I dedicate this post to you, the person reading it. Before you were even born, God planned this very moment, the moment you would type the address of this site into your browser or the moment you would click a link from another site to arrive right here, right now. It is no accident that you are here today and you can be certain that God has orchestrated all of this so you could learn what I want to tell you today. So get ready. This is your moment!
The previous paragraph is shamelessly plagiarized from Tim Challies. At least it’s fresh, unlike most stolen texts, having been published just this morning. And it’s just as true here as it is there, or in any of the sources to which Tim attributes it. Since this very topic has been on my mind recently, I’d like to make a few comments of my own. I’d suggest reading Tim’s article first; it’s well worth your time. In fact, I insist that go read it, because I want you to understand what he has written about God’s will and providence, and I don’t want to repeat it here. Tim covers the theology of the matter well; I just want to focus on the single aspect that’s been on my mind.
First, I want to affirm that I agree in part with the paragraph at the top of this page: that you are here, right now, reading this, is providential. It is a part of God’s plan for you. But that’s as far as my agreement goes. The problem with that paragraph is not that it points to God’s providence as the cause of your presence here. The problem is that the writer presumes to know what that means. There is an arrogance to it. Specifically, he takes the fact that his book (or blog post) was written, and that you are reading it, to be positive affirmation of his work.
That God allowed or even planned an event doesn’t prove the good of it.
The “secret will” of God includes bad things. Consider, for example, the sale of Joseph by his brothers to the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37). Now imagine Joseph’s brothers implying that since God planned it, they had done a good thing. None of us would agree, yet we know that in the providence of God, their sin — clearly against the “revealed will” of God — was a part of his secret will (Genesis 45:5–7). The ultimate example, of course, is the crucifixion. What great sin was premeditated by God! Shall we praise the Pharisees for their part in God’s redemptive plan?
Returning to the opening paragraph, there are various reasons why God might put a book (or blog) before your eyes. It might be to teach you valuable lessons contained therein. It might be to exercise your discernment. It might be to educate you from a primary source about some falsehood. It might even be a part of turning you over to a depraved mind (Romans 1:18ff). While an author — particularly, a Christian author — should hope for and even expect the first to be true, he is arrogant and presumptuous to declare himself, as it were, an oracle of God to the reader, and, as Tim pointed out, to claim to know the secret will of God.
What I want you to take away from this is a caution on the way you assess your own work. Don’t assume that because you have succeeded in an effort, been praised by others, or experienced beneficial results, that you have done the right thing. The appearance of blessing might be just that: an appearance. God might be using your foolishness for purposes unknown. The only sure measure of right is the revealed will of God — Scripture. Strive to be in that will of God that is revealed, and remain prudently silent about that which is hidden.
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