A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View
Decision Making & the Will of God was first published in 1981. The authors are Garry Friesen (whom I have a sneaking suspicion wrote most of the book), professor at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, and J. Robin Maxson, pastor of the Klamath Evangelical Free Church in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Both men have managed to hold these job positions since before the book was written to today.
Purpose
The book was written to “help Christians understand what the Bible says about God’s will as it pertains to decision making.” The authors hope that it will give comfort to the group of Christians who believe God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives, but for some reason God has not told them what that plan is.
The author (presumably Friesen) faced this situation earlier in his life. He was well schooled in what he terms “the traditional view” (more on this later) of understanding the will of God, but when faced with the decision of which college to attend, this method failed and he could not find what the will of God was for him in this decision.
He considered three causes for this inability: that God was unable to reveal His will; that sin or insincerity on his part was that cause of his failure; or that his understanding of the nature of God’s will was biblically deficient. He immediately ruled out the first option. After a careful time of introspection before God, he decided that although he couldn’t rule out the second option, he did not think it was the issue. This drove him to examine what Scripture actually taught, and began a process that ultimately lead to the writing of this book.
How the Traditional View is Presented
The first four chapters in the book present the traditional view of understanding how to find the will of God (which is later debunked). This is accomplished by presenting a fictional seminar that teaches the traditional view. The story is headlined by a pastor who is confident he knows how to find God’s perfect individual will (and has plenty of scriptural proof-texts to back it up) and a student who is facing questions regarding the “Big 3″ (marriage, vocation, and education). The section lacks the footnotes that are in the rest of the book because the authors did not wish to “disparage” any specific people who have sincerely taught the traditional view.
The authors recognize that this method of presenting the traditional view, that is a fictional seminar, causes the possibility of creating a straw man. I think they have largely avoided that problem, although it is nearly impossible for someone to give a fair statement of a position they don’t agree with (so they likely have not completely avoided the straw man problem). In any case, I know a good number of people who believe the view as they have presented it, and I found the fictional seminar interesting reading.
Summary of the Traditional View
The traditional view gives three meanings for the term “God’s will.” There is:
Sovereign Will: “God’s secret plan that determines everything that happens in the universe.” It most often cannot be known until after it has happened.
Moral Will: “God’s revealed commands in the Bible that teach how men ought to believe and live.” It is fully revealed in Scripture.
Individual Will: “God’s ideal, detailed life-plan uniquely designed for each person.” It is given and confirmed by the Holy Spirit, through numerous means, to the hearts of sincere believers.
The moral will, revealed in the Bible, is of great use for Christians’ decision making. However, many times it offers only general guidelines for believers to follow, and not specific instruction. For example, scripture clearly teaches that if believers marry it is to be to a fellow believer, but it does not tell believers whom specifically they are to marry.
Road Signs Pointing to God’s Individual Will
The traditional view uses a number of signs to help discover God’s individual will.
The Bible - Anything that contradicts the Bible’s commands (understood in proper historical context, of course) cannot be the will of God. Again, this is more useful for ruling things out than finding God’s individual will for things that aren’t necessarily moral decisions.
Circumstances - The idea here is that God works through various circumstances by his sovereign will to open and close doors, either revealing that something is or is not his will. Admittedly, what could be a “closed door” or what might be a “test” can be hard to say. This may include careful use of “putting out a fleece” as per the example of Gideon.
Inner Witness of the Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit’s guidance of a believer through personal impressions within the heart to reveal God’s individual will.
Mature Counsel - This is advice based on scripture and life experience from respected believers. One must remember though that human counselors are fallible and that the Holy Spirit is to be the final counselor regarding guidance.
Personal Desires - If someone is properly devoted to the Lord, then their desires may line up with God’s will. One has to be careful though, because the heart can be deceitful.
Common Sense - From Proverbs and elsewhere, it is clear that God expects us to use wisdom and common sense. But this cannot be the case always, for God’s wisdom is greater than our wisdom. It was not common sense that led Abraham to seek to sacrifice his son.
Special Supernatural Guidance - Examples of this are: God speaking audibly, God speaking through prophets, appearances by angels, visions, and miracles. However, such things are uncommon and most believers will not experience them.
Together these signs are taken as being completely sufficient for the believer to find God’s individual will for his or her life. Certainty that one has correctly found God’s will stems from: the agreement of the signs, the results of our actions, prayer, and personal communion with God (if we are close to God, we can be confident that he will guide us).
Next week: The Critique of the Traditional View
So would the traditional view say that God has a plan for every decision we make? In other words, when Friesen was deciding which university to attend, the traditional view would say that one university was the right decision and the other was the wrong decision.
I’ve never believed that God’s will works like that. If I did, I would be paralyzed into inaction for fear of making the wrong choice. In the absence of any blatant divine revelation, I’ve always just assumed that I could use my brain and figure things out, and that none of the options were wrong or contrary to God’s will. That’s what people do for most decisions anyway, even if they believe in the traditional view of God’s will.
Perhaps I’m cheating by commenting, since I’m reading Jasen’s draft ahead of time and know what further things he will be covering.
But also, I read this book about 100 years ago and personally found it to be very liberating in how I viewed God’s relationship with me.
Those of us who were schooled in “the traditional view” more or less believed that, looking backwards, there really was a “perfect will of God” when it came to the decision of whether you should wear black or brown socks today. Lots of people think that, as I used to, even if Jew never did.
