Everything That's On My Mind

Monday, August 21, 2006

God’s Will: The Decision-making of the Apostles

In my last entry, I discussed the idea of God’s Personal Will and found no explicit biblical support for it. In this entry, I’ll look at the decision-making process of the apostles to see if there is any implicit scriptural support for the idea of God’s Personal Will. The first such example of the apostle’s decision-making is found in the first chapter of Acts.

So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Acts 1:23-26 (NIV)

Some have argued that this was a bad decision all around, that God actually intended Paul to be the 12th apostle to replace Judas. For the purposes of this discussion, however, we will set aside this argument and focus on the decision itself. What we see here is that the apostles found two men that fit their criteria (specified in verses 21-22), but found it difficult to choose between the two of them. The primary decision of choosing Barsabbas and Matthias was made using human criteria and judgment. The final choice between the two was made by casting lots (a first century version of flipping a coin) only after they had chosen these two, apparently without relying on direct divine revelation to select the two candidates. While the phrase “show us” may seem to imply otherwise, the apostles did not ask God to reveal His will to them as much as they simply left the “tie breaker” in His hands. I’ll discuss “casting lots” further in a future post.

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:1-6 (NIV)

Here we find the church at one of its first major crisis points. Yet again, we do not see the apostles appealing to divine revelation to determine what should be done. They made a reasoned, wise decision to delegate authority and responsibility over the distribution of food. They specified important criteria, but allowed the church to choose the men they desired to serve in this capacity. Surprisingly enough, we don’t even see the church being instructed to “go pray about it.” Apparently, the apostles trusted the God-given wisdom within the church to make a good decision regarding the first-ever deacons. Only Stephen and Philip are described further in scripture, but based solely on those two men I think we can agree they made a good decision.

We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul—men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
Acts 15:24-29 (NIV)

Again we find the church in the midst of a major crisis and in need to a decision, and again we see primarily democratic decision-making employed. Both in verse 22 and in verse 25 we see corporate decision-making by the church without an appeal to divine revelation. Only in verse 28 we see the addition of the Holy Spirit to the phrase, but even here the phrase “it seemed good” (emphasis mine) seems to soften the intent. Certainly the apostles considered the Holy Spirit a part of their decision-making process. The question, however, is what form that involvement took. Acts is not explicit, but verse 28 does not necessarily imply direct divine revelation.

So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,
1 Thessalonians 3:1-2 (NIV)

Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.
1 Corinthians 16:3-4 (NIV)

In both these passages Paul clearly expresses that his decisions were based on his own judgment. There’s no hint of direct divine revelation at all. That’s not to say that God isn’t involved in Paul’s decision-making. God’s sovereignty was central to Paul’s theology and he recognized God’s involvement in his decisions (see 1 Thessalonians 3:11), but Paul didn’t seem to ask or expect God to reveal His sovereign will before he made a decision.

So when we look to scripture for a definition of God’s will, we see two distinct concepts. God’s Moral Will which consists of His commands revealed in scripture and His Sovereign Will, His redemptive plan for creation that is generally not revealed before it comes to pass. The idea of a Personal Will, a “wonderful plan for our lives” that God reveals to us so we can make decisions has no clear support in scripture. But that leaves us with the $64,000 question: If there is no “Magic 8 Ball” to help us, how should we make decisions? Are we completely on our own? Not at all. God has given us everything we need to live a life pleasing to Him. In the next installment, we’ll begin to build a framework for Godly decision-making.

The rest of the series:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Defining our Terms
Part 3: A Wonderful Plan?

God's Will

Monday, August 21, 2006 - 10:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Comments [1]

Sunday, August 27, 2006 9:16:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

It's good to see others out there thinking seriously about this matter and, more importantly, looking at what the Bible actually says about God's will.

You might be interested in a paper I wrote in seminary:

"A Brief Survey of Crisis and Decision In the Acts of the Apostles"
http://tatumweb.com/pulpit/papers/crisis/

Regards,

Rich
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Rich Tatum

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