God As Despot
I came across this statement in a book and thought I’d post a comment:
God’s reign in the universe is a classic example of autocracy: a government by a single person having unlimited power. God is a benevolent despot, it is true, but he a despot nonetheless. None can force his hand.
The author supports this statement by a tortured rendering of Ephesians 1:11. If the statement is true, then scripture truly paints God as a despot, but one without benevolence. What comes to mind is Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. By Jesus’s statement at the tomb of Lazarus, we know that God heard every single one of his prayers. In the Garden, Jesus prayed that if it were possible, the cup of crucifixion would pass from him. We know that God heard the prayer. According to the author, God’s unlimited power could have made another way possible, but he didn’t make such a way. So where is benevolence?
The truth of the matter is that God, the Father, was required to send forth Jesus, the Son, into the world as a human being in order to redeem mankind. There was no other way to redeem mankind.