“Coincidence or God?”

Steve Brown:
Coincidence or God? The answer to that Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here’s author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com with answers from the Bible, that’ll make you free.

Steve Brown:
Hey Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Steve, how are you?

Steve Brown:
Was it God that brought you here or coincidence?

Pete Alwinson:
It was pure luck.

Steve Brown:
Yeah right. Some people, if you’re theologically into it, they’re something that reformed people believe called the five points of Calvinism. And I don’t want to go into it, but some people, some friend of mine said, I believe in the six points of Calvinism.

Pete Alwinson:
And, that is.

Steve Brown:
Unlimited luck. That’s Pete Alwinson. And you’ve got to go to ForgeTruth.com and, you don’t, you never listen to me, but if you will go, you’ll rise up and call me blessed. So much good stuff on that website from a Pete’s ministry Forge. And if you live in central Florida, you might want to go and check on the places where forge meets, and be a part of it. You’ll be glad you did, at any rate, Pete comes in on Fridays and we’ve done this for years, and we answer questions together. And by the way, we love to get your questions. You can call 24 seven, 1-800-KEY-LIFE and record your question, and sometimes we put your voice on the air, or you can write to

Key Life Network

P.O. Box 5000

Maitland, Florida 32794

In Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
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Or you can email us at [email protected]. And if you can help us out for every dollar you give, you get one free sin. I thought I’d try it. That’s not true, but cause you get unlimited sins. You’re forgiven, because of Jesus. So that’s a wasted promise, but I’ll tell you one thing, if you could help us financially, we would appreciate it so much. And so would a whole lot of other folks, if you can’t, we understand, but if you can please do and you can send your gift, you can charge it on a credit card or send it to the places where I just gave you. And we’ll be so glad. And if you can’t, say a prayer for the ministry, that would be great too. Pete, it would be great if you prayed for us and then we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
I love it. I love it. Let’s pray, Father, thank you for the opportunity just to, right now, come into your presence just for a minute and to worship you and praise you. We do worship you. You are the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Lord, I just thank you for the opportunity to be in your presence with your people over the airwaves, and to talk about things that really matter. We honor you for giving us full knowledge, new knowledge because of Christ. You’ve given us a great life, Lord to look forward to and heaven, but an empowered life and a grace-filled life right now. So we pray Father that you would meet us even at the end of this week. Lord, and you’ve been in charge, help us to remember that you’re in charge, and to be filled with encouragement and joy. And even as we go to church this weekend, we pray for our leaders, pastors, teachers, priests. Those that will stand before us and unpack the unfathomable riches of grace in Christ. Give them grace, give them wisdom, and may we hear what you have to say to us. So now be with us ,as we do Q & A. Thanks for Steve and the ministry of Key Life. We pray that you would bless it, beyond belief. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete let’s first go to our phone lines.

Caller:
How do you discern the difference between the devil’s coincidence and an answered prayer?

Steve Brown:
The devil’s coincidence and prayer.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
I don’t know? Maybe you enjoy the devil’s coincidence better. Do you think?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, cause he’s an angel of light, so sometimes he gives us stuff that looks good at first, right?

Steve Brown:
Yeah, but who’s in charge?

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And that, that brings, that’s the answer to that question. Is that God really is sovereign and there are no coincidences, none whatsoever. Now do things happen in our lives, that tempt us and draw us away? Of course they do. And that’s from the dark side, and the way you know the difference is by going to the scripture and knowing what God, I mean, if God is calling you to divorce your wife and marry a young lady in your office, you didn’t, that didn’t come from God. And it was a devil’s coincidence that she was there, but ultimately even that is under God’s sovereignty and all things work together for good. So read the Bible, play it like poker, as God deals the cards, when it seems like a coincidence, deal with it as best you can and let the devil take the hine most.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s, that’s good. And it really hit me, our brother using that phrase, the devil’s coincidence helps us see, reinforce your point that there really is no such thing as a coincidence. Just like, there’s no such thing as luck, luck is a philosophical idea that has no reality to it.

Steve Brown:
Absolutely, you know, even before I was a Christian, I was a determinist,

Pete Alwinson:
Really.

