the will of God

My sister sent me a link to this page yesterday.

the question being answered is this one:

Question:
Can you help me understand God’s perfect will versus His permissive will?

I don’t think that the answer went the direction that the questioner was expecting. Go read the answer and ponder it a while.

I remember several years ago, my brother (the preacher) and I went round and round on this exact question. At the time we were both thoroughly Armenian in our soteriology. However, it did not seem to me that it was consistent with the Bible for our bad choices to be able to shift God into “plan B” away from His “perfect will” for our lives. Having that point of view about God’s will puts us in charge and leaves God reacting to our choices and cleaning up our messes.

That simply is not what the Bible teaches, but that kind of thinking is what animates Roger Olson and Wm. Paul Young and a lot of other people who want to help God out.

That discussion with my brother is what started me down the road of rethinking God’s sovereignty in salvation and all other matters as expressed in the text of Scripture.