm 115:16 “The heaven, even the heavens are the LORD’s: but the earth had he given to the children of men.”
So few understand this, but the earth has been given to men, and what we allow, God will allow. We choose to excercise faith in God and receive all the blessings Jesus paid for. But we can also choose sin. If we choose to sin, if we choose corruption, if we choose to speed, if we choose to kick the dog, if we choose to yell at our spouse, God will allow that. It’s not for some other purpose. There is no divine purpose in any of that, it’s simply that God is respecting the fact that He gave the earth to man.
In fact if you want to go further into this, in order to redeem the earth, He had to become a man. Why? Why did Jesus refer to Himself as the Son of man? Because if God gave the earth to man, and man gave it to the devil--and to death, and to sin; then only a man can legally redeem the earth. There was no man [perfect/sinless enough to do that] so God became that man. The Word became flesh.
So the earth was given to man, and God is allowing what man allows. It is says in Psalm 8:4-6 “What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou vastest him? (5) For thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. (6) Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet [NLT says, “putting all things under their authority].
The world is a mess because of us, not because of God. The world is a mess because of our choices, our decisions, our independence from God, and our lack of caring about what God thinks. That’s why the world is in such a mess. That is not God’s purpose.
How does God accomplish His purpose on the earth?
God accomplishes His will through His children who proclaim His name, walk in the gift of righteousness, are filled with the Spirit, live by faith, stand on His promises, appropriate His gifts, wear His armor, and use the keys of the His Kingdom.
God is going to accomplish His will on the earth through us, through men, because He gave the earth to men, and He has redeemed us. If you are a redeemed son or daughter of God, then you have a responsibility to bear the image of Christ to the world; to proclaim Christ, to walk in the Spirit, to walk by faith, to walk in righteousness, and THAT is how God is going to accomplish His purpose on the this earth. All of the evil on the earth does not come from God.
To see this video clip for yourself, follow the link below and fast forward to minute 10:55-15:26
https://www.facebook.com/officialbarrybennett/videos/275563263352602/
Replies
Healthseeker, I think the world of you, but I don't agree with you about this. I'm not going to get you to change; nor will I change. We'll just have to be friends regardless and ask Jesus someday. Hugs.
R
Hi Robin, I have known that we disagreed about who God is ever since we met, and just to be clear, I also think the world of you. I respect you a lot. I was in your group for a very long time, and I got to know your beliefs extremely well. I knew when I posted this that you would disagree with it. Our beliefs are very, very different. I firmly believe that the Bible tells us that God sent Jesus to the earth to die for our sins and to take away the penalty for those sins, which is suffering. Suffering in the earth is a result of sin, and it entered the world when Adam and Eve bowed down to Satan and listened to him instead of God. John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came to give us an abundant life, and that Satan is the thief that steals, kills, and destroys. Galatians 3:13 tells us that Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. So I believe Jesus sacrifice brought redemption.
When Jesus was on the earth, He demonstrated the Spiritual kingdom to us. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead. Acts 10:38 tells us that He healed ALL that were oppressed by the devil. Matthew 8:17 tells that Jesus had a legal right to heal. Let's look at that passage: Matthew 8:14-17, "When Jesus arrived at Peter's house, Peter's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. (15) But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him. (16) That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. (17) This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, 'He took our SICKNESSES and removed our DISEASES."
People may say that Jesus wasn't talking about physical sicknesses here, but let's look at the same message in Luke:
Luke 4:38-41 (NLT)
"After leaving the synagogue that day, Jesus went to Simon's home, where he found simon's mother-in-law sick with a high fever. 'Please heal her,' everyone begged. (39) Standing at her bedside, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. And she got up at once and prepared a meal for them. (40) As the suns went down that evening, people throughout the village brought sick family members to Jesus. No matter what their diseases were, the touch of his hand healed everyone. (41) Many were possessed by demons; and the demons came out..."
And in Mark:
Mark 1:30-32 "Now Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. (31) So he went to her bedside, took her by the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a meal for them. (32) That evening after sunset, many sick and demon possessed people were brought to Jesus. (33) The whole town gathered at the door to watch. (34) So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cat out many demons..."
