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Bludgeoning with Providence
- 09/07/07
- 30
Misusing the will of God.
I dedicate this post to you, the person reading it. Before you were even born, God planned this very moment, the moment you would type the address of this site into your browser or the moment you would click a link from another site to arrive right here, right now. It is no accident that you are here today and you can be certain that God has orchestrated all of this so you could learn what I want to tell you today. So get ready.
Does that make you uncomfortable? It sure would make me uncomfortable if I ran into that statement at another person’s web site. But you know what? The statement isn’t too different from ones I’ve read in a selection of Christian books. Consider the dedication from Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life: “This book is dedicated to you. Before you were born, God planned this moment in your life. It is no accident that you are holding this book. God longs for you to discover the life he created you to live—here on earth, and forever in eternity.” Don Piper’s latest book, Heaven is Real has a similar statement within it, suggesting that God has so orchestrated your life that you are holding the book at that very moment simply so you could learn from it.
I dislike this kind of statement, and they are becoming all too common. It took me some time, though, to figure out why they make me so uncomfortable. And then, a few days ago, it struck me. These authors are bludgeoning me with providence. They are peering into the unknowable providence of God and are interpreting it for me. And, needless to say, they are interpreting it in their favor.
It seems to me that this error arises from a fundamental misunderstanding of the will of God. These men would have you believe that they know and understand God’s will—that God has so ordered providence to show that it is His will that you read the book and learn what the author wishes to teach. Their logic is simple: God is in control; nothing happens without God’s prior knowledge; you are holding this book; God must have orchestrated life in just such a way that you could read the book; He did this because you need to learn what the book teaches (and obey it!). But in interpreting events this way, they are stepping beyond the bounds of what we can know as mere humans.
Let’s back up for just a moment and make sure we properly understand the will of God.
Theologians speak of God’s will in two ways, usually speaking of God’s secret will and His revealed will, or, if you prefer bigger terms, God’s decretive will and God's preceptive. I generally prefer to speak of God’s will of decree and His will of command. R.C. Sproul says this of the importance of distinguishing between these two wills: “The practical question of how we know the will of God for our lives cannot be solved with any degree of accuracy unless we have some prior understanding of the will of God in general. Without the distinctions we have made, our pursuit of the will of God can plunge us into hopeless confusion and consternation. When we seek the will of God, we must first ask ourselves which will we are seeking to discover.”
God’s will of decree is, according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, His “eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.” God's secret will is hidden to us. God chooses not to reveal it to us and it does not figure into our decision making or our interpretation of providence because it is, by definition, secret. So when we speak of discerning God's will, we do not speak of this, His secret will. This will, predestined before time began, is set in stone and will be accomplished. There is nothing we can do to change it or to alter it. God reveals it as He wills and we are unable to know it beyond His ways of revealing it.
God’s will of command is what He wills for us as revealed in Scripture. It is all those things we are expected to do to bring Him glory and honor. The Bible tells us a lot about this will; it is filled with God’s expectations of those who follow Him. Here are just three of the more general principles outlined for us:
Be Filled with the Holy Spirit - It is God's will that we be filled with the Holy Spirit. "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:17-18).
Be Sanctified - It is God's will that we be sanctified and continue to grow more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3a).
Be Thankful - We are to be thankful at all times and in all situations. "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
It is this will that we must understand and obey. It is this will that we seek out in Scripture and this will we must be pleased to follow.
So we see that theologians speak rightly of God’s two wills. It is critical that we understand these properly. Far too often people can encourage us to do things that are premised on a supposed knowledge of God’s secret will—His will of decree. And to me, this is exactly what Rick Warren and Don Piper and other authors have done in declaring why we should read their books. They are interpreting providence in a way that is not theirs to do. They are peering into the hidden things and declaring their understanding of them. They are bludgeoning us with a false understanding of God’s providence.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (30)
Great post…
Just wanted you to know that God told me to tell you that he told me you would write this post.
Also, God told me to tell you that you’ll read this comment and it will bless your life forever.
I’m glad that God tells other people what to tell me instead of telling it to me myself. He’s a great God like that. Always working through other people instead of directly.
