Great words, Teri! I totally agree. God’s will does not include the horrific things that people do to other people.

Hi Noel and thanks for your comment. Actually, I am very familiar with John Piper. In fact his book “Spectacular Sin” (just the title alone) causes me to choke a little. I’d like to keep the discussion focused on what Scripture says and not what Piper says. So please, can you show me examples in the Bible where God ordains, approves, sanctions, or condones sin? Sin is never God’s will and the definition of sin actually means a violation of God’s will. Does our Omnipotent and Loving and All-Knowing God take the evil things of this world and turn them for good? Yes! But redemption is much different than ordination. Sin is never, ever God’s will. The purpose of the blog was not to ask the question, “Why does evil exist?” The purpose was to rejoice that in this evil, fallen, broken world our powerful God can take the worst things in our lives and turn them for His glory and our good when we surrender everything to Him. God indeed has a plan for this planet, but to say it has already been fulfilled is a gross misinterpretation of Scripture. The fact is Jesus conquered death and yet we still die because the Last Trumpet has not yet sounded and Jesus coming again has not yet occurred. But I anxiously await the day when Jesus rules and reigns over all the heavens and earth and sin and death and rebellion are no more. That is our hope! That is our promise!

Isaiah 45:7 “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things”. (KJV translates “calamity” as “evil”)—God ordains calamity.

Amos 3:6 “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (KJV translates “disaster” as “evil”)—God ordains disaster

Deut. 32: 39 “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand” –God ordains death, which is our enemy

2 Sam 12:15, 18 “…And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David…On the seventh day the child died” –God ordains sickness and death

Exodus 4:11 “Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” –God ordains disease and handicaps

2 Kings 17:25 “And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.” –God ordains destructive animals

Job lost his children, property, and health through the evil of satan. Yet satan had to get God’s permission to inflict these evils on Job, and the loss of Job’s property, livestock, and servants was perpetrated through sin. God was not the author of this evil, yet He ordained it for His purposes.

2 Corinthians 12:7 “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”—A messenger of satan, but controlled by God

Gen 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”—God knew Joseph before he was conceived, and He was in control [i.e., sovereign over] all the events of his life, including his being sold into slavery, his being falsely charge with trying to molest Potiphar’s wife, and his being forgotten and left in an Egyptian prison.

Psalm 105:16-19 “When he [God] summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”—God ordained Joseph’s testing, and sins were committed by those who unwittingly carried out the testing that God ordained. God could have blocked the sins, but He ordained them that Joseph’s faith might glorify him, and that many lives might be saved.

Acts 4:27-28 “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”—God predestined the murder of His Son. Some could say that while God planned Christ’s suffering, He didn’t plan the sin; however, Christ’s sufferings would not have occurred except by the sin; therefore, even the free actions of men were ordained by God (Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief)

Matt 26:24 “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” –God ordained Judas’ betrayal of Christ but did so without compromising Judas’ freewill

Rev. 13:8 “and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” –God didn’t plan Christ’s death as a way to fix things after man sinned. Christ’s death and resurrection were a part of the plan before the foundation of the world. God made the world knowing we would sin. He could have prevented it, but He didn’t. He created the world, and by extension He ordained all the sins that would be committed my mankind, so that He would display His glorious power and sovereignty over everything. God chose for sin to exist.

Does it show that God is more powerful by preventing evil from occurring or by causing evil to accomplish His good purposes? Clearly, it is the latter; however, since God could have prevented any evil from occurring, He ultimately ordained it for His purposes.

We need to come to accept that God can will that sin be without Himself sinning. We do well to bow in silence before our great and awesome God when He reconciles the seemingly irreconcilable without compromising His goodness or holiness. The fact that we do not fully understand these things speaks all the more of His infinitude and our finitude.

Teri, I completely agree that “God does not sanction sin or command us to sin or endorse sin of any kind – that is contrary to His character and Who He is.” In some respects I think we are looking at a difference in semantics. However, although it is not explicitly stated, I believe the passages above support that that God can will that sin be without Himself sinning and without compromising any of his attributes. Thank you for letting me post them and express another viewpoint.