Nu 23:19 God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Ge 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Contradiction! The Bible is full of them. Therefore Christianity is a sham propagated by a book of fables passed off as absolute truth. People would like to believe this and many do but it is far from reality. All Christians receive the Bible as the truth of God and instead of "finding contradiction" they submit to the following proposition;

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
 9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

The God of the Bible is beyond the ability of the human mind to fully comprehend or fully define! This falls under the doctrine of the transcendence of God. Here's another "contradiction"!

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, [art] not thou God in heaven? and rulest [not] thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand [is there not] power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

Ac 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.

In the first citation it was noted that God who cannot repent, repented! Here God is said to rule over all the kingdoms of the world so that no one can withstand His power while in Acts men are seen to withstand His power!  One more...

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

This passage teaches that no one is able to resist the will of God. And yet...

1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

The fact that millions engage in fornication and ingratitude demonstrates that God's will is resisted all the time. Even believers are not immune. Consider David and the man in 1Cor 5! In Acts 17:30 God commands all men every where to repent. Therefore, for anyone who hears the gospel it is God's will that they repent. But not every one who hears repents. Thus many are able to resist the will of God and perish in their sins.

We may find some relief in the idea that even the sinful actions of men have been ordained of God and in this sense it is true that nobody is able to resist His will. As a matter of  fact the context of Romans 9 well supports this.
But this approach, though it is Biblical, only solves one problem by introducing another. If God indeed predestines sin and evil how can He hold men accountable for their sin? Did God know that Jona was going to disobey Him and beat it to Tarshish? He not only knew it He ordained and ordered it! Does this mean then that God "approved" of his disobedience? And how can God command and desire that which He has not decreed? Men have debated for centuries over the question of Divine omniscience and predestination and human responsibility. If God knows all things and predestines all things how can human beings be responsible for the decisions and choices they make in life? How can God ordain men to eternal perdition and at the same time command them to repent and be saved? Another question and one of a much deeper concern is the age old problem of evil! How, it is asked, can such a thing as evil exist in a universe that is the product of the mind of a God who is pure goodness?  How can God decree evil, hold men accountable, and still be God?

The only proper way to discover Biblical answers to such questions is to make sure we maintain a Biblical frame of mind. By that I mean that in our attempt to come to a more accurate understanding of the God of the Bible and His ways, we must avoid all occasion to use carnal reasoning. Because the human mind in its natural state is engulfed in darkness as it relates to the knowledge of God as it is found in the pages of the Bible it is the tendency of even the mind that has been opened and renewed by the Spirit of God to think of the Deity in human terms. This is one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome in our search for the knowledge of God and until it is conquered we shall come to a halt in our progress of that knowledge. Solomon has well said;

Prov 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In the verses above it was stated that God is not a man and His ways are far above man's. Paul tells us in Romans that He is unsearchable and His ways are past finding out. Therefore to try and understand God according to human reason is a futile exercise and can only end in error.

Consider how these verses address the minds of believers;

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Remember, we're talking about the will of God.

Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened,

1Pe 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,

2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

We need to resist the temptation to try and figure out the Deity in terms of our finite carnal frame of mind and submit to Divine Revelation of just who this G-O-D is we are dealing with folks.
 This is especially important when reading passages of Scripture that seem contradictory or that say some things about God that we don't like. For example, take a verse like;

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

Here it is said that God engages in the nasty activity of deceiving people! For men to do so would be sin! But can God sin? The danger here is to engage in carnal reasoning and end up "explaining the verse away"! This we must not do. Neither should we go the other extreme of making the Deity the doer of sin! Another example; one that is upsetting to many;

1Ki 22:23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Again it is said that the LORD "spoke evil"! In verses 21 & 22 it is plain that it was God's intention to "persuade" Ahab... which is the exact same word found in Ez 14:9! Here, once again God was in the business of deceiving people! Natural, carnal reasoning wants to interpret all this in one of two ways; 1. View God as a man who is the responsible doer of sin.  2. Water down the language and remove God from all active involvement in the sinful acts of His creatures. This borders on deism. Neither of these are supported in Scripture.

