Can a Coin Flip Reveal God’s Will for My Life?
00:00:00.000 | Well, Pastor John and Noel have landed in South America.
00:00:02.880 | Please join me in praying for them as they travel and minister in Brazil and
00:00:07.680 | Argentina and Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires and Campina Grande.
00:00:11.840 | Of course, big international trips like this one also mean that we must release
00:00:16.120 | Pastor John from the podcast too.
00:00:18.040 | And this is the last APJ with him for a while.
00:00:20.640 | If everything goes as planned, he'll be back in the States and back in the studio.
00:00:24.960 | And we will be back with new episodes somewhere around March 18th, if my
00:00:30.480 | math is right, March 18th.
00:00:32.080 | And if you are not, make sure you subscribe to the podcast and your favorite podcast
00:00:36.160 | app to get those episodes as soon as they are released.
00:00:39.600 | But before Pastor John left for the airport, I had a chance to ask him one
00:00:42.960 | more APJ question.
00:00:43.880 | Here's that episode.
00:00:44.640 | But today's question is really good.
00:00:50.400 | It arrives from a podcast listener named Hannah.
00:00:53.000 | Dear Pastor John, first, thank you for your dedication to the teaching of the
00:00:56.520 | word.
00:00:56.840 | The Lord has used your ministry in my life more than I can express.
00:01:00.080 | I have a question about the way it seems that biblical persons, even God-fearing
00:01:05.000 | ones, seem to consider casting lots as a way to communicate with God.
00:01:09.280 | Even the disciples cast lots to decipher God's will in choosing the 12th disciple.
00:01:15.200 | Is this morally commendable?
00:01:17.920 | Does this mean if I were to ask a question of God and then cast lots, such as rolling
00:01:22.520 | a dice, that answer counts as an accurate answer to his will?
00:01:26.920 | Just feels too easy.
00:01:28.240 | Feels wrong and a bit like witchcraft.
00:01:30.840 | But I don't see any prohibition of the practice in the New Testament either.
00:01:35.200 | Pastor John, what would you say to Hannah?
00:01:36.880 | Is it morally right?
00:01:40.640 | So Hannah says, does this mean that if I were to ask a question of God and then cast
00:01:51.120 | lots or roll dice, that I can count on an accurate answer to his will?
00:01:58.640 | And then she adds, just doesn't feel right.
00:02:01.880 | Too easy, wrong.
00:02:04.320 | I mean, she even says it's a bit like witchcraft.
00:02:06.880 | But I don't see any prohibition of it in the New Testament, she says.
00:02:11.160 | So Hannah, your instincts here are very good.
00:02:16.120 | And your biblical assessment is right.
00:02:19.040 | There is no prohibition in the Bible against casting lots.
00:02:23.960 | That's true.
00:02:24.760 | Just as important, there is no command in the Bible to cast lots.
00:02:30.320 | In the Old Testament, the frequent references to casting lots are almost always
00:02:38.320 | regarding the division of the land among the tribes of Israel, which they did by
00:02:44.680 | casting lots.
00:02:46.360 | In the New Testament, there are only two mentions of casting lots.
00:02:49.680 | One is ugly and the other is God approved.
00:02:54.000 | The soldiers, you remember, cast lots for Jesus' clothes at the foot of the cross.
00:02:59.760 | Just a horrible, callous moment.
00:03:02.600 | And then in Acts 1, 21 following, the apostles did cast lots between Matthias and
00:03:10.240 | Joseph after they had applied all the proper criteria to try to make sure that we
00:03:17.000 | had two fit candidates to replace Judas as an apostolic witness to the resurrection.
00:03:24.280 | Now, my answer to your question, if I were to ask a question of God, then roll dice,
00:03:31.320 | can I get an accurate answer?
00:03:32.720 | My answer to this is no.
00:03:36.440 | Not only is there no command in the Bible to cast lots, there's no promise.
00:03:42.200 | This is crucial to answer your question.
00:03:44.160 | There's no promise in the Bible that if you do cast lots, you will get the right
00:03:50.520 | answer.
00:03:51.040 | So no, rolling dice is no certain way to find the Lord's will.
00:03:58.600 | You don't have a promise to that effect.
00:04:01.280 | So I think you are right to be surprised, as I am in hearing you, and suspicious that
00:04:09.560 | certain people whom you say are otherwise godly put their stock in casting lots as a
00:04:16.840 | means of ordinary guidance in the Christian life.
00:04:18.880 | I think that's crazy.
00:04:20.360 | In fact, I think we can say with strong authority and conviction that if someone
00:04:28.360 | makes this a pattern in their life, they are out of step with the Bible.
00:04:32.640 | And the reason I say that is because in all the instructions that we have for how to
00:04:40.640 | live a Christian life and how to make decisions and find and do the will of God in
00:04:46.480 | the whole New Testament, this is never mentioned, never, never, never mentioned as
00:04:51.080 | part of the way we're to go about discerning the Lord's will for our lives.
00:04:57.440 | That would be very strange, wouldn't it, if it were a good and helpful practice?
00:05:02.680 | I'm convinced it is not a good and helpful practice as part of the ordinary way of
00:05:09.200 | following Jesus, because what we get instead in the New Testament is a pattern of
00:05:16.240 | discernment that is different, very different than casting lots.