So we can see from all three Gospels that Matthew WAS talking about physical sickness when he said in chapter 8, verse 17 that Jesus took our sicknesses and removed our diseases. He was quoting from Isaiah 53:4 the chapter that tells us about Jesus suffering before and on the cross. In most translations, the words in Isaiah 53:4 are translated 'griefs" and "sorrows", but if you look that passage up in Hebrew, the literal words are "sicknesses" and "pains" Jesus took the penalty for sin, so He also redeemed us from the curse of sin, and one of those curses was sickness.
I believe Jesus also demonstrated to us the will of the Father while He was here on the earth. , as it says in John 15:19 “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does ONLY what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does." So Jesus demonstrated that God's will was to heal and take away suffering. Jesus even sent His disciples out to do the same thing, as we can see in Luke 9:1-2, "Then Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, (2) and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick."
John 14:12 tells us, “I tell you the truth, ANYONE who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father."
Mark 16:17-18 reiterates this, "These miraculous signs will accompany those who BELIEVE, They will cast out demons in my name... (18) They will be able to handle snakes with safety,...They will place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed." There are many ministries today that still have these signs and wonders that accompany them, because they believe. I can show you hundreds of healing testimony videos, and I myself am also being healed.
The Bible does say that we must share in Christ's sufferings (Romans 8:17). But how did Christ suffer? He suffered persecution. It is clear that Jesus didn't redeem us from persecution, and we can see that in Paul's writings that he suffered many trials. 2 Corinthians 11:24-31 explains them in detail. He suffered tremendously, but if you read that list, no sicknesses were listed there, only the trials he suffered through persecution. Jesus told us that the world hated Him, and it would also hate us, so we must share in the suffering of persecution, Why? I firmly believe God gave us a free will, and that we are not God's puppets, robots, or pawns in His chess game. God allows people to practice their free will, Judgement will come because of disobedience, but we can see in the Garden of Eden that God didn't intervene and prevent Adam and Eve from defying Him. He didn't prevent Pharaoh from oppressing His people in the book of Exodus, and He didn't prevent the children of Israel from sacrificing their children to Molech. Curses came because of those sins, and God brought judgment on them, but He allowed them to practice their free will before He intervened. We don't have to agree, but I firmly believe suffering is because of sin, and God allows us to practice our free will. I also believe God wants us blessed, and Satan wants us to suffer. I believe God is a good God that sent Jesus to redeem mankind from suffering, and to set up His Spiritual kingdom here until He comes back, He has equipped His church with the Holy Spirit, and other weapons to fight against Satan's attacks (Ephesians 6:10-18). If you are still reading, thank you for getting this far. Blessings to you!
Thinking about Job and that Satan could only do to him as much as God allowed?
Job had no covenant with God. Abraham had a covenant that included protection from his enemies. Israel had a covenant that protected them from their enemies, Job had no covenant, so Satan had access to him. God is judicial God, and He governs Himself through laws. He said that Adam and Eve had dominion over the earth, and they bowed to Satan and allowed him access to the earth. Satan had a legal right to Job, because of what Adam and Eve did, but God still protected him from death. God allowed Satan access because He won't go back on His Word once He says something. The way God changed that was through making various covenants. Our covenant is even better than what Abraham had, and much much better than what Israel had. Under our covenant, we not only have God's protection if we put our trust and faith in God, but we also have weapons against Satan, plus we have authority over him. Luke 10:19-29 says, "Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. 20 But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” As I said, you don't have to agree. This post was not directed at you. I'm just sharing what I believe to be the truth for anyone that wants to hear it. Blessings!
I have always been confused about the religion site. There are so many opinions and so many interpretations.
I don't think that anyone will ever agree. I just read and try to take it all in.
Why does Barry Bennet know all? I think I am sticking with the authors of the Bible.
Carly, thank you for your input. In response to your question, I don't think Barry Bennett knows all, I just liked what he had to say, so I posted it. Many people post things from preachers they follow. In my groups, I post from a wide variety of preachers. I also write my own posts. Reading the Bible for yourself and drawing your own conclusions is an excellent idea. I think we all should do that. Hugs!
God bless Healthseeker and Carly. Love you girls.
God bless you also shadowlady, and love you too!