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Theology Proper - Lesson 7
God's Providence
by Pastor Bob Burridge ©1997
Westminster Confession of Faith V

Psalm 135:5-13
5 For I know that the LORD is great, And that our Lord is above all gods.
6 Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.
7 He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain; Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries.
8 He smote the first-born of Egypt, Both of man and beast.
9 He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, Upon Pharaoh and all his servants.
10 He smote many nations, And slew mighty kings,
11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, And Og, king of Bashan, And all the kingdoms of Canaan;
12 And He gave their land as a heritage, A heritage to Israel His people.
13 Thy name, O LORD, is everlasting, Thy remembrance, O LORD, throughout all generations.

Westminster Shorter Catechism - Question #8 How doth God execute his decrees?
God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

WCF IV - Of Creation (previous study)
In creation God gave material reality to his decrees. He made a setting suited for the display of his glory. He made man to live in that setting with the physical ability to receive divine revelation.

WCF V - Of Providence
In providence God preserves and governs his creation so that it will accomplish all He made it to achieve. He is ever revealing himself generally in the things made.

The biblical doctrine of providence stands in contrast with the usual attempts made by fallen human hearts to explain the course of events in our world. The most extreme position is taken by those who deny that there is any kind of a god at all. But that is too irrational a position to be held widely. Even fallen man cannot configure seemingly consistent falsehoods without admitting some concept of deity. Following is a summary of some of the general categories of attempts to account for reality without the God of Scripture.

Deism treats God as Creator but not as Preserver.
God is seen by the deist as setting the physical universe in motion at creation. He made and equipped it with natural laws, then let it go like a machine. Within the boundaries of natural laws, chance is presumed to be the governor of all things. This view of the world has no place for a personal God. It looks to statistical descriptions of events to account for what is observed. The god of the deist is impersonal, and has neither covenanted with man to bless him nor to reveal himself to him. The god of the deist, if conscious at all, must wait to see what will become of his creation.

Fatalism destroys the personal nature of the Creator and of man.
The fatalist sees everything moving toward a fixed end with all the means toward that end being fixed as well. Its a configuration that has no room for a loving purpose or for individual worth. Each person is seen as little more than a gear in a great cosmic machine that grinds impersonally toward inevitable finality. Nothing can occur that is not part of the whole motion of the cosmos and therefore, since there is no personal God, there can be no real sin or rebellion. Fate is seen as the author of all that happens whether we call it "good" or "evil." To the fatalist, all is "meaningless, merciless and hopeless".

Pantheism makes everything to be an extension of god.
To the pantheist god is not only seen as present in all actions, as the fatalist would believe. This view extends fatalism to the physical things themselves. And, if everything is god both being and acting, then everything is god. If all is god then there is no sin or action contrary to his pleasure. There is also then neither redemption nor a need of it. Pantheism denies the reality of the individual as a separate person. It also eliminates the possibility of a true objective morality.

Mysticism sees god as totally "other" than His creation.
The mystic denies objectivity in God's revelation. They would hold that no one can really know god with any certainty. It makes God and his providence to be always unknowable. To the mystic there is no certain purpose to anything. We must just accept things in our ignorance.

God Governs all created things by his decree in Providence

WCF 5.1 "God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy."

God governs all creatures, actions and things
From the greatest even to the very least creature, action and thing, God upholds, directs, disposes and governs them. Many direct references are made in Scripture to support this teaching.

Psalm 135:6 "Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth"

Proverbs 16:9 "The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps."

Proverbs 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, But the counsel of the Lord, it will stand."

Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes."

Jeremiah 10:23 "I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself; Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps."

Nahum 1:3 "Jehovah doeth His will in the whirlwind and in the storm"

Matthew 5:45 "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust"

Matthew 10:29-30 "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

Ephesians 1:11-12 "also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory."

Colossians 1:16-17 "For by Him all things were created, {both} in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

God has made it very clear in his word. Nothing in the universe is ever excluded from his providence.

God governs according to his foreknowledge and free, immutable will
The concept of foreknowledge is often misunderstood. The New Testament Greek word that is usually translated "foreknowledge" is prognosis. It is a combination of the prefix pro- which means "before", and gnosis which means knowledge.

They key to understanding what it means to "know before" is to identify what kind of knowledge is meant. There are several ways we use the word "knowledge" or its verb "to know".

God knows all things without exception and without degrees. Therefore to say that he knows somethings as opposed to his knowing other things would be meaningless if it was referring to mere propositional awareness. When God is said to know one person in distinction from others it must refer to a special relationship he bears with that person, an intimacy. This is a common use of the verb "to know".

It was in this way that Adam "knew" his wife, and that God "knows" Israel and his own children. Notice how the Scriptures speak of God "knowing" some in a way that he does not know others.

Genesis 18:19 speaks of Abraham "I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice..."

Jeremiah 1:5 "before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecreated you..."

Matthew 7:23 "and then I will declare unto them, `I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice iniquity.'"

John 10:14 "I am the good shepherd; and I know my own, and my own know me."

1 Corinthians 8:3 "If anyone loves God, he is known by Him."

Galatians 4:9 "Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things..."

