 |
||
|
God's Decree and Providence From all eternity God decreed all that
should happen in time, and this he did freely and unalterably, consulting
only his own wise and holy will. Yet
in so doing he does not become in any sense the author of sin, nor does he
share responsibility for sin with sinners.
Neither, by reason of his decree, is the will of any creature whom
he has made violated; nor is the free working of second causes put aside;
rather is it established. In
all these manners the divine wisdom appears, as also does God's power and
faithfulness in effecting that which he has purposed. God's decree is not based upon
his foreknowledge that, under certain conditions, certain happenings will
take place, but is independent of all such foreknowledge. God who, in infinite power and
wisdom, has created all things, upholds, directs, controls and governs
them, both animate and inanimate, great and small, by a providence
supremely wise and holy, and in accordance with his infallible
foreknowledge and the free and immutable decisions of his will. He fulfils
the purposes for which he created them, so that his wisdom, power and
justice, together with his infinite goodness and mercy, might be praised
and glorified. Nothing happens by chance or
outside the sphere of God's providence. As God is the First Cause of all
events, they happen immutably and infallibly according to his
foreknowledge and decree, to which they stand related. Yet by his
providence God so controls them, that second causes, operating either as
fixed laws, or freely, or in dependence upon other causes, play their part
in bringing them about.
|