Chapter
XXV -
Predestination In The Physical
World
1.
The Uniformity of Natural Law. 2.
Comments by Noted Scientists and Theologians. 3. The
Calvinistic System Alone Harmonizes With Modern Science and Philosophy.
1. THE UNIFORMITY OF NATURAL LAW
As far as the material universe apart from mind is
concerned we have no trouble at all to believe in absolute
Predestination. The course of events which would follow was, in a very
strict sense, immutably predetermined when God created the world and
implanted the natural laws of gravity, light, magnetism, chemical
affinity, electrical phenomena, etc. Apart from the interference of mind
or miracle, the course of nature is uniform and predictable. This has
not only been admitted but dogmatically held and asserted by many of the
greatest scientists. The atoms follow their exactly prescribed
courses.The material objects we handle are governed by fixed laws. If we
have accurate knowledge of all the factors involved, we can determine
exactly what will be the effect of a falling stone, an explosion, or an
earthquake. The telescope reveals to us millions of distant fiery suns,
each of which follows an exact, predetermined course, and their
positions can be predicted for thousands of years to come.
Within the solar system the planets and satellites swing
perfectly in their orbits, and eclipses can be predicted with exactness.
Before the eclipse of the sun in 1924 the astronomers announced the
course which the shadow of the moon would take across the earth and
calculated the time for certain cities down to the seconds, which
calculation was later shown by the eclipse to be in error only four
seconds!
Astronomers tell us that the same principles which govern
in our solar system are also found in the millions of stars which are
trillions of miles away. Physicists analyze the light which comes from
the sun and from the stars and tell us that not only are the same
elements, such as iron, carbon, oxygen, etc., which are found on the
earth also found on them, but that these elements are found in
practically the same proportion there as here.
From the law of gravitation we learn that every material
object in the universe attracts every other material object with a force
which is directly proportional to their masses and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. Hence
every grain of sand in the desert or on the sea-shore is linked up with
every sun in the universe. The sluggish earth mounts upward to meet the
falling snowflake. The microscope reveals marvels just as wonderful as
those revealed by the telescope. God's providence extends to the atoms
as well as to the stars and each one exerts its particular influence,
small but exact. Everywhere there is perfect order and God has slighted
His work nowhere.
2. COMMENTS BY NOTED SCIENTISTS AND THEOLOGIANS
Huxley once said that if man had possessed exact
knowledge of natural laws before the rise of plants and animals on the
earth, he could have predicted not only the geographical contour and
climate of a given region, but also the exact flora and fauna which
would have been found there, — arising, as he supposed, through the
spontaneous generation of life from non-living matter, — and while we do
not accept his extreme statement about the origin of life, this,
nevertheless, gives us some idea of the uniformity that a great
scientist expects to find in the laws of nature.
The writer was once in a discussion group conducted by
Dr. H. N. Russell, head of the Department of Astronomy in Princeton
University, and one of the outstanding astronomers of our time, in which
Dr. Russell declared that apart from the influence of mind in the world
he believed in an absolute predestination made effective through the
fixed laws of nature.
