OK, Let's Use The Non-Biblical Word..."Sovereignty"

Common Sense Commentary: There are Bible versions, not the King James, which use the word "sovereign", in place of the word "God", over 300 times, but that is an erroneous translation.

Procreation and "dominion" were God's stated and primary,  sovereign will, physically, for people, as given to Adam and Eve in Eden.  Gen.1:28...
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."  So God's "sovereign will", physically, for us was to "multiply", have children, "subdue" the earth, and have "dominion" over it. Limited "Human Sovereignty" fits quite well here and that was God's "sovereign will" for humanity.

His primary, sovereign will, spiritually, for people, was to love Him, as demonstrated by our obedience to, and worship of Him.  But, He wanted us to love, obey and worship Him by our own free will choice, not by compulsion, intimidation or fear. So, immediately after the creation, the first man and woman had a world full of permission and freedom ..."every herb... and every fruit tree" for food,  and to"multiply" with human sovereignty (dominion) on earth. Gen.1:26-29.  But, to exercise their free will to love, obey and worship Him, God gave them just one little negative, "thou shalt not".... "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."  Gen.3:3.  Clearly, the choice was theirs ... to love God enough to obey His perfect will for them  ...  or not. It was obviously God's "sovereign will" for Adam and Eve and the entire human race that we have a free will choice to love, obey and worship Him... or to do otherwise, as we chose. That was His sovereign will.

God created the entire human race in His image and likeness ..."And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion... upon the earth." "Dominion upon the earth"  (sovereignty) was a small gift of "likeness" to our Creator's Universal dominion. Another "likeness" gift He gave us was human free will choice in our decisions. We can chose to love, obey and worship Him or not to. THIS was His sovereign will for us, that we not be little, remotely controlled robots or pegs on a game board, but His children, in His image and likeness, responsible for our own thoughts, words and actions.  THIS  was His "sovereign will" for us.

It was God's "sovereign will" that both angels and humans have a "sovereign will" ... but limited to their own thoughts, words and actions and to be accountable to Him for those free will choices.  And God called it our "dominion"... a word which means "supreme authority", similar to sovereignty.  We are lowly sovereigns or stewards, under God only, of the "dominion"  He  assigned us ... our little autonomous part of the earth and its contents.

That same "free will" is demonstrated in angels by the Arch-angel Lucifer's thought-words, quoted by God in Isa.14:12-15, where Lucifer lustfully swore, "I will" five times, that he would take God's throne away from Him and rule the universe in God's place. Lucifer had his own, God given, dominion over one third of all the angels.
And, mystery of mysteries, that third of the free will angels of heaven followed him, of their own free will, in the rebellion.  That was not God's perfect will for His angels. But it was His "sovereign will" that they have a mind of their own, a will of their own and that they be accountable for their free will choices as we are responsible for ours.  You might call it God's permissive will, based on His perfect sovereign will, that we and angels have a free will.   That has always been God's "sovereign will" and He has never seen fit to change it or rescind it and force the angels and every human being on earth to be good, to obey and worship Him automatically. Programed to do so. No!

Human free will was first demonstrated in Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden, at the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when they freely chose to disobey God and eat of that forbidden fruit .... and God did not stop them.  They made the choice and they suffered the consequences of their free will choice, and were driven from the garden.
Human will is also seen in Noah and his family choosing to obey God in building the ark and choosing, obediently, to enter it... to their salvation.  Human will is again seen at the tower of Babel....  And the LORD said,  "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." Gen.11:6. This disobedience was clearly their free will decision not God's. God's permissive will allows us to disobey Him because He, in His sovereign will, gave us a free will. God does not and cannot violate His own set will. So when He allows a heinous crime to be committed, it is not his perfect will but His permissive will, because He gave us all a free will which He will not change, because a free will is necessary if we, the human race, are to be judged for our own sins.  Human will is also seen in Lot's free will choice of Sodom, as his home, instead of the pleasant, fertile plain. Gen.13:9.  He paid dearly for his bad choice.  At the same time, the LORD, speaking of Abraham, said, "I know him, that he will command his children ...." Gen.18:19.  This verse aligns with the "Foreknowledge IS predestination" verse, Rom.8:29.. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate  to be conformed to the image of his Son.... Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." The divine order, and work of  God, in "redemption" begins with "Foreknowledge" and progresses  to "glorification", at the second coming. "...when he shall appear, we shall be like him...." 1Jn.3:2. 

Listen carefully.  Foreknowledge is the front part (prefix) of omniscience (past & future). As  predestination is the simultaneous result of foreknowledge, election is the simultaneous result of predestination. Though they are not exactly the same things, neither precedes nor is subsequent to the other. God has always eternally foreknown everything, therefore always eternally predestined, therefore always eternally elected those He foreknew would believe on Jesus Christ. Similarly, but what is more, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all foreknew all things, past and future, at the same time, forever in the past and will, forever in the future.

