Foundational Truths – The Will of God and the Problem of Evil

As we saw last time, the will of God is absolutely sovereign and that He is God over both calamity and well-being (Isa 45:7). Of necessity He must also be immutable i.e. cannot change, for if he could change it would imply that He is not all knowing, His plan was not perfect, or that He was acted upon by some force which caused Him to react thereby necessitating a change in Him. Any of which would indicate that He is in fact not God, just a mere impostor.

However, one may ask “what about evil”; meaning if God is sovereign i.e. all things happen as a result of His sovereignly willing it to be then evil must be a direct result of His will and not the result of sinful disobedience of the created.

To answer this Dr. John Gerstner in Primitive Theology – A Primer on Apologetics states that evil is largely an issue of perception. The position of his position is that "God is sovereign in an absolute way" and we must admit this is what sovereignty means. And that "God is good in an equally absolute way" so that there is no chance of anything evil ever happening if He is both sovereign and good, so that evil must be at its heart an issue of perception.

Now on the outset let me say what he is not saying. He is not saying that “evil” or “good” for that matter is not real in the sense the scientologist does i.e. reality is but an illusion so that they deny the existence of sickness, suffering, death and even hell. Rather he is stating that since “all things work together for good” (Rom 8: 28) then even the “evil” in the believer’s life is actually “good” since it does work out good in us. And since it is “all things” this would by necessity include both the “evil” and “good” in the unbeliever’s life as well.

His focus is that of God. If we see God’s hand in all that befalls us, if we see all things as being filtered though His hands to us, then we can see the good in all things that He ordains in our lives. Was this not the result of Job’s horrific ordeal? “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6). The evil in his life was actually good even though it required taking all he had to work this good out in his life. Was this not also the testimony of Joseph in his famous quote “you meant it for evil but God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20). Meaning that your evil intent was actually God’s good intent; why, “that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Now I do not mean to make light of the pain in our lives only to point out that as believers, evil is not a problem at all only an error in the perception of God’s good.

Foundational Truths - The Will of God

Before us today is a desire to understand God’s will.  Now it should go without saying that God does have a will since all intelligent beings have wills.  But at the heart of the discussion is after accepting the fact of God having a will, is it proper to understand His will as divided into His secret and revealed will; where these are but components of the singular will of God.  Well sure.  His secret will is composed of those things which cannot be known by man, and those which are secret until the providence of time and His good pleasure reveal them to us, either through the unfolding of events or by direct revelation through prophecy of events yet future. 

Now of major importance in the revealed will of God, is His revelation to man in the Scriptures of which the central theme is the glorification of God through the finished work of Christ on the cross thereby securing the salvation of man.  In this is revealed God’s will in the regeneration (or reconciliation) of man to Himself.  God has chosen some to everlasting life and happiness; that he has appointed these to salvation by Christ and appointed him to be their Savior.  This being true, the reverse, that God has chosen some to everlasting damnation and death, is not.  It does not follow that His choice of certain ones to salvation necessitates His choosing the others to damnation for they were born into that state.  Nor is that position, double predestination, presented in the Scripture.

Even so man bristles at the very idea that God would so arbitrarily, at least in our minds, bestow His love on some and yet with hold it from others.  However, for the sake of brevity suffice it for now to accept that it is truly amazing that God would bestow His love on any, as we are all worthy of damnation.  However, in considering sin, John Gill asks “what is in sin, and relative to it: there is the act of sin, and there is the guilt of sin, which is an obligation to punishment, and the punishment itself.”  No rational and sane person would dare to account to themselves anything other than the total guilt of their sin and the deserved punishment accounted thereof.

Also of note is the accounting of God’s will by some, Gill included, of all things not directly from His hand whether good or evil.  Here they make a distinction between what would be His “perfect” will and His “permissive” will.  This, they say, would fall under the things He wills directly and those things which, although not directly willed of Him, fit into His purpose.  They state that while God is “omniscient and omnipotent, He is not omnivolent or all willing.”  Thus they divide into “malum poenae,” the evil of afflictions” that are the result of God’s chastisement of a result of His direct punishment, and “malum culpae,” or the evil of fault and blame.  This is resulted by the afore mentioned sin of the individual.

 

Now while God does not tempt any to sin nor is He in any way the author of evil, individual actions bring consequences good or bad (Jas 1:13-15).  This position however, flies into the face of the very definition of Sovereignty.  If He is in fact Sovereign He therefore forms light and create darkness, He makes well-being and creates calamity, It is the Lord, who does all these things (Isa 45:7).

So in conclusion the nature and properties of God’s will is essential and eternal to Him.  It is His very nature and essence and given that He is eternal so must His will be.  His will is immutable and efficacious meaning the very nature of God is one of un-changeability, therefore so must His will be.  The efficaciousness of His will is that it must by necessity is always effected.  The will God is without cause outside Himself; else this would place something as being greater that He, and without condition.  In salvic terms God’s salvation of man is not predicated upon sinful man choosing Him.  And lastly, God’s will is Sovereign in all He chooses to do, whether to destroy the earth by flood or by fire.  He is independent and self-governing; no one will bring Him into a court of judgment to question His motives on anything, for He is Righteous.  


This does bring in to question the evil we see in the world and we will look at that next time.