Every Step we make is under the Providence of God

In the last post we look at the notion of freedom and what this freedom consist of. We saw that, as God is the creator of all things, including the properties of our wills, our natures and talents, gifts, and weaknesses must all come to us from the potter’s hand.

Some may still say, well yes our freedom is limited on how God has shaped us, but we still make free choices independently from God’s degree.
This I am afraid is still not true. The Bible makes it clear in Ephesians 1;11 that "He (God) works out all things according to the counsel of his will. Its is the Sovereign will of God that establishes the existence of our wills and actions.

I will now list the many verses I have seen which refute the Arminian concept of absolute freedom. Every step we make is under the providence of God.

Isa. 64;8 , "But now, O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and you our potter; And all of us are the work of your hand".

Psalm 33; 13-15 , "The Lord looks from heaven, he sees all the sons of men. From the place of his dwelling he looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works".

Jem 20; 23 , "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps".

Prov 19; 24 " Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord, How then can man understand his way".

Job 14; 5 "Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with you, And his limits you have set so that he cannot pass".

Prov 16; 33 "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord".

Prov 20;24 "The kings heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, He turns it wherever he wishes".

Prov 16; 9 "A mans heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps".

Ps 33; 10-11 "The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations, He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the lord will stand forever, The plans of his heart from generation to generation".

Job 12; 23 "He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations and disperses them".

Ex 4; 11 " So the Lord said to him, Who has made mans mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?"

Isa 43; 7 "Everyone who is called by my name, Whom I have created for my glory, I have formed him, yes, I have made him".

Rom 9; 21-23 "Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory".

Rom 9; 18-19 " Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?"

Prov 16; 4 " The Lord has made all for himself, yes even the wicked for the day of doom."

Isa 45; 7 " I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity, I the Lord do all these things."

Lam 3; 37-38 "Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and evil go forth?"

Amos 3;6 " If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it."

Job 12; 14 "If he breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt, If he imprisons a man, there can be no release. If he withholds the waters, they dry up, If he sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. With him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are his."

1 Sam 2; 6-8 " The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the gave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes and make them inherit the thrones of glory."

Matt 10; 29 "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Fathers will."

Phil 2; 13 "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

Isa 10; 5-7 "Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hands is my indignation, I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of my fury. To capture booty and to seize plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend nor does it plan so in its heart, but rather it is its purpose to destroy and to cut off many nations."

Psalm 105; 25 "He turned their hearts to hate his people. To deal craftily with his servants."

The notion of freedom

Well in my last post I looked at the providence of God, as being the sustainer and governor off all things created. God is our sole provider and we should be amazed in awe when we reflect on what God gives us. It is God who created the universe, who created us and also provides the rain to fall on seeds to grow crops and food to feed his creation. Even the birds do not worry about where their food will come from, because God has provided. It is God who fashioned our hearts and minds and gave us our talents and gifts. They are not of our own making. He has given them to us so that we can express his wisdom and glory and give praise back to him. It is God who provided us with the expression of love, so that we can love others in this world.

It is God’s providence that gives us the faith to trust him, knowing that he is in control and that there is hope even in the times of distress. Even in these times God is in control, shaping our characters and drawing us to depend on him more. Its is only in distress that we can see our weaknesses and remember that we are not in control. But we can give glory to God that we safe in his hands with eternal life. All things come from God he is the provider.

In this post I would like to start the beginning of a number of posts on the subject of "Freedom and Freewill". This is the one subject I find Christians debating every week on.
I find so many struggle on this issue, on how God can be Sovereign and we can have freewill. It has been a subject that has fascinated me for many years and I do believe that there is a clear Biblical answer.

In this post I would like us to reflect on what freedom is and where does this freedom come from. For a start one can not be absolutely free, meaning that he is independent of the universe, not bound by any off its laws, because this would make us God. Our freedom is bound to our nature as created creatures.

There are two types of freedom usually expressed the first being the Arminian view. When Arminians speak of "the will" they are referring to an independent and self-determining power by which we are enabled to make autonomous choices. There is know cause which makes the will chose one way or another, The will is self-caused. Many have said that if we do not have this kind of freewill then we can not be responsible for our actions. But I will argue latter that I believe this does not have to be the case.

