HELP!

Does ‘God help those who help themselves?’ Ernest Lee has heard that idiomatic expression all his life. ‘Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,’ his pappy used to say. But neither of those phrases (or concepts) are in the Bible.

Ole Ernest Lee ain’t one for Wikipedia, but here is a link on the origin of the phrase: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helps_those_who_help_themselves#:~:text=The%20phrase%20is%20often%20mistaken,Quran%20(13%3A11).

“God helps those who help themselves,‘ became well known after Ben Franklin put it in Poor Richard’s Almanac. Course Ben wasn’t very theologically sound. He was a deist, which meant he believed in a God who intervened in history and responded to prayer, but ole Ben doubted the divinity of Jesus. Deists also believe in a non-intervening God (He put things in motion, popped some buttery popcorn and is just sitting back in heaven watching the fun).

The Bible teaches the opposite of the phrase. God helps the helpless and denounces greed and selfishness. For example, Proverbs 28:26 says trusting in oneself is foolish, and Isaiah 25:4 says that God helps the poor and needy.  A lot of folks hold a Home Depot view of what salvation is and how God is involved- YOU CAN DO IT! GOD CAN HELP! The truth is- you can’t do it! Nobody can! He does it ALL!

Some of Ernest Lee’s Calvinist friends believe so strongly in God’s sovereignty to the point they justify inactivity. They expect God to do everything Himself. But GOD USES HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY! If you won’t be that instrument, He uses someone else. His will gets accomplished- with or without you. If you need of a job, ask the Lord to help you find a job – but then be active in actually putting an application in. God could move on an employer to come looking for you, but it ain’t likely.

Those folks run the risk of becoming fatalists. Fatalism is the belief events are predetermined (they are) and that humans are unable to change them. It’s a philosophical doctrine that views the universe as a deterministic system, where all events, actions, and behaviors are subject to fate or destiny. Fatalists believe individuals and their actions have no impact on outcomes, but God uses people to accomplish His will. They don’t change it, but they are His tools to accomplish it.

Ernest Lee and Alistair Begg, the senior pastor at Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio go way back-studied at London School of Theology together, but Ernest Lee didn’t pick up any accent. BTW, Alistair is Scottish, not British- he has always had the accent, which he thinks makes him sound smart. Ernest Lee is working on his Scottish brogue.

Begg says the Bible’s central message is God helps those who CANNOT help themselves. Ernest Lee concurs (sounds lawyerly). Here is a link to a message Alistair preached titled, “My Help Comes From God,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35RUoLvuDqw Ernest Lee couldn’t have said it better.

Next time someone uses the phrase- God Helps Those Who Helps Themselves- correct them. God helps the meek, the humble, the lowly, those without hope, the downtrodden, in other words those who can’t help themselves. It’s all about GRACE, not works.