Once Again, On God's Permissive will

[[Sister Laurel, when people refer to the permissive will of God what do they mean? Thanks!]]

When folks speak of God's permissive will, I often find the term to be a bit misleading and very frequently misused. It is truly or accurately used to refer to those things God does not necessarily will or approve of, but which he also does not prevent. This can include all kinds of things we clearly see God does not will (human sin, for instance), but that God does not intervene in to stop. There is a sense that these might have been allowed so that indirectly God's will can be brought to bear or accomplished, and this can, in some limited ways, be a sound analysis of how things eventually work out. The main problem with this way of viewing things is that one can disregard the limited usefulness of this view and come to see almost anything God eventually redeems as directly contributing to the doing of God's will. Thus, in such an interpretation, Judas' betrayal of Jesus can be said to contribute to the doing of God's will and (though we don't mention this) Judas should be congratulated. Likewise, with Peter's denials or the murderous mob mentality that contributed to Jesus' crucifixion and death. It was this kind of reasoning that led Paul to ask rhetorically, "Does this mean we should sin all the more freely so that God's grace may abound all the more?? God forbid!!"

Another way this notion of God's permissive will leads to the sense that so long as God does not prevent something he must approve it is in questions of human choice, vocation, etc. Some will live their lives in a particular way and conclude that because God did not stop them from doing so, he must approve and even call them to live this way. They might even conclude this way of living is a divine vocation! Almost anything can be justified in this way, no matter how destructive, inhuman, or badly conceived it is. The problem is with the assumption that if God does not intervene and prevent something, then that must mean God approves of this thing or that it contributes in some way to God's will eventually being accomplished. But this caricature is not what permissive will means.

There is, however, a better way of conceiving and stating the truth of what it means to refer to God's permissive will. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it best I think: [[Not everything that happens is the will of God, but inevitably, nothing that happens does so outside the will of God.]] What this means is that God is sovereign (or potentially sovereign over everything); God is greater than even the worst evil that can happen and both can and will bring good out of everything including the horrendous evil and stupidity that human beings commit. In Christ, God's love embraces the whole of reality, including sin and godless death, and will redeem whatever falls short of its true nature and calling. However, this does not imply that God approves of these things. Neither, of course, does it mean that God will step in and prevent anything that does not comport with his will. 

Our God is not a micromanager; at the same time, his sovereignty does not conflict with our genuine freedom. Instead, authentic freedom is the counterpart of divine sovereignty. Where human beings live something other than God's will, they live in bondage to sin and estrangement from God, no matter how often they call out "Lord! Lord!!" or wrap their inauthenticity in pious rhetoric. When we discern and do the will of God, we are truly free; where we are truly free God is truly sovereign. Many appeals to the permissive will of God are really justifications for everyday idolatry. I have found this to be particularly true when the supposed permissive will of God is linked to notions of suffering "sent" or "willed" by God. At the heart of these notions, one will always find a punitive and even sadistic God who is insensitive and coercive of persons' lives.

I have written similarly about this just recently (Dec 2024). You might check out God's Permissive Will, and other posts with the label "permissive will" or "Dietrich Bonhoeffer". The bottom line in all of this is that where we can speak of God permitting or failing to intervene and stop something from happening as God's "permissive will", we cannot and absolutely must not assume this means God approves of it!