I am addicted to the US presidential elections. Seriously I spend more hours reading about it than doing my studies. If it was not for lectures, I would have definitely spend more time reading about it. This is really bad for though whoever comes to power in January( the election is on November 2 but the president will only be sworn in the middle of January) will influence the course of the earth for the next four years, my duties are to study and do as well as I can so that in the next few years I can go into the jungles and show that it is possible to develop a new breed of missionaries and thaqt would really change the world more than any US presidents.. hahahah...sorry blowing my own trumpet and indulging in some fantasies there...
Anyway something serious. I realise that people who think the Bible is full unrealistic well-meaning as pointed out by one episode of the Simpsons don't really know the Bible that much and sometimes we Christians are guilty of perpetuating this myth by saying "ohhh everything will be well for Christians", "God will always bless us", "the wicked don't really lead happy lives" but if you read carefully the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations you will realise that all these are not true. The wicked do propeer while Christian businessmen go bankrupt. We toil day and night while there are unnice people who have it easy. If the every page of the Bible is read carefully you can see for yourself that the Bible is actually is very realistic and down-to-earth it is just that sometimes we pick and choose verses we like.
Does that mean God is not in control? On the contrary. You see God is not interested in the nitty-gritty though he is concern about every single hair on your head and would not allow anything to happen without permission so if you get tortured to death it is because he allowed it. Horrible? Not at all because he will give you the strenght to pass it and when you can't take it anymore he will take your soul away unto His bosom. Now compared with the riches of eternity this is nothing. I am flabbergasted sometimes that people lose their faith because they think God is not fair in letting a good Christian die of cancer or something but lets be honest if you can see all the things that were done, said and thought all deserve to die a horrible death. Thought that pastor shouldn't have died? In fact God is being merciful in stopping his accumulatinon of sins and after where they go? To his side. How bad is that. Lose your business you probably deserve it. We can't complain, read Job but God in his great mercy will more than make up for all that perceive injustice. Maybe not now like Job but in His time.
Back to God being in control, when he said the earth will end at this time it will end. He doesn't care how it is reached but by that moment even if 99% of the prophecies are not fulfilled it will fulfilled in less than a second. God just let's us choose how the end will come in accordance to the free will thing. Notice how Jesus that the stones will cry out if the children do not praise. What I think he means no matter what the prophecies, will be fulfilled. So if the Pharisees are armed with death rays and killed everyone in the world so that Jesus will not be praised on His way to Jerusalem, the stones will cry out to fulfill the prophecy. God's plan is unstoppable but we can choose for Him to do it the easy way by going along with it or the hard way by resisting. The Jews could have easily returned to Jerusalem after the fall of the Ottoman empire but not many went. IT was only after the Holocaust that the Jews began to return in earnest. God said the Jews shall return when they refused after fall of the Muslim government, God had no choice but to permit Hitler to power. So notice God only permit things that will fulfill his plans so if you died a horrible death it wasn't because you were evil or even good, it is because you are not following the plan of God. See by permitting certain things to happen, God is not violating free will but there will be collateral damage as He maintains control over the cause of history.