Jeremiah 29:11 & God’s “Plan” For Man

Many false teachers profit by convincing people that God will work direct miracles in their lives if they will only “serve” God and support their ministries. Profiteer preachers persuade people to send ministry “seed money,” which they say will result in God’s financial and physical blessings being bestowed upon the giver. This theory of the “gospel-of-health-and-wealth” is quite popular, for people like the notion of God’s physical blessings being awarded to them, not through the natural means of hard labor, but by a supernatural act of divine interposition. The impoverished are promised wealth, and the infirm are promised health. And while the promise does sound great, it is only the promise of men, not of God. The Bible is filled with examples of the most righteous of people suffering the greatest of hardships and exiting this life penniless. We think of Jesus, Paul and others. Regardless of Bible facts, millions of people continue to be duped by this false promise.

The problem is the doctrine of fatalism. Rooted in Calvinism, this is the notion that God is in direct manipulative control of every action and event in the lives of men and women. When good things happen in one’s life, such as recovering from some illness, avoiding injury in a car wreck, getting a good job, or finding a good spouse, it is claimed that the thing was God’s doing. When bad things happen in one’s life, such as getting cancer, being injured in a car wreck, losing a job, or picking the wrong spouse, it is claimed, either that God is punishing the individual for some sin, or that the devil is directly inflicting harm and hardship upon that individual. The doctrine ignores the the fact that “time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). It also (ostensibly) relieves people of their personal responsibility and assumes that “God will do as He thinks best” in one’s life. We need to be reminded that God has expressed completely and finally, ALL of His will in His revealed word – the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:3; Jude 3). We need no additional information from God, either in word or interpreted events.

Of the many passages that are misused and misapplied by fatalists, perhaps the most popular one is Jeremiah 29:11. Popular calvinistic preachers, authors and commentators make frequent (mis)use of this passage, and sadly, many of my own brethren have carelessly subscribed to their error. Gospel preachers are citing Jeremiah 29:11 to suggest some notion of direct divine guidance and manipulation of individuals and events. Calvinistic fatalism is alive and well, not only in denomination and charismatic churches, but also in churches of Christ. Let us consider verses 10 and 11 of Jeremiah 29:

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

There are two important contexts to consider in connection with this verse: the immediate context, which had specifically to do with the return of Jewish exiles to their homeland, and the remote context of the Law of Moses and the Jewish theocracy. We are not under the Law of Moses today (2 Corinthians 3:13-14; Ephesians 2:14; Colossians 2:14), nor are we members of a physical kingdom or theocracy (Luke 17:20, 21; John 18:36). Jeremiah was not talking to or about people today: He was describing God’s plans for the restoration of the Jews to their homeland. It is a misuse and misapplication of Jeremiah 29:11 to apply its promise to people today. We are not Jews. We are not serving out 70 years of Babylonian captivity. We are not being promised to be returned to Judea. We are not in the miracle age. We are not under the Law of Moses. We are not under a theocratic form of government. We are not under the auspices of Jeremiah 29:11. Brethren are operating under a fanciful fiction if they believe that God is miraculously manipulating circumstances and events in their personal lives and using such events as a means of direct communication of His will. One should read his Bible if he wishes to know what God thinks.

—Tim Haile