The problem is augmented when we discover passages of Scripture that do seem to apply human qualities to God as in the Genesis passage. Men have taken such passages and deduced that God is just like we with passions and change. When He looked down on men in Genesis 6 poor God was grieved and full of repentance! Thus He wiped 'em all out and "started over" with Noah! Did God overlook that wicked generation in His eternal decree and was He taken by surprise?

Secondly, although we may not be able to know all the answers to the problem of evil God has not left us high and dry. There is enough information in the Bible to allow us to come to a proper, intelligent understanding of these things. We shall not come to an absolute understanding for the Scriptures go so far and then they stop. As Paul said in Romans... who has known the mind of the Lord? Yet God has given us enough for our understanding and growth. Generally speaking it's the age old tension between the doctrines of the Sovereignty of God and the Responsibility of Man. This has been the platform of such items as evangelism, the Christian life, sanctification etc. My purpose in this paper is to attempt to arrive at a Biblical understanding of God's relationship to and activity in a universe that contains moral evil; a universe which He himself decreed and brought into existence. How is it that an all good and all powerful God can co-exist and operate within such a universe? I propose that the answer of Divine Sovereignty, though Biblical, is not enough! It does not take us far enough in attempting to maintain a proper understanding of the Nature and Character of the God of the Bible within the context of moral evil. Attempting to answer moral evil by referring to passages that show God's sovereign control over it are easily countered with passages that show men resisting this God of such sovereignty and power and the result is a stalemate. For example, the Ezekiel verse cited above might be "countered" with a verse like;

Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

The one verse cannot be used to "cancel out" the plain teaching of the other else we mangle the Scriptures. Both passages teach a Biblical truth and they cannot be contradictory; that much we know. But to "pit" them against each other in order to "refute" what we think is error is to court disaster in interpreting the Bible. Yet men do this all the time. That's why I say offering the Sovereignty of God as the answer to evil is not enough. It only ends in confusion at the price of progress. Therefore, we need to go deeper into the subject and search for more light. How shall we do so?

The key is in understanding that God operates within the confines of two separate and distinct realms. In examining this we shall take into consideration the "will" of God and His attributes of transcendence, immanency and immutability and the idea of Anthropomorphism! Phew folks; that's a hard one to spell. Accordingly, these all must be set against the backdrop of the Doctrine of Creation given in a previous paper. In this section I shall attempt to address the question;
How can God command a man to do something that He has not decreed?

                                    DUAL REALM REALITY

THE WILL OF GOD
In any subject of Biblical Theology God's will is always central. The Decree, Creation, Providence, Election, Prophecy, Redemption etc. are all rooted in the will of God. Therefore a discussion on God's will is indispensable.
God works... He works within the confines of His own will.. He works all things after the counsel of His own will...  All Things!

Eph 1: 11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The last phrase of the verse is one that can stand on its own merit. It needs no context. It is a proposition that is true as true is; always and in every way. God works all things after the counsel of His own will. This includes both the Divine Decree in eternity and its outworking in time and history by way of Divine Providence. It includes Adam, Hitler, spaghetti, football, ice cream, volcanoes, evil, presidents, abortion, dinosaurs and roaches.. E-yuch-h! I may add to this list from time to time. You may too. Just put anything in there you like and you have the sovereignty of God. But try to remove one thing and you no longer have the God of the Bible! The will of God therefore is the sum and substance of all things. This is the great answer to all the questions and problems of life, time and eternity. Everything finds its source in God's will. If then this answers all our questions, why is there so much confusion, debate, misunderstanding etc. over the will of God?

The term "will of God" or "God's will" is by its very nature ambiguous and even misleading!   (What's with you Jay? Ain't you never gone to seminary and studied the will of God?)  Yes I have and I repeat... the term "will of God" is ambiguous. All we have to do to show this is engage in the all-to-often-used practice of "pitting" another verse against Eph 1:11... e.g.