So with that, I’m off to my next divine blog / revelatory appointment…
Before I was born, God planned this moment in my life. It is no accident that I am holding this book. God longs for me to discern carefully the gross errors and false teachings that permeate this book, so that I can warn the people of God and show them how to rightly divide the word of God in these matters.
Er…
*ahem*
So true, Tim. that understanding of “providence” is much more akin to karma, or fatalism…Unquestioning acceptance of what is, (or seems to be).
It’s funny you post this today, just this morning I read Jeremiah 42 along with a reading plan in D.A. Carson’s “For the Love of God,” and Carson’s point in regards to this passage was that often we will say we’re “seeking God’s will” when what we really want is God’s approval of what we will to happen. In the passage in Jeremiah the people go to Jeremiah claiming that they want God’s guidance in making a pivotal decision, but when God’s word goes against what they want, they choose to do what they want.
It’s overwhelming to think of the many ways in which we can misunderstand “the will of God.” Thanks for the post Tim :).
Forgive me for asking what may be a silly question. How do God’s secret and revealed wills relate to the concept of his specific and general wills?
“I dedicate this post to you, the person reading it. Before you were even born, God planned this very moment, the moment you would type the address of this site into your browser or the moment you would click a link from another site to arrive right here, right now. It is no accident that you are here today and you can be certain that God has orchestrated all of this so you could learn what I want to tell you today. So get ready.”
I don’t have a problem with most of this. The only part that is in error, as far as I can see, is “so you could learn what I want to tell you today”.
Is that the specific part that you are writing against or are you saying that God’s will (providence) does not govern actions such as typing in an address in the browser or clicking on a link.
I’m a bit confused.
The best we can say in any particular circumstance is that we don’t know whether it is God’s deliberate Providence or not. Sometimes it might be. Esther 4:14b: “…And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”:
But just because God can do something doesn’t mean He always does. Just because He has the ability doesn’t mean He has the obligation. It’s all part of His sovereignty.
Take Care
John Gerstner’s A Primer on Free Will uses a similar approach to lay the foundation for his argument against freewillism. He’s right on the doctrinal issue, but the book is maddening to read. The first umpty-eleven pages argue over and over again that you were destined to read this book, and you could not by sheer force of your own will do otherwise. And the proof is that you’re still reading, see?
I put it down about 20 pages into the book and I don’t think I ever finished it.
I was predestined to do that.
Incidentally, not to be pedantic, but it’s worth making the point that God’s decretive will and his preceptive will (or his revealed will and secret will, or however you want to make the distinction) are not really “two wills” in any sense that means God is double-minded. But (despite our sometimes imprecise language) these are two sometimes hard-to-reconcile aspects of God’s one will.
Piper (as I recall) makes that clear in the body of his excellent article “Are there two wills in God?” but I sometimes wish the title of that piece had been different.
This is a good post, but while we cannot know God’s will of decree, at the same time, the fact that I am reading this post is part of God’s will of decree. Whether that means I am to read it for my benefit because it is correct or for my benefit because it is incorrect or for my detriment because I ignore it or follow it, is where I would have problems with the sort of use you cite in this post.
Their logic as you summarize it is, “God is in control; nothing happens without God’s prior knowledge; you are holding this book; God must have orchestrated life in just such a way that you could read the book; He did this because you need to learn what the book teaches (and obey it!).” Their first premise is correct, God is in control. Their second premise is correct, nothing happens without God’s prior knowledge. Where they go wrong is that they assume that they know why God put the book, blog post, or whatever before the person.
Tim,
This is one of the best things I have ever read. It is right on and I thank you for posting it.
Am new to your blog and have linked to you recently on mine. Mike at OneYearBibleBlog mentioned you a few weeks ago and published a link.
This Sunday on my blog I would like to mention this post and link to it for others to see. Look forward to reading more of your wisdom here.
How flesh appealing to interpret the providence of God in my favor.
I genuinely would like to know your discerning opinion of casting lots in our modern times to make huge decisions.
