GOD'S WILL BE DONE
Here are some vitally important TRUTHS about our GREAT God that
we need to understand before we can really believe He will do His will and what He
says He will do:
1. God is Omniscient. “His understanding is infinite; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.” “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Psalm 147:5; Isa. 46:10; Acts 15:18. God, then, as well knew when he created Adam what would be the eternal destiny of every individual of his posterity, as he will know when the last generation of man shall have entered on their eternal state. If all are to be saved, he knew it; and if part are to be saved, and part eternally damned, the fate of each individual soul was known to him. These conclusions are just as certain as that God’s knowledge is infinite.
2. God must have designed what he knew would be the eternal destiny of each individual of our race. If he knew all would be saved, he must have designed the salvation of all; and if he knew part would be saved, and part damned without relief and without end, he must have designed the salvation of some and the damnation of others. Every man designs what he knows will be the result of his voluntary acts. If I know when I speak to a certain person he will fall at my feet dead, and if I persist in speaking to him with this knowledge of the consequence, I, of course, intend he shall die; so if God knows the destiny of all men, and I have proved that he does, all who go to heaven will go there by his decree, and all who go to hell will go there by his decree. This is just as certain as that two and two make four. Arminianism, then, is resolved into Calvinism. Would God have created conscious beings, knowing and intending that eternal misery would be their doom? Impossible, utterly impossible, for
3. God is love, is infinitely good. “There is none good but one, that is God.” Mark 10:18. On the words “God is love,” Dr. A. Clarke, the celebrated Methodist Commentator, writes as follows:
An infinite Fountain of benevolence and beneficence to every human being. He hates nothing that he has made. He cannot hate, because he is love. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good; and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He has made no human being for perdition. It has been well observed that although God is holy, just, righteous, etc., he is never called Holiness, Justice, etc. in the abstract, as he is here called Love. This seems to be the essence of the Divine nature, and all other attributes to be only modifications of this.”
God, then, never created a soul knowing it would be miserable forever.
4. God is Omnipotent. “The Lord Omnipotent reigneth.” Rev. 19:6. Therefore, nothing is too mighty for him to do. He can save the world. Where is the Christian who would not redeem all mankind, had he the power? God possesses the power, and will he not do it? Is the creature better than the Creator? God forbid any should think so.
5. God is Omnipresent. “O Lord, thou has searched me and known me”; “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” Ps. 139:1, 12. As God, who is love, fills immensity, we cannot, on earth or in eternity, “go where universal love smiles not around.” If there is an endless hell, full of devils and damned souls, God is there, and there, too, his love is displayed! Will those who believe in endless wrath inform us wherein infinite love is manifested in that world of woe?
6. God is holy. “Holy is the Lord of hosts.” Isa. 6:3. A holy God could not build a prison, dedicate it to every vile and hateful passion, and then crowd it with beings of his own workmanship, where they must sin and suffer for ever and ever. A monster of depravity might do so.
7. God is merciful. “But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” Ps. 86:15. This needs no comment, for it is impossible for such a being to torment without relief, and without end, millions of his own offspring.
8. God is just. “A just God and a Savior.” Isa. 45:21. It would certainly be unjust to inflict
endless punishment for the sins of a few days; and as God is strictly just, he will not deal thus with any of his creatures. Justice requires that the transgressor shall be punished righteously, but not unmercifully. As God is also a Savior he will save as well as punish.
9. God is the Father of all mankind. “Have we not all one Father?” Mal. 2:10. One is your Father which is in Heaven.” Matt. 23:9. Is there a human parent who would eternally torment his offspring? Would not the most depraved save all of them if they could? Is our heavenly Father less kind than earthly parents are?
10. God is unchangeable. “He is in one mind, and who can turn him?” Job 23:13. Therefore he always will be what he is now: omniscient, all-knowing, omnipotent, omni-present, infinitely good, holy, merciful, just, and a universal Father. Before God can deal with mankind as Partialism teaches, all his moral attributes must be the reverse of what they now are. But as God is unchangeable, that is impossible, and therefore Partialism is false. In the language of Rev. Asa Shinn, a celebrated Methodist preacher and writer, “Why are we glad that God is Almighty? Because He is Almighty Goodness. Why are we delighted that His understanding is infinite? Because it is the understanding of Infinite Love. Why are we pleased when we hear that God is Unchangeable? Because it brings to our view a Benevolence which will NEVER VARY. And why do we rejoice that He is Just? Because we hence learn that the Energy of Love will NEVER CEASE to maintain and defend every thing that is right, and to oppose every thing that is wrong.” – Benevolence and Rectitude of the Supreme Being, p. 312.
11. God is the Owner and Proprietor of all men. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine.” Ezek. 18:4. God is too wise and good to give any to the devil, and He has too much power to have any forced out of his hands. As all men now belong to God they always will.
12. It is the will of God that all shall be saved. “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” I Tim. 2:4. Of course, as ‘God is love,’ it must be his will that mankind should be saved. An infinitely good being could have no other will. And as he is infinite in knowledge he could not so will unless he knew all would be saved. He could not will that that should take place which he knew never would.
13. No power can defeat his will. “Thy will be done.” Matt. 6:10. “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” Dan. 4:35. “He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” Eph. 1:11. The will of God, then, will be done. No power can defeat it. It is certainly a doctrine of revelation that our God will save all men.
14. God purposes the salvation of all men. “Having made known unto us the mystery of his
will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.” Eph. 1:9,10. What do the words, “all things which are in heaven and on earth,” signify? Professor Steuart, one of the most prominent Orthodox divines and writers in the Union, says they mean the UNIVERSE, and in exact accordance with this definition, Archbishop Newcome says, they signify all INTELLIGENT BEINGS. It is the purpose of God, then, to gather together, in Christ, the universe of intelligent beings. A purpose worthy of our great Creator.
15. His purpose will be accomplished. “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have PURPOSED so shall it stand – for the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back?” Isa. 14:24, 27. “I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass: I have purposed it, I will also do it.” Isa. 46:11.
16. It is the pleasure of God that all shall be redeemed. “For thou hast created all things,
and for they pleasure they were and are created.” Rev. 4:11. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Ezek. 33:11.
17. His pleasure will be accomplished. “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isa. 46:10.
18. God will never have any other purpose, pleasure or will, for he is “without variableness or shadow of turning.” James 1:17. Who can doubt the salvation of all men?
19. God is the Savior of all men. “We both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” I Tim. 4:10. God is called the Savior of all men, because it is his will and purpose that all shall be saved, and because all necessary means are provided for its accomplishment.
There are many more to come.
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