Is everything that happens God's will?

[InJesusItrust]

I think a better question is if all things are God’s desire. In God all things are held together, but humans are free to do things that He does not desire. If God will the bodies or rapists or murderers to be held together, does he necessary will their choices? If he does then free will is an illusion or God desires evil, which I disagree with. If free will is an illusion all people should be Catholic because God desires all to be saved.

Also I think that this doesn’t mean that God can’t do anything He wants if He desires to act in the world.

This is how I parse this riddle. The world “will” seems to imply a deliberate choice.

 

[Bookcat]

Catechism:

scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2c1p4.htm#V

Take time to read the whole…

 

[garysibio]

When a tragedy happens (such as a murder), I have often heard Christians (including some Catholics) assure people by saying, with regards to the dead, it was “God’s will.”

I am a little confused by this statement.

A murder is, by definition, sinful. And a sin, as far as I know is, by definition, a violation of God’s will.

So how could God will something that is, by definition, a violation of His own will?

Further, how does this jive with free will?

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A related, but different question. I have also heard that God does not will all that occurs, because men have free will and He respects that.

However, these people will say that while God does not will everything that happens (especially sin), he does “use” everything (even sin) to “achieve His plan.”

Even this statement is rather confusing to me. For the phrase “plan” indicates that someone:

1. Has a goal.
2. Is taking active steps to realize that goal.

So, the problematic part of this for me is #2. If He is merely allowing everyone to follow their own free will, then He would seem to have no plan. But if He does have a plan, and is taking steps to achieve that plan, how could He do so without actually doing something? And how could that something not interfere with free will?

In other words, how can one play a game of chess without moving a piece?

Thank you for your consideration.

When I was an Evangelical I was taught that God had a perfect will and a permissive will. His perfect will is what He wanted to happen; His permissive will is what He allows to happen taking our free will into account. I have never heard anything as a Catholic that would rule this view out and it still makes sense to me. (If I’m wrong about that, someone please let me know.)

 

[PJM]

=VeritasLuxMea;10626763]When a tragedy happens (such as a murder), I have often heard Christians (including some Catholics) assure people by saying, with regards to the dead, it was “God’s will.”

I am a little confused by this statement.

A murder is, by definition, sinful. And a sin, as far as I know is, by definition, a violation of God’s will.

So how could God will something that is, by definition, a violation of His own will?

Further, how does this jive with free will?

---

A related, but different question. I have also heard that God does not will all that occurs, because men have free will and He respects that.

However, these people will say that while God does not will everything that happens (especially sin), he does “use” everything (even sin) to “achieve His plan.”

Even this statement is rather confusing to me. For the phrase “plan” indicates that someone:

1. Has a goal.
2. Is taking active steps to realize that goal.

So, the problematic part of this for me is #2. If He is merely allowing everyone to follow their own free will, then He would seem to have no plan. But if He does have a plan, and is taking steps to achieve that plan, how could He do so without actually doing something? And how could that something not interfere with free will?

In other words, how can one play a game of chess without moving a piece?

Thank you for your consideration.

Here’s the answer to Both

Everyting that happens is either:

Caused by God [God’s Will] when it is a “good”

or PERMITTED by God if “not so good.”

and always for two c0onsistant reasons:

God Possible Glory

Our Own Possible sactification

Does that it explain it for you?

God Bless,
Pat/PJm