For example, what if a dear friend was trying to make a decision regarding whether or not to uproot his family with 4 children to a new location. They have expressed that they have not lived in one location more than one or two years and felt they needed to relocate again for various reasons like the job market being a little rough and feeling like God is causing their heart to once again stir with discontent with where they are as a means to direct their footing. So they take 3 stones, write 3 locations on them and cast them 3 times to see where God’s providence would have them go. 3 times the same stone landed in the circle so they took it as a sign from God.
John Wesley did it. Benjamin Franklin did it.Lots for the 1917 military draft in the United States were drawn in public, in the presence of the President and other dignitaries, by a blindfolded Secretary of State.
Is this Biblical?
Whether God has two wills, or merely two aspects of His one will is, I suppose, amatter of semantics. But I believe He does have what I call His active will and His permissive will. To say, as Jim Vellenga did, that God is in control and that nothing happens without His prior knowledge is quite correct.
But we must not confuse His foreknowledge with His active will. Just because God knows we will do something does not necessarily mean He actively wills us to do it. Because He is sovereign, He permits us to do it.
To me, the simplest example is our sin. God knows we will sin, but surely He does not will it. Such things fall under His permissive will; He allows it. But for Him to will it would make Him the author of sin, and that He is not.
Take Care
Wow, Tim. Thank you for writing this. :)
Somehow I always think that when writers write such statements, they’re being a bit…Self-righteous.
Lisa, you ask if casting lots is ‘Biblical.” That is an interesting question. If you mean by it, “Is it found in the Bible.” then the answer is clearly yes. However, if you mean by it, “Is it something that we as Christians should do in the New Testament times?” then the answer, as far as I can see, would be no. I say that because following the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we do not find one instance of lots being cast. That approach to making decisions was ended because a far better way, that is, the direction of the indwelling Spirit, has now been given.
Lots no longer have a place in seeking direction for a Christian. They now have the Spirit and the Word of God written. Taking that as the standard, that family that seems to want to move, instead of throwing pebbles around, should be asking. “What is important for us as Christian parents to be able to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord?”
Oh how that would change the sort of decisions a family would make. Then they might start looking at how they and their children are being fed in the church they are part of. Instead of looking for a place that satisfies their itch to move, they may say they need to stay to establish a solid home with access to solid Biblical teaching. They may even decide that they do have to move, but not merely because of a better job elsewhere or being able to live in a different location, but so they can be close to a local congregation where the Word is preached and lived.
Wow Jim. Thank you. This is actually a real story and my heart has been so burdened for these dear friends and how to articulate why I believe casting lots is not for our time. I have sought God’s Word and been in much prayer… but felt inadequate at this point in how to express these concerns Biblically out of love. Seeking Godly counsel seemed the only alternative. And though I have sought it from a couple of sound sources that have expressed it orally, my mind is filled with a billion things right now and it just was not sticking. Now that you have put it in writing so well, I can dwell upon it further in prayer weighing it alongside the Word of God and, God-willing, communicate my concerns out of love for both their family and my Lord. I would appreciate your prayers.
Thank you for taking the time to answer.
You are welcome. I have run into the same thing when I was in my 20’s. I was wondering what to do, and people kept telling me to try things like casting lots, putting out fleeces, and the like. It took me a while before I really researched it while I was in seminary, but a book that helped me a lot was Bruce Waltke’s book Finding the Will of God The advantage of this book is that it is fairly short and very straightforward.
Once again, I am glad I could help.
I’ve been reading the book of Ecclesiastes in preparation for my small group Bible study. The distinction between the secret/decretive and revealed/preceptive will of God is so fundamental to the understanding of this book. Solomon makes it clear that it’s not for man to know God’s secret will; in fact, God hides it in order to glorify Himself above man. Our concern should be to do His revealed will, enjoying the life He has given us.
“There is nothing we can do to change it or to alter it. God reveals it as He wills and we are unable to know it beyond His ways of revealing it. ”
I agree with various parts of your post and yes, do think writers are a bit self-inflating to actually write those shmaltzy-sounding phrases to (as I interpret) hook their readers and (I can’t get away from the feeling) stroke their own egos.