Ac 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.

And then embellish it with these...

Ro 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

2Ti 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

and... voila; we have shown that the "will of God" is not really all that sovereign. The "all things" must be "qualified" because, as is plainly seen, men can and do "resist" the will of God. From there it's easy to concoct strange doctrine that end up mutilating the Scriptures and mis-representing the character of God. So what's the solution?

The "solution" is that God's "will" is presented to us in the Bible from two different vantage points and most of you already know what they are; There is the Secret will of God and there is the Revealed will of God and whenever anybody says.. "the will of God is..." without qualifying which will he is talking about he is doomed to confusion!
Furthermore, and this is where most folks indulge in the most confusion... the "two wills" of God are in NO WAY contradictory! I know; this is mind-banging stuff but gird up and hang in there.  Some try to deny there is such a thing as the secret will and say that God has not decreed anything! Others say that ultimately God only has one will. The terms "secret and revealed" are merely different "aspects" of the same will. This has some merit to it.

When we search the Bible we are left with the unavoidable fact that there appears to be two wills of God and they are very different. The distinction stands, not because of a logical or theological deduction, but because it is inescapable in the Scriptures. The tussle comes in trying to sort out verses that seem to be at odds with each other because they come from two different vantage points. Let's attempt to sort them out.

Recommendation; Decision Making And The Will of God. Garry Friesen.
Multnomah Press.

The book gives a good working layout of God's "two" wills. He does a pretty good job of sorting things out and I'm stealing some of the material in it for this here page.
Let's take the secret will first. Three things to note about it.

GOD'S SECRET WILL
1. It is guaranteed infallible. This simply means that whatever, I mean whatever God wills to happen will happen and there ain't no force of power in the entire scheme of creation to stop it... including the will of man! Get that and mull it over for a few decades and you will be well on the way to understanding what GOD is all about. If God decrees the salvation of Looie in time then Looie will end up in glory as sure as granny makes the best waffles this side of the Mississippi! Like the opening verse says... hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?  Another..

Da 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth [are] reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and [among] the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

Dozens more exist and I know you can find them. Romans 9:19 has already been cited. We see by such passages that God's Secret will cannot fail or be defeated. Whatever He wills will most surely and infallibly come to pass otherwise what becomes of prophecy? Prophecy is firmly rooted in the secret, infallible will of God. How could God inform us of things to come when His creatures are running all over the place frustrating His designs by resisting His will? With this situation prophecy is reduced to nothing more than having God out-guess what men will do!! Nah-h. Daniel says that there is no one who can "stay His hand". Onward...

2. God's secret will is exhaustive. I already mentioned ice cream and roaches. Take your pick. It includes every act of evil ever carried out in time and eternity... yes there are folks in eternity right now who are sinning; the lost in hell and the Devil and his imps. And the sinful acts of His creatures are rooted in the secret will of God. They were all decreed by Him. The classic passages here are...

Ac 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

and...

Ac 4: 27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to  be done.

The greatest sin in the universe finds its source in the secret, sovereign will of God. Notice both passages talk of God's counsel of determination. To determine something is to will something. Does this mean it was all ok since God willed it? After all the salvation of God's people was accomplished by such an act! No because by the Revealed will of God murder is wicked! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

3. The Secret will of God is just that... it's Secret and He ain't tellin'! Do you want to know which girl/boy to marry or which job to take? Don't ask God because He won't tell you. And don't look to "circumstances" to figure out God's will either. Jona tried it and look where it landed him... in the drink where he becomes fish food!
The boat was there waiting for him; there was passage available on it; he had the money in his pocket. All things looked good. "Chee" says Jona.. "This must be God's will that I go to Tarshish. Circumstances all point in that direction."....  Man overboard! JAWS!!
 
