Even though God had sent them numerous prophets to warn them of the coming judgment for their sin and rebellion, the people hardened their hearts against God and trusted in themselves and their worthless gods even more. This happened because God’s people continued to turn their backs on him and worship idols. Babylon besieged Jerusalem, broke its walls, burned its gates, and carried God’s people into captivity, where they would spend 70 years in exile. In the year 586 B.C., the kingdom of Judah was conquered the Babylonian empire. Today I would like to focus on one biblical passage that expounds the sovereignty of God! The Bible uses the word “sovereign” to describe God over 300 times, and it illustrated in many other biblical narratives. Sovereignty is one of the clearest and most prominent attributes of God presented in the Scriptures. They rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth that neither necessity, nor chance, nor the folly of man, nor the malice of Satan controls the sequence of events and all their issues. If God be a Spirit, and therefore a person, infinite, eternal, and immutable in his being and perfections, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, he is of right its absolute sovereign…The Sovereignty of God is the ground of peace and confidence to all his people. The preeminent Presbyterian theologian and past principal of Princeton Theological Seminary, Charles Hodge, eloquently defines God’s sovereignty: Another way to define God’s attribute of sovereignty is to simply say that God is in control of everything.
Contrary to the belief that we are all the masters of our own fate and captains of our own souls, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God affirms that since God is the creator of all things visible and invisible, and the owner of all, that he has the right to rule and reign over all, and exercise his absolute authority in the universe. This poem and these clichés and philosophies fly right in the face of the biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God. How much control do you think you have over your life? Are you unconquerable? Do you think that you are the master of your own fate and the captain of your own soul? We hear it all the time our cultural clichés: “I can do anything if you set I mind to it!” “Where there is a will, there is a way!” “You just have to follow your heart!” “It’s my life, I can live it however I want!” All of these lines initially sound good and right, but they are the lies of the devil. They believe that if they just work hard enough, look good enough, position themselves in the right places, or posture themselves in the right ways, that all of their dreams will come true. Like Henley a century ago, so many people today have become hoodwinked into believing that they are actually in control of their own lives and destinies. One of the reasons why this poem has gone through such a renaissance in recent days is because it reflects our society’s pervasive emphasis on self-determination. He truly believed that he was the master of his own fate and the captain of his own soul. The word invictus means “unconquered” in Latin, and the author’s intention in the poem was to shake his fist in defiance at the very thought of a sovereign God ruling over him. Henley was a militant humanist who hated the Christian faith. The poem’s literary quality is unquestionably brilliant, but its theological content is contemptibly blasphemous. And it was most recently quoted by President Barack Obama on Decemafter Nelson Mandela’s death. It was the focus of the 2009 Clint Eastwood film which shares the same title. This poem was recited in its entirety by the Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh just moments before his execution on June 11, 2001. Henley in 1875, but it has made reoccurring appearances in modern literature, films, and speeches. This prestigious poem is titled The Invictus.
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