God's works of providence are His most holy,
wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their
actions." (Shorter Catechism, answer to Question 11.) The Scriptures very
clearly teach that all things outside of God owe not merely their original
creation, but their continued existence, with all their properties and Powers,
to the will of God. He upholds all things by the word of His power, Heb. 1:3.
He is before all things, and in Him all things consist, Col. 1:17. "Thou art
Jehovah, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with
all their hosts, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all
that is in them, and thou preservest them all," Neh. 9:6. "In Him we live, and
move and have our being," Acts 17:28. He is "over all, and through all, and in
all," Eph. 4:6.
Throughout the Bible the laws of nature, the
course of history, the varying fortunes of individuals, are ever attributed to
God's providential control. All things, both in heaven and earth, from the
seraphim down to the tiny atom, are ordered by His never-failing providence.
So intimate is His relationship with the whole creation that a care- less
reader might be led toward pantheistic conclusions. Yet individual
personalities and second causes are fully recognized, — not as independent of
God, but as having their proper place in His plan. And alongside of this
doctrine of His Immanence the Scripture writers also present the kindred
doctrine of His Transcendence, in which God is distinctly set forth as
entirely separate from and above the whole creation.
Yet as regards God's providence we are to
understand that He is intimately concerned with every detail in the affairs of
men and in the course of nature. "To suppose that anything is too great to be
comprehended in His control," says Dr. Charles Hodge, "or anything so minute
as to escape His notice; or that the infinitude of particulars can distract
His attention, is to forget that God is infinite . . . . The sun diffuses its
light through all space as easily as upon any point. God is as much present
everywhere, and with everything, as though He were only in one place, and had
but one object of attention." And again, "He is present in every blade of
grass, yet guiding Arcturus in his course, marshalling the stars as a host,
calling them by their names; present also in every human soul, giving it
understanding, endowing it with gifts, working in it both to will and to do.
The human heart is in His hands; and he turneth it even as the rivers of water
are turned." (Systematic Theology, I, p. 583.)
It is almost universally admitted that God
determines when, where, and under what circumstances, each individual of our
race shall be born, live, and die, whether it shall be male or female, white
or black, wise or foolish. God is no less sovereign in the distribution of His
favors. He does what He will with His own. To some He gives riches, to others
honor, to others health, to others certain talents for music, oratory, art,
finance, statesmanship, etc. Others are poor, unknown, born in dishonor, the
victims of disease, and live lives of wretchedness. Some are placed in
Christian lands where they receive all the benefits of the Gospel; others live
and die in the darkness of heathenism. Some are brought through faith unto
salvation; others are left to perish in unbelief. And to a very large extent
these external things, which are not the result of individual choice, decide
the person's life course and eternal destiny. Both Scripture and every day
experience teach us that God gives to some what He withholds from others. If
it be asked why He does this, or why he does not save all, the only available
answer is found in the words of the Lord Jesus, "Yea, Father, for so it was
wellpleasing in thy sight." Only the Scripture doctrine of the fall and
redemption will give us any light on what we see about us.
It is to be remembered that those who
receive these gifts, whether spiritual or temporal, receive them through pure
grace, while in regard to the others God simply withholds those gifts which He
was under no obligation to bestow. Nations, as well as individuals, are thus
in the hands of God, who appoints the bounds of their habitation, and controls
their destiny.He controls them as absolutely as a man controls a rod or a
staff. They are in His hands, and He employs them to accomplish His purposes.
He breaks them in pieces as a potter's vessel, or He exalts them to greatness,
according to His good pleasure. He gives peace and fruitful seasons, property
and happiness, or He sends the desolations of war, famine, drought and
pestilence. All of these things are of His disposing, and are designed for
intelligent ends under His universal providence. God is no mere spectator of
the universe He has made, but is everywhere present and active, the
all-sustaining ground, and all-governing power of all that is.
Although the price of the sparrow is small,
and its flight seems giddy and at random, yet it does not fall to the ground,
nor slight anywhere without your Father. "His all-wise providence hath before
appointed what bough it shall perch upon; what grains it shall pick up; where
it shall lodge and where it shall build; on what it shall live and where it
shall die." (Toplady, Preface to Zanchius' Predestination, p. 14.)
Every raindrop and every snowflake which
falls from the cloud, every insect which moves, every plant which grows, every
grain of dust which floats in the air has had certain definite causes and will
have certain definite effects. Each is a link in the chain of events and many
of the great events of history have turned on these apparently insignificant
things.
Throughout the whole course of events there
is progress toward a predetermined end. Dr. Warfield has well written: "It was
not accident that brought Rebecca to the well to welcome Abraham's servant
(Gen. 24), or that sent Joseph into Egypt (Gen. 45:8; 50:20,. 'God meant it
for good'), or guided Pharaoh's daughter to the ark among the flags (Ex. 2),
or that, later. directed the millstone that crushed Abimelech's head (Judges
9:53), or winged the arrow shot at a venture to smite the king in the joints
of the armor (I Kings 22:34). Every historical event is rather treated as an
item in the orderly carrying out of an underlying Divine purpose; and the
historian is continually aware of the presence in history of Him who gives
even to the lightning a charge to strike the mark (Job 36:32)." (Biblical
Doctrines, p. 14.)
"In the great railroad stations," said Dr.
Clarence E. Macartney, "you can see a metallic pencil come out and write in
great characters on the wall the time of the arrival or departure of the
trains. The metallic pencil seems to write of itself, but we know that hidden
in an office somewhere the mind and hand of a man are operating the pencil. So
in our own life, we note our own deliberations and choices and decisions, and
yet in the fabric of our destiny there seem to be other strands, strands not
of our own weaving. Apparently trivial events play their part in great
issues." (Moderator's sermon on Predestination, preached before the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 1924.)
