Tags

, , , , , , , ,

We’re going to be embarking on a new five-part series on Predestination and the Eternal Decree of God. This will be part of our overall survey of Reformed Theology (you can find the other articles on this subject here). In our previous studies, we looked at the Five Solas of the Reformation, Covenant Theology and the Doctrines of Grace. Today we will begin looking at a doctrine that is steeped in great mystery — the eternal decree of God. To aid us in our look at God’s eternal decree, we will be turning to the Westminster Confession of Faith as a guide for our discussion.

The first question that might come to mind when addressing this topic is what is the eternal decree of God? The Confession gives us as good a definition of the eternal decree of God as any when it says:

God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. (WCF III.1)

The wonderful thing about the Westminster Confession of Faith is that is says much in a few words. Each word is precisely and carefully chosen. Let’s unpack some of these words.

The first thing WCF III.1 says is that God’s decree is eternal (“God, from all eternity…”). The plan of God was not something he came up with one ‘day’ while he was bored in heaven. The plan of God is something that is, and has been, part of his eternal will. The decree to create the heavens and the earth was part of God’s plan from all eternity. There was never a moment in which the decree wasn’t in God’s mind.

Secondly, the eternal decree is a product of God’s “most wise and holy” will. In other words, it emanates from his own mind. God did not consult with the angels (they weren’t created yet) or with any other rational, intelligent being. The eternal decree, as a product of God’s most wise and holy will, is itself wise and holy. Every detail of the decree reflects the wisdom of God and fulfills his holy purposes.

Thirdly, the eternal decree was accomplished in a manner that preserves God’s freedom and immutability (“freely and unchangeably”). Unlike some pantheistic philosophies and theologies in which everything that exists necessarily emanates from God (or the One), in Christianity, the eternal decree is something that is freely enacted by God. The eternal decree doesn’t fulfill some lack in God’s nature, but rather, God exercises his autonomy through the decree. Moreover, he does so unchangeably. In other words, there is no change or diminution of God’s essential nature in the eternal decree.

Having taken care of some of these preliminary remarks, we now come to the content of the eternal decree of God: “God…did…ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” So, in short, what is the eternal decree of God? It is the eternal plan that accounts for everything. Every millisecond in the history of the universe falls under God’s eternal decree. Every detail of every event in history comes to pass according to God’s eternal decree. Stated in another way, there is nothing that lies outside of God’s eternal decree. As theologian R. C. Sproul likes to say, “There are no rouge molecules in God’s universe.”

Scripture bears this out:

  • The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:11)
  • In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. (Ephesians 1:11)
  • So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. (Hebrews 6:17)

On the surface, most Christians don’t have a problem with saying that God ordains “whatsoever comes to pass.” But the problems arise when that statement is taken to its logical conclusion. If God ordains everything, then this means everything. This includes the good as well as the evil that we find in the world. God ordained the creation and fall of Satan and Adam and Eve. He ordained the rise of Pharaoh and his subjugation of the Hebrew people. He ordained the fall and collapse of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. He ordained the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. He ordained the rise of the Third Reich and the Nazi holocaust. He ordained the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01. He ordains all things!

Most Christians, when pressed with these challenges, either fold because they have no real answers or they offer up the answer that evil is the result of man’s free will and that God allows these things to happen because he allows man to exercise his free will. That’s a fair answer, but it doesn’t do complete justice to the biblical passages offered above. The evil in this world is not merely the result of God’s permissive will. In other words, these things do not occur by bare permission. This renders God as a passive observer who lets his creation run its course. That’s not how the bible depicts God. Consider these two statements:

  1. It was part of God’s eternal decree that the events of 9/11/01 take place
  2. God allowed the events of 9/11/01 to take place

The force of the first statement is completely absent from the second. In the first statement, God is active, in the second, he is passive. I believe that the second statement, while it answers the objections of the critics, does so in a way that is not faithful to the biblical witness. It attempts to get God “off the hook” for evil. What it ends up doing as a result is turning God into a cosmic fix-it man trying to make some good out of the evil he allows to occur. If one considers the implications of this, it becomes apparent that evil is ultimately meaningless. It is this view of God, I submit, that is vulnerable to the Problem of Evil attacks because if God doesn’t ordain the evil that takes place, then it is random and meaningless. If we take the view offered in the first statement, then evil has a “most wise and holy” purpose because God ordains everything according to his “most wise and holy” will.

Now the Confession does qualify the statement that God “ordains whatsoever comes to pass” in two ways:

  1. Yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin
  2. Nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established

The bible is quite explicit that God is not the author of sin (cf. Psalm 5:4; James 1:13-14; 1 John 1:5; Habakkuk 1:13). Furthermore, the bible is clear that many of the things that happen according to God’s eternal decree happen through the agency of secondary causes. What do I mean by “secondary causes?” The best way to think of secondary causes is to think in terms if direct and indirect causality. Suppose I threw a ball and the ball broke a window. The ball is directly responsible for breaking the window and I am indirectly responsible because I threw the ball. Stated another way, I am the primary cause of the broken window because I threw the ball, but the ball is the secondary cause of the broken window. If I intended to break the window, I could have used any number of secondary causes to accomplish that end. I could throw a ball, a rock, hit it with a stick or use my own hand.

What are the secondary causes that God uses to accomplish his eternal decree? According to the Confession, the secondary causes are the will of man and the laws of nature. Another way of saying this is that God ordains not only the ends, but the means as well. This is a vitally important distinction to make. It answers the question how can God not be responsible for the events of 9/11/01 if he ordained that it come to pass. God ordained the end (the terrorist attack on 9/11/01) as well as the means (the sinful acts of the 9/11 terrorists). The bible presents this tension all throughout its pages: God is completely sovereign and ordains all that comes to pass, but man is responsible for his sinful thoughts and actions. The classic statement from Joseph in Genesis 50:20 comes to mind, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Joseph’s brothers had purely evil intentions in selling Joseph into slavery, but God’s good and perfect will was accomplished in their evil act. Other verses bear this out as well (e.g., Matthew 17:12; Acts 2:23; Acts 4:27-28; John 19:11; Proverbs 16:33).

That last clause bears closer scrutiny (“Nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established”). What is the Confession trying to say at this point? Namely this: It is the eternal decree of God that actually establishes the liberty and contingency of second causes. It is because of the eternal decree of God that we have the world in which we live. It is because of the eternal decree of God that we are the people we are. God’s eternal decree upholds the universe as it is and ensures that it continues to operate as it does. Much of this spills over into the doctrine of providence, but providence (God’s governance and sustaining of creation) flows from the eternal decree. The important thing to keep in mind is the fact that God ordains the ends as well as the means.

Next: What is the Basis for God’s Eternal Decree?

Soli Deo Gloria!

Advertisement