📖 Biblical Definition
The distinction between the revealed and secret will of God is the great biblical and confessional framework for understanding the one will of God under two aspects—the will He has disclosed to us in His commands, and the will He has hidden in His eternal decree. Its charter text is Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” The secret will (identical with the decretive will) is God’s eternal purpose concerning whatsoever shall come to pass; it is hidden from us until disclosed by the event, all-comprehensive, and infallibly accomplished. The revealed will (identical with the preceptive will) is God’s will as published in His law and gospel; it tells us what to believe and how to live, is open to all, and is the rule of human duty. The distinction is not a division in God, who is simple and one, but a necessary accommodation to our understanding, marking the difference between what God does and what God commands. Its practical force is immense and is spelled out in the charter text itself: the secret things belong to God—we are not to pry into the hidden decree, demand to know our election apart from its evidences, or seek to live by guessing at what God has concealed; but the revealed things belong to us and our children, that we may do them. The believer’s duty lies entirely with the revealed will; the secret will is the object not of his investigation but of his trust. He obeys what is disclosed and rests in what is hidden, confident that the God whose commands are righteous has ordered all His secret purposes in wisdom and love.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828, treating the WILL of God, distinguishes the secret will—His hidden purpose—from the revealed will, made known in His word for our obedience.
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SECRET, a. — ...4. Hid; concealed from notice. The secret will of God is his hidden purpose, not made known to us, distinguished from his revealed will, declared in his word.
REVEAL, v.t. — To disclose; to make known something before unknown or concealed; especially, to make known by divine or supernatural means.
📖 Key Scripture
Deuteronomy 29:29 — "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
Romans 11:33-34 — "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord?"
Isaiah 55:8-9 — "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord."
Amos 3:7 — "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
No major postmodern redefinition, but the distinction is violated by the presumption that pries into God’s secret will—demanding to know hidden decrees, the future, or one’s election apart from the revealed evidences.
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The distinction between the revealed and secret will is violated chiefly by a presumption that pries into what God has hidden. Men crave knowledge of the secret will: they would know the future, the date of the end, the hidden reasons behind their afflictions, or the bare fact of their election apart from its revealed evidences. This is to trespass on ground the charter text marks off as God’s alone—the secret things belong to the LORD. The fruit of such prying is always bad: the date-setter discredits the faith, the fatalist paralyzes himself by guessing at the decree, the anxious soul torments himself trying to read a hidden book of election that God has sealed. His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out; to demand their disclosure is pride.
The opposite neglect ignores the revealed will—the very thing God has given us to know and do—while obsessing over the hidden one. The right use of the distinction is exactly reversed: we are to leave the secret things to God in humble trust, and to occupy ourselves wholly with the revealed things, that we may do them. The believer does not need to know the secret decree to live faithfully; he needs only to obey the published commands and embrace the offered gospel. And he may rest his whole soul on this: that the God whose revealed will is so plainly good and righteous has ordered every secret purpose by the same wisdom and love, so that what he cannot now understand he may safely entrust to the One whose thoughts are higher than his thoughts. Obey what is revealed; trust what is hidden—this is the wisdom of the distinction.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on the secret things (Hebrew sāthar, to hide) that belong to God, and the revealed things (gālāh, to uncover) that belong to us.
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Usage
"The revealed and secret will distinction: the secret things belong to God, the revealed things to us, that we may do them."
"To pry into God’s secret will—the future, the hidden decree—is presumption; His judgments are unsearchable."
"Obey what is revealed and trust what is hidden—this is the wisdom of the revealed-and-secret-will distinction."