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The God over Geopolitics · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: As the year draws to a close, so too does
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  Speaker 1: our Bible reading schedule. And I want to thank you
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  Speaker 1: everyone who joined us in twenty twenty four and the
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  Speaker 1: Navigator's Bible reading plan. As we get this late in
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  Speaker 1: the year, we find ourselves in the final chapters of
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  Speaker 1: Revelation Tomorrow reading Revelation seventeen together a chapter on the
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  Speaker 1: mind of Dan, who is a new listener to the podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome Dan, he asks this Pastor John, Hello, and thank
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  Speaker 1: you for taking my question. This year of twenty twenty
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: four turned out to be another tense year in geopolitics,
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  Speaker 1: with two wars happening at least at least yeah civil
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  Speaker 1: war in Sudan as well, leading to lots of talk
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  Speaker 1: about the breakout of World War three, overgrowing tensions between
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  Speaker 1: the United States and the West against China and Russia
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  Speaker 1: and North Korea and Iran. I think I used to
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  Speaker 1: understand God's relationship to the rulers of superpowers of this world.
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  Speaker 1: A's predictive. He was sovereign in that he foreknew what
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  Speaker 1: global rulers would freely do. Then I encounter Revelation seventeen seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: This verse stopped me in my tracks. Everything has changed
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  Speaker 1: for me. Can you explain the meaning of this text,
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  Speaker 1: whether it generally explains how things work today? And if so,
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  Speaker 1: what rule God is playing in geopolitics right now.
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  Speaker 2: Well, before we cut to the question and actually quote
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  Speaker 2: the text so people will know what he's asking about,
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  Speaker 2: let me celebrate Dan's submission to the particularity of biblical teaching.
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  Speaker 2: Oh how I love this, Oh how needed this is.
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  Speaker 2: So many people today are treating the Bible as a
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  Speaker 2: kind of non directive, open ended story that people can
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  Speaker 2: mold into whatever view of God or ethics they want.
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  Speaker 2: But the Bible, in fact, is made up of sentences
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  Speaker 2: and paragraphs that have intentional meanings from God inspired authors,
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  Speaker 2: and we ought to bring our lives into submission to
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  Speaker 2: what those sentences truly teach. What I long for and
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  Speaker 2: pray for, Tony in our APG listeners is that they
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  Speaker 2: would be faithful readers of their Bibles. They become so
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  Speaker 2: familiar with the teaching of scripture that when they read
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  Speaker 2: erroneous doctrinal statements, they would think of biblical sentences that
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  Speaker 2: say the opposite, and they wouldn't be swayed away from
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  Speaker 2: the truth. For example, not long ago, I was reading
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  Speaker 2: a major Christian news magazine that contain these two sentences,
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  Speaker 2: and they do relate indirectly to dance question believing where
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  Speaker 2: cal This is the quote where Calvin taught predestination. Wesley
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  Speaker 2: believed that through prevenient grace, God freed the human will
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  Speaker 2: sufficiently to accept or reject the offer of salvation. No,
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  Speaker 2: so far, so good. I think that's accurate. But then
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  Speaker 2: this sentence, God predestined a plan of salvation, not individual people.
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  Speaker 2: Close quote. Now, I'm not going to blame John Wesley
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  Speaker 2: for anything here, because he's way more careful than this writer.
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  Speaker 2: That last sentence is just blamed Falts. Its faults for Wesleyans,
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  Speaker 2: it's faults for Calvinists like me. It says God predestined
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  Speaker 2: a plan of salvation, not individual people. And what I
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  Speaker 2: hope for in all our listeners is that when they
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  Speaker 2: read a sentence like that, they would say, wait, what
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  Speaker 2: about Romans A twenty nine? What about Romans A thirty?
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  Speaker 2: Those whom God foreknew he predestined, and those whom heined
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  Speaker 2: he called, and those whom he called he justified, And
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  Speaker 2: those whom he justified he glorified, those predestined, those called
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  Speaker 2: those justified those glorified. These are individual people whom God predestined.
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  Speaker 2: Calvinists think that Wesleyans think that what we disagree about
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  Speaker 2: is the basis of predestination. But both agree that God
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  Speaker 2: predestined individual people. And I just want our listeners to
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  Speaker 2: be people who hear the statement God does not predestined
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  Speaker 2: individuals and say that's not what the Bible teaches. I
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  Speaker 2: can't think of a verse where that that's not true.
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  Speaker 2: It's just not true. I don't care what magazine it's
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  Speaker 2: in or who says it. That's the kind of Bible
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  Speaker 2: people we need. Now, Dan, who's asking this question, reflects
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  Speaker 2: this mindset. That's what I'm celebrating. He has a viewpoint
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  Speaker 2: in his head about what sovereignty means, and suddenly he
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  Speaker 2: sees a sentence in Revelation seventeen seventeen and says, whoa
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  Speaker 2: thing that versus teaching my viewpoint. Instead of twisting the verse,
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  Speaker 2: he changes to viewpoint. Here's what he says. I think
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  Speaker 2: I used to understand God's relationships to rulers of superpowers
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  Speaker 2: of the world as predictive. He was sovereign in that
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  Speaker 2: he foreknew what global rulers would freely do. Then I
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  Speaker 2: encountered Revelation seventeen seventeen. This verse stopped me in my tracks.