00:05:20.920 | I'm give you three examples.
00:05:23.240 | Here's the most familiar, Romans 12.
00:05:25.560 | Two, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
00:05:30.960 | mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good,
00:05:38.800 | acceptable and perfect.
00:05:40.000 | So the pervasive pattern of discerning God's will is this.
00:05:45.800 | It's rooted in a renewal of the mind.
00:05:49.760 | This happens as we saturate our minds with God's Word and have our moral senses
00:05:56.160 | trained to discern what honors Christ and what doesn't, what loves people and what
00:06:02.280 | doesn't.
00:06:02.800 | By the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern.
00:06:07.040 | The basic problem with casting lots—mark this now—the basic problem with casting
00:06:14.160 | lots is that it does not require any transformation of the mind at all.
00:06:21.240 | A chimpanzee can do it.
00:06:23.960 | A robot can do it.
00:06:26.600 | In itself, there's nothing spiritual or holy about it.
00:06:31.840 | It's not God's desire for us to do things that chimpanzees can do.
00:06:36.760 | He wants us to become mature and conformed to his own character so that we see what is
00:06:45.480 | beautiful in Christ and in Christ's way, and then love it and then choose it.
00:06:53.680 | But casting lots doesn't require that we see the beauty of holiness at all, which
00:07:00.680 | means that choosing it doesn't glorify God.
00:07:03.800 | Do you see this?
00:07:04.680 | This is so central and foundational.
00:07:07.320 | It glorifies chance.
00:07:09.360 | But if you choose a path of behavior because you see its fitness as a way of
00:07:17.560 | glorifying God and honoring Christ and helping people, then Christ is honored when
00:07:24.800 | you choose it, and people are loved when you choose it.
00:07:28.080 | That's what God's looking for, not in robotic ways of discerning a path.
00:07:33.640 | Right.
00:07:34.400 | Here's another example.
00:07:35.480 | Philippians 1, 9, the prayer, "It's my prayer that your love may abound more and
00:07:40.720 | more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent
00:07:48.280 | and so be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of
00:07:52.240 | righteousness that come through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God."
00:07:56.240 | If we try to be full of the fruits of righteousness by casting lots, we totally
00:08:03.720 | miss the point of what righteousness is.
00:08:06.880 | It's the fruit of love mingled with knowledge and insight bathed in prayer
00:08:13.560 | and growing up into the glory of God.
00:08:16.720 | That's not what casting lots does.
00:08:19.840 | Here's one last example.
00:08:21.440 | Ephesians 5, 8, "At one time you were darkness.
00:08:26.120 | Now you are light in the Lord.
00:08:29.720 | Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and
00:08:39.240 | right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord."
00:08:46.080 | Ephesians 5, 8 to 10.
00:08:48.160 | All of that would be canceled out, just canceled out by casting lots as an
00:08:53.920 | ordinary part of discernment.
00:08:56.120 | When Paul says, "Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord," he means go down
00:09:03.200 | deep into what it means to be children of the light and act according to your new
00:09:09.040 | nature.
00:09:10.000 | So here's my conclusion.
00:09:11.840 | Not only don't you have any certainty of pleasing God if you roll dice, you put
00:09:19.040 | yourself outside the beautiful pattern of New Testament transformation by the Spirit
00:09:26.440 | through the Word.
00:09:27.240 | Christ wants you to glorify Him and His way by the way you make your choices.
00:09:34.440 | But lots are mindless things.
00:09:38.400 | God is not mindless.
00:09:40.280 | You're not mindless.
00:09:41.680 | Sanctification is not mindless.
00:09:43.640 | Discernment is not mindless.
00:09:45.680 | You have the mind of Christ, and you can see the beauty of holiness and glorify the
00:09:53.440 | Lord of holiness by choosing it for what it is.
00:09:57.600 | Wonderful little survey on how we make God-honoring decisions.
00:10:01.960 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:02.800 | And speaking of God's sovereignty over random chance, I talked with Vern
00:10:07.760 | Poythress a few years back on this same topic.
00:10:10.600 | You can see what he adds to the conversation in episode 807, especially on
00:10:14.480 | Proverbs 16, 33, the idea that God still yet remains sovereign over every coin flip.
00:10:20.880 | Really interesting stuff.
00:10:22.520 | And then be sure to see him explain mathematically in the follow-up episode,
00:10:27.000 | White Casinos Always Win, in the end.
00:10:29.840 | That's episode number 808.
00:10:31.520 | Those episodes and about 1,300 others can be found at our online home at
00:10:35.320 | desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:38.240 | I am your host Tony Reinke.
00:10:40.120 | Please be praying for the Pipers now in South America.
00:10:42.600 | Pray for their trip.
00:10:43.720 | Pray that the Lord bless their ministry there and Lord willing, Pastor John
00:10:47.480 | will return to the studio with us around March 18th.
00:10:50.160 | Thank you for listening to the podcast.
00:10:52.240 | Thank you for praying for Pastor John and for supporting our labor as a desiring God.
00:10:56.640 | We'll see you soon enough.
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