“God’s Providence Part 2”
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Welcome: Glad that you are here tonight for our mens bible study.
Announcements:
-Wednesday Nights at 6:00.
-Marriage Conference on February 15th.
Open with Prayer:
Last week we took some time to define this definition of God’s Providence.
Define God’s Providence: God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he (1) keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them; (2) cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and (3) directs them to fulfill his purposes.
Grudem explains to us that under this doctrine of providence we could say that there are 3 specific subtopics or categories according to the three elements in the stated definition we have already looked at.
1. Preservation. God keeps all created things existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.
2. Concurrence. God cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do.
3. Government. (We will look at this specific topic tonight).
When it comes to the doctrine of providence there has always been much disagreement among Christians particularly with respect to God’s relationship to the willing choices of moral creatures. There is a Reformed position which this book and author hold too, and there is another position commonly called the Arminian position.
Before we take a look into this final topic of God’s providence over government turn with me to page 191 and we will answer this first question in regards to God’s Providence.
Question #1 Are we free? Do we have free will? If God exercises providential control over all events, are we in any sense free? The answer to that depends on what we mean by free.
*The kind of freedom that is often used or assumed by those who deny God’s providential control of all things is a freedom to act outside of God’s sustaining and controlling activity, a freedom that includes being able to make decisions that are not caused by anything external to ourselves.
God’s Word nowhere says that we are free in those senses. That kind of freedom would be impossible if Jesus Christ is indeed continually carrying along things by his word of power. Or that God is working all things according to the counsel of his will. To be outside of that providential control would simply be not to exist. An absolute freedom, totally free of God’s control is simply not possible.
*On the other hand, we are free in a sense that nay creature of God could be free. We will make willing choices, choices that have real effects. Clearly we must insist that we have the power of willing choice and that our choices have real results in the universe; otherwise we will fall into the error of fatalism or determinism and those come to say that our choices do not matter or that we cannot really make willing choices.
Fatalism = A system in which human choices and human decisions make no real difference because things will turn out as they have been previously ordained.
Determinism = The idea that acts, events, and decisions are the inevitable results of some condition or decision prior to them that is independent of the human will.
3. Government. The third aspect of God’s providence indicates that God has a purpose in all he does in the world and that he providentially governs or directs all things in order that they accomplish his purposes.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
The Importance of our human actions. (Page 192)
We may forget that God works through human actions in his providential management of the world. To guard against a misunderstanding of God’s providence, we need to look at the following points.
We are still responsible for our actions. (Read)
Our actions have real results and do change the course of events. (Read)
Prayer is one specific kind of action that had definite results and that does change the course of events. (Read)
E. Another Evangelical View instead of God’s Providence. (The Arminian Position)
Those who hold to an Arminian position maintain that to preserve the real human freedom and real human choices that are necessary for genuine human personhood, God cannot cause or plan our voluntary choices. This view believes that God simply responds to human choices and actions as they come about and does so in such a way that his purposes are ultimately accomplished in the world.
The Arminian position can be summed up in 4 major points.
The verses cited as examples of God’s providential control are exceptions and do not describe the way God ordinarily works in human activity.
The Calvinist view wrongly makes God responsible for sin.
Choices caused by God cannot be real choices.
The Arminian view encourages responsible Christian living, while the Calvinistic view encourages a dangerous fatalism.
A Response to the Arminian Position:
1. Are these Scripture passages unusual examples, or do they describe the way God ordinarily works?
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
They describe the way God always works in this world. These are not unusual examples.
2. Does the Calvinistic doctrine of God’s providence make God responsible for sin?
The Arminian view is unable to account for the many texts that clearly say that God ordains that some people sin or do evil. (Like Joseph’s brothers.) God does work in this world by preserving both his holiness and our individual human responsibility for sin.
3. Can choices ordained by God be real choices?
This is simply an assumption, based on human experience and intuition, not on God’s Word. Scripture tells us that God works through our will, our power to choose, and it affirms that our choices are genuine choices that have real results, results that will last for eternity.
4. Does a Calvinistic view of providence encourage a dangerous fatalism?
The doctrine of providence emphasizes both God’s sovereign control and the need for responsible obedience. Nothing falls outside the bounds of God’s wise and loving plans.
(Next week read chapter 9 on Prayer)
(Close in Prayer)