Romans 11:2 "God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew."

Obviously, if God knows all persons without exception and without imperfection, these verses cannot mean a mere propositional awareness. It must be a special covenantal bond established with some but not with others. That covenantal bond, which God establishes with some only, predates all things that could make it contingent upon things outside of God (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore the idea of "foreknowledge" is not a hypothetical knowing of things a person would do that somehow determine God's disposition toward them. It must be a covenantal bond sovereignly established by God toward certain persons and is equivalent to his election of some to redemption.

God, being sovereign in the manner revealed in Scripture, is therefore also most free. He cannot be coerced or affected by anything outside of himself. That which controls another is sovereign over that one by definition. God is revealed as that which is ultimately sovereign over all things. (see syllabus notes: Theology Proper, Chapter 2, God's Independence and Sovereignty)

One of the basic attributes of God revealed in Scripture is his immutability. James 1:17 speaks of God as the "Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow." If the universe proceeded in an uncertain path, determined by the influences of creatures whose ideas and actions are introduced at some point in time, then the plan of God is not eternal and unchangeable. If the plan of God, and therefore his understanding of the universe, is mutable, then God himself is not the immutable God of Scripture whose knowledge does not change or depend on things outside of himself. The course of events is therefore certain in the mind of God and his decree of providence is comprehensive.

Nothing that exists outside of God, no created and temporal being, can impose direction to the eternal plans of its Creator. It is not possible that something that begins in time can determine the course of an eternity determined before it existed. A cause must precede its effect or it no longer may be considered a cause.

In considerations such as these God's eternality, immutability, sovereignty and independence converge for us. Such convergence helps remind us that the attributes of God are not divided in the nature of God, but only revealed under separate headings as they are made known to us finite creatures.

The revealed purpose of all the decrees, those of creation and providence, is the glory of the Eternal God.

Colossians 1:16 " ... all things have been created by Him and for Him."

1 Peter 4:11 "...that in all things God may be glorified..."

The reality of secondary causes is established

WCF 5.2 "Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently."

WCF 5.3 "God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure."

The idea of secondary causes was introduced in this syllabus under the general discussion of the Decrees of God (commenting on WCF III, WSC 7).

It is easily shown from Scriptural citation that all things come to pass immutably and infallibly. One of the difficult problems for us is to understand the relationship of those decrees to the means God uses. Often God employs the physical means of his universe to carry out their processes by the laws we see imposed upon them by their Creator. He moved people, nations and natural forces in the unfolding of his plan. We also see how God employs created persons who are held responsible for their actions as efficient causes. Then there are occasions where God acts directly without the use of ordinary means such as when he produces miracles or other supernatural events. This is when we say God acts without, above or against ordinary means.

Yet in all the use of these means the purposes of God and his eternal personal attributes cannot be not violated.

Can persons be held responsible for doing evil if it is decreed?
Clearly God holds persons responsible for their sinful deeds. The Bible calls those deeds the true works of the creature. The connection between the decrees and the employment of means which produce wicked results is not specifically revealed to us in Scripture. There is no real contradiction or conflict involved as long as we avoid assuming propositions which are not revealed, but which are the products of man's imagination attempting to organize the universe to fit his own conception of it. We must always be cautious in our speculations since we have such a finite knowledge of the universe, and we process our knowledge with finite minds also limited by the effects of our inherited condition of sin. (1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 3:11).

Man's will, as that which directs him when he performs as a secondary cause of events, is certainly free. He generally acts according to his own desires and is not constrained by God to do evil which he does not wish to do. Even our evil intentions, which offend God and rebel against his revealed moral principles, are used providentially to promote the glory of God and blessing to his people.

Remember Joseph and the wicked acts of his brothers:

Genesis 45:7-8 "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt."

Genesis 50:20 "as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."

Peter explained the most wicked act in human history by this principle:

Acts 2:23 of the crucifixion of Jesus, "this man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death."

Note concerning the evil doers in these cases:
1. They did evil. There was a real sin committed.
2. They, not God, were held responsible.
3. They did the evil freely. They were not coerced against their will.
4. They accomplished what was decreed by God.

There is no conflict in God. He reveals what pleases him in his moral law. He reveals as his overall plan that which includes and employs the evil of created beings to accomplish his own purposes. These may both be called "the will of God" but it is obvious here that the term "will" or "desire" is used in distinct senses. Therefore terms such as "decretive will," "perceptive will" and "permissive will" can be confusing. By his word he reveals our moral duty, that which morally pleasees him. By providence he reveals his eternal purpose in fulfilling his intended ends. His purposes clearly include the employment of the evil deeds of his creatures which are contrary to his eternal and perfect moral principles.

Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

We may not understand the relationship between what God decrees to allow as a part of his universe, and what God reveals as wrong morally for his creatures. But, the two are not logical opposites. If there is any contradiction, it is in our own minds. God obviously determined that the best possible universe should contain mutable creatures which are morally fallible, and that those creatures would carry out evil deeds. This kind of universe must better reveal the many attributes of God than would one made up only of infallible, immutable and eternally holy creatures.