Jesus understood completely God's love for the world of people He had created in His own likeness, and then gave them a free will to choose their own eternal fate by simply believing and accepting God's will ... or not.  Jesus said of it, "For God so loved the world ... that whosoever believeth on him ...." Jn.3:16. We must choose to believe on Jesus, of our own free will. THAT is God's sovereign will.

Jesus is the "light" of God's remedy for man's self destructive, free will sin. Jesus said, of himself, "I am the light of the world...." Jn.8:12.  And in Jn.1:9, "That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The Holy Spirit carries that light, that motivation, that impulse to seek the true God, into every soul on earth. Some willingly respond to it and some willfully do not.

Even Jesus, the God-man, had a human will. When praying to God the Father, before his crucifixion, he prayed, "Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Matt.26:39.

So why would God enlighten "every man that cometh into the world" if most of those people could not be saved even if they wanted to be saved, as Calvinists believe ... solely because they were not chosen to be saved?  Think! Why, if "God so loved the (whole) world" of people, "enlightened" them and "convicted" them of their need, would He not also save them if they believed???  When Jesus ascended back into heaven, he sent the Holy spirit to continue the convicting work of God in the hearts of the whole world's inhabitants. Jesus promised, "When he (Holy Spirit) is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness (the need of it), and of judgement (the certainty of it). "  Jn.16:8.

Why would Jesus and God the father bother to do that if, as a result of their effort,
those convicted of their sins, who wanted rightness and forgiveness, and to escape that certainty of judgement, could not repent and be saved anyway, because God had already, by His pseudo "sovereign will", rejected them based solely on nothing but His choosing one and rejecting another,  and not by His sovereign foreknowledge of their free will acceptance or rejection of Jesus?

Jesus said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might be saved." Jn.5:40. "Ye will not!!!

 God is omniscient. He knows everything about everything and everyone, past, present and future. An example of His foreknowledge is prophecy. God revealed certain things, through His prophets, that He knew would happen in the future, before the fact. Some of those things, He himself would determine and make happen. Such things as the birth of His Son, Jesus the Christ (Messiah) ... in Bethlehem ... at a time determined by Him and through a virgin determined by Him. Other things, God foretold would happen based on His foreknowledge of what Satan or men would do in their own free will, which He, in His sovereign will, gave them at creation. Things such as King Herod's determination and self-will to kill the baby Jesus by killing all the boy babies of that age, in Judea, to be sure he didn't miss Jesus. Herod did that on his own, by the free will which God, in His sovereign will, gave us all when He created man in His image and likeness. God did not dictate Adam and Eve's sin or Herod's sin or our sins, but in His sovereign will He gave us all a free will to choose our actions. And so, He lets terrible things happen because His decision was made at creation to let us decide to do good or bad, and He foreknows which we will choose, and lets it happen for that reason.... but He also determined at creation to hold us accountable for our bad choices and to reward our obedience. When people ask, "Why does God let terrible, cruel and unjust things happen?" This is the answer. There is no other answer. It was His sovereign will to give us all a free will at creation and that he would judge our free will decisions at the Judgement Seat of Christ for Christians and the Great White Throne for the unsaved, willful rejectors


Any and every person who will believe, repent and accept Christ will be saved.
And God already knows (foreknows) what your free will decision will be. He is omniscient ..... Of course He knows!


"And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him may have everlasting life ...." Jn.6:40  If that is God's perfect, sovereign will, why isn't "every one" saved? Their own will determines it.

"Who (God) will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim.2:4. If that is God's perfect, sovereign will, why don't they "all" "come" and be "saved"?   Their own will determines it.

"The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet.3:9. If that is God's perfect, sovereign will, why do most of them "perish" and not "come to repentance"?   Their own will determines it.

"It is not the will of the Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Matt.18:14.  If that is God's perfect, sovereign will, why isn't it done?


The answer to all of the above is, that God's perfect sovereign will,  since creation is, that every eternal soul have a say, yea or nay, in the matter of their acceptance or rejection of their sins, of Christ and of their salvation.  Many a soul has wanted to be saved but wanted their sins more by their own free will.

"Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Rev.22:17.


"Whosoever will do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister...."Mk.3:35


"For whosoever will come after me, let him...." Mk. 8:34.


"That servant, which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself ...." Lk.12:47.

Yes, I know it is long, but it is a major issue among Christians today. The sin of it is in putting upon God the responsibility for our sins and sending people to hell, not for their willful rejection or non-acceptance of Christ or anything they did or didn't do, but simply because He did not want them.  That contradicts all of the above verses.


God has done all that is necessary and all He is going to do toward your salvation. The next move is up to you.  He will not force you but He will accept you if you accept Him.   Exercise your free will and believe on Jesus Christ as your Saviour, repent of your sins, and ask him into your heart and life. He already knows what your free will decision will be. ... but you will decide it. RB