That's because most people hold to mixed worldviews, with some elements from a Christian tradition mixed with humanistic elements that they have absorbed from the society around us, properly known as "syncretism." They just blank out whatever conflicts occur between the parts of the worldview, like oil and vinegar as they separate in the bottle.
I have discussed God's sovereignty in salvation numerous times, but that isn't my issue this time. My question today is, Is God sovereign over evil, especially over evil people? Most people will answer something like, "Of course not; the wicked have used their free will to oppose God." In other words, men are autonomous from God, and good and evil depend on our choice to be under His government.
That is false. In fact, that answer is an example of an idea from the humanistic worldview. To go further, it is an expression of Satan's worldview, a paraphrase of his temptation to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:5: "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." "Knowing" here doesn't mean "knowing about," but rather "knowing by choice." Satan was offering, though falsely, autonomy from the interpretive will of God, so that Adam and Eve could decide good and evil for themselves.
What the humanistic worldview avoids is the knowledge that there is no such autonomy: "The LORD has made everything for His purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble" (Proverbs 16:4). What Solomon tells us here is that all things, even the wicked, exist to serve the purposes of God, not their supposedly-autonomous self-will. And that's why the idea is so unpopular with Americans. We, especially, think of ourselves as the rulers of our own destinies. However, the Bible reveals to us that that idea comes from Satan. It is improperly the part of the worldview of any Christian, as we can see in the consequences that it brought on our first parents (Genesis 3:14-19).
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