define "God's Will"

there is nothing alike "God's Will" cause there is such a huge amount
of ways to interpret Bibel-texts and advices given in there. People
hint fear and unsureness behind their decisions with making it to
"god's will"

just my position

God's will never goes against his commandments in the Bible. If you
study the Bible as a whole, with some understanding, these
commandments are pretty darn clear.

Kriswrite

It has become quite a long read...but the comments from
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=434964 may help you
with this question.  The question posed is something along the lines
of "how can one reconcile the differences in political and religious
views if the politics they support oppose their religion".
A loaded question, yes.  But the commentary has spurred quite a few
interesting points.

My current opinion on your question (it always seems to be changing)
is that on cannot define God (as such a definition would no longer
make God a God).  God's will then is not something concrete but
something that we mere mortals have quite arrogantly assumed he
wanted.  According to various religions god has communicated his laws
in various ways, yet all such rules seem to be open to interpretation.
 If God wanted his laws to be followed one would guess that he would
have the ability to convey his thoughts in a way that cannot be
debated.  Leaving me to suppose that he didn?t want them to be
followed, either he likes refusing people to heaven, or he accepts all
the possible interpretations.  Or God did not pass down the laws that
we have now at all.  It does seem unlikely that He would give us such
vague rules and force us to follow them to the word.  He may just be a
jerk, though...never rule that out!

-Fractl

As mentioned above, "god's will" is a subjective thing - first off,
you are not defining WHICH "god" you refer to, thus the "will" of said
god may differ, and even given a specific god, there are varying
interpretations of what that specifically means.

I notice that one above assumes it is the Christian biblical god you
speak of; that may be so, yet one would be wise to note that in that
tome, god's will vis a vis commandments says do not kill, and yet that
same god commanded killing at its behest.  From there, many will argue
the semantic difference between "murder" and "kill," introducing, of
course, a subjective interprative mode in defining the text.  Therein
lies the rub. :-)

http://www.biblegateway.com/

The commandment said YOU don't kill.  God never promises not to kill
anyone.  His promises are set forth in the various covenants- Eden,
Noah, Abraham, David, and Jesus.  The commandments are our end of the
bargain, not his.

daytrader_7__6 says: "The commandment said YOU don't kill.  God never
promises not to kill anyone.  His promises are set forth in the
various covenants- Eden,
Noah, Abraham, David, and Jesus.  The commandments are our end of the
bargain, not his."

Problem is, it is *people* who killed according to the Christian
biblical god's will -- this, after declaring that thou shalt NOT kill.
I am not referring to those episodes where god itself smote folks from
on high (Sodom and Gommorah, the flood, etc.) -- I refer to the
Canaanites, the Amelakites, the "thou shalt not suffer a witch to
live" and other type passages which detail how and when people can and
should put other people to death for various transgressions -- this is
god's will as expressed elsewhere, in contradiction to "thou shalt not
kill."  Seems thou shalt indeed, whenever one is asked to be an agent
for god, which begs the question of why god doesn't do the job itself,
instead of inciting people to violate the commandment.  Not sure what
kind of "bargain" that is, exactly...

Ex.32:27
    "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his
side ... and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion,
and every man his neighbor."
Num.15:35
    "And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to
death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones."
1 Sam.15:2-3
    "Thus saith the Lord of hosts ... go and smite Amalek, and utterly
destroy all that they have, and spare him not; but slay both man and
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."

Exodus 35:2
    Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be
to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth
work therein shall be put to death.

Leviticus 20:10
    And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even
he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer
and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
    
20:11
    And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his
father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their
blood shall be upon them.
20:12
    And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall
surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall
be upon them.
    
20:13
    If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of
them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death;
their blood shall be upon them.
    
20:14
    And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they
shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no
wickedness among you.
   
20:15
    And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death:
and ye shall slay the beast.
20:16
    And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou
shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to
death; their blood shall be upon them.

Numbers 1:51
    And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it
down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set
it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

Leviticus 24:16
    And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be
put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as
well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth
the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.

and many more...

Yikes...I really need to read the bible!  I've been blasphemething the
lords name all over town...I didnt know I was going to get rocks
hurled at me by the whole congregation!

God has some pretty twisted laws...when one is tried in court killng
everyone in sight who works on Sunday what bible should he put his
hand on?

My guess is God rarely micro-manages and He did not promise us a rose
garden, so most of the time, the assumption "It's God's will" is  an
incorrect assumption, however "everything does work together for good
to those who love the Lord" even though the short term experiences are
occasionally gastly.    Neil

Thankfully, there is good news these post-OT days.

I don't think God ever told the masses that they should behave like a
mob, and exicute sinners without a trial, and other due process. In
recent decades God's instructions to the leaders whom He has appointed
is; leave punishment to the corrupt court system. Excomunicating and
disfellowship is the limit of your power to punish, unless your
government has given you authority to invoke other punishments.   Neil

I, too believe that people use 'God's Will' as a cop out for inaction.
I have this strange belief set that believes in destiny as a
destination and free will is how you get there.

As I look at people who wring their hands and say, "It's up to God,
now", even I have to fume a bit. No, it's not, you silly thing. God
isn't a micromanager. God isn't going to stop people from doing stupid
things. I'm probably going to be branded a heretic for saying this out
loud, but it's true. People are responsible for their actions and
inactions. They'll just be accountable for both at the time of
Judgment.

God has been reported to have killed everyone in anger, and told His
people to kill everyone "evil" in a land that they were to occupy. If
the 10 commandments are God's will, they are an acceptable
distillation. Some might argue about the "No other gods before me"
bit, and others might quibble about capital punishment versus Do not
murder. Many choose to ignore the other stuff like coveting, but
whatever. Hmmm. What is the penalty for disobeying the 10
commandments? Death? by whom? God or man?

Follow the rule of treating others how you want to be treated and
you'll probably end up doing God's will by default. (And no, I don't
want to continue that other discussion here, so please don't start.
Those who don't treat others nice aren't entitled to infinite
kindnesses. Sometimes they actually have to pay legal penalties for
their actions. Otherwise, what's the point in police or judges?)

crythias,

Far be it for me to 'start' that one again . . .    : )

BUT!

all I can say to your Golden Rule is HA!

HA!

ts

This is a very simple one to answer. God?s will is whatever it takes
to get you into the Kingdom of Heaven. If that sounds vague it is
meant to be.
Think of it like being in competition for a promotion at work. You
know what your job is but your boss won?t tell you exactly what you
have to achieve to get the promotion otherwise you will end up doing
the minimum requirement. If he keeps it vague, all the people in the
race will do more than expected and the boss finishes up milking the
most out of the situation.

The rule is that you have to guess what the rules are. In this respect
video game programmers are in a similar position to God. However being
good at video games is not necessarily a criteria for entering the
Kingdom of Heaven.

capitaineformidable

In my comment above I tackled the question asked about God?s will. I
have just noticed that the subject line mentioned self will and this
has entirely different implications. I tackled this in one of the
comments to question 434694 mentioned by fract1 earlier. To save you
going through that lot I will summarise it as follows.

God gave us mortals? free choice. That free choice allowed us to
follow our self will.

We can have the will to either do good or evil. If we choose to do
evil then we have rejected God?s Laws and turned our back on God and
that is OUR choice.

If we use our self will to do only good and follow God?s teachings,
then that becomes NOT OUR choice in exercising our free will in that
particular way but is, (we are told) God working through us.

Any God that supports such dual standards cannot be a God in truth and
the whole question of God?s will becomes irrelevant.

Capitaineformidable