If Christians cannot say what God wants me to do right now...

[barryjones]

A skeptic and Christian meet at a coffee shop.  When he learns of the skeptic's skepticism, the Christian says "God wants you to accept the Lord Jesus".

If the skeptic said  "What does your god want me to do RIGHT NOW?", how could the Christian respond?

Does God want me to ask you for a bible?

Take another sip of coffee?

Look out the window at the truck that just hit that telephone pole?

If the Christian cannot seriously state what God's will is for the skeptic concerning the skeptics next action or thought, then why shouldn't the skeptic conclude that God doesn't want the skeptic to have the answer...thus morally justifying the skeptic to provide that answer for themselves?

So that if the skeptic declines the salvation invitation, this is reasonably construed as god's fault for refusing to reveal his particular will?

[GRWelsh]

I would say no, that is not fairly representing the Christian worldview.  A Christian can claim to know some general truth about God's will, without having to also claim to know every particular truth about God's will.  I see no inconsistency here.

[Gordon Tubbs]

It's a basic category error to assume that because someone believes what God wants you to do with your whole life, that they also ought to believe what God wants you to do each and every minute.

[barryjones]

I would say no, that is not fairly representing the Christian worldview.  A Christian can claim to know some general truth about God's will, without having to also claim to know every particular truth about God's will.  I see no inconsistency here.

But if you cannot say with reasonable certainty what god wants me to do next, don't you forfeit the right to balk if the skeptic chooses to answer that question for themselves?  If you don't know whether God wants me to read a bible or Popular Mechanics in the next 5 minutes, you forfeit the right to balk if I decide it shall be Popular Mechanics, right?

[barryjones]

It's a basic category error to assume that because someone believes what God wants you to do with your whole life, that they also ought to believe what God wants you to do each and every minute.

I never said Christian theology requires that they know that much.

I'm only arguing that IF the Christian cannot be reasonably certain of what God wants me to do in the next 5 minutes, then they forfeit the right to balk if what I decide to do in the next 5 minutes is something not involving Christianity. 

If we extend the argument, then the Christian cannot even justify evangelism, since for all they know God could just as likely want the skeptic to walk away, as to stand there and listen.

[noncontingent]

Before they could answer that, they'd have to find out what your problem was.

There is no one size fits all answer.

If you don't think you have a problem and you're happy as you are, then I'd leave you be.

But clearly you have issues, otherwise you wouldn't be hanging out on a forum like this asking these kinds of questions.

You have google. If you can't find an answer there, then it must not be given you to get one.

The bible says "faith is not a possession of all people" and also that it's a fruit of God's spirit. So if you want to have any faith, you have to first figure out if you're living in any way that's blocking God's spirit. You have to take steps to get clean first. If you think you're squeaky clean already, then you're blind. No one is squeaky clean.

If you don't believe in God and you can't google up any deficiencies in that world view, I'd say you haven't tried because you don't want to.

If that's the case, as a person who's trying to live like a Christian, I'd let you be who you want to be. God's not forcing you to do anything and neither will I.

[Gordon Tubbs]

An evangelist's ignorance of what God wants you to do in the next 5 minutes shouldn't dissuade them from trying to persuade you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior; nor should it dissuade you from hearing them out. Why? Because it's not their job nor their place to tell you to take a sip of coffee, or tell you that they believe God wants you to take a sip of coffee, or whatever. That's the cool thing about having freedom.

Let's trade out the evangelist for say.... a salesperson offering you a special deal on a cruise, and they begin their pitch with "you need this vacation," and you quip back saying "oh yeah? well if you can't tell me whether or not to take a sip of my coffee RIGHT NOW, then you can't tell me I need the vacation you're trying to sell me. GOTCHA!!!!!"

[DPKING1]

Hi Barryjones,

This is an interesting scenario you have dreamed up here, as I think it raises some questions for how Christians and non-Christians understand God’s Will.
From your conversation “parable”, it seems like you are asserting:
P1) If Christians claim to know God’s will for someone, then they need to show what God’s will is for that person at any and every particular moment.
P2) Christians cannot show what God’s will is for that person at any and every particular moment.
C1) Christians cannot claim to know God’s will for someone (MT P1,P2)
P3) If Christians (and thus the Skeptic) cannot know God’s will for someone, then it is God’s fault for refusing to reveal his will to them (or the Skeptic)
C2) It is God’s fault for refusing to reveal God’s will (MP C1, P3)

It seems pretty clear that this expectation of knowing God’s will is a bit outlandish and would make any kind of claim about God’s will, or even our own wills, impossible to uphold.
Think of two students in a classroom who have just been assigned a project by their teacher. Student One turns to Student Two and says, “The teacher said we need to build this whatchamacallit.” If Student Two was to respond by saying, “well, you may think that the Teacher wills that, but you tell me, what does the teacher want me to do next in this very moment?” we would not assume that Student One knows nothing about the Teacher’s will for Student Two. Nor would we go even further to assume that the Teacher has refused to reveal their will to either student because they do not tell them what he/she wants in that very moment. What if all the Teacher wants is for the two students to work on the project, and the rest is up to them? Surely Student One can still claim to know the Teacher’s will, and Student Two can’t claim that the Teacher doesn’t want their will to be known by the students.
So, I think I’d reject Premise 1 and Premise 3, believing that they are a bit farfetched to assume as necessary for knowledge of God’s will. We don’t require this kind of knowledge in our other decision-making processes, so we don’t really need it here either, I don’t think Christians would even assert that God has an explicit will for every infinitesimally small moment of your life. It seems more like God has created beings like Godself, that have some kind of autonomy and free will to make the decisions they want to in response to God’s will.