What I’m not sure I’ve understood you about is whether the phrase in quotes above is something you really believe. God has multiple ways of revealing PART of his will —yes, the part we need at the moment like manna for the day== and it just might be through a book or blog that doesn’t happen to sound quite “right” to us. It might sound bludgeoning but still be something God wants us to read the bones of and discard the trite flesh. Does that make sense?
Plus, I read just this a.m. I Cor 3 or 4 (frist part of whichever it is) that Paul says as an apostle “let us be known as a steward of the mysteries of God.” To some people God shows more of the mysteries because He knows what they’re gonna do with them. But I consider myself privy to SOME of the mysteries of God, and if I said “I think I understand more mysteries than some other people do,” is that arrogant or just the truth based on my sweet, intimate walking and talking with God than some people have done?
I hope you hear a gentle tone, that’s how I intend the question to be posed.
This is powerful and thank you for writing into words feelings I have felt. Thank you!
I would like to question the selective verses from different NT books to evaluate a personal “heart condition” on God’s Will..Be Filled with the Holy Spirit - It is God’s will that we be filled with the Holy Spirit. “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18).
Be Sanctified - It is God’s will that we be sanctified and continue to grow more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3a).
Be Thankful - We are to be thankful at all times and in all situations. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).If we accept the Ephesian way and/or the Thessalonian way. or do we need all three ?I know I am in the will of the Father and He lives in me.
Very thought provoking Tim.We exert very little “will” power over physical bodies. We do not make our hearts beat, our lungs breathe, our digestive track function, or our billions of cells to osmose. All that, thank God, is automatic. Much of life beyond the body is also automatic. God created, for the most part, an automatic world. That is not to say He is not involved in every molecule at every moment, but that functional predictability is essential to His overall design . That helps me understand his providing (providential) will as well. Though we are involved and contribute to our bodies well being (or not) with diet and exercise and lifestyle choices in general, we are mostly passengers in a living machine. The scriptures you quote give us spiritual insight into how to similarly involve ourselves in his automatic spiritual world/will. Our choices simply plug in to His automatic system of spiritual well being. Be Spirit filled (God controlled) (ask, expect, appreciate) as opposed to wine filled (out of control). Be growing in usefulness to God - dedicated to his uses (saint/holy/sanctification all are from the same root word). Appreciatively acknowledge his involvement in your life. If we do these things we are automatically conforming to God’s will. If we are conforming to God’s will in the daily practice of life, his Spirit will lead us in what we consider the “big” decisions. Jesus sought our Father’s will in the garden before his death. He struggled with choices (so there had to be one). But he made the most difficult decision ever made - he chose the Father’s will for our redemption. Had he of not been a daily will seeker (i.e., the Lord’s Prayer - “Thy will be done…”) he would have lacked the strength to say, “never the less, not my will, but yours”, as he considered the cross. Our “little” daily choices determine how the long term will of God plays out in our lives.
Great post…..How often do we misuse the will of God to excuse us of our own responsibility? As we read the paper or watch the news it is difficult to say that God’s will is being done all over the face of the earth. Is every single thing that happens God’s will? Just thinking out loud……Is it possible to “go against” God’s will? These are questions that trouble me nearly every day as I ponder them…and I’m not sure there is an adequate answer this side of heaven.
finally an opportunity to get this off my chest. how many times I have heard good christians say “God is really working in (Africa or whereever). Pleeeese. Thats like saying God is NOT working in other places. Truth is God is working everywhere with everyone in some way. Then there is this word “really” that supposedly suggests that God can do things that are not really being done. We can drop that word really. I’ll add one more. The word “amazing”. Yuck. Is there anything that God does that is NOT amazing? We don’t need “amazing” when talking about God. It’s a given. I’ll go for one more. “Still”, as in God is STILL on the throne. Ugh. Does this imply that one day God may NOT be on the throne? We use words we are not conscious of because we heard some super star preacher use it. I feel better now.
