God Is Not In Control? Exploring Suffering, Sovereignty, and Chaos - w/ Timothy Gombis

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A candid and provocative conversation with theologian Dr. Tim Gombis kicks off a special four-part series unraveling one of Christianity's most common yet misunderstood phrases: "God is in control." In this first episode, Mike Erre, Tim Stafford, and Bonnie Lewis explore what it actually means to say that God is sovereign, and why saying "God is in control" may hinder rather than help a healthy understanding of suffering, divine action, and human vocation.

Gombis challenges us to take seriously the biblical portrayal of God as king, not controller, and to reimagine what divine sovereignty looks like in a chaotic world. Drawing deeply from Genesis, Revelation, and Pauline theology, the conversation lays a powerful foundation for understanding God's complex relationship with human freedom, suffering, and control.

Key Takeaways: • Understanding God's Sovereignty vs. "Control" – Why the phrase "God is in control" oversimplifies the theological richness of scripture and misrepresents God's relationship with creation. • The Human Role in God's Kingdom – How Genesis portrays humans as image bearers empowered to extend God's shalom, and what happens when we opt for chaos instead. • Suffering, Chaos, and the Illusion of Safety – Distinguishing between God's kingship and the unpredictability of a broken world, especially for middle-class Western Christians who may be shielded from suffering. • The Church's Projection of Power – Exploring how Western theology's emphasis on control, knowledge, and safety reflects our cultural desires more than God's nature revealed through Christ. • A Biblical View of Grief and Hope – Why the appropriate response to suffering isn't false assurances but grieving alongside a God who suffers with us—while still planting hope in the future resurrection.

Guest Highlights: Dr. Tim Gombis – New Testament scholar, regular guest of the Voxology Podcast, and insightful voice on the intersection of theology, scripture, and lived faith. His controversial blog post "God is Not in Control" sparked deep conversations about divine sovereignty during times of crisis.

Resources Mentioned: • Genesis 1–3 – Humanity's original vocation and fall. • Romans 8 – God's Spirit groaning with us in suffering. • Mark 13 – Jesus' warning against reading events as divine judgment. • Job – A biblical critique of formulaic thinking about suffering and divine logic. • Exodus 34 – God's self-revelation to Moses. • Revelation – God's identity as the one who is coming to reclaim his world. • Tim Gombis's Blog – [Available on Facebook] for ongoing posts and dialogue.

This is Part 1 of a four-part arc. Tune in next week as we continue the conversation with Tim Gombis in Part 2 and explore the implications for how we read the Bible with Pete Enns.

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Music by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, welcome to the Vox podcast.
0:21.2	Mike Tim and Bonnie here, and two out of the three of us have their hair up, and I will let you decide which two that is.
0:30.1	But I feel very much marginalized.
0:32.2	I have three guesses, but the first two don't count.
0:35.8	So anyway, we're delighted to be with you today tim you've got a little
0:40.6	something for us here to kick us off yeah uh just a little micro community update um so
0:47.8	well over a hundred of you guys have uh in made inquiries into um wanting to be a part of micro communities and we have
0:57.5	a and we have about two or three areas that actually have enough people to start and we've emailed
1:02.4	the folks who want to host those and that is the Dallas Plano is a Plano Plano. Plano. Yeah, Plano.
1:09.6	Plano. And they are already scheduling their first.
1:14.4	So we thought we'd get you guys started now and you could do virtual Zoom meetings like we do everything on Zoom these days.
1:20.1	So just to kind of meet each other and start building community in a different way that could spill over once the world resets.
1:30.4	So Dallas, Plano area is starting Phoenix Arizona we have enough for we emailed out to the host so hopefully we'll be getting
1:37.2	those organized soon if you're in either those areas and have not inquired send me an email at
1:42.3	tim at Voxpodcast.com and I will get you to those hosts.
1:47.6	And the other idea we had is that if you guys are, there's so many people, but you guys are all
1:52.1	in isolated areas that aren't quite near other folks, but we thought maybe we might set up
1:58.9	just random groups of people to meet over Zoom.
2:02.0	So you could be from Alaska, Tennessee, Arizona, or whatever.
2:07.5	And then we'll just kind of plug you guys together in a group and you guys can start meeting and building a virtual community.
2:13.2	So if you're interested in that, that's something we started a Vox micro community closed
2:19.2	Facebook group closed only just to keep it organized but we'll let whoever in that wants to
	...

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