God's secret will is Secret and can only be known after the fact. Again this applies to prophecy. The only way we can know the correct interpretation of any prophecy in the Bible is;
1. God says what it means by direct revelation. This is what Daniel is all about. The king had dreams and visions and had no idea what they all meant until God told Daniel the meaning.
2. By way of actual fulfillment. These are the only two ways to know the meaning of any prophecy.  Upward.

GOD'S REVEALED WILL
The Revealed will of God, by way of contrast can be said to be the reverse of the three things said about the secret will.
1. It is not "guaranteed infallible". This simply means that the Revealed will can be and often is resisted. Is it the revealed will of God for men to repent? Yes. Do all who hear the good news repent? No. Is God therefore powerless to control His creatures? Has He created a rock so big He can't lift it? Nah-h-h!
The fact that men "resist" the revealed will of God has been decreed by God Himself; but again I'm getting ahead of myself.
2. The Revealed will is not exhaustive. It is not the will of God for fish to abstain from fornication!  Neither does God  command all trees and birds everywhere to repent! No. What takes place in the realm of nature is according to His sovereign decree and secret will, not the revealed will.
3. The revealed will is just that... it is revealed and anybody can know it; all of it. It's found in the Bible and in no place else.

Now, the question is...
If the Bible says that God does all His will in heaven and earth and no one can withstand Him... that He works all things according to His own will... while at the same time men act against His revealed will...  how can it be said that there is no contradiction between the secret and revealed will of God? The simplistic answer is that even man's rebellion is in accord with the secret will of God and was decreed by Him in eternity! But the real answer is that God operates within the confines of two different realms.

TWO REALMS
     God operates within the confines of two separate realms. The absolute and the relative; the eternal and the temporal. God's activity in the absolute and eternal takes place with reference to no one or nothing but Himself. Therefore, His eternal decree is based upon nothing but His own sovereign will and purpose. In this context there is no such thing as contingency with God. There is no such thing as the word "IF"! Everything done by God in this realm is Absolutely Ipso Facto! All the passages that speak of God's sovereignty apply here. Let's take one or two at random;

La 3:37 Who [is] he [that] saith, and it cometh to pass, [when] the Lord
 commandeth [it] not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

Here it can be seen that nothing but nothing comes to pass without the active command of God! Ipso Facto... If God does not "command" it it ain't gunna happen! Including Hitler and Hussain, not to mention Hoover Hefner and Howdy Doody! If it happens then God "commanded" it... that is, He decreed it in eternity and nothing in all the universe could stop it.  That's it.  It will happen!

Eph 1:11 etc... check out the cross refs folks.. Dan 4:35 etc... They all say the same thing. No IF with God! He speaks and it is or shall be so!

But God's activity in the realm of time with respect to His creation involves not only the consideration of the decisions and actions of His creatures but His own interaction with them as well. Within this context the elements of contingency and condition take effect. Some verses;...

Ge 4:7 IF thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and IF thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and  thou shalt rule over him.

De 11:22 For IF ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I
command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his
ways, and to cleave unto him;
23 THEN will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and
ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

De 19:9 IF thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I
command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his
ways; THEN shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:

Lu 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, EXCEPT ye repent, YE SHALL all likewise  perish.

A conditional contingency IF ever there was one. Their salvation hinged upon the condition of their repentance. Christ don't even mention the decree of sovereignty. (I know... don't is poor english. So sue me)

Now... here's where it gets interesting. The different passages that depict these two separate realms of activity on God's part can intermingle and mix BUT CANNOT BE SET OVER AGAINST EACH OTHER TO PRODUCE CONTRADICTIONS! In this sense the two categories of passages are mutually exclusive. Accordingly, it is often the case that passages that address one realm have NO BEARING on the other. They are irrelevant. That's why I say that the sovereignty of God is not the complete answer to the problem of evil.