What I find interesting is that people like Rick Warren will make statements like “God planned for you to pick this book and Read it” and many other statements like this. However, when it comes to the doctrine of grace they always trump our will to choose over God’s will to elect. They do this as well with the issue of suffering. In fact Rick Warren has said that he thinks it is wrong that people believe that it is in God wills for bad things to happen. In one of his books he says “man has a will and God has a will, and in more cases man’s will is done and not God’s.” How often we forget about the life of Job and Joseph. How different when John Piper gave a title to chapter 22 in his book Life as a Vapor as “Why I Do Not Say, ‘God Did Not Cause the Calamity, But He Can Use It for Good.” John Piper says that for two reasons. “One is that it goes beyond, and is contrary to, what the Bible teaches. The other is that it undermines the very hope it wants to offer.” You can read the rest of the chapter for how he supports his reasons.
God’s providence is great, his sovereignty is great, and his will is great, and we must look at them in how he has revealed them to us in his Word.
Great post Tim
can anybody out there remember a quote by Jonathon Edwards that went something like this ………..If someone believes in a sovereign God who can and does work miracles………..
can anybody out there remember a quote by Jonathon Edwards that went something like this ………..If someone believes in a sovereign God who can and does work miracles………..
Tim,
This has also always bothered me, and I also have not been really sure why that is, but your post nailed it. I’ll be passing this one along.
I have to confess I have an inherent dislike for the kind of providence bashing that Tim exposes in this post. It has been a menace to many of my friends who have bought into that view.
Husband is convinced it is God’s will and good providence to join church A, but wife is convinced God wants them to join church B. Etc etc.
Spiritualising stuff like this and making into some lofty and mysterious thing that only a few can understand just panders to our love of religion, so it is perpetuated.
This is the way I’ve understood it. Perhaps I am wrong, but nobody has ever been able to have an exegetical discussion with me to convince me otherwise.
The mystery of God - we are told what this is in Ephesians 3 - the unification of humanity, heaven and earth under the Lordship of Christ.
God’s will - as Tim says, it is for holiness and thankfulness through the Spirit.
Our calling - 1 Cor 7 - nothing to do with little messages that redirect our lives, but just what we do. My calling is to do what I am doing. If I am a nurse, then my calling is nursing, but if I change jobs and retrain as a physio, then my calling is physiotherapy.
As I say, I’d love to know if there was something biblical to support this view of providence, cause it would make decision making in life so much easier if God just told us what to do….
Rich,
Ditto for me. The whole “providence bashing/bludgeoning” drove me nuts throughout much of my youth. I’m glad you brought up 1 Cor 7, because there is no other passage that bogs down young Christians in its common misinterpretations as much as this one, particularly in regards to whether its God’s will for an individual to be married or single…mainly because of the writers of the modern language bibles that took verse 7 to mean “God gives some the gift of marriage and some the ‘gift of singleness’”, terms that appear nowhere in the original text, which actually says: “I would have it that all men be as I am, however, each has their own particular gift of God, some of one kind, some of another”. It’s a not a declaration of God “calling” those who get to marry and those who get singleness, but rather a preambulary disclaimer to the next two verses which contain the meat of Paul’s message (which is clearly about giving wisdom to the individual in letting him/her make their own decision about whether or not to get married): “therefore to the unmarried I say it is good to remain as you are, but if they cannot contain, let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn”. So if you do not discern that you have any gifts that would enable you to remain single for the sake of the kingdom, like Paul (ie. passion for a mission that exceeds the desire to marry; protracted sexual self-control), it’s wise to choose marriage.
Interestingly, as far as the word “calling” is concerned, the Bible almost always uses it in reference to ministry, rather than profession (and never in terms of marriage or singleness, at least not in the NT). Verse 17 in 1 Cor 7 was a specific instruction for people to remain where they were when they were called, most likely because of the “present distress” mentioned in verse 26. I don’ t think it simply means “where you are is where God wants to you to be” (a common platitude you see on wall hangings in “spiritual” bookstores and the like).
Even if marriage and singleness happen within God’s providence, the scriptures seem to address it as a matter of personal choice and volition: “to do what he/she will”, (1 cor 7:36/39), “he who finds a wife” (Proverbs 18:22). Which makes perfect sense…more so that the waiting-for-God-to-send-a-wife mentality that has led to such as spirit of passivity and futility among so many modern church singles. Fortunately, there are leaders in singles ministry, such as the writers at Boundless who are addressing this problem, by encouraging a more proactive (but prayerful) outlook on marriage.