if god permits or god willing
God… Moreover the word for "desired" in the clause, "the Lord desired to put them to death," is the same Hebrew word (haphez) used in Ezekiel 18:23,32 and 33:11 where God asserts that he does not desire the death of the wicked. If, as Calvinists say, God deems it wise and good to elect unconditionally some to salvation and not others, one may legitimately ask whether the offer of salvation to all is genuine. It implies that God decrees one state of affairs while also willing and teaching that a different state of affairs should come to pass. Three times Paul says that God hands people over (paredoken) to sink further into corruption. But God is displeased and warns him in a dream that she is married to Abraham. But his motivation is complex, and not every true element in it rises to the level of effective choice. In this chapter I would now like to undergird Marshall's point that "we must certainly distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen, and [that] both of these things can be spoken of as God's will." God's infinite wisdom regulates his whole will and guides and harmonizes (not suppresses) all its active principles.". The other reason is that this text reveals John's understanding of God's active involvement in fulfilling prophecies whose fulfillment involves sinning. . Yes, I would be willing to pay the import tax, if necessary. All must own that God sometimes wills not to hinder the breach of his own commands, because he does not in fact hinder it . (Qur’an, 17:110) To Allah belong the Greatest Names; therefore, call on Him thereby, and leave alone those who violate the sanctity of His In other words, God has a real and deep compassion for perishing sinners. If anything, he intensified the idea with words like Matthew 10:29, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? When a distinction is made between God's revealed will and his secret will, or his will of command and decree, "will" is certainly in that distinction taken in two senses. . They are an effort to say Yes to all of the Bible and not silence any of it. The corresponding point in the case of divine election is that "the absence of volition in God to save does not necessarily imply the absence of compassion." I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create woe, I am the LORD, who do all these things." God willing, the sermon will also be online at www.curtisvillecc.com. Which is to say that sometimes God wills that their sins be restrained and sometimes he wills that they increase more than if he restrained them. Surely an infinite number of Christ-figures must be too much, no matter how one envisages God” (Ellis 1993, 394). . The word "willingly" translates a composite Hebrew word (milibo) which means literally "from his heart" (cf. In other words God's command, that is, his will, is that Pharaoh let the Israelites go. Another evidence to demonstrate God's willing a state of affairs in one sense that he disapproves in another sense is the testimony of Scripture that God wills to harden some men's hearts so that they become obstinate in sinful behavior which God disapproves. . What is apparent here is that God has the right and the power to restrain the sins of secular rulers. This is evident from numerous texts: "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will (thelema) of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). ", Dabney imagines a defender of André, hearing Washington say, "I do this with the deepest reluctance and pity." God knew before you were born how you would live, but even so, He permits you to live so you can choose Him or the devil. When God took counsel with himself as to whether he should save all people, he consulted not only the truth of what he sees when looking through the narrow lens but also the larger truth of what he sees when all things are viewed through the wide-angle lens of his all-knowing wisdom. For others it ironically represents an intolerable aesthetic, a ‘filmic tabloid’ that revels in pointless violence. Second part: That there is a Redeemer.Proved by Scripture. Quite the contrary. When we think of heaven, we may imagine the best of what we have seen and enjoyed on earth. John sees a vision of some final events of history: And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled (Revelation 17:16-17). The most compelling example of God's willing for sin to come to pass while at the same time disapproving the sin is his willing the death of his perfect, divine Son. Like the invisible law of gravity, the law of God is always in effect, working at all times. God decreed to make human beings and place them on the earth. He wills evil by a private decree, because he hath decreed not to give that grace which would certainly prevent it. In Mark 4:11-12 he said to his disciples, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven." But when God looks at a painful or wicked event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. Guy goes so far as to say, "Apart from a predestinarian presupposition, it becomes apparent that God's 'will' is always (sic) to be understood in terms of intention and desire [as opposed to efficacious, sovereign purpose]. The good thing that God commands he prevents. "For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong" (3:17). In