THE WILL OF GOD (10 APR 2016)

Yesterday’s post received a good question that required considerable explaining to do it justice. I realized that the best way was to simply use the answer as another post, rather than try to clog the thread. Here is what Angela wrote:

Angela Jackson The world IS so confusing today! I almost got roped into the goals of a conservative hawk, a ‘jeffersonian christian’. All this ‘wisdom of the world’ meant they believed in ‘military solutions’, and wanted me to add to the choir calling for open military confrontation of Islam. They were drawing lines between thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not murder, without considering translation liberties(which i actually haven’t looked-up yet). So I could’ve been a shill for material goals, and not spiritual goals, in the name of the superiority of Christianity, considering how evil Islam really is. Muslims conquered the whole middle east, shall they now conquer Europe too? This person descends from the Turkish Armenian population that suffered through a genocide; their grandparents escaped.

Perhaps we can shift our conversation away from nuking mecca and medina (to ‘de-legitimize the religious leadership’). This American hawk certainly scared me with their conclusions, as they were based entirely on reason and logic.

“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Very sorry for the long intro; I just see that people want to do something about the Muslim issue and they don’t like scriptural answers. At least the answers I can give.

Do you have any suggestions Fritz?

Angela, Thank you for your comments & question…always clear insightful thoughts on your part and on topic. The man (or woman of faith) walks by faith, comfortable that in spite of the turbulence, the pilot of this planet (God) will bring it to a good destination.

The passengers on this journey have been instructed, “thou shalt not kill”. That is not a false translation. The Hebrew there for “not” is “lo” and for “kill” it is “ratsach”. The primary meaning of ratsach is indeed murder, but it has a secondary meaning simply to kill another person. This latitude in meaning is taken by many as allowing civil death penalties and just wars. And indeed, Israel did give some law breakers the death penalty and did fight some just wars with God’s direction & blessing. Because you may possibly be able to do something—DOES not mean it is the correct thing. For instance, I could put all my belongings up for sale & move to Detroit, and there is no law stopping me.(As the Word says at one pt.: all things are lawful to me, but are they expedient??) But is it the right thing to do? How do I determine what is right?

To answer that means I must separate my will from God’s will, and then I must understand God has 3 different kinds of will—His Intentional will, His Circumstantial will, and His Ultimate will. Unfortunately we use the term “the will of God” for 3 different things!!! The confusion people have in separating out God’s will from our own, and then recognizing that God has 3 different wills has people quite confused. God gets blamed for things He should not be. “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”(MT 18:14) The fruit of evil creates evil circumstances, that the circumstantial will of God allows such things as martyrdom or the death of an innocent child. As God cannot be defeated, nothing happens that can defeat His ultimate will. So God can permit evil and still redeem its bad fruits to what He ultimately wanted. He can bring good out of evil…as ROM 8:28 teaches. When evil is happening, it is blasphemy to say it is the will of God. Evil is evil. We need to be careful how we use the phrase “it is the will of God”.

Let us use an everyday father as an example. The father has a son and wants his son to grow up a fine Christian man who will be a doctor like he is. This is his intentional will. But the father’s thoughts are like this as WW 2 comes, “If war comes, and my son wants to do his service to his country and enlist I will agree.” War comes, the son wants to join, and the father’s circumstantial will is for the son to join, so he says, “Go ahead son you have my approval.” Did the son change the father’s will. NO. From the son’s viewpt. he changed it by asking…but actually the father’s circumstantial will pre-allowed it. But bear in mind the intentional will of the father is to have his son a doctor not a soldier. It would be unjust to say that the father’s will was that his son would be a soldier—even though his circumstantial will permitted it, his intentional will & ultimate will were against it. If the father were heavenly Father he could even bring good out of these circumstances—say, for instance, the G.I. bill + experiences in the war provide the means for the son to become a great doctor.

Ultimately, all will be reframed into God’s Ultimate will; this is how we see the theme of the Bible…from paradise lost to paradise regained. But for now we have to deal with the circumstances of evil being allowed to run its course. So this is the framework from which we have to make moral decisions. Each of us should be completely persuaded that he (or she) is doing what the Holy Spirit is calling him to do. The fundamental question we can ask is: is what I am doing promoting & giving life, is this a decision for life, or is this a decision for death??? In some circumstances, being armed or even using a firearm may preserve life. But it is too easy for men to mistake their own wills for God’s and jump to shallow easy answers, rather than take the straight & narrow path that Christ trailblazed for us.

Angela, there is another issue involved in this discussion…one which is not ever mentioned because essentially no one has thought of it…and I risk many readers rejecting me for saying it…but the issue is entirely Scriptural. We are repeatedly called to love our enemies and do them good, to bless them and not curse them.(This is really hard for people to do, we need the love of Christ in our hearts to do this.) We are repeatedly called to have the mind of God. (This again is difficult, most “Christians” are very shallow, & have no clue where the mind of God is at.) But here is the catch few realize (…perhaps its seldom realized in part because few can really love both their fellow man & God)…as I say here is the catch which we see in this example: when Christ, the reigning God King returns, He comes to wage war on God’s enemies. So a more accurate principle is this: We are called to love our personal enemies—but if God hates someone—and there are places in the Word where it says He hates certain people—If God hates someone, if they are enemies of His that He must hate, then we should have the mind of God. This helps explain how Phineas pleased God so highly. He understood this.

So I have given spiritual scriptural principles and have clarified the thinking we must have to sort out the answers facing us. The occult is guided by formulas & rituals. We are guided by the Spirit of God who gives life, liberty & wisdom. That is why I have not given you any formulas.