Posted by Pastor Will
on October 28, 2009, 8:01 pm, in reply to "Good, Bad, & Free Will"
Dear Brother,
You said, “Evil things happen in the world. David was anointed King of Israel and yet Saul sought to kill him. David learned to be submissive, loyal, patient, and probably a host of other good lessons. Yet, I doubt it was God's will that Saul kill David.”
I think I can safely agree with you that it was not God’s will that Saul kill David. In fact I think we can guarantee it. How can we be so sure? Because Saul didn’t kill David. If God had decreed the death of David at the hands of Saul, it would have happened that way.
Dan 4:35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?"
Pro 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
Pro 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
You then went on to say, “In the same way, if all the evil things that happen to Christians are part of God's will then we would have to surmise that God is evil. If it's God's will that murder, rape, and other such evils occur he becomes an accessory to that evil.”
I would agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647):
I. God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.
IV. [His providence] extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them in a manifold dispensation to his own holy ends: yet so as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
This is even more clearly stated in the Irish Articles (1615)
28. God is not the author of sin; howbeit he doth not only permit, but also by his providence govern and order the same, guiding it in such sort by his infinite wisdom as it turneth to the manifestation of his own glory, and to the good of his elect.
One place we can clearly see this is in the crucifixion of Christ. There was not a more evil deed in all of history. Jesus was not only the only truly innocent person to ever walk the face of the earth, but He is the creator Himself. But evil people killed him for their own purposes, but does that mean that it was not God’s will? By your definition it would have to be against His will, or he would become an accessory to that act.
Act 2:23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
Other Bible versions use words such as “determinate counsel” and “definite plan” where the NIV uses “set purpose”. This set purpose was determined before the creation of the world (not as Plan B). God is not playing a game of chess against Satan where Satan makes a move and God figures out how to get checkmate. EVERY act is according to God’s will.
Lam 3:37-38 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? (38) Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
Isa 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.
Psa 33:9-11 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. (10) The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. (11) But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
One final note is that we see this in the story of Job. Here we are very clearly shown that Satan is, for lack of better terms, on a leash. He is allowed to go only as far as God allows him to go. Before this event with Job came to be, God already knew what would happen to Job, He already knew what Satan would do, and He already knew what the end result was going to be. Just as He used evil people who were trying to accomplish their own purposes (and therefore guilty of their crimes) to accomplish His will in the crucifixion of Jesus, He used evil people in the time of Job to unwittingly accomplish His will.
God bless.
http://www.churchofthefirstcentury.org62
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