The god of popular Christianity! Milburn Cockrell (1941-2002)

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth! Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might!” 1 Chronicles 29:11-12

In these days of man-centered religion, verses like these have been ignored. Many pulpits of our land preach a defeated God, a disappointed Christ, and a defenseless Holy Spirit. Man has been deified–and God dethroned. God has been relegated to the background.

The God most people believe in has benevolent intentions, yet He is unable to carry them out. He wants to bless men, but they will not let Him. The average church-goer thinks Satan has gained the upper hand, and that God is to be pitied rather than worshiped. The god of popular Christianity has a weak smile and a halo!

To suppose in the slightest that God has failed, or that He has been defeated, is the height of foolishness and the depth of impiety! The religious world needs to get God off the charity list!  The Bible knows nothing of a defeated, disappointed, and defenseless God.

• The God of the Bible is the “Almighty God” (Genesis 17:1) Who has all power in Heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).
• With Him nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37) or too hard (Jeremiah 32:17).
• His eternal purpose is being worked out. Everything is going according to His plan, and all things are under His control.

The God of the Bible is the Supreme Being in the universe!

• He is the most High, higher than the highest.
• He has no superiors and no equals. 

God is God. 

• He does as He pleases, 
• only as He pleases, and
• always as He pleases. 

“He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? What His soul desires, even that He does” (Job 23:13).”

Agreeing with this is Psalm 115:3: “But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatever He has pleased.” As the Master of the World, He declares: “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure!” (Isaiah 46:10) God is the Supreme Being and the Sovereign of the universe. 

He exercises His power:

• as He wills,
• when He wills, and
• where He wills. 

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth. No one can ward off His hand or say to Him: What have You done?” (Daniel 4:35)

God governs all His creatures and their actions. The events that take place on earth do not take place by chance, or fate, or luck. The so-called accidents are not even incidents with the Master of the World. He numbered the hairs of our head and noted the sparrow’s fall in eternity past by His “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23).

The Master of the World set the bounds of our habitation on earth. The number of our months is with Him, and our days are appointed!

God is holding the helm of the universe, and regulating all events. The Master of the World “works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). It is God’s eternal right to do all His pleasure. He is not accountable to any of His creatures. Job 33:13 declares: “He gives no account of any of His matters.”

God controls all things–or nothing. 

He must either…

• rule–or be ruled.
• sway–or be swayed.
•  accomplish His will–or be thwarted by His creatures.

He is not obligated to leave the affairs of this world to be governed by accident, chance, or the will of sinful men.

If we admit that God absolutely governs all things according to the counsel of His own will, then we admit that He has determined what shall and what shall not transpire in time and eternity. To deny His universal control of all things, is to deny His eternal power and Godhead.  Because He has the power and wisdom to determine all events–then He can cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Milburn Richard Cockrell (1941-2002) was converted in1956 and licensed to preach by his home church in 1957 at the age of 16. He was ordained on Feb. 27, 1960, the same year he graduated from High School. He pastored churches in Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio and preached for 40 years on various radio broadcasts.He authored eighteen books and many tracts.