the Holy Qur’an, we read the following verses: Allah: There is no god but He; His are the Greatest Names. There are passages that ascribe to God the final control over all calamities and disasters wrought by nature or by man. Paul pictures this divine hardening as part of an overarching plan that will involve salvation for Jew and Gentile. . Both Calvinists and Arminians feel at times that the ridicule directed against their complex expositions are in fact a ridicule against the complexity of the scriptures. For example, who can comprehend that the Lord hears in one moment of time the prayers of ten million Christians around the world, and sympathizes with each one personally and individually like a caring Father (as Hebrews 4:15 says he will), even though among those ten million prayers some are broken-hearted and some are bursting with joy? That assumption is not in the text, nor is it demanded by logic, nor is it taught in the rest of Scripture. When God looks at a painful or wicked event through his narrow lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin for what it is in itself and he is angered and grieved. For Israel did not conceive of their own disobedience as a way of blessing the Gentiles or winning mercy for themselves in such a round about fashion. Verse 28: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to a base mind and to improper conduct." This is a strong warning to us not to take one assertion, like Ezekiel 18:23 and assume we know the precise meaning without letting other scripture like 1 Samuel 2:25 have a say. Yet not all of these longings govern God's actions. How can God weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice when they are both coming to him at the same time—in fact are always coming to him with no break at all? Thus what we see is that God commands that Pharaoh do a thing which God himself wills not to allow. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. The most subtle way to waste our lives would be to do every possible good thing except the great good Jesus specifically told us to do. But he did not will to do that. 1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, and Ezekiel 18:23 might be called the Arminian pillar texts concerning the universal saving will of God. It is possible that careful exegesis of 1 Timothy 2:4 would lead us to believe that "God's willing all persons to be saved" does not refer to every individual person in the world, but rather to all sorts of persons, since the "all persons" in verse 1 may well mean groups like "kings and all in high positions" (v. 2). . Nevertheless I will try to make a credible case that while the Arminian pillar texts may indeed be pillars for universal love, nevertheless they are not weapons against unconditional election. Perhaps the most effective way to do this is to begin by drawing attention to the way Scripture portrays God willing something in one sense which he disapproves in another sense. In view of all these texts I am unable to grasp what Forster and Marston might mean by saying, "Nothing in Scripture suggests that there is some kind of will or plan of God which is inviolable" (see note 26). Without going into all the details of this passage, the relevant matter is clear. But then when queried why all are not saved both Calvinist and Arminian answer that God is committed to something even more valuable than saving all. In fact the New Testament saints seemed to live in the calm light of an overarching sovereignty of God concerning all the details of their lives and ministry. 1 So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.. 2 And he said to them, I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, `You shall not cross this Jordan.'. Unleashing God’s Truth, One Verse at a Time Since 1969; Subscribe & More) .” ) Make a Comment ... could you please confirm whether you are willing to pay this charge, if necessary? I find the effort of Stephen Charnock (1628-1680), a chaplain to Henry Cromwell and non-conformist pastor in London, to be balanced and helpful in holding the diverse scriptures on God's will together. He doth not directly will it, because he hath prohibited it by his law, which is a discovery of his will; so that if he should directly will sin, and directly prohibit it, he would will good and evil in the same manner, and there would be contradictions in God's will: to will sin absolutely, is to work it (Psalm 115:3): "God hath done whatsoever he pleased." But what will make heaven heavenly is God. This implies something crucial about John's understanding of the fulfillment of "the prophesies leading up to the overthrow of Antichrist." . 