Sjolander Road Fellowship

Subverting God's Will

Christianity is the religion which purports to instruct in the doctrine which must be believed and acted upon in order to change God's mind, to subvert his will or intention to punish wrongdoing. What exactly is God's will in relation to human misconduct? Christian Orthodoxy often projects the idea that God desires to punish the guilty, demanding justice and restitution for ever indiscretion. Under this paradigm, Jesus provides the way to subvert God's desire for justice by paying our debt and thereby appeasing God.

Generally these same orthodox adherents say that God desires that all men be saved but that man has free will which allows him to subvert God's will and to thereby remain lost. In other words, man is free to choose to be unsaved; and God will not interfere in that choice, even though it violates God's will.

In case one above, God's will to punish is subverted by the work of Jesus which enjoins a change of heart in God. Since man must act in conjunction with Jesus to bring about this change, man actively participates in subverting God's basic will or desire under this paradigm.

Under case two God is seen as desiring or willing eternal blessing for all but somehow is compelled to curse most because man chooses to be cursed. Thus man's exercise of free will "trumps" God, a seemingly "ungodlike" and therefore unlikely scenario. Some would try to explain that God's holy nature requires Him to seek justice despite His desire that all be saved. Such reasoning sets God against Himself and proposes a totally convoluted and irrational picture of God.

Thus we see that no matter how one views God's will in relation to mankind's salvation, orthodox thinking offers no plausible answers. Every option is a blind alley, which can only be sold as a "must believe" because "the Bible says so". The story always goes like this: It doesn't have to make a bit of sense if I can show you even one verse which seems to support the church's contention.