Will of God

For the song "God's Will", see Martina (album).

The will of God or divine will refers to the concept of God as having a plan for humanity, and as such desires to see such plan fulfilled. This is achieved by submission to the ultimate will of the creator. Thus the concept of God's will may relate to various religious concepts:

Concepts

• Divine law - the concept that man's law follow God's will
• Salvation - the concept that claims it is God's will that human beings be saved from death.
• Providentialism is a belief that God's will is evident in all occurrences. It can further be described as a belief that the power of God (or Providence) is so complete that humans cannot equal his abilities, or fully understand his plan.
• Predestination - a Christian concept of God's will for the destiny of man. Those who believe in predestination, such as John Calvin, believe that before the creation God determined the fate of the universe throughout all of time and space. Predestination is a decree by God that there are certain souls that were previously appointed to salvation.

Interpretations

• Ten Commandments
• Mitzvah (Hebrew: מצווה, , "commandment"; plural, mitzvos or mitzvot; from צוה, tzavah, "command") is a word used in Judaism to refer to the 613 commandments given in the Torah and the seven rabbinic commandments instituted later for a total of 620.
• The Seven Laws of Noah ( Sheva mitzvot B'nei Noach), often referred to as the Noahide Laws, are a set of seven moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God to Noah as a binding set of laws for all mankind. According to Judaism any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as a righteous gentile and is assured of a place in the world to come (Olam Haba), the Jewish concept of heaven.
• Kingdom of God - A monotheistic concept of God as being a king, and of all "creation" as his kingdom. Within this kingdom, his human children find salvation through accepting and following his will.
• The Law of Christ, a supercessesionist view that Jesus "commandments" superseded Jewish law. Paul of Tarsus wrote: "To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law." (I Corinthians 9:21).
• Submission and surrender, in Islam, are terms referring to the acceptance of God's will.
• Sharia, a concept expressing Islamic jurisprudence, or an Islamic form of religious government, claims to be the more perfect fulfillment of the will of God.
• Hukam

Expressions

• "God willing" - An English expression
• "Insha'Allah" - an Arab-Islamic expression meaning "God willing"
• Deus vult - A Latin-Christian expression meaning "God wills it", canonically expressed at the outset of the first crusade
• Masha'Allah, - an Arab-Islamic expression meaning "God has willed it"
• Thelema - Early Christian writings use the word to refer to the will of God, but also to the human will,[5] and even the will of God's opponent, the "Devil."