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Will of God

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The will of God or divine will is a concept found in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Quran, and a number of other texts and worldviews, according to which God's will is the cause of everything that exists.

Thomas Aquinas

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According to Thomas Aquinas, God is the "Highest Good".[1] The Summa Theologiae (question 6, article 3) affirms that "God alone is good essentially".[2]

Because in Jesus Christ God there are two natures, the human and the divine one, Aquinas states that in Him there are two distinct wills: the human will and the divine will.[3]

Balthasar Hubmaier

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According to early Anabaptist theologian, Balthasar Hubmaier, God had two wills. One was called the "absolute" will and could never be changed, also called God's "hidden" will. The another, which could be accepted or rejected by people, was called the "ordained" will, also titled God's "Revealed" will.

The absolute will of God was paired with Predestination while the ordained will was connected to verses in the Bible which seemed to imply Free will.[4] In Hubmaier's concept both Determinism & Free Will existed; a form of Theological Compatibilism.

Islamic discourse

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God's command (amr) is the creative act of God and what has been intended for the creation. In Islamic discourse, Mu'tazilites and Ash'aris disagree on God's will (irāda) and God's command. According to the Mu'tazilites, God's commands are genuine expressions of God's will, while Ash'arites generally disagree. The latter also point at the story of Abraham as an example, that God's command (to sacrifice his son) was not his will. The Mu'tazilites, on the other hand, insist that God's command and will are equal, and that God can both will and command only good.[5]

Islamic philosopher Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) was opposed to the idea of Free Will, instead believing that God's will was absolutely Sovereign over all acts and that man's will didn't have any true existence.[6]

Asian worldviews

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According to Mongolian belief, the laws of the universe are an expression of God's will (jayayan). Sometimes, God may break its own usual laws and intervene by sending a chosen person to earth.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Summa contra Gentiles, Book I, chapter 41". Archived from the original on 2023-07-14. Retrieved 2023-06-09. From this conclusion we prove that God is the highest good.
  2. ^ "Article 3: Whether to be essentially good belongs to God alone?". Archived from the original on 2023-06-10. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  3. ^ "Summa Theologiae, III, q. 18, a. 1". Archived from the original on 2023-07-08. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  4. ^ "JSTOR - The Absolute and Ordained Power of God in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Theology".
  5. ^ Schwarb, G. M. (2011). "Amr (theology)". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_22997. ISSN 1873-9830.
  6. ^ "IIUM Journals - IBN ARABI AND HIS CHALLENGES ON THE ISSUE OF FREE WILL".
  7. ^ BANZAROV, Dorji; NATTIER, Jan; KRUEGER, John R. The Black faith, or Shamanism among the Mongols. Mongolian Studies, 1981, S. 53-91.