“Providence Discussion Part 2” “How Do We Know God’s Will?”

This class has a discussion of important categories revealed in the Bible that we must understand so that we can make decisions and maintain our confidence in God. First we must know that we are never to seek secret information from the world of the spirits in order to know God’s will. Deuteronomy 29:29 has the important categories of God’s revealed will and the secret things that belong only to God. Even at that, we are still comforted by the doctrine of God’s providence which covers all things. The attributes that are necessary to rule over His universe in a way that benefits His own people are unique to the triune God of the Bible. For example, when Roman Catholicism promotes their version of “Mary” as one who can hear multitudes of simultaneous prayers and answer them, they are attributing incommunicable attributes of God to Mary who is a finite, created human. Therefore they deify a human with is sinful idolatry and blasphemous. We consult Acts 17:24-26 to see that Paul directly confronted Pagans at Athens who had false views of God. Paul taught about the true God who draws out the boundaries of human habitation. We also describe the key truth that God uses all things, including the evil acts of rebellious people and still accomplishes His good

purposes. Christians have freedom to make many choices within the boundaries of God’s revealed will. True spiritual freedom comes only from Christ. Even the lost are free to breathe God’s air and enjoy His creation during their time on earth. But they do not have the gift of eternal life until and unless they put their faith in Christ according to the terms of the gospel.

Class slides and handout are available under the Download tab.