One of the legitimate questions I hear from Christians is “What is God’s will for my life?” When this is asked, they usually want to know about the many decisions they face, like jobs, educational pursuits, retirement investments, what kind of house or car to buy, and a myriad of other choices not directly addressed in Scripture. This subject can be a source of stress for Christians, because we want to make the right decisions and do what pleases the Lord. To answer this, we need to have a basic understanding of the will of God as revealed in Scripture. I am grateful for the hard work men like Jack Cottrell, George Faull, and others have done on this subject that has benefited me. The best approach is to think of God’s will as a pyramid with four levels: the purposive, prescriptive/preceptive, permissive, and practical will of God. These designations may not be as precise as we would like them to be, but they will help us in exploring our subject matter.
One of the sensitive points we sometimes come up against when talking about the Christian faith is something we could call the Aunt Sally objection. It is not necessarily an objection made by Aunt Sally. It is an objection made, based on Aunt Sally, to the claim that Christians must be water-baptized into Christ.
It can come in many variations, but it usually has a pattern. Someone presents the biblical teaching on being baptized into Christ. Hearing this, a listener objects: that can’t be correct.
Some of the comments you hear on TV, social media, radio, etc., centers around this thought, “God saved President Trump’s life.” If that is true, why didn’t God save the life of Corey Comperatore — the fireman who was assassinated by the rogue gunman? When I hear the statement, “God saved Trump’s life/turned his head” my mind immediately goes to the wife and children of Comperatore and the other injured victims. What must they think? Was President Trump’s life more important than their injured or lost lives? No, of course not.
Let us look at the subject of interpreting providence, and what do we mean by providence? Providence is that which is directly influenced and affected by the hand of God. There are three reasons why events happen. 1) God causes them. 2) Nature affects them. 3) The freewill choices of people. All events can be categorized under these three causes.
So, after January 20, 2025, we are in anticipation of many things we have been promised by the incoming president. Reducing prices and inflation. Closing our borders. Rolling back DEI, LGBTQ. On transgender rights he would end “boys in girls’ sports,” a practice he insists, is widespread. But his policies go well beyond standard applause lines from his rally speeches. Among other ideas, Trump would roll back the Biden administration’s policy of extending Title IX civil rights protections to transgender students, and he would ask Congress to require that only two genders can be recognized at birth. Reductions in burdensome regulations. Targeting the elimination of the federal involvement in our nation’s education. Eliminating the green new deal. Improving the defense of our country.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, as much as these things sound good and make us feel better about the direction of our country they are not enough. While the new administration may be able to improve our physical life, our society still has a spiritual problem. As described in Romans 1:21-32 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.
Christian apologists have long said that the three greatest miracles of the Christian faith are the creation of the universe, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and His bodily resurrection from the dead. To these a fourth awesome miracle could be added—fulfilled Bible prophecy.
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