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  Speaker 2: Everything has changed for me. Hmm, good, yes, but that happens. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: this is amazing. Here's a human being with a heart
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  Speaker 2: and a mind ready to be led by scripture, and
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  Speaker 2: he reads this. Here's what he reads in Revelation seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: The ten horns that you saw are ten kings. These
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  Speaker 2: are of one mind, and they hand over their power
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  Speaker 2: and authority to the beast, the Ediechrist. For God, God
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  Speaker 2: has put it into their hearts, these ten kings to
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  Speaker 2: carry out His purpose by being of one mind and
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  Speaker 2: handing over their royal power to the beast, until the
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  Speaker 2: words of God are fulfilled. Now, what Dan saw in
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  Speaker 2: Revelations seventeen seventeen is that his prior view of God's
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  Speaker 2: sovereignty as fore knowing the acts of evil kings, didn't
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  Speaker 2: match up with the fairly clear teaching in this verse. Namely,
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  Speaker 2: God doesn't just forekno what these ten kings are going
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  Speaker 2: to do, but he quote put it in their heart
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  Speaker 2: to carry out His purpose by handing over their power
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  Speaker 2: to the beast, the Antichrist. So here we are back
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  Speaker 2: at predestination. I meant that that quote from that magazine
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  Speaker 2: has to do with what we're talking about here and
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  Speaker 2: God's sovereignty to decide everything that will happen in this world,
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  Speaker 2: including the actions of wicked kings. Now here's what often
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  Speaker 2: happens when a dan experience like he had takes place.
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  Speaker 2: What often happens when a teaching of the Bible changes
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  Speaker 2: the way we think is that we start seeing the
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  Speaker 2: change in the Bible over and over. It's just amazing.
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  Speaker 2: How could I not under seen that. We say, here
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  Speaker 2: it is, there it is, and there it is. What
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  Speaker 2: in the world was I thinking? For example, Proverbs twenty
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  Speaker 2: one to one, the king's heart is a stream of
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  Speaker 2: water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it
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  Speaker 2: wherever he will. Not just godly kings, all kings, pagan kings,
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  Speaker 2: Kings like Cyrus and artaxer Sees. When they assisted in
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  Speaker 2: the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, Ezra says, blessed
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  Speaker 2: be the Lord Lord who put such a thing as
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  Speaker 2: this into the heart of the king to beautify the
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  Speaker 2: house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. Cyrus and
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  Speaker 2: our Dexerxes were not believers God, just directed their hearts
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  Speaker 2: to do what he wanted them to get done, or
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  Speaker 2: Daniel says of the arrogant Beltaschesar quote, the God who's
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  Speaker 2: in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all
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  Speaker 2: your ways? You have not honored all the arrogant kings
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  Speaker 2: ways are in the hand of God. Or most important
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  Speaker 2: of all acts Chapter four, the Christians are praying about
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  Speaker 2: the wicked rulers, Herod and Pilot, and the greatest evil
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  Speaker 2: that's ever been done in the history of the world,
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  Speaker 2: I mean the murder of the Son of God. And
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  Speaker 2: they pray like this truly, in this city there were
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  Speaker 2: gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed
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  Speaker 2: both Herod and ponstious Pilot, along with the gentiles and
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  Speaker 2: the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and
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  Speaker 2: your plan predestined to take place. They murdered the Son
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  Speaker 2: of God, and God predestined it. If he hadn't, nobody
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  Speaker 2: would be saved. So what all these verses show, especially
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  Speaker 2: the last ones, is that God, in his infinite wisdom
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  Speaker 2: and righteousness and power, is able to design the deeds
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  Speaker 2: of evil kings so as to bring about his purposes
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  Speaker 2: for good. The good of his people and the glory
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  Speaker 2: of his name. We don't need to be able to
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  Speaker 2: explain in detail how God does that. It may remain
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  Speaker 2: a mystery how he is sovereign and humans are morally accountable,
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  Speaker 2: that kings mean evil and God means it for good
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  Speaker 2: Genesis fifty twenty. But we submit to what the Bible teaches.
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  Speaker 2: God is greater than we are. So, in answer to
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  Speaker 2: Dan's final question, the role that God is playing in
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  Speaker 2: geopolitics this very day is the role of an absolutely sovereign,
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  Speaker 2: all governing, all righteous, all wise, all good God. King's
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  Speaker 2: rise and fall at God's decree. I am God, and
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  Speaker 2: there is no other. I am God, and there is
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  Speaker 2: none like me, saying my counsel shall stand and I
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  Speaker 2: will accomplish all my purpose of forty six. The kings
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  Speaker 2: who hand it over their power to the beast are
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  Speaker 2: no less under God's sovereign control than the kings who
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  Speaker 2: rule righteously. Our job is not to penetrate the mysteries
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  Speaker 2: of providence, but to obey the revealed word of God.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. Yeah, We're after faithful readers of the Bible who
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  Speaker 1: encounter scripture in faith and honesty, like Dan did reading
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  Speaker 1: while being open to change, open to being corrected. It
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  Speaker 1: is exactly encounters just like this one that caused us
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  Speaker 1: to love the Navigator's Bible reading plan to read the
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  Speaker 1: entire Bible together and a year. We did it in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four together, and we plan to do it
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  Speaker 1: again in twenty twenty five, and I hope you'll join us.
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  Speaker 1: Stay tuned to the podcast to find out how. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you Pstor John, and thanks for joining us today. If
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  Speaker 1: you have a question to ask Pastor John, find a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: link to email us at askpastor John dot com. Also
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: there you can find every episode with audio and full
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: transcripts for all of our two thousand, one hundred and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: eight episodes. Well, Christmas Week is up next, and we
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: have a question from a listener that will take us
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: into a Christmas time invitation for us to leave off anxiety.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: If you struggle with anxiety, don't miss this episode. I'm
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Tony Rinky. We'll see on Monday