SMIB Sucks said:
Question: What does god's will have to do with elections? Tell me how it's even remotly possible that a god could want or have anything to do with an election? I'm sure this god of yours has more important things to worry about than who the speaker of the house is. What about all the people that voted Democrat in this recent election, do you think they all are devil worshippers? I mean what are you thinking here? I hope you give me a good response instead of an attack becuase I am very curious.
I'm guessing you're not terribly religious or you'd be familiar with the concept discussed, and not the straw man you've turned it into.
One is, God's omnipotence and his involvement in the world.
Some types believe that God wound up the world like a little clock, and is content to pretty much let it run, and only is involved in the really big things and important people. He sometimes intervenes in things like wars or when Grandma has a heart attack.
Others are more fatalistic - they believe NOTHING happens without God's direct intervention. This of course, makes God the actual source of evil, and so - well, not a LOT of people believe this - at least not, directly.
But many evangelicals follow a different approach - which they often distill into the phrase "God is in control". They'll point frequently to the story of Joseph, which illustrates the concept perfectly.
See, Joseph was the next to youngest - and clearly, FAVORITE - son of Jacob (Israel). He was the first son of the wife he REALLY labored for 14 years for, having been duped into marriage with her sister, and been given children by her and her handmaiden. But he favored the child given him by Rachel, and understandably - the REST OF HIS SIBLINGS couldn't stand him. His father made a special coat for him, and Joseph, who received visions, was a bit *vocal* in telling them to his brothers.
So they sold him into slavery. Well not REALLY. Actually they threw him into a cistern in order to KILL him, but when they saw some traders go by, they figured they could at least make some MONEY of off him.
You probably know the rest of the story - Joseph is sold, is a slave, gets unjustly thrown in prison, interprets dreams, is brought to Pharoah and correctly interprets that a famine is coming and is placed over all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. He saves his starving family with whom he is reunited in extremely dramatic fashion.
And the crucial remark by Joseph "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives". The time between the two events was many decades - between the selling of Joseph and his rise in Egypt.
So the understanding is this - not so much as a single sparrow falls to earth without God's say-so. God permits some things to happen - and he causes others to happen - but his purpose isn't thwarted, even though he refuses to intervene in some things he's given to us to decide. NO ONE is unimportant to God. The small events of your life are EVERY BIT AS IMPORTANT as those of every one else. You don't draw a single breath or have a single heartbeat without the working of God. Evil events - such as what happened to Joseph - happen all the time. God makes them work for the good. It does not make God the creator of evil - but he may or may not halt it in its tracks because mankind is still answerable to him for it.
So if John Kerry had been elected President - it's because God allowed it to be that way. If Bush had been elected - same thing. If Kim Jong Il dies tomorrow or if he lives to be a hundred - the same thing is true. He's in control. You may not like the events as they unfold, but he knows what he's doing.