"The uniformity of the laws of nature," says Dr. Charles
Hodge, "is a constant revelation of the immutability of God. They are
now what they were at the beginning of time, and they are the same in
every part of the universe. No less stable are the laws which regulate
the operations of the reason and conscience." And again he says: "As in
all these lower departments of His work, God acts according to a
preconceived plan. It is not to be supposed that in the higher sphere of
His operations, which concern the destiny of men, everything would be
left to chance and allowed to take its undetermined course to an
undetermined end. We accordingly find that the Scriptures distinctly
assert in reference to the dispensations of grace not only that God sees
the end from the beginning, but that He works all things according to
the counsel of His will, or, according to His eternal purpose." 1
Dr. Abraham Kuyper, who was admittedly one of the
outstanding theologians of the last century, tells us: "It is a fact
that the more thorough development of science in our age has almost
unanimously decided in favor of Calvinism with regard to the antithesis
between the unity and stability of God's decree, which Calvinism
professes, and the superficiality and looseness, which the Arminians
preferred. The systems of the great philosophers are, almost to one, in
favor of unity and stability." He goes on to say that these systems
"clearly demonstrate that the development of science in our age
presupposes a cosmos which does not fall a prey to the freaks of chance,
but exists and develops from one principle, according to a firm order,
aiming at one fixed plan. This is a claim which is, as it clearly
appears, diametrically opposed to Arminianism, and in complete harmony
with Calvinistic belief, that there is one supreme will in God, the
cause of all existing things, subjecting them to ordinances and
directing them towards a pre-established plan." And again, he asks, What
does the doctrine of foreordination mean except that "the entire cosmos,
instead of being a plaything of caprice and chance, obeys law and order,
and that there exists a firm will which carries out its design both in
nature and in history?" 2
3. THE CALVINISTIC SYSTEM ALONE HARMONIZES WITH MODERN
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
The Calvinistic world- and life-view, which so emphasizes
the fixity and certainty of the course of events, is thus in striking
harmony with modern Science and Philosophy. How preposterous is that
claim which is sometimes made, that no matter how clearly this doctrine
of Predestination is taught in the Scriptures, it is disproved by
established truth from other sources! That claim is made by many who
wish to establish a different system of theology. But any one who is at
all familiar with modern Science and Philosophy (with physiological
psychology, for example), with their emphasis on universally fixed laws,
knows that just the opposite is true. Witness the present day emphasis
on behaviourism, determinism, and heredity. And what is Mendel's law but
Predestination in the realm of Genetics? The tendency is strongly
against the free and the contingent. The Universe is conceived of as one
systematic whole, interrelated in all of its parts, and following a very
definite, prearranged course. With a different nomenclature and a
different idea of the supernatural, the foremost modern scientists and
philosophers hold the Calvinistic view in regard to the world as a unit.
They may deny God's freedom, or even His personality, and their
necessitarian metaphysics may be radically at variance with the true
doctrine of His providence and grace; they may attempt to explain the
thought processes of the brain, and even life itself, by physical and
chemical laws; yet their impression of the co-ordinated facts of life
and nature is thoroughly Calvinistic.
Without faith in the unity, stability, and order of
things such as that to which Predestination leads us, it is impossible
for Science to go beyond mere conjectures. Science is based on faith in
the organic inter-connection or unity of the universe, a firm conviction
that our entire lives must be under the sway of laws or principles
established by some extra-mundane Power or Creator. The more we learn
about Science the more clearly do we see the unity which underlies it
all.
And when we come to study History we find that it is a
"chain of events." Just as every grain of sand is related to every sun
in the universe, so every event has its exact and necessary place in the
unfolding of History. All of us remember comparatively insignificant
events which have changed the courses of our lives; and had one of these
links been omitted the result would have been radically different. Often
times a very small thing sets off a course of events which convulses the
world, as was the case in 1914 when a Serbian conspirator fired a shot
at the Archduke of Austria, and the World War followed. Quite naturally
many people have drawn back from attributing all the free acts of men
and angels, and especially their sinful acts, to the foreordination of
God. Nevertheless, if God is to rule the world at all His plan and
providential control must extend to all events, not only in the natural
world, but also in the realm of human affairs; and the Scriptures
plainly teach that the free acts of men and angels are as certainly
foreordained of God as are the events in the material world.
This four-fold argument of Science, Philosophy, History,
and sacred Scriptures is not to be taken lightly. In Science,
Philosophy, and History the doctrine is reduced to the cold severity of
impersonal force. But when the radiant light of the glorious Gospel is
thrown upon this, showing that the racial choices, the personal
elections, the divine calls, are made by sovereign grace and not simply
by sovereign will, we see that God's eternal purposes are in favor of
man and not against him; and the heart finds rest and comfort in the
fact that God's love and mercy are as tender as His purposes are strong.
