Sarah is angry at God.
She grew up in the church and has read the Bible enough to know that God is sovereign. She has struggled at times with election and predestination, but has generally decided not to think too much about it. She married a nice, hardworking Christian man, and they come to church most weeks when they aren’t out of town for some reason or another.
They have two kids in the local Christian school, host a Bible study at their modest but well-decorated home, tithe regularly, and try to engage in worship and listen attentively to the sermon. She would prefer more of the contemporary songs that play on the radio, but her husband loves their church’s hymns and she has come to appreciate the timeless feel of the worship service.
On the outside, it seems as if everything is going well.
But Sarah has suffered, and Sarah is angry at God.
It’s not the type of suffering that could be turned into a movie or even a good sermon illustration. It’s a suffering of small disappointments. Those who have sinned against her confuse her, because they seem to go on with life like everything is ok, and everything seems to work out for them. But it doesn’t for her.
She tries to eat well and stay active, but her body is beginning to fail. She’s too young for this, but the joint pains and an embarrassing number of trips to the restroom say otherwise. There’s a lot she wished she could do, but each week ends far too quickly. Her friends seem so busy and productive, and are always doing things together. She gets invited sometimes, but is usually busy—or too tired. It would be nice to have one or two truly loyal friends.
Her husband is distant. They get along fine, apart from minor disagreements that pop up more frequently than they used to, but he never makes the effort to really resolve things and make her feel loved. Sure, he’ll take her on a date and get flowers now and then. And he faithfully comes home every night, takes good care of the home, and manages the finances. On paper, he’s doing everything right. But the relationship is far from what it could be.
The kids bicker at one another. It’s not bad, but it is constant. The other kids at church seem to get along incredibly with their siblings; why can’t these two? When her husband began leading family worship a few months ago, it felt like a fresh wind blowing through the home. While they are still sticking to it, now that a few months have passed the air feels stagnant again. The hopeful upswing she felt turned into a resigned downturn. This is just how life is for me.
That sense of resignation has been brooding for the last year or so. It doesn’t help that their church emphasizes the goodness of God in his sovereignty, particularly in allowing suffering. “Big” suffering makes sense to her—God gives you strength to get through it, and everybody rallies around you and comforts you and cheers you on. But her suffering is “little,” and seems so pointless. It feels like God could have blessed her life, but he chose not to.
How would you counsel Sarah?
God’s Decree
God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass. (LBC 3.1)
Sarah knows about God’s decree. That’s the problem. She knows that God is sovereign over her life, and that’s why she is angry with him.
Yet in another sense she doesn’t know God’s decree at all. Read that first line from LBC chapter 3 again—God decrees everything that comes to pass “by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will.”
If Sarah doesn’t see God’s decree as “wise and holy,” if she doesn’t find her own election unto salvation as worthy of praise (LBC 3.3), if she doesn’t find God’s good pleasure, grace, and love to be glorious (LBC 3.5), if she doesn’t see God working through the his chosen means “in due season” in her life circumstances (LBC 3.6), and if she does not find assurance, humility, consolation, and admiration of God in his sovereign decree (LBC 3.7), then does she understand it at all?
The Confession details a theology of God’s decree in chapter three, one that is both rigorously biblical and pastorally comforting. Following the foundational doctrines of Scripture (chapter 1) and God (chapter 2), this chapter lays the groundwork for understanding the purpose of creation (chapter 4) and the workings of providence (chapter 5) through the “one overarching theological principle” that everything in human history flows from God’s decree.1
Your care for Sarah will only be a band-aid if you don’t get to the root of her problem. On the one hand, we know that there are heart idols involved. That’s the Scriptural anthropology that biblical counseling supplies so well. On the other hand, her defective view of God will need to be addressed. This is where the Confession can serve as a concise, insightful guide.
Counseling from Chapter 3 of the LBC
The chapter closes with a warning that this doctrine “is to be handled with special prudence and care” (LBC 3.7). When counseling the person who is angry at God, David Powlison similarly advises the counselor to proceed carefully, avoiding the urge to provide seminary-approved prooftexts in favor of cultivating a relationship with the counselee.
Still… tiptoeing around the issue won’t do anyone any favors. Sometimes you need to address the counselee’s theological struggles head-on.
Wisdom will always be necessary. With Sarah, your aim should be to help her identify the heart idols that have promised happiness but have left her bitter and frustrated. Help her see that these are the false “gods” that function like Jeremiah’s broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:12-13) while the true God—the biblical God of LBC chapter 3—is the fountain of living waters. In this case, you’ll start elsewhere but move towards the truths of God’s decree.
For others, or perhaps depending on your relationship with Sarah, you may want to begin with the big, bold, biblical claims of Scripture as you progress through the Confession. Have her read chapter and study the prooftexts, and help her wrestle through the theological implications of God’s good and wise sovereignty. As she comes to know the God of the Bible on his terms, you can guide her to his plan of salvation in the gospel. This will orient her life around Christ so that she can truly—and biblically—deal with her problems.
Both approaches have their place. But whether you bring your counselees to the rich theological truths of this chapter at all will depend on how you view the importance of theology.
If you think that the counselee’s greatest need is to solve their problems, then your counsel will prioritize Scriptural solutions. (For the record, I don’t think that’s a bad thing—some people face such significant struggles that they really do need immediate relief.) But Scriptural solutions practiced by someone with a less-than-biblical view of God cannot sustain them in the long haul.
On the other hand, if you think your counselee’s greatest need is to know God, then your counsel will help them with their problems as you move towards the foundational, life-sustaining truths of who God is and what he has done.
My point is that you may or may not open up the LBC with your counselee and walk them through it. That is a matter of wisdom regarding a specific tactic. But as you study and treasure the rich, deep truths in this chapter, your counseling will be deeply informed by what our forefathers in the faith considered to be some of the most important teachings in the Bible.
At the end of the day, Sarah will grow to humbly praise, revere, and admire God only when she finds consolation and assurance in who he really is (LBC 3.7).
Chapter 3 Outline
- God ordains everything that occurs, without authoring sin, nor violating human will.
- God does not decree because he foresees, but foresees because he decrees.
- God saves some to magnify his grace, and condemns others to magnify his justice.
- God’s eternal decree of election is firmly established and will not change.
- God’s determination to elect and save flows freely from his character of grace and love.
- God chooses the means by which the elect are saved: namely, by faith in Christ.
- As we grow in knowledge, obedience, and worship, we can have assurance of salvation.
Assignment: Summarize as You Study
I’ve shared this printable homework assignment in the other articles in this series. It’s a template for study and discipleship, which provides brief instruction on how to study the confession and also gives space for the student our counselee write a short, one-sentence summary of each paragraph of the 1689 LBC. This practice of articulating what you learn really helps you grasp what the Confession is teaching.
Recommended Resources
Books
- On the Christian Life by John Calvin (very short and highly practical)
- What About Evil? by Scott Christensen
- Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World by Scott Christensen (a shorter version of the previous book)
- The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink
- A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 edited by Rob Ventura
- A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith by Sam Waldron
Articles
- God Is in Control by Lou Priolo
- Predestination Is Practical by Jeff Robinson
- Homework: God’s Sovereignty by Nanette Loveless
- Uprooting Bitterness (3 part series) by Paul Tautges
Audio
- What Is the Sovereignty of God? by John Piper (Ask Pastor John)
Notes
- David Charles, A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, edited by Rob Ventura, 88. ↩︎