Does it matter then what I do? since all outcomes are determined by the eternal decrees of God? It certainly does matter. God has commanded obedience of all his creatures who act not knowing in advance how all things will unfold. Our obligation is obedience. God does not require full comprehension by his creatures of how each act, thought or word fits into his plan.

For example: to say, "Certain persons will be saved no matter what the church does, therefore why bother to evangelize?" is to assume that salvation is pre-determined but the means toward it are not. The plan of God is revealed in our obedience as well as in the final outcome of things. By evangelizing God reveals who is obedient in Christ and who is not. Rather than to speculate on that before the event, we are to show the love of Christ in us by doing what God has revealed as being morally pleasing to him.

If it is foolish speculation to speak of what might be in the secret mind of God, then it is even more foolish, and alarming in its implications, to use that ignorance as an excuse to disobey God's reveled law. In so doing we show that we lack the evidences of Christ at work in us.

Our duty is always to do what we are commanded, to bring our sins to the cross for forgiveness when we fail, and to prove the work of the Spirit by confession, repentance and renewed obedience.

God decreed for sin to exist in his universe

WCF 5.4 "The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin."

God's providence is a manifestation of his "almighty power, unsearchable wisdom and infinite goodness." This providence extends itself to include all sins and the entry of sin into God's universe. This ought not to be seen as a "bare permission" as if God merely allows such actions but does not really want them to occur. Yet "permission" is a proper term to use concerning the actions of secondary causes. (see this syllabus, chapter 4). Even the wrath of man shall be turned to the praise of God (Psalm 76:10).

God's Purpose in Leaving His Children to Temptations

WCF 5.5 "The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends."

God's purpose in Creation, and its execution by his Providence, includes great benefits for those he has loved as children from all eternity. This care extends to include the sinful acts and desires of the elect. God promises that even the lingering corruption of their hearts is to be turned for their good. The confession breaks down this benefit into five categories.

1. As a loving Father, our God is concerned to chastise us when we need correction.

Hebrews 12:6 "for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."

2. When we wander from doing that which is morally good we are further impressed with how deep our corruption extends, and how deceitful our hearts can be. Our sin humbles and reminds us that we are but fallen creatures saved only by the mercies of our God through Christ.

3. Our lapses into corruption improve our dependence on God. In such times we are driven to confess that the failure of our own hearts is consumed by the unfailing promise of our loving Lord.

4. Our moments of sin teach us to keep watch that our hearts remain in subjection to what pleases our Lord, and that his pleasure is spiritually good and healthy for his creatures. It drives us to his word, prayer, the encouragement of our brothers in Christ and to the worship of the church.

5. Our understanding can only be competent to the level which God has made things known. Therefore the Westminster scholars add that there may also be other just and holy purposes which God has not revealed. These ends may ever remain unknown to us as it was in the case of Job.

Concerning the Wicked:

WCF 5.6 "As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, does blind and harden, from them He not only withholds His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts; but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had, and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin; and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others."

God does blind and harden some men. This is clear in several specific cases. Pharaoh is said to be hardened regarding his allowing the children of Israel to leave Egypt at the request of Moses.

Romans 9:15-18 "...He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires"

Yet in all this God remains a righteous judge and bases his hardening upon "former sins." In such cases God withholds from them his restraining and enlightening power.

Acts 14:16 "and in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways."

Acts 17:30 "therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent"

Sometimes he withdraws what gifts they had and exposes them to situations that yield sin due to their own corruption. In this he leaves them to their own lusts, temptations and the power of Satan. The result is that they harden themselves even when exposed to the same means which God may use to soften others.

Romans 1:22-28 "...God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity"

Ex 8:32 "But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go."

The purpose of providence extends to all creatures

WCF 5.7 "As the providence of God does, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it takes care of His Church, and disposes all things to the good thereof."

We have formerly demonstrated the infinity of God's sovereignty, and the universality of his decrees. Here we see that there is a special extension of providence to the Church. Ultimately all dispositions of God toward the church promote her own good.

Romans 8:28 "and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

Questions for Review and Thought

  1. How does God's providence differ from creation as means for the execution of his decrees?
  2. Differentiate the Reformed doctrine of providence from Deism, Fatalism, Pantheism, and Mysticism.
  3. What aspects of creation and what created beings are included in God's providence? Cite support from Scripture.
  4. Define the term "foreknowledge" as it is used in Scripture for the basis of God's redemptive decrees. Explain how misdefinition of foreknowledge can introduce external contingencies making God's decrees depend upon his creatures instead of his own eternal and perfect determinations.
  5. How do second causes in the universe occur most freely by the creature and yet infallibly, and how do they, by divine providence, certainly fulfill all that God has intended?
  6. Illustrate from Scripture where God holds men responsible for their wicked acts, yet it is clear that the acts were decreed by God for his glory and good.
  7. If the decrees of God extend even to Adam's first sin and to all other sins, how is it that God is not the author of, or held responsible for, those sins?
  8. What benefits could there be in God leaving his spiritual children to fall into temptations?
  9. In what way is God involved in the sins of the wicked?
  10. How is God's providence specially disposed toward his church?

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