18 - Providence

Providence
Basic Christian Doctrines 18.

1. God is Involved with His Creation.

Creation was the beginning, not the end, of God’s involvement with the Universe. God takes an active interest and involvement with His Creation. He is not an absentee landlord, as suggested by 18th-century Deism. He did not wind it up like a clock and step back and let things take their course. He not only knows what is happening throughout the universe, but is involved in every detail and the relationships between everything. Sometimes He uses angels to carry on the work. Sometimes He acts normally, sometimes unusually. But He never is absent or ignorant. God is in charge.

2. God Upholds All Things.

“Through Him are all things” (Romans 11:36). God predestined and created all things, and guides them along every moment of the way along their foreordained ways to the final culmination of all things. Nothing goes astray from the pre-arranged plan. He also “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). Just as He created everything by His word of power, so He sustains everything by this same Word. He does not continue to create things, but keeps them existing so that they do not fall into non-existence. He sustains all things; in Him all things consist or hold together (Colossians 1:17).

3. God Provides for the Universe.

Everything depends upon God for existence and all the relevant details of space and time. He provides all energy for the atoms, lightning, electricity, magnetism, gravity, light, etc. He also is the source of all life. “He gives to all life, breath and all things ... for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25, Acts 17:28). God feeds the animals (Matthew 6:26). He preserves all living things (Psalms 36:6) and provides life to all living Creatures (Nehemiah 9:6). He provides through Providence.

4. God Allows Catastrophes.

God allows what we would call natural disasters and tragedies. For example, God is in complete control of the weather (Job 38:26-38). There is no “Mother Nature”. Even insurance companies refer to “an act of God” beyond the foresight or influence of Man. God allows floods, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, etc. Part of this is because of the curse on Creation due to the sin of Man. Some disasters are due to specific sins, others not. God allows airplane crashes, burning homes, birth defects, financial ruin and broken marriages. These are not outside His dominion. He cannot be blamed, however, nor should we ever even think of blaming Him when they strike us. God allows wars, revolutions and corrupt government. He allows all these to remind us of sin and warn us of future judgement.

5. God Loves His Creatures.

God loves His Creation, especially the higher they are on the levels of Creation. He loves humans more than animals (Matthew 6:26). He has a general love for all people as His creatures, made in His image. This is part of Common Grace. In this sense, God loves everyone (Psalms 33:5). God created us out of love, and this continues even after the Fall in spite of sin. Thus it it Common Grace, not just a general love. God tells us to love our enemies, because God Himself loves His enemies (Matthew 5:44). This flows from God’s very nature as love itself.

6. God Sends Good to All His Creatures.

We must do good to all men, because God does good to all men (Matthew 5:44-45;Luke 6:35-36). He sends rain and sunshine on all people, regardless of whether they are Christians or not (Acts 14:17). Everything good in the world is a gift from God the Creator to His creatures (James 1:17;1 Timothy 4:4;Genesis 1:31). He even gives good things to people that end up in Hell (Luke 16:25). He rarely is ever thanked for these gifts, for ingratitude characterizes fallen Man (Romans 1:21).

7. God Takes Special Care of His Children.

There is a general providence for all men and a special providence for the elect, before and especially after their conversions. God tells us to love and do good for all men, especially other Christians (Galatians 6:10). God does the same here. This is why God works all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). It does not always appear such, especially in the midst of trials and afflictions and disasters. But we need to be patient and have faith. All will one day be explained to us. We need not fret because the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper, for this is only temporary (Psalms 37:1-2). God is in complete control and takes a special interest in His children.

8. God is Involved in Human Hearts.

God is totally sovereign in Providence, even in the hearts and wills of Man. Our will is not off-limits to God. He can intervene and interrupt at any time. Indeed, He regularly does this. He gives faith, He withholds faith. He overrules the plans and desires of our minds (Proverbs 16:1, Proverbs 16:9). He turns our hearts like rivers (Proverbs 21:1). He puts things like joy in our hearts (Ezra 6:22;Ezra 7:27). He “works all things in all persons” (1 Corinthians 12:6). He is at work on our wills so that we will and do what He wants (Php 2:13). This is a deep mystery. God is sovereign, but we are still responsible. Theologians call this “concurrence”. God mysteriously guides our very thoughts and motives, good and bad, in such a way that He is sovereign and cannot be blamed, while we are still responsible.

9. God Restrains Sin.

God is even in control of sin. Sometimes, He restrains us from sinning (Genesis 20:6). He prevents certain circumstances to arise and keeps us from even being tempted. Or He may pull us through those temptations. We need to pray that God “lead us not into temptation.” On the other hand, God also allows us to fall into sin. He takes the restraints off, and we give in to temptation. He gives us over to sin (Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26, Romans 1:28). He lets whole nations go their own way into heinous sin (Acts 14:16). He lets go and we fall into sin under our own weight (Psalms 81:11-12;Acts 7:42). We ought to pray that God restrains sin in us.

10. God Works Miracles.

Most of what we have said so far has reference to God’s general method of providence. Though still somewhat mysterious, there is a certain order to it. It is Usual Providence. But there is also Unusual Providence, in which God acts in a special way. In general providence, He acts indirectly. Here He acts directly. A miracle is not just an unlikely event. It is one that goes contrary to the Laws of Nature. But God is free to suspend those laws, for after all it is He that is at work in all things anyway. Miracles are relatively rare. God alone can work miracles. They are signs that God is God. Jesus was God and did many miracles to prove it. The two greatest miracles regarding Christ were the Virgin Birth and Resurrection. Since then, the greatest miracle is the new birth and spiritual resurrection.