The Shorter Catechism: Question 10

Question:  What are God’s works of providence?

Answer: God’s works of providence are, his most holy, (Ps. 145:17) wise, (Ps. 104:24, Isa. 28:29) and powerful preserving, (Heb. 1:3) and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. (Ps. 103:19, Matt. 10:29–31)

Much can be written about providence, I have been delinquent in posting and I am behind so I am only going make a couple of remarks.  First the Catechism explains that God’s providence is both His preserving and the governing of His creation.Against the deist we understand that God continues to actively uphold or preserve his creation.  Charles Hodge says…

According to the uniform and pervading teaching of the Scriptures, God is not merely a God afar off. He is not a mere spectator of the universe which He has made, but is everywhere present in his essence, knowledge, and power. To his sustaining hand the continuance of all things is constantly referred; and if He withdraws his presence they cease to be. This is so plainly the doctrine of the Bible that it is admitted so to be by many whose philosophical views constrain them to reject the doctrine for themselves.  (Charles Hodge Systematic Theology)

We must also acknowledge that Scripture instructs us that God actively governs His creation, this governing is universal and active and “secures the accomplishment of His divine purposes”.  Calvin teaches

Those do not err quite so grossly who attribute government to God, but still, as I have observed, a confused and promiscuous government which consists in giving an impulse and general movement to the machine of the globe and each of its parts, but does not specially direct the action of every creature. It is impossible, however, to tolerate this error. For, according to its abettors, there is nothing in this providence, which they call universal, to prevent all the creatures from being moved contingently, or to prevent man from turning himself in this direction or in that, according to the mere freedom of his own will. In this ways they make man a partner with God, – God, by his energy, impressing man with the movement by which he can act, agreeably to the nature conferred upon him while man voluntarily regulates his own actions. In short, their doctrine is, that the world, the affairs of men, and men themselves, are governed by the power, but not by the decree of God.

Some today would reject God’s providence by claiming that God works toward bring about the greatest benefit, good or most advantageous for his creation, denying that He governs all things according to his own will, for his own glory, and purposes.  Many also reject God’s providence in order to explain the moral responcibility of man.  But as Charles Hodge explains this doctrine is vital because…

…our religious nature demands intercourse with God. He must be to us the object of prayer, and the ground of confidence. We must look to Him in trouble and danger; we cannot refrain from calling upon Him for help, or thanking Him for our mercies. Unless the doctrine of a universal providence be true, all this is a delusion. Such, however, is the relation in which the Scriptures and the constitution of our nature assume that we stand to God, and in which He stands to the world. He is ever present, all controlling, the hearer and answerer of prayer, giving us our daily mercies, and guiding us in all our ways. This doctrine of providence, therefore, is the foundation of all practical religion, and the denial of it is practically atheism, for we are then without God in the world.

~ by gundek on October 29, 2009.