Of course, the decision about socks is silly, but when it comes to something like what university to attend, it feels like the stakes are much greater, so we want God’s help to make that decision. We can envision that our lives would be quite different if we go to Univ A vs. Uviv B. This is why I used to think that there was only one right person to marry. (And having been happily married for 30 years, it is easy to think I found the “right” person and glad I didn’t marry any of those other guys.)
The trick here is really understanding what God’s moral will is, and then realizing that not every decision in life is of that type.
If it happens, can’t you say that it was God’s will? For example, say you chose the “wrong” college. How is this “wrong”? After all, God doesn’t allow something to occur outside of His will. It may not have been the (humanly-speaking) wise choice, but perhaps God let you make that choice so that you could grow or learn a lesson.
Likewise, there is one person that you are to marry (if you’re to marry at all). However, this person may not turn out to be (humanly-speaking) your perfect match, but rather what God allows because your heart is stubborn and/or to show you something and help you mature. Even an imperfect marriage teaches one a lot. The view that God has one spouse in mind for each person AND that spouse is going to be perfect for you in every way and if your current partner is not perfect for you, you’ve picked the wrong spouse is incorrect.
Darius said: For example, say you chose the “wrong” college. How is this “wrong”?
It’s wrong in that it’s a sin. God wanted you to go one place, but you went elsewhere. Your action was contrary to God’s perfect plan, and therefore is an act of sin. God permits sin, and he can work through it to help you grow, but that doesn’t mean it’s right or good.
Choosing the wrong college is not a sin, unless God clearly tells you otherwise. Are you saying it’s a sin or that it’s the traditional view? I didn’t notice the traditional view defined in this way, at least in the book/article.
I’m saying that could be one interpretation of the traditional view. After all, if God has a perfect plan, and you don’t follow it, that’s disobeying God. I imagine that nobody couches it in those terms, because when you come right out and say it, it’s ridiculous.
Jew, you understanding of the book’s presentation of the traditional view is correct. Making the wrong decision wasn’t called a sin directly, but it is being outside of God’s perfect will for your life (which isn’t what you want). If God planned for you to marry Sue and you married Sally than you’re pretty much outside God’s perfect will for you for the rest of your life.
Also, it’s strongly suspected that if you can’t figure out what God’s will is for you it is because some sin in your life is preventing you from doing so.
This might sound a bit extreme, but I have known I few people who would hold to this “traditional view.” And I’ve known many people who hold to a less extreme version of it.
If only a few people hold to the traditional view, then is it really all that “traditional?”
Furthermore, if you marry Sally, how do you know that is outside of God’s will? Even if the marriage sours, is it necessarily outside of His will? Since no human knows the answer to those questions (at least in this life), then how could one call it a sin? Obviously, if it goes against Scripture or some other clear sign from God to marry Sally, then yes, it is sin. But if all signs point to “Yes” but God really meant “No,” how is one to know that? The traditional view (as outlined above) would seem to be accurate and Scriptural, but a twisted view of it (like assuming God’s will on a matter without any evidence to back up that assumption) is not.
What I meant by “less extreme,” view, which many people do believe, is people who hold to these ideas in theory, but in practice only occasionally use it. They may not ask God which socks to wear, but they will spend an immense amount of effort trying to discern God’s leading rather or not the should get married/become a missionary/other “really important” thing. So it can be called the “traditional view” (for American Evangelicals). Also, I think the authors wanted a polite name for it.
Much of the rest of what you said will be addressed next week.
“If God planned for you to marry Sue and you married Sally than you’re pretty much outside God’s perfect will for you for the rest of your life.”
One variation on this that I’ve heard is that if you make a mistake like this, then you repent or start to later follow the traditional thinking and listen better to God, then from that point on God can give you a new “perfect will.”
“Even if the marriage sours, is it necessarily outside of His will? ”
Once you’re married, it makes no difference if the marriage sours, since God’s moral will then comes into play. God’s moral will always trumps any decision in our individual lives we are faced with. God’s moral will is against divorce so no matter the feelings, it is God’s will to remain married. (Now if adultery is part of the picture, the rules change, but that’s off topic at the moment.)
I’m just wondering how one discerns (outside of the traditional view) if a marriage is God’s will in the past tense? Just because it goes sour doesn’t make it against God’s will, since God uses bad circumstances for His will.
Let’s change the example for a minute (because marriage is a moral issue, or at least staying married is).
Let’s say you drive home from work every evening. There are two ways to get home, route A and route B. One day you take route B home and you get hit by a drunk driver who breaks your leg and ruins your car. At that point you think, I wish I had taken route A.
So which was God’s will–for you to take route A or route B?
The answer is, neither. OR both. Or, it doesn’t matter, it’s a moot point. That’s because, all else being equal, there is no moral right or wrong in taking either route. If God wanted to use a broken leg to teach you something, He would see to it that you got a broken leg regardless which route you took.
It is the same with marriage. If God wants to use “sourness” in marriage to accomplish something in a person’s life, he will do so no matter who they are married to. (On the other hand, if the “sourness” is caused by sin of some kind in the marriage, that is relevant to God’s moral will, which we know about from scripture, and we are instructed to do something about it.)
Multnomah School of the Bible has been changed to:
Multnomah Bible College for many years now.
www.multnomah.edu