[taken from an online discussion on what Biblical sovereignty entails]
Now the Arminian absolutely affirms God’s sovereignty, but recognizes that sovereignty does not mean exhaustive determinism. It doesn’t mean that in any other context and it doesn’t mean that in the Bible either. In fact, you won’t find the word “Sovereignty” in the Bible with respects to God. Sometimes “adonai” is translated that way when compounded with “YHWH” since English translations typically translate both “adonai” and “YHWH” as Lord. So instead of the redundant “lord LORD”, they make it “Sovereign LORD.” And that gives us a good clue as to how the Bible sees sovereignty. It is about God being Lord, meaning that He is the ultimate authority in the universe and has the absolute freedom to exercise His authority as He pleases. That certainly does not mean that God must exhaustively determine all things in order to be sovereign. If anything, that would strike against His divine freedom to create free agents and hold them accountable (as Lord) for their choices and actions. So Arminians both affirm God’s sovereignty and providence and that God has given His creatures a measure of free will and will hold us accountable for our choices and actions. A.W. Tozer does a good job of explaining this:
“God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, ‘What doest thou?’ Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.” (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God)
[Link to the original post and comments on Ben Henshaw’s website]