Steve Brown:
philosophically, you know, I used to say that when you throw a rock across a road and if it should achieve self-consciousness, it would say, I have decided to land there, but that isn’t true. So the causal system sets up a deterministic kind of thing, where there is no coincidence. Everything is cause and effect. Now that I found Jesus, Jesus is cause and effect. And I trust him a lot better than whoever throws the rock across the road.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. I love that. And even within the sovereign power of God, you know, he uses second causes, and God even controls Satan’s Proverbs 16 says,

He uses the evil one for his purposes.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. He really does. The devil is God’s lackey and we give him territory that’s not his. We really do. I think.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, yeah, that’s good.

Steve Brown:
And I think they’re important implications of that, you know, I was telling you when you came into my office, that I was writing a lady who had an abortion and it was 13 years ago and it just haunts her to death. And one of the things, and I haven’t finished the letter yet, but when I get back, I will. I’m going to tell her the regrets are not in the bag of the Christian. You know, we can look back on all kinds of bad things and yet all things work together, no exception, for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And so, and that even, and I even went, when I think about it, that even includes our sin.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, that is so true. And only God can do that.

Steve Brown:
I know.

Pete Alwinson:
Satan can be an angel of light and give us apparent good, but it always ends up evil, but only God is the one that can take evil and turn it to good.

Steve Brown:
But it’s a good question. And it’s well put, it brings up all kinds of thoughts.

Pete Alwinson:
A good thinker.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. Are you, this is an email, are you a Paedo Baptist or a Credo Baptist? And you might want to start by telling us the difference. I don’t know why, well,

Pete Alwinson:
I’m not a Baptist. I’m a Presbyterian.

Steve Brown:
I know. Are you a Paedo Presbyterian or a Credo Presbyterian?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, I grew up Baptist. Yes. We, we are Paedo Baptist in that we baptize the children of believers as giving them the sign and seal of the covenant of grace. It is not a redemptive thing. It’s not, but it’s, it’s showing that these children of believers are special.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, they’re covenant children.

Pete Alwinson:
They’re covenant children, so we do baptize the children of believers, and that’s called Paedo baptism.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
Credo baptism is those who are brothers and sisters who believe that only upon profession of faith in Jesus Christ, will you be baptized by water.

Steve Brown:
This, I think that settles it. And we staked our territory.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And we’re of course right. I wouldn’t say that you have to be a Presbyterian to get to heaven, but if I were a listener, I wouldn’t take a chance. That is so bad.

Pete Alwinson:
It is bad, but it’s good when, if you’re a Presbyterian.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. This is an email and don’t send us letters. We’re kidding around. This is an email too, I’m very disenfranchised with a lot of organized religion. What can I do about it?

Pete Alwinson:
I am too.

Steve Brown:
Me too.

Pete Alwinson:
Especially after this C-19 thing, church has gotten messed up and it’s been harder to do church and feel like you’re in a community. You know, I can’t even see half the people cause they got masks on. So.

Steve Brown:
And if you’re a preacher. Oh man, you, you do you know how much and you do the same thing too. We watch people’s faces,

Pete Alwinson:
Oh yeah.

Steve Brown:
and if they’re not getting it, we stop, we say it in a different way or get in a way until a light goes on.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
But you can’t tell man, they may be asleep.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Non-verbal communication is a big part of the communication process.

Steve Brown:
Oh, it really is.

Pete Alwinson:
It effects preachers more, it should effect preachers more than people know. I think there’s a lot of people that, bottom line is church is divine and still human. There’s so much sin in it, it’s a hospital where sick people are, and there’s a lot of good things going on in a hospital, but it’s rough.

Steve Brown:
And I, and I think if you recognize that, if you don’t recognize that you’re living in denial.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
The church is the one place where you can join the club without being qualified, because the only qualification is that you not be.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And, I think it was Chuck Swindoll who said we’re like porcupines in a storm trying to hug each other. And if you do, who was it that said, if you like hot dogs, if you like sausage or the law, you shouldn’t watch him being made. Well, you can add church to that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
I mean, it is, but it’s better than any other organization that you know of.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And they do more good. I used to go on the program of an atheist in Miami, his radio program, just cause he irritated me. And he was giving some money to hungry people, that he was raising and he raised like a hundred dollars, and I told him, man, we do that every nanosecond of every day of every year. So there.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Alright.

Pete Alwinson:
There it is.

Steve Brown:
We’ve got to go, but first before we go, I need to make sure that Pete’s gonna show up next week.

Pete Alwinson:
I’ll be here, man. I’ll see you.

Steve Brown:
And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.