7. We must certainly distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen, and both of these things can be spoken of as God's will. In his great and mysterious heart there are kinds of longings and desires that are real— they tell us something true about his character. One of the most precious implications of this confidence in God's inviolable sovereign will is that it provides the foundation of the "new covenant" hope for the holiness without which we will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). I answer, this comes nevertheless to the very same thing that I say. 49. Objective moral values in the world. The betrayal of Jesus by Judas was a morally evil act inspired immediately by Satan (Luke 22:3). When Moses warns Israel that the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon them and destroying them if they do not repent (Deuteronomy 28:63), he means that those who have rebelled against the Lord and moved beyond repentance will not be able to gloat that they have made the Almighty miserable. But we also know that it was the will of God that this come to pass. www.bakerbooks.com, John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Isaiah wrote, "We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God . No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord's people circulating. Instead of saying, "Tomorrow we will do such and such . Jesus had no quarrel with this sense of living in the hand of God. It was something to be pursued and lived up to on the one hand. The most well known example is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He permits it and restrains it (Job 15:20). Nor can I understand how Fritz Guy can say that the "will of God" is always a desiring and intending but not a sovereign, effective willing (see note 12). 1 Kings 12:33). But in the short run we have to say that he wills a condition (hardness of heart) which he commands people to strive against ("Do not harden your heart" (Hebrews 3:8, 15; 4:7). For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses" (Joshua 11:19-20). This is the point of Romans 11:31-32. Thankfully, God will use the foolishness of the message of the cross to save some (5:14). Marston say that only from the sixth plague on God gave Pharaoh "supernatural strength to continue with his evil path of rebellion". "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." Is it made with heart? Verse Concepts. God permits some things in His sovereignty so that His perfect will is done. In fact it plays a central role in the life of Israel in this period of history. In 2 Peter 3:8-9 the apostle says that the delay of the second coming of Christ is owing to the fact that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hands of the Lord; he turns it wherever he wishes." The beast "comes out of the abyss" (Revelation 17:8). Marshall says of the death warrant, signed by Washington, "Perhaps on no occasion of his life did the commander-in-chief obey with more reluctance the stern mandates of duty and of policy." Thus again we find the words of I. Howard Marshall confirmed: "We must certainly distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen.". His decree extends to all creatures and all events. The terms are an effort to describe the whole of biblical revelation. "Such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men" (1 Peter 2:15). This seems right to me, and it can be illustrated again by reflecting directly on 1 Timothy 2:4 where Paul says that God wills all persons to be saved. 6 Bible Verses about God Willing. Since not all people are saved we must choose whether we believe (with the Arminians) that God's will to save all people is restrained by his commitment to human self-determination or whether we believe (with the Calvinists) that God's will to save all people is restrained by his commitment to the glorification of his sovereign grace (Ephesians 1:6,12,14; Romans 9:22-23). Jonathan Edwards wrote 250 years ago, "The Arminians ridicule the distinction between the secret and revealed will of God, or, more properly expressed, the distinction between the decree and the law of God; because we say he may decree one thing, and command another. All rights to this material are reserved. Why would the sons of Eli not give heed to their father's good counsel? Yet I think he is right to say that the objections do not overthrow the essential truth that there can be, in a noble and great heart (even a divine heart), sincere compassion for a criminal that is nevertheless not set free. This only makes sense if the Lord had the right and the power to restrain their disobedience—a right and power which he willed not to use. When the people of Israel reached the land of Sihon king of Heshbon, Moses sent messengers "with words of peace saying, Let me pass through your land; I will travel only on the highway" (Deuteronomy 2:26-27). The most careful exegete writing in Pinnock's Case for Arminianism concedes the existence of two wills in God. God doth not will sin simply, for that were to approve it, but he wills it, in order to that good his wisdom will bring forth from it. "Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose'" (Isaiah 46:9-10; cf. Nevertheless Paul expresses not only his but also God's heart when he says in Romans 10:1, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for them [Israel] is their salvation." He is sovereign over sin, but is not the author of it. His will is that they turn and be forgiven (Mark 1:15), but he acts in a way to restrict the fulfillment of that will. The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established" (Proverbs 19:21). If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?' If I succeed then there will be an indirect confirmation for the thesis of this book. The Calvinists which I admire do not claim to have simple, easy solutions to complex Biblical