The question we must ask is "is this what the Bible defines as having free will". I would have to say "No" it is not. I do not believe it is possible to have a will without being dependent on a cause, either internal or influenced from outside. If there is no cause then it is purely a random reaction corresponding to nothing.

R.K McGregor in his book "No place for Sovereignty" says that,

"Consider the doctrine of creation, which all evangelical Arminians presumably believe. If a freewill exists at all, it is necessarily a created aspect of our human nature. But if created, it must have a complex set of qualities that are collectively its nature. That is, in order to exist as a temporal entity, it must consist of a set of properties that distinguish it from other things. If it has no such characteristics, it has no discernible nature-it would not exist. If it does have such properties, they determine its nature and thus its behavior, which would mean that it is not random at all. But if the will acts according to its own previously existing properties, its actions are to some degree being caused. The problem can not be avoided by merely insisting that God created the will with the properrty of freedom."

McGregor is right, when he says that if the will was created with properties according to its created nature, then the will’s action will have been caused in some way. It is God who has given us our natures, our gifts, our talents, and our weaknesses. It is God who makes the blind, mute and wise. All our characters come from God as he is the potter who shapes the clay.

Our actions are not self-caused, but are predestined by God’s will in to our natures so we act them out freely what God wants us to do. We are not independent of the creation. We are responsible creatures because we bound by God laws of judgment. If we find ourselves in a world we did not create and are a part of it, then when we feel the responsibility in us, it is because of God’s fixed reality of his moral laws. It is because of these laws that cause us to feel responsible. This is the cause off our actions and also our environment influences us too. It is because of other objects, that we make choices, so our choices have causes.

The freedom, which the bible gives us, is an ethical relationship, not an innate ontological attribute. How could the "will’ be free from the creators hand, if all things come from God and God is the sovereign writer of all history. Freedom is a property created and shaped and we act out freely what we have been predestined to do by the will of God. The finite can not complain to the eternal God, as the finite could not get started without God’s plan of reality (Romans 9; 18-24).

Total freedom is in the hands of God. Does not the potter have the power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. The creature is never on the same Level as the Creator.

The Providence Of God

In this post I would like to look at the subject of God’s Providence. The works of God’s providence is that as creator he powerfully preserving and governing all his creatures and all other events. The scriptures very clearly teach that all things outside of God owe not merely their original creation, but their continued existence, with all their properties and powers to the will of God.

In this post I will only be looking at God’s providence over nature, and not on human freedom. The subject of human freedom and God’s providence I will look at in the next post, as this needs to be looked at with great detail.

Here are some scriptures, which show that God is preserving and governing all his creation.

"He upholds all things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1;3)

"He is before all things, and in him all things consist" (Col. 1;17)

"In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts. 17;28)

"He is over all and through all and in all" (Eph. 4;6)

These verses when taken together demonstrates to us that God is before all things, and that what ever he has created, comes from him, and is sustained and preserved by the word of his power. God’s creating power is over all things and through all things and in all things. These verses tell us that God is the active power and source of all things.

The created universe moves according to God ‘s rational plan and purposes.
God is no spectator of the universe he has made, but is everywhere present and active.

Loraine Boettner says in his book "The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination"

"Although the price of the sparrow is small, and its flight seems giddy and at random, yet it does not fall to the ground nor alight anywhere without your Father. His all-wise providence has before appointed what bough it shall perch upon; what grains it shall pick up; where it shall lodge and where it shall build; on what it shall live and where it shall die. Every raindrop and every snowflake which falls from the cloud, every insect which moves, every plant which grows, every grain of dust which floats in the air has had a certain definite causes and will have certain definite effects. Each is a link in the chain of events and many of the great events of history have turned on these apparently insignificant things. Throughout the whole course of events there is progress toward a predetermined end."

