Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Does God Predict History?

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Does God Predict History? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: What is God's purpose in this world? What's he trying
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  Speaker 1: to accomplish? We talk about his aims a lot on
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  Speaker 1: the podcast, because until we know what his purpose is
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  Speaker 1: in this world, it's impossible for us to figure out
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  Speaker 1: our own purpose in this world. That comes up in
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  Speaker 1: key moments when thinking about personal productivity and finding purpose
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  Speaker 1: in life, as you'll see in the APG book on
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  Speaker 1: pages eighty four to eighty eight, and so on this Monday,
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  Speaker 1: we have this question from Sarah, a question about two
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  Speaker 1: of our approximate Bible reading texts. Dear Pastor John, I
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  Speaker 1: hope you are doing well. Thank you for taking my question. Today.
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  Speaker 1: While studying Jeremiah I came across Jeremiah one twelve. That's
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  Speaker 1: the text we read on Wednesday of this week where
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  Speaker 1: God says, I am watching over my word to perform.
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  Speaker 1: It just grab my attention, but I'm unsure what it
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  Speaker 1: means and how it applies to me today. Is this
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  Speaker 1: just speaking about God's sovereignty in fulfilling his promises or
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  Speaker 1: is there a deeper meaning about what we can perceive
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  Speaker 1: to be His work in the world, evidence of His
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  Speaker 1: acts perceived by those who study his word carefully. I
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  Speaker 1: understand that God is faithful and his word will not
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  Speaker 1: return void, according to Isaiah fifty five to eleven, which
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  Speaker 1: we've read last week. But how should I interpret this
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  Speaker 1: in my own life? Should this verse encourage me to
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  Speaker 1: trust that God will bring his promises to fruition even
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  Speaker 1: in uncertain times? I also wonder how this affects how
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  Speaker 1: I approach God's promises in scripture? Can I rest confidently
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  Speaker 1: knowing God actively watches over his word to bring it
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  Speaker 1: about in my life? Thank you?
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  Speaker 2: You know I've said Tony that many people who write
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  Speaker 2: to us often propose really good answers to their.
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  Speaker 1: Own Question's right, Yeah for you?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And I think I think what often that
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  Speaker 2: means is passion. John just tell us some more are
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  Speaker 2: there are there more insights and some more implications besides
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  Speaker 2: the one I've seen. And of course there are always
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  Speaker 2: more more than you've seen, more than I've seen, more
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  Speaker 2: than She's seen, more than anybody ever sees. There's always more.
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  Speaker 2: The Bible is an ocean, So I just wanted to
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  Speaker 2: come in everybody who thinks of questions that way. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, when you have a question about the Bible
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  Speaker 2: or about life, don't immediately run to a teacher or
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  Speaker 2: Google or chat GBT. Don't short circuit your own God
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  Speaker 2: given powers of discovery. Let the first thing you do
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  Speaker 2: be to pray that God would help you guide you,
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  Speaker 2: and then think. Put a pencil in your hand and
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  Speaker 2: a pad of paper. That's old school. I really think
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  Speaker 2: it's better than trying to do it on the screen.
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  Speaker 2: Put a pencil in your hand, put a pat paper,
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  Speaker 2: write down your first idea, Criticize that first idea. Thinking
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  Speaker 2: begins with a question, and thinking continues by proposing possible
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  Speaker 2: answers to your own question in your own head, then
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  Speaker 2: criticizing your own possible answers in your own head with
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  Speaker 2: other truths that you know from the Bible and from experience,
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  Speaker 2: until you see some good evidence rising up that one
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  Speaker 2: of these answers is right, probable, or sure. So that's
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  Speaker 2: what I do. That's what everybody can do. So amen
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  Speaker 2: to the good suggestions that Sarah already made. She's asking
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  Speaker 2: specifically about Jeremiah one twelve. Here's eleven and twelve. And
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  Speaker 2: the Word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah,
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  Speaker 2: what do you see? And I said, I see an
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  Speaker 2: almond branch. Now almond. The word almond in Hebrew sounds
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  Speaker 2: like the word watching. Jeremiah does this several times. Then
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  Speaker 2: the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for
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  Speaker 2: I am watching over my word to perform it.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: I think a whole view of the universe hangs on
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  Speaker 2: how one understands Jeremiah one twelve. I am watching over
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  Speaker 2: my word to perform it. I speak a word, God says,
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  Speaker 2: then I watch it now. It might be a word
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  Speaker 2: pertaining to a week from now, or seventy years from now,
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  Speaker 2: or a thousand years from now, and I watch it.
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  Speaker 2: And the question is a huge question, is in what
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  Speaker 2: sense does he watch it. One view of the universe
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  Speaker 2: would say that God set in motion independent natural, historical, social,
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  Speaker 2: psychological process and he is so knowledgeable about those processes
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  Speaker 2: that he can predict infallibly what they will independently lead to.
