Posted on 03/01/2018 5:40:39 AM PST by Gamecock
The distinction between the sovereign will of God and the permissive will of God is fraught with peril and tends to generate untold confusion.
In ordinary language, the term permission suggests some sort of positive sanction. To say that God “allows” or “permits” evil does not mean that He sanctions it in the sense that He approves of it. It is easy to discern that God never permits sin in the sense that He sanctions it in His creatures.
What is usually meant by divine permission is that God simply lets it happen. That is, He does not directly intervene to prevent its happening. Here is where grave dangers lurk. Some theologies view this drama as if God were impotent to do anything about human sin.
This view makes man sovereign, not God. God is reduced to the role of spectator or cheerleader, by which God’s exercise in providence is that of a helpless Father who, having done all He can do, must now sit back and simply hope for the best. He permits what He cannot help but permit because He has no sovereign power over it. This ghastly view is not merely a defective view of theism; it is unvarnished atheism.
Coram Deo How has a false view of God’s permissive will affected your Christian walk in the past? Do you have a different view of His permissive will now? How will it affect your walk in the future?
Passages for Further Study John 7:17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
Psalm 37:23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way;
Psalm 27:11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Ping
Some theologies view this drama as if God were impotent to do anything about human sin.
Did those holding this view never read the book of the prophet Ezikiel?
God placed us on this earth and calls us His children.
He called Jesus Christ His Son.
Jesus said he would inherit all that God has. If Christ inherits ALL that God has then He is God.
Jesus has told us that His followers that are His, will inherit all that HE has. If you are a student of logic you will see that if Jesus is God and we inherit all Christ has we can become gods.
If that is true there must be some testing ground to see if we are eligible for all that. Taking a test has no value if you cheat.
When we come here to earth we are given our agency, the ability to make our own choices, if God made them for us that would be cheating. In the garden God Told Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
It was a commandment with a penalty but no enforcement.
We are not forced in this life to do good, we are not even forced to not do evil. We get to choose. With the light of Christ in all of us we have that capacity to recognize good and evil and we choose based on that light and our desires. I personally believe that if we deny that light for too long we will lose it.
God giving us agency does not make Him not God. It does not make Him powerless, it makes Him gracious. He allows us to have a will and lets us follow it.
Now all that being said. Those that follow Him from time to time ask in prayer for intervention. Even then when He saves us from the evil of others He does not take the agency away from us or the evil person. He simply thwarts the evil action. A bad man may shoot a gun with the intention of killing but the bullet may go off target, perhaps the gun will jam. The evil person still did what he did and the person praying for intervention had his prayer answered.
God is in control, He just does not always take control.
Evil generated soley by human beings as they begin to abstract information form their environment.
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” —Isaiah 45:7
“And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....” —Genesis 1:26
Other civilizations across the cosmos? Would they know evil too?
I agree with you. God in His graciousness gave us the agency of free will and He will not take that away from us.
What I am saying is that anyone who reads Ezekiel would see that God is not impotent. Just as He did with Adam and Eve, God told the people through Ezekiel what He would do to those who refused to turn to Him and what He would do to those who would turn to Him. And He did as He said He would do.
Got into a semi-heated argument with an atheist over this very topic. He posed what he thought was a catch-22 question, "If God is all powerful and a God of love, why then do bad things happen?". He surmised that an all-loving God who had the power to prevent "bad" things from happening and bad things were STILL going on, meant either God was not all powerful or He was not all loving. Of course, he was closed off from hearing ANY explanation for how God IS both and why He permits evil in His perfect will. The supposed dichotomy, he thought, was proof God doesn't exist.
It is eye-opening how the natural man, with no spiritual insight, reasons out that a "true" God would act in the world He created and loves. In this atheist's view, God would be a benevolent, fairy-godmother/godfather, who both allows His creation to live however they please and also prevents ANY negative consequences for those actions as well as never allowing natural calamities to befall creation. I don't think he even realized he was describing a kind of heaven. We know that one day God will create a new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Too bad the God-haters will never know what that will be like.
God made us in His own image and we, even the natural man, have been returning the favor ever since.
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