{"id":57736,"date":"2023-01-08T14:13:33","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T20:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=57736"},"modified":"2023-01-08T14:24:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T20:24:34","slug":"is-everything-that-happens-gods-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-everything-that-happens-gods-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Everything That Happens God&#8217;s Will?"},"content":{"rendered":"\nby Gardner Hall<br>\nvia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mountbethelpublishing.com\/growing-in-christ-blog\">Mount Bethel Publishing<\/a>, 25 November 2014\n<p>After the death of a child, a horrible mishap, or any other tragedy there are always some who say, &#8220;It was the will of God.&#8221; Is that statement always true?<\/p>\n<h2>It Depends!<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Yes\u2026 It is the will of God to permit tragedies and trials. Everything that happens is permitted by him.<\/li>\n<li>No\u2026 However, God doesn&#8217;t want everything He permits! There is a subtle but important difference between <em>permitting<\/em>&nbsp;something and&nbsp;<em>wanting it<\/em>&nbsp;<em>to happen<\/em>!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Illustrations<\/h2>\n<p>God\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2026 did not want the ancient Israelites to divorce, but he permitted it because of the hardness of their hearts (Matthew 19:8).<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;\u2026 did not want ancient people to have more than one wife (Gen. 2:24), but regulated it when Israel was a primitive society (Deuteronomy 21:15-17)<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;\u2026 did not want Israel to have a king (II Samuel 10:17-19), but tolerated it and even had his prophets anoint them.<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;\u2026 does not want anyone to rebel against Him and be lost (II Peter 3:9), and yet gives men the free will to do it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Often Christian parents will allow their teenage children to do something that they don&#8217;t necessarily want them to do so that they will learn to face the consequences of their actions.<\/p>\n<p>I can think of two Biblical reasons why God allows things to happen that He doesn&#8217;t necessarily want:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>He wants to give us free will (Deuteronomy 30:15-19). He wants us to have the freedom to choose. He doesn&#8217;t want us to make bad choices but He allows them.<\/li>\n<li>He allows tragedies because He doesn&#8217;t want us to become too attached to this world that has become corrupted by sin. Rather, He wants us to prove our love by learning to deal with trials and then have eternal life with Him (II Corinthians 4:17).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Be Careful with Our Words!<\/h2>\n<p>Whenever a child dies or someone suffers horribly, we must be careful before saying, &#8220;God wants this.&#8221; Yes, God allows trials and tragedies, as in the case of Job, but that doesn&#8217;t mean that He wants them. When we suffer, let&#8217;s blame Satan and the curses that come upon our world because of sin. Let&#8217;s never blame God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Gardner Hall via Mount Bethel Publishing, 25 November 2014 After the death of a child, a horrible mishap, or any other tragedy there are always some who say, &#8220;It was the will of God.&#8221; Is that statement always true? It Depends! Yes\u2026 It is the will of God to permit tragedies and trials. Everything&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[426,562],"class_list":["post-57736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-free-will","tag-predestination"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":96027,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/sovereignty-and-predestination\/","url_meta":{"origin":57736,"position":0},"title":"Sovereignty and Predestination","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The sovereignty of God would mean He controls what happens, but it does not mean He is always causing everything to happen. If God causes (directly) everything to happen a certain way: He causes us to think and do evil, sinful things. God denies this (James\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6731,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-just-want-to-understand-why-did-this-happen\/","url_meta":{"origin":57736,"position":1},"title":"I just want to understand, why did this happen?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm sorry if I'm always coming to you for answers. It's just that I can't still sleep at night. I think and think they're still coming home, but what I don't understand is why do bad things happen to good people that have nothing but good in them? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-change-always-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":57736,"position":2},"title":"Is Change Always Right?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Glen Young Change is difficult. We all have experienced this truth. How many New Year resolutions have fallen by the wayside after a few weeks? There is no doubt that changing bad behavior is necessary even though it is difficult. It is not my intention to discuss the need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40130,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-cannot-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":57736,"position":3},"title":"God Cannot Lie","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Kings 22:1-28 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Heathen men molded their concept of their gods into their own image - Romans 1:22-23 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We can read stories of the Greek gods and in their interaction with men they often lied and cheated to accomplish their goals. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Greeks saw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-you-believe-everything-you-are-told\/","url_meta":{"origin":57736,"position":4},"title":"Should You Believe Everything You Are Told?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Marty Kessler We've been told repeatedly that the last living dinosaur lived millions of years ago. If that's so, I have some questions. First, why are there accounts of human encounters with dragons (\"dinosaur\" was not coined until 1841) from nearly every ancient culture on the planet? England, Italy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45402,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/permitted-does-not-equate-to-desired\/","url_meta":{"origin":57736,"position":5},"title":"Permitted Does Not Equate to Desired","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer There is a difference between what God permitted to happen subsequent to sin entering the world and what God desired from the beginning and ultimately makes right in Christ. Jesus illustrates this point: \"Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}