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  Speaker 2: So he watches, he watches his predictions infallibly unfold come
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  Speaker 2: to pass. That's one view of the universe. And according
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  Speaker 2: to this text, that's not the true view of the universe,
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  Speaker 2: because God interprets in that last phrase what he means
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  Speaker 2: by I am watching over my word, and he says,
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  Speaker 2: I am watching over my word to perform it. This
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  Speaker 2: is a different view of the universe. God is not
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  Speaker 2: watching independent processes of history unfold, which he can understand
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  Speaker 2: and predict. God is not a fortune teller. He does
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  Speaker 2: not have an infallible crystal ball. He never market, never
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  Speaker 2: merely predicts. He performs his word. He speaks it, and
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  Speaker 2: then he sees to it that the word will come
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  Speaker 2: to pass. That's a different view of the universe than
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  Speaker 2: thinking of God's words as predictions of independent historical processes
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  Speaker 2: rather than perfect performances of divine sovereignty. Indeed, God does
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  Speaker 2: know what will come to pass, but he knows what
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  Speaker 2: will come to pass because he performs what will come
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  Speaker 2: to pass. He doesn't merely predict history. He creates history.
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  Speaker 2: We should not think of prophecy as an evidence that
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  Speaker 2: God has infallible insight into independent processes of history so
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  Speaker 2: that he can perfectly know those processes and make good predictions.
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  Speaker 2: They're not independent. They depend on His will. He works
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  Speaker 2: all things according to the counsel of his will. Ephesians
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  Speaker 2: one eleven. I am God, and there is none like me,
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  Speaker 2: declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
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  Speaker 2: things not yet done. That's Isah forty six nine, and
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  Speaker 2: then he explains how he can declare today what will
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  Speaker 2: happen tomorrow or in a thousand years. He says, my
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  Speaker 2: counsel shall stand. I will accomplish all my purpose. That's
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  Speaker 2: how he knows he can declare the future, because he
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  Speaker 2: makes the future. The promises of God are the spoken
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  Speaker 2: purposes of God, and he says, I accomplish all my purpose.
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  Speaker 2: The purposes of God do not come to pass because
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  Speaker 2: of independent historical processes. They come to pass because God
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  Speaker 2: is continuously active in those processes and sees to it
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  Speaker 2: that his purposes expressed in his promises never fall to
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  Speaker 2: the ground. Sometimes God speaks of his word itself as
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  Speaker 2: having power in itself to accomplish what it promises. For example,
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  Speaker 2: Isaiah fifty five, So shall my word be that goes
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  Speaker 2: forth from my mouth, it shall accomplish that which our
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  Speaker 2: purpose or Jeremiah twenty three, twenty nine is not my
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  Speaker 2: word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer
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  Speaker 2: that breaks the rock in pieces. So sometimes the Bible
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  Speaker 2: says God's word accomplishes what it prophesies, and sometimes it
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  Speaker 2: says God accomplishes what he prophesies, but it never says,
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  Speaker 2: God merely predicts what comes about independently of his accomplishing
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  Speaker 2: First King six twelve. I will establish my word with you,
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  Speaker 2: which I spoke to David Jeremiah twenty nine to ten.
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  Speaker 2: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you.
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  Speaker 2: I will fulfill to you my promise for Samuel three twelve.
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  Speaker 2: I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken
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  Speaker 2: concerning his house numbers twenty three? Has God said and
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  Speaker 2: will he not do it? Or has he spoken and
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  Speaker 2: will he not fulfill it? So here's the application for
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  Speaker 2: our lives. The precious promises of God, which we trust
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  Speaker 2: and by which which we live day by day, are
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  Speaker 2: not the predictions of a distant and very intelligent God
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  Speaker 2: who understands independent social, historical, psychological processes that brought us
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  Speaker 2: to this point. Instead, these precious promises are the commitment
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  Speaker 2: of God himself to be present in our lives to
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  Speaker 2: perform what he has spoken. We enjoy fellowship with God
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  Speaker 2: as we trust his promises, as we trust him to
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  Speaker 2: perform what he has spoken by his very presence with us.
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  Speaker 1: God does not merely predict history. He creates history that
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  Speaker 1: is so good and now we can move from God's
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  Speaker 1: purposes in the world to our own purpose is in
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  Speaker 1: the world, because that's what we intend to help you
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  Speaker 1: do on this podcast. And to that end, see the
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  Speaker 1: podcast episodes I integrated together for you as a summary
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  Speaker 1: in the APGIT book on pages eighty four to eighty eight.
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  Speaker 1: I hope that helps you move from discovering God's purposes
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  Speaker 1: to settling your own purposes in this world why you exist.
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  Speaker 1: Not many bigger themes than that. Thank you, Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: and thanks for joining us today. If you have a
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  Speaker 1: question to ask Pastor John, find a link to email
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  Speaker 1: us and find our complete episode archive at the same
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  Speaker 1: place ask Pastor John dot com. Well, there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of evil in this world, stunning evil in this world.
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  Speaker 1: You can see it just about daily in your social
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  Speaker 1: media feeds, iPhone cameras, live streams, security cameras, body cameras.
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  Speaker 1: The evil that we do to one another is captured
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  Speaker 1: and shared daily. But this violence and hatred towards one
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  Speaker 1: another is not the evil that most stuns Heaven. Now
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  Speaker 1: there's a greater evil. Going to read about that on Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about it on Thursday. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony ranky, see you then, mhm