--Sovereignty is a relatively antiquated term, but it really means someone who is supremely in control, a king in terms of authority over everything.
--So when we say God is Sovereign, we mean that He is the King of the Universe. Not merely that He is in charge of it but that He is fully entitled to this authority by virtue of the fact that He is solely responsible both for bringing this universe into being and continuing to make it exist by His Will. Hence, His Sovereignty is a direct result of the fact that He is the Creator and the Sustainer.
--Even so, there are three very different notions of the Sovereignty of God.
--The first is that god is not completely sovereign, but only mostly sovereign. There are things that exist alongside him and over which he does not have total control. This is a heretical view which Christians condemn, hence my non-capitalization of the terms.
--The second is that God is totally and completely sovereign over everything originally, but that He has granted away at least some of that sovereignty to men (and perhaps other beings) who are capable of thwarting His Will. He thus self-limits His Sovereignty for a possible variety of reasons. Many Christians hold this view, although few of them would feel comfortable saying it out loud quite this way because it sounds like a heresy in the sense that God has thus done the impossible in becoming not-God, even by His own choice. I agree with this criticism, but it is a view many people hold.
--The third concept of God’s Sovereignty is that not only is He by natural right as Creator and Sustainer the complete and utter King over all, He never abdicates any aspect of this authority and so everything that happens in the universe is a result of His Will, either actively by causing it to happen or passively by permitting it to happen. To what degree there is a difference between what He causes and what He permits is a matter of great dispute within Christianity.
--This third view is the standard Christian view of God’s Sovereignty.
--So when we say God is Sovereign, we mean that He is the King of the Universe. Not merely that He is in charge of it but that He is fully entitled to this authority by virtue of the fact that He is solely responsible both for bringing this universe into being and continuing to make it exist by His Will. Hence, His Sovereignty is a direct result of the fact that He is the Creator and the Sustainer.
--Even so, there are three very different notions of the Sovereignty of God.
--The first is that god is not completely sovereign, but only mostly sovereign. There are things that exist alongside him and over which he does not have total control. This is a heretical view which Christians condemn, hence my non-capitalization of the terms.
--The second is that God is totally and completely sovereign over everything originally, but that He has granted away at least some of that sovereignty to men (and perhaps other beings) who are capable of thwarting His Will. He thus self-limits His Sovereignty for a possible variety of reasons. Many Christians hold this view, although few of them would feel comfortable saying it out loud quite this way because it sounds like a heresy in the sense that God has thus done the impossible in becoming not-God, even by His own choice. I agree with this criticism, but it is a view many people hold.
--The third concept of God’s Sovereignty is that not only is He by natural right as Creator and Sustainer the complete and utter King over all, He never abdicates any aspect of this authority and so everything that happens in the universe is a result of His Will, either actively by causing it to happen or passively by permitting it to happen. To what degree there is a difference between what He causes and what He permits is a matter of great dispute within Christianity.
--This third view is the standard Christian view of God’s Sovereignty.
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