tensions. . In Romans 11:7-9 Paul speaks of Israel's failure to obtain the righteousness and salvation it desired: "Israel failed to obtain what it sought. Thus there is a sense in which God does will that Pharaoh go on refusing to let the people go, and there is a sense in which he does will that Pharaoh release the people. Yet I also affirm that God has chosen from before the foundation of the world whom he will save from sin. We are faced with the inescapable biblical fact that in some sense God does not delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18), and in some sense he does (Deuteronomy 28:63; 2 Samuel 2:25). Verse 26: "God handed them over to dishonorable passions." God's will is not his sovereign purpose which he infallibly establishes, but rather "the desire of the lover for the beloved." The other possibility is that God wills not to save all, even though he is willing to save all, because there is something else that he wills more, which would be lost if he exerted his sovereign power to save all. "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me" (Jeremiah 32:40). Even though it is the command of God that his people see and hear and respond in faith (Isaiah 42:18), nevertheless God also has his reasons for sending a spirit of stupor at times so that some will not obey his command. Moreover God did this in fulfillment of prophetic words. Nor is there mention of sovereign, prevenient, efficacious grace. He can look through a narrow lens or through a wide-angle lens. The answer given by Arminians is that human self-determination and the possible resulting love relationship with God are more valuable than saving all people by sovereign, efficacious grace. On the other hand this book aims to show that the sovereignty of God's grace in salvation is taught in Scripture. These Calvinists are struggling to be faithful to diverse (but not contradictory) scriptures. One is that there is a power in the universe greater than God's which is frustrating him by overruling what he wills. If we do not, we bring its penalty upon us. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come?" What seems more plain is that when the time has come for judgment God wills that the guilty do things that are against his revealed will, like cursing Israel rather than blessing her. I do not find in the Bible that human beings have the ultimate power of self-determination. Another illustration of this complex desiring is found in Deuteronomy 28:63. Abimelech protests to God that he had taken her in his integrity. Abraham is sojourning in Gerar and says to king Abimelech that Sarah is his sister. Ellis was not only willing to consider such a scenario, he also thought that it strengthened the case for a finite universe, for then “we would have to countenance only a finite number of civilizations needing redemption. For example, God meant to put the sons of Eli to death. The writer to the Hebrews says that his intention is to leave the elementary things behind and press on to maturity. It should be made on the basis of what the scriptures teach. Psalm 33:10-11 says, "The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. There are two possibilities as far as I can see. saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”. That is, my answer to the above question about what restrains God's will to save all people is his supreme commitment to uphold and display the full range of his glory through the sovereign demonstration of his wrath and mercy for the enjoyment of his elect and believing people from every tribe and tongue and nation. Neither Calvinist nor Arminian affirms this. For as Jonathan Edwards says, "It implies no contradiction to suppose that an act may be an evil act, and yet that it is a good thing that such an act should come to pass. The question at issue is not whether all will be saved but whether God has made provision in Christ for the salvation of all, provided that they believe, and without limiting the potential scope of the death of Christ merely to those whom God knows will believe. In other words the events were not a coincidence that God merely foresaw, but a plan which God purposed to bring about. God doth not will [sin] directly, and by an efficacious will. New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.". "I do not delight in the death of anyone, says the Lord God" (Ezekiel 18:32). There was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites living in Gibeon; they took them all in battle. Moses is warning of coming judgment on unrepentant Israel. In his great and mysterious heart there are kinds of longings and desires that are real— they tell us something true about his character. The will of God is his general intention and longing, not his effective purpose. All we have to go on here is what he has chosen to tell us in the Bible. For example R.T. Forster and V.P. He sees it in all the connections and effects that form a pattern or mosaic stretching into eternity. Desiring God highly recommends this excellent work. In Lamentations 3:32-33 he speaks of the judgment that God has brought upon Jerusalem: "Though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men." Sometimes he does so by influencing their hearts the way he did Abimelech, without them even knowing it.