I think we may be making this a little harder than it needs to be. No one has established the limit (if there is one) to God's soverignty. If there is one (by His choice only), and man is completly free, then evil has nothing to do with God. But of course, that is unbiblical. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> So we're left with a complete sovereignty, or somehow a combination of both. But to answer this, we need a definitions of sovereignty. Wester's dictionary defines it: Sovereignty of God, his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure (Dan. 4:25, 35; Rom. 9:15-23; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 4:11). His ABSOLUTE right to do all things according to HIS OWN GOOD PLEASURE. So if we say absolute sovereignty, we do not (by definition) mean we are puppets, as some believers imply, which is why I imagine, it's a combination of both.
That's my first question: limited (by His own device) or complete sovereignty? The next point assumes absolute.
I like to put it this way: Say we take, for metaphor only, literaly God is an Author. When a human author writes that a character is doing an evil act, the author himself, while not committing evil, is ORDAINING evil. I realize this illistration falls through in that an author, to some extent, controls EVERY moment of each characters life, which is precisely why I brought the sovereignty point up. I hope this helps.