Man's sense of moral responsibility and
dependence, and his instinctive appeal to God in times of danger, show how
universal and innate is the conviction that God does govern the world and all
human events. But while the Bible repeatedly teaches that this providential
control is universal, Powerful, wise, and holy, it nowhere attempts to inform
us how it is to be reconciled with man's free agency. All that we need to know
is that God does govern His creatures and that His control over them is such
that no violence is done to their natures. Perhaps the relationship between
divine sovereignty and human freedom can best be summed up in these words: God
so presents the outside inducements that man acts in accordance with his own
nature, yet does exactly what God has planned for him to do.
This subject, as it relates to human
responsibility, will be more fully treated in the chapter on Free Agency.
SCRIPTURE PROOF
That this is the Scripture doctrine of
Providence is so plain that it is admitted by many whose philosophical views
lead them to reject it for themselves. We shall now present a summary of
Scripture proof, showing that all events have a divinely appointed place and
purpose, that God's providence is universal, and that He thus secures the
complete fulfillment of His plans. God's providential control extends over:
(a) Nature or the physical world. "Jehovah
doeth His will in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust
of his feet," Nahum 1:3. "Only in the land of Goshen where the children of
Israel were, there was no hail," Ex.9:26. "He maketh His sun to rise on the
evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust," Matt. 5:45.
The famine in Egypt appeared to men to be only the result of natural causes;
yet Joseph could say, "The thing is established of God, and God will shortly
bring it to pass." Gen. 41-.32. "And I also have withholden the rain from you,
when there were yet three months before the harvest; and I caused it to rain
upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city," Amos 4:7. "He
gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your heart with food
and gladness," Acts 14:17. "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his
hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a
balance?" Is. 40:12.
(b) The animal creation. "Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them shall fall to the ground without
your Father," Matt. 10:29. "Behold the birds of the heavens, that they sow
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father
feedeth them," Matt. 6:26. "My God hath sent His angel and hath shut the
lions' months, that they have not hurt me," Daniel 6:22. "The young lions roar
after their prey, and seek their meat from God," Ps. 104:21. "Thus God hath
taken away the cattle of your father (Labon) and given them to me" (Jacob),
Gen. 31:9.
(c) Nations. (Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation
was) "to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it
the lowest of men," Dan. 4:17. "Behold, the nations are as a drop in the
bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance; behold, He taketh
up the isles as a very little thing," Is. 40-15. "Let them say among the
nation Jehovah reigneth," I Chr. 16:31. "For God Is the King of all the
earth," Ps. 47:7. "He changeth the times and the seasons; He removeth kings,
and setteth up kings," Daniel 2:21. "Jehovah bringeth the counsel of the
nations to naught; He maketh the thoughts of the people to be of none effect,"
Ps. 33-.10. "And Jehovah gave them rest round about .... Jehovah delivered all
their enemies into their hands," Joshua 21:44. "And the children of Israel did
that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into
the hands of Midian seven years," Ju. 6:1. 'Shall evil befall a city, and
Jehovah hath not done it?" Amos 3:6. "For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that
bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to
possess dwelling places that are not theirs," Hab. 1:6.
(d) Individual men. "The king's heart is in
the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses; He turneth it whithersoever He will,"
Prov. 21:1. "A man's goings are established of Jehovah," Ps. 37:23. "A man's
heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps," Prov. 16:9. "For we
ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that,"
James 4:15. "Of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things," Rom.
11:36. "Who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou didst not
receive?" I Cor. 4:7. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fear Him, And delivereth them," Ps. 34:7. "If it be so our God whom we serve
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us
out of thy hand, 0 king," Daniel 3:17. "Jehovah is on my side; I shall not
fear; What can man do unto me?" Ps. 118:6. But now, 0 Jehovah, thou art our
Father; we are the clay and thou our potter; and we are the work of thy
hands," Is. 64:8. "And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us
(the returning exiles) from the hand of the enemy and the lier-in-wait by the
way," Ezra 8:31. "And God brought their counsel to naught," Nehemiah 4:15.
"But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or bent; that ye way know how Jehovah doth make a distinction
between the Egyptians and Israel," Ex. 11:7. "And the Lord said unto Paul in
the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace; for I
am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee," Acts 18:9.
(e) The free acts of men. "It is God who
worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure," Phil. 2:13.
"And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they
let them have what they asked." Ex.12:36. "And the king (of Persia, Artaxerxes)
granted him (Ezra) all his request, according to the hand of Jehovah his God
upon him," Ezra 7:6. "For Jehovah had made them joyful, and had turned the
heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work
of the house of God" (rebuilding the temple), Ezra 6:22. "And I will put my
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep
mine ordinances, and do them," Ezek. 36:27.
(f) The sinful acts of men. "For of a truth
in this city against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were
gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to
come to pass," Acts 4:27, 28. "Jesus answered him (Pilate), Thou wouldst have
no power against me, except it were given thee from above," John 19:11.
(David, rebuking Abishai, in regard to Shimei) "Because he curseth, and
Jehovah bath said, Curse David.... Let him alone, and let him curse; for
Jehovah bath bidden him" II Sam. 16:10, 11. "Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee; and the residue of wrath shalt thou gird upon thee' (or
restrain), Ps. 76:10. "And I, behold I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians
and they shall go in (the Red Sea) after them; and I will get me honor upon
Pharaoh, and upon all his host, and upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen,"
Ex. 14:17.
(g) To the fortuitous events or "chance
happenings. "See section 4 (Ch. III)."
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