Does God Have Different Kinds of Wills?
Christian theologians may often talk about something being God's will in one sense, and not God's will in another sense. Christians like myself who do not believe in absolute, meticulous divine determinism tend to talk about God's ideal will (what he wants most) and his permissive will (what he allows). C.S. Lewis used the example of a mother who wants her children to learn to tidy up their room on their own. If, one day, she finds the children's room is not tidy, that is not her will, but, "on the other hand, it is her will that has left the children free to be untidy." (From Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 3)
Similarly, it is my will that my children eat their dinner, including their vegetables. If I serve them vegetables and they refuse to eat them, that is not my ideal will. But could I really force them to eat their vegetables if they don't want to? Yes, I could. I could use my superior power to force open their mouths, force food into them, and then hold their noses until they are forced to swallow. But my character as a loving father prevents me from doing this. My ideal will is that my children eat their vegetables, but I permit them to refuse (sometimes with consequences), because my values and priorities prevent me from exercising coercive force.
In the same way, God may have any number of good reasons for permitting things he does not desire. For example, he may be exposing evil and/or preserving freedom. This is how most Christian traditions throughout history have understood the distinction between God's ideal desires and what he chooses to allow, although it grieves him deeply (Genesis 6:5,6, Psalm 7:11, Ezekiel 6:9, 33:11, etc.)
However, Christians from traditions that promote divine determinism claim that everything that happens occurs by divine decree and is therefore necessarily God's will. Because of this, they introduce other dichotomies into God's will, such as talking about Gods' sovereign, secret, will of decree (His decretive will) on the one hand, (that is, what he has decided will inevitably happen), and his revealed, moral, will of command (His preceptive will) on the other (that is, the ideal good and moral things he tells humans to do).
This distinction goes beyond merely what God has "allowed" to happen. For example, the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith says that God's determinate counsel extends to the fall and "all other sinful actions, both of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission" (Chapter V, paragraph 4). The Bible doesn't seem to distinguish any kinds of different senses of God's will, so both the Ideal/Allowed distinction and the Decretive/Preceptive distinction are examples of theologians trying to make sense of the data.
These two views are represented by two main camps: Arminians (A), who emphasize that God grants humans free will such that many things happen which are not his ideal will, and Calvinists (C), who emphasize God's sovereign control over all events and make the secret will/will of command distinction.
Here's a short quiz to see which camp you think provides the best interpretation of these verses (it's obviously pretty biased):
2 Peter 3:9: [The Lord] is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
A. God does not want anyone to perish, but wants all to repent.
C. God doesn't want people to perish according to his revealed will, but according to his secret will of decree, he does wish for most people to perish and has chosen for them not to repent.
Isaiah 30:1: “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
A. It was not God's will and not God's plan that people be stubborn and add sin to sin.
C. It wasn't God's revealed will, but it was God's secret will of decree that people be stubborn and add sin to sin. They were carrying out a plan that God said wasn't his plan, but it secretly really was his plan.
Luke 7:30: But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves.
A. God had a purpose for the Pharisees, but they rejected it.
C. God had a revealed purpose for the Pharisees, which they rejected, but he also had a secret purpose for them, which they fulfilled by rejecting the purpose he said he had for them.
Isaiah 65:2: “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations.”
A. God longs for all people to repent, even those who are obstinate and follow their own imaginations.
C. God says that he holds out his hands to obstinate people (this is his revealed will), but his will of decree is what is making them obstinate. When he says they are following their own imaginations, it must be clarified that, in actuality, they're also following God's plan, which He came up with and decided on.
Psalm 81:11–12: But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
A. Israel refused to submit to God, so God allowed them to do what they chose to do instead of what He wanted.
C. Israel would not submit to God's revealed will because it was not in His will of decree that they would do so. So God decided to “reveal” that He had given them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels, but actually they were following God's own secret counsels.
Jeremiah 19:5: They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind
A. When they burned their children in fire, that was not part of God's command, and it didn't enter His mind.
C. When they burned their children, that was not part of God's revealed will of command, but it was part of His secret decree because God decided they would do it.
Jeremiah 32:35: They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
A. God never wanted them to do this abomination.
C. God never commanded this, nor did it enter His mind to command it…but it was part of his decision to bring it to pass as part of his secret plan. It only entered his mind when he was deciding it would be his eternal decree that they should do this abomination.
Ezekiel 13:6: They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word.
A. The lying prophets were not sent by God and falsely claimed to speak for him.
C. The Lord did not reveal that he sent the prophets; he only secretly sent the prophets to carry out his sovereign plan, so they are still wrong to claim to speak for God, because, even though God causes every word they speak, He doesn't claim that they speak for him.
Ezekiel 18:23: Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?
A. God is not pleased when the wicked die because he would rather see them repent and live.
C. God is not pleased in one sense because the death of the wicked is contrary to what he has said pleases him. But according to his will of decree, God is pleased to cause the death of the wicked and has decided they cannot repent.
Hosea 8:4: They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.
A. They made kings and idols without the aid or support of God, who had nothing to do with it.
C. God has revealed that he had no part in setting up kings and idols, but it was secretly part of his will of decree.
Acts 7:51: You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
A. God wanted to do something for people, but they resisted His Holy Spirit.
C. God decreed that some people would resist the Holy Spirit. This rebuke is part of his will of command, not his will of decree. God is justified in rebuking people for doing what he ordained they would do because he also told them not to do it.
James 1:13: Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
A. God does not ever tempt anyone. If someone sins, it is never because God caused them to sin.
C. God never causes people to sin; he only unilaterally decrees that they will certainly and inevitably sin.
1 Corinthians 10:13 God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
A. There is always a way out of temptation such that sin is never inevitable.
C. According to God's revealed will, he has said there is always a way out of temptation, but according to his secret will, he has not always provided a way out of temptation, because sometimes He has determined by His will of decree that you will sin.
1 Corinthians 14:33: For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
A. As seen in the plain reading of the verses above.
C. As seen in the further explanation of the verses above.