I quote J. I. Packer on this point; Commenting on the verse;
De 29:29 The secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God: but those [things which are] revealed [belong] unto us and to our children for ever, that [we] may do all the words of this law.
Packer says...
"The things that God is pleased to keep to Himself (the number and identity of the elect...) have no bearing on any man's duty. They are not relevant in any way for the interpreting of any part of God's law. Now, the command to evangelize is part of God's law. It belongs to God's revealed will for His people. It could not then, in principle be affected in the slightest degree by anything that we might believe about God's sovereignty in election and calling." He then quotes Article XVII of the Church of England concerning salvation and evangelism and says...
"The doctrine of God's sovereignty in grace has no bearing on these things."
 Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. IVP ppb chap IV (My emphasis.  Also I hasten to add that Packer must be read with extreme care. I do not endorse Packer's notion of 'antinomy' with respect to the issue of Divine sovereignty/human responsibility. I do not view Scripture as either mysterious or contradictory. JJ).

Gentlemen, [and ladies] I believe me and Mr. Packer has made the point! There are two different categories of Scriptures concerning the "will" of God and they each speak to differing aspects of that will; the one to God's secret will and the other of His revealed will; and extreme care must be taken when we are tempted to cross mix the two together! The only sure way to avoid error is to not use the hackneyed phrase "the will of God" but rather to begin using the exact terms... the Revealed; the Secret will...  in our discussion of theology. This alone would save tons of theological squabbles.

Therefore, the question; "How can God command men to do what He has not decreed (repent)" is not only irrelevant but misses the mark. It is in reality a bogus question! It's like asking... can God create the proverbial rock bigger than He? Or, how about this one... How can you who are reading this stuff claim to be a good witness to the gospel while you continually beat your wife? It's a bogus question. God has ordained both the end and the means to that end!!! Thus! The correct answer to this question is... God has decreed the means to the end of salvation and those means include contingent conditions! Thus, with respect to the Revealed will of God... men will be saved IF they repent and believe the gospel! IF they do not they will find themselves in the Lake of Fire! But isn't salvation the sovereign gift of a sovereign God who chose us in eternity? Yes! And isn't the natural man so depraved that he cannot repent unless God first regenerates him? Yes... but we are not Muslims! We firmly believe in the responsibility of man and... get ready folks... God's sovereign decree and His secret will have no bearing on man's responsibility!!! No one will go to the judgment with the excuse... "But God, you did not decree my salvation so what do you expect me to do?" I close with one more quote from Mr. Packer;
"We should not be held back by the thought that if they (those to whom we preach and witness) are not elect, they will not believe us and our efforts to convert them will fail. That is true; but it is none of our business, and should make no difference in our action."  ibid. My emphasis. In effect he is telling us that the Biblical teaching on the Secret will of God has no bearing on the teaching of the Revealed will of God. We are all called to function upon the basis of the revealed will of God and the Secret will must have no place in our actions. In a theological discussion... yes. But in actual practice... the Secret will of God is none of our business.

Further it can be observed with respect to the all important question of whether or not God 'desires' the salvation of all men... that He absolutely does NOT desire such. To say such introduces contradiction & confusion into the subject of the 'Will of God'. It is so that God 'commands' all men, everywhere, who hear the gospel to repent;  but that in no way can be viewed as it being the 'will of God' that all men should be saved. If so then we end up with God 'willing' in time something He has not 'willed' in eternity by way of His Decree... for the Decree is nothing more than the expression of the Divine Will!  This is why Paul's observation of the 'objection' that no one can resist the 'will' of God is in Rom 9.  It shows such thinking as not only the product of carnal reasoning but completely missing the point.  NOTHING can resist God's  'will'  folks;  but the only way any body comes to a knowledge of that will is in the Scriptures & the Scriptures tell us that God commands all men everywhere to repent & IF they don't they will perish.  Not because it is the will of God that they perish;  it is...  but they will perish for no other reason than that they have engaged in sinful rebellion against their Maker all the days of their alloted time on earth!  At the same time, the same Bible tells us that everything that comes to pass... including the everlasting misery of the reprobate... is nothing else but the expression & outworking of the Divine, Eternal Decree of the Living God.

... Read your Bible;

 Part Two 

 THEODICY

 Prove  All  Things

R-jnd