Who Allowed It?

Many Christians have a false understanding that God controls all events that happen on earth. The technical name for this false doctrine is meticulous providence.

Problem emerge with this view when evil things happen. Those who believe that God controls everything meticulously explain evil by saying that God allowed it, because they don’t want to make him responsible for evil. Saying “God allowed it” is a way of keeping God in control, without leaving him responsible for the evil, but it does not work.

I teach that God gave authority over the earth to humans when he gave them freedom. It could be said that he allowed humans to have authority on earth.

The consequence is that humans are responsible for everything that happens on earth. In addition, humans made the situation on earth worse by submitting to the spiritual powers of evil and letting them go to work on earth.

So, whenever something evil happens, we should not say that God allowed it. We should say that humans allowed the spiritual powers of evil to do it.