Zeal For Truth

It might seem strange for the authors to spend the first third of the book without telling you what they actually do believe. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the first part and found it to be insightful.Once the authors get around to spelling out their views, they do so in a hurry. Their view is neatly summarized in the first two pages of the section, and then several chapters of elaborations follow.

Summary of the Wisdom View
Since this is the very center of the book, I think I’ll let the authors speak for themselves and offer a somewhat lengthy quote:

1. In those areas specifically addressed by the Bible, the revealed commands of God (His moral will) are to be obeyed.

2. In those areas where the Bible gives no command or principle (nonmoral decisions), the believer is free and responsible to choose his own course of action. Any decision made within the moral will of God is acceptable to God.

3. In nonmoral decisions, the objective of the Christian is to make wise decisions on the basis of spiritual expediency.

4. In all decisions, the believer should humbly submit, in advance, to the outworking of God’s sovereign will as it touches each decision.

God’s Moral Will
Since the authors believe that there isn’t an individual will of God as expressed in the traditional view, a major part of their focus is on God’s moral will. God’s moral will is the ethical structure upon which we are to base our lives.

God’s moral will is an expression of his character. We are to be holy because He is holy. It does not merely address our actions, but every aspect of our lives, the why and the how as well as the what. Basing on 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the book makes the case that God’s moral will is fully revealed in the Bible, because it is “adequate to equip believers for every good work.”

Choice
The authors make the point that in most things, that is, in nonmoral decisions, people are free to make their own choice. They go through numerous scriptural passages, in both the Old and New Testaments, demonstrating that in matters not specifically addressed by God (through scripture, the prophets, etc.) people had freedom of choice. An example:

1st Corinthians 10:27 - “If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake.”

The believer is free to accept or decline the invitation. The book notes that Paul did not write something like, “Determine if it’s God’s will for you to go.”

The Basis for Making Decisions
After having made a solid case that in nonmoral decisions believers are free to choose, it obviously becomes important to see what we should base our decisions on, and it is to this that the authors turn their attention to next. A study of several passages is made to this end. Outside of supernatural revelation, the apostles do not claim to make decisions because they had a feeling that it was the will of God. Instead they use phrases like, “we thought it best” “I thought it necessary” and “if it is fitting.”

But why did they make one decision and not another? The authors state that they based their decision on “spiritual expediency.” Spiritual expediency means what works best to accomplish God’s moral will. To make these decisions we are to employ the use of wisdom (Eph 5:15-16 and Col 4:5). I presume this is why the authors refer to their position as the “wisdom view.”

To acquire wisdom, we need to have the right attitude and make use of the right approach. We must realize that the ultimate source of all wisdom is God. Scripture mentions that God gives wisdom to those whose attitude is characterized by the following: reverence, humility, teachableness, diligence, uprightness, and faith.

The approach to finding wisdom begins by asking God for it (Col 1:9-10). We should then: seek for wisdom in scripture (Psalms 119), conduct research (Luke 14:28-32), consult wise counselors (Proverbs 11:14), both to see if know of any scriptures that address the situation in question and if their experience has taught them something in that regard, and look at nature (Proverbs 6:6-11).

God’s Sovereign Will
The book then proceeds with two chapters on God’s sovereign will. The authors express God’s sovereign will in a very fatalistic way. A quote from the book will illustrate this:

Would you like to know His sovereign plan for the past? … If something happened it was part of the plan.

How this strong view of God’s sovereignty reconciles with the previous statements that seemingly deny God has a “detailed life-plan uniquely designed for each person,” has been a much pondered question in reviews of the book. I think the authors’ view is that you can’t know God’s plan for you ahead of time (except in the moral will sense), but you can see in hindsight what it is (because it happened). Thus, a major concern of the Traditional view, that one might miss God’s perfect will for themselves, is not something that is possible. This is a point where I think the book could have used more clarity, as the authors themselves do not resolve this difficulty.

The authors make a pretty good argument for their view of God’s sovereignty, but suffice it to say, I am not (cannot be, if you prefer) a fatalist. I still found the book quite valuable even if I disagree with this part.

Next week: Application

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