Yes, certainly. And no, most assuredly not. It is not verbal gymnastics but verbal wisdom to recognize that we do, and in fact should speak of God’s will in at least two ways. First, we speak of God’s prescriptive, or revealed will. This describes what God command us to do, His law. It is, for instance, God’s will that we not commit murder, as He tells us in the Ten Commandments. Second, we speak of God’s decretive or hidden will. This describes what God has ordained from all eternity would come to pass. This will only remains hidden until time passes. Then it’s right out there in the open for all to see. For instance, it is God’s decretive will, at least to the time that I’m writing this, that Joe Biden be president of these United States. How do I know that? Because Joe Biden is president of these United States. Were such not God’s decretive will, such would not be the case.
No matter how appalled you may be over the Biden presidency, and chances are quite good that my appalled level makes yours look like something comparatively small, surely you must agree that it is not as appalling as the torture and crucifixion of our Lord. Every American citizen, whatever damage the Biden presidency might cause, stands guilty. Jesus, on the other hand, was not merely legally innocent on the earthly plane but absolutely innocent on all planes. To put it more clearly, the death of Jesus was the deepest violation of God’s prescriptive will to ever come to pass.
Yet it was clearly God’s decretive will that it would come to pass. Isaiah says “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him” (53:10). Peter tells us that it happened “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:22). Peter, however, condemns those whom God used to being this plan to pass, because they violated His revealed will. They were guilty of murder.
Whatever political tribe you belong to, it is vital to remember that when your guy is in office this is not a sign of God’s blessing, and when their guy is in office it is not a sign that God overslept. It is vital to remember that when your guy isn’t in office it isn’t a sign that their guy is His guy, and that when your guy is in office it isn’t a sign that your guy is His guy. God put George Washington into power and Joe Biden. He put Hitler in power and brought him down. Both.
What we must never do is either affirm that our current circumstances are outside of His plan, nor that His plan is a stamp of approval of what is happening. We measure our own behavior, and that of everyone else, by the unchanging standard of God’s law. We find our comfort in the face of the bad behavior of others by remembering that He is in absolute control and is about the business of manifesting His glory and glorifying His children.