"God is in Control" and "God has a Plan"

Divine sovereignty, foreknowledge, and providence are longstanding elements of Christian theology, even if it is not always obvious just what these concepts amount to. The idea that God is in control, and that God has a plan, appear to have gained salience only fairly recently. It’s not clear how these newer ideas relate to the older theological ideas, nor how they acquired their prominence on the contemporary scene among evangelical Christians. (One conjecture on the latter is that Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Four Spiritual Laws,” which announced, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” might have played a role.)

1. Thoughts on “God is in control”

In general, a person is in control of x to the extent that what’s true about x depends upon what that person chooses to be true of x. E.g. part of your being in control of your car is that its speed and location depends on what you choose for them to be. Generally, what counts as being in control of something is sensitive to context: to be in control of your car, not everything true of it needs to depend on what you choose; just certain things.

A limit case is complete control: a person is in complete control of x just if for every truth P about x, P is true because that person chose for P to be true of it. Thus if God has complete control of the world then, e.g. “Grass is green” is true because God chose for grass to be green, and “Marvin robs banks” is true because God chooses for it to be true. The idea of God being in complete control of the world raises interesting questions: does anyone other than God actually do anything, or is God the agent of every act? When a creature does evil because God chooses for that creature to do evil, why is the creature, rather than God, responsible for doing evil?

We could define potential control: a person has potential control of x just if, if that person were to choose for P to be true of x, then P would be true of x. E.g. I am teaching Toonces to drive; right now he has control of the car, but if he loses control, or if he begins to exercise control in a dangerous way, say by driving toward a cliff, then I can choose that the car not be heading toward the cliff, and this will bring it about that the car is no longer heading toward the cliff. It seems obvious that God, being omnipotent, has complete potential control over the world: nothing could happen in the world if God chose for it not to happen. (This doesn’t imply that whatever does happen happens because it’s what God chose to happen.)

Can we explicate “God is sovereign” in terms of some combination of actual control and complete potential control?

2. Thoughts on “God has a plan”

In general, what’s the difference between God’s plan and what God wants and what God intends?

When we say that a person has a plan we can ask:

How much of what actually happens is in accord with that plan? Sometimes x happens, and that’s what the plan calls for, but y happens, and the plan says that shouldn’t happen. When we say that God has a plan, do we mean that everything happens as his plan prescribes, or do things happen that the plan proscribes? Does God let things happen that are contrary to his aims, not what he intends or wants, not in his plan?

How fine-grained is the plan? A plan can range from being very general, leaving many details unspecified, or it can be very specific, specifying lots of detail. E.g. Suppose Toonces plans to drive to California from Iowa; his plan includes driving on I-80 across Nevada on the second day of the trip, but does it specify where he stops for dinner on that day? How fine-grained (specified, detailed) is God’s plan? Consider this with respect to the idea that God has “a plan for your life” – presumably a sub-plan of his overall plan – could the plan simply be for you to have a happy, meaningful life, with the details left to you to work out, or is it highly specified, e.g. God’s plan is for you to transfer to Dork College, marry Fred Rubble, and become an astronaut? (How you answer this might make a large practical difference in how you seek to discern “the will of God,” but that’s a further issue…)

What is the plan’s scope? I.e. what events are relevant to the fulfillment of the plan? E.g. Toonces’ plan to drive to California has nothing to say about whether you go to the zoo on May 1st. Whether you go or not makes no difference to his plan. When we say God has a plan, do we mean that everything that happens is either prescribed by it or proscribed by it? Or are there events to which the plan is indifferent?

Does the plan have any disjunctive goals or sub-goals? I.e. does the plan aim at bringing it about that P, so that if P does not come about then the plan is not fulfilled? Or is there more than one way things can go that count as things going in accord with the plan? E.g. Toonces plans on driving to California, but the plan doesn’t specify precisely where he’ll end up: San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley are all acceptable outcomes, while San Diego and Chico aren’t. Is it always God’s plan for A to happen? Or is his plan for either A or B to happen? (Consider this with respect to the idea that God has a plan for your life: is his plan for you to be an acrobat, or might his plan be for you to be an acrobat or a juggler or a philosopher?)

Is the plan’s structure entirely categorical, or does it include hypothetical components? I.e. does it include elements like “If a happens then do b, but if c happens then do d…” E.g. Toonces’ plan to drive to California might include: “If I get to Reno before 9:00 p.m. then drive on to San Francisco, but if it’s later than that stay the night in Reno and finish the trip the next morning.” (Note the special case of an incomplete plan, one with hypothetical elements: “I’ll wait until t and then decide how to proceed, depending on what’s happening then.”