God’s Will or Freewill
This short passage led to a small discussion after a recent British Israel meeting, about whether God has planned world events since the beginning of time until the end, or whether God has an outline that he adjusts as people’s freewill affects His plan. Essentially, is God’s plan detailed or an outline? If it’s detailed, have all of our lives been planned from the beginning?
We have all heard or spoken the phrase, “It is all according to God’s plan”, without considering the meaning of the phrase. If God’s plan is just an outline, our freewill can dramatically affect future events. However, if it is detailed and planned from the creation of the universe, can we truly affect events, or are we just performing our “duties”, as have been prearranged like “puppets”? How often have we wondered why we have done something, after we had done it, and it turned out to be the right thing for others or ourselves? If God knows every hair on our head, or when any sparrow falls, is any detail in God’s plan too small? Think about this! God knew Moses would lead our people out of Egypt, without questioning his abilities or why. God knew Noah would build the ark without questioning his abilities or why. God knew Abram (Abraham) would [agree to] sacrifice his only son, Isaac, without questioning why. If any of these three men alone had questioned or through freewill, refused, who would have taken their place, God must have known.
In the garden of Eden, after Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, God asked, Genesis 3:9, “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where art thou?” And in Genesis 3:11, “And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat.” If God plans everything and knows everything, why would He need to ask these questions? Because God is our father, and like any other parent God wanted Adam and Eve to admit what they had done. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. The same is true for Cain, Genesis 4:9, “And the Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brothers keeper?” God knew what Cain had done and wanted him to admit it and repent, which Cain did not do. The Bible is full of such examples of God’s knowledge.
Most books of the prophets in the Old Testament have the phrase near the beginning, “The word of the Lord that came unto” the prophet, or, “The burden of the word of the Lord”, or very similar phrases. Each prophet is not a madman guessing at what the future may hold, but a messenger of God, speaking the word of God and telling the twelve tribes of Israel the future events to come; the captivity, dispersals of our people Israel, and other future events, some of which occurred in their lifetime and others that we are still awaiting today.
The most convincing proof of God’s detailed plan, is “The Bible in Stone”, the Great Pyramid of Egypt. According to some scholars, the pyramid was built about 2675 B.C. with different possible-builders: Enoch, Shem, or others. But the undisputable fact is that God designed it. Who else could have known the information hidden in the pyramid: the length of the solar year, the earth’s diameter, distance between the earth and the sun, the earth’s weight, and other such “scientific knowledge” impossible for the people of that age to know? What is more amazing is the information inside the chambers and passages within the pyramid. The pyramid predicts correctly all the major occurrences throughout history: the Exodus (1486 B.C.), Christ’s Birth (4 B.C.), Christ’s Passion (30 A.D.), the First World War (1914-1918), and the Great Depression (1929), among other things. To predict events 4500 years in advance, some long-term detailed planning would be required. Who, but God would have such foresight?
To take the most basic approach, if the child Adolph Hitler had chosen to climb a tree one day, fallen and died, would the Second World War have occurred? One is tempted to suggest there would have been someone else to take his place, but would the dates still have matched the pyramid dates? And this would mean God had another individual to call upon, a sort of “backup plan”, if you like. This would mean that there was a detailed original plan. These large events involving the world stage make it very easy to see God’s fine details in progress.
Where we find it difficult to understand God’s detailed plan is in our own lives. Why would God need to finely detail our lives from the dawn of the universe? Simply because we do not know how our lives will affect others, we find it difficult to believe that God’s blessings, trials and adversities in our own lives are planned so long ago. Why not? As a child I suffered a major illness that kept me in hospital much of my life until the age of 4. As a child I did not understand and behaved as a child not realizing the seriousness of the situation. As I grew older, I quite naturally asked, “Why me?” When I read the Bible and found the British Israel message, I realized I had asked the wrong question, I should have been asking, “Why not me?”
When we receive a blessing from God, such as a healthy child or grandchild, we pray and thank God. When we face trials and adversities, such as illnesses, we pray for help and guidance and inevitably ask “Why me?” We have it backwards, when we receive a blessing from God we should pray and thank him, but it is at this time we should ask “Why not me?” When we face adversities and tribulations, we should pray and ask for help and guidance, and say to God “Why not me?” This is the thinking and praying which has helped me deal with a serious past illness. If my illness protected the rest of my family or friends then “Why not me?” I am sure not all Israelites deserved to be in bondage in Egypt, captive in Assyria, or dispersed and lost. Perhaps my attitude during my illness has helped someone who will become important, get through an illness or adversity. Perhaps it can help find a suitable treatment in the future. I don’t know why I have had to face such challenges, but at this point in my life, I do realize it is God’s will and all part of His plan, although I still do not know why.
We find it difficult to understand how the death of a child or the death of thousands in natural disasters such as the Japanese tsunami can be part of God’s plan, but it is. If the death of one child from a fall from an apartment building makes people aware, who knows how many other children will be saved by the information. What will become of those children: some may become great political leaders, others great spiritual leaders, or just average people who may affect someone else’s life. The tsunami may have been a similar judgment as the great flood. Only God knows, and has known for thousands of years. Some material courtesy George R. Riffert’s Great Pyramid, Proof of God, and Dr. Joseph Wild’s, The Lost Ten Tribes.
Editor: Kent Purvis is the hard-working President of the British-Israel-World Foundation in Toronto. He took over a number of years ago from the late Douglas Nesbit and has contributed greatly to spreading news of the Israel Truth.
