"God wills it"

[EphelDuath]

Some of the crusaders and Muslims during the Middle Ages used this justification to commit evil acts; that since it happened, it must be according to God’s will (otherwise God would have intervened).

Is there a separate way to refer to what happens according to God’s plan, which is inevitable, and what God desires of us, i.e. to follow his commandments?

 

[VociMike]

The terms I have seen are God’s Perfect Will vs. God’s Permissive Will.

 

[LilyM]

I’ve seen ACTIVE will (that which He wants to happen in any given situation) vs PERMISSIVE will (that which is not what He actually wants, but will permit to happen anyway, such as the evils we suffer while abusing our free will).

Ie a parent with a drug-addicted and disruptive child will of course have the ACTIVE will that the child get off drugs and live a contented and productive drug-free life while remaining at home.

Since the child is an independent being with free will and their own ideas, the parent may end up kicking the child out of the home. Even though this is against the parent’s ACTIVE will, it in a sense is a product of the parent’s PERMISSIVE will, since technically they could keep the child at home even though they were using.