No finite thing has any meaning apart from its place in God’s plan. This holds true for atoms, flowers, pencils or the history of Romania. The meaning of everything is logically identical to God’s intention for it. Every fact and thing and relation and event in the creation has a place in God’s eternal plan. For those who reject this claim, they must then believe that meaningful things are created out of nothing independent of God, which is irrational.

Here are a few more verses, which demonstrate God’s providence,

"You care for the land and water it, you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges, you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your casts overflow with abundance." (Ps. 65;9-11)

‘The Lord does what ever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the sea’s and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he send lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."( Ps.147;15-18)

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Fathers will, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matt 10;29-30)

"Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them." (Matt 6)

"From one man, God made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live" (Acts. 17;26)
"This is the plan determined for the whole world, this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?, his hand is stretched out and who can turn it back.’ (Isa 14;26-17).

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps" (pro 16;9)

what is created is based on the purposes of God

In this post we will look at God’s degrees. Before anything created existed, God was in eternity having fellowship in the Trinity. Because God is the source of all creation, what he creates must be based on a purpose. God does not create irrational things. So when God created, he created according to a plan. This plan was based on God’s will, Why?, because God is sovereign and also the only rational being, existing.

So the degrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

"But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purpose of his heart through all generations. (Ps. 33;11)

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say; My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please. (Isa. 46;10)

"Being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. (Eph. 1;11)

God in his degree’s has absolute freedom to do as he will’s, and yes this is based on God’s good nature as well. Nothing is out of his control nothing is without purpose. Psalm 139 verse 15-16 makes it very clear that all our days have been ordained for us, they were written in a book before they came to be. God has written history and also our days.

In the following post’s I will deal with the problem of evil and also human freedom as it fits with Gods Sovereignty. But for now I will leave us these three passages to think on,

"Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord." (Exod. 4;11)

"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster, I the Lord, do all these things." (Isa. 45;7)

"Who can speak and have it happen, if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come"(lam. 3;37-38)

The last verse is powerful and demonstrates what God’s degree is. No action will come to pass in the created order unless God has planed it and ordained it to come to pass. Some people have tried to get away from this truth, and reject God’s sovereignty to create. They say that God foresees’ what free creatures will do, independent of God’s plan and purposes. This is not true, as there was nothing for God to foresee in eternity. What ever comes into existence is because God has created it with his purpose and will.

If God was just foreseeing which is impossible, the creatures by default would be the sovereigns of the universe, God would become a mere servant of the creatures, reacting rather than reigning. God did not foresee the future and then write his book of history. History is what God ordained it to be.

As we saw in the last post there has to be an eternal foundation. God’s will is the foundation for finite acts and events and all of history. History has a plan and it will accomplish God’s purpose.

"The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil."(Prov. 16;4)

The Sovereignty of God

Every thinking person readily sees that some sovereignty rules his life. He was not asked whether or not he would have existence; nor when, where, or what he would be born; whether in the twentieth century or before the flood; whether white or Negro; whether in America or in China. It has been recognized by Christians in all ages that God is the creator and ruler of the universe. He is the ultimate source of all the power that is found in the creatures. All our skills and gift's come from him alone and not simply from ourselves. Hence nothing can come to pass apart from his sovereign will.

God is before all things,

Col 1; 16-17 "For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things consist".
Ps 90; 2 "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God"
2 Tim 1; 9 "For God was there before the beginning of time".

God upholds all things,

Heb 1; 3 "God is sustaining all things by his powerful word"
Col 1; 17 " He is before all things and in him all things hold together"

God knows all things,

Ps 147; 5 "Great is our Lord and Mighty in power his understanding is infinite".
Isa 46; 10 " God knows the end from the beginning".

God accomplishes all things,

Isa 46; 9-11 " I’am God and there is no other, I’am God and there is none like me. My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please, what I have said that I will bring about, what I have planed that will I do".

Ps 135; 6 " Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps".

Isa 43; 12-13 "And I am God. Even from eternity I’am he, And there is none who can deliver out of my hand, I act and who can reverse it’.

Job 42; 2 "I know you can do all things, no plan of yours can be thwarted".

The scriptures very clearly teach that all things out side of God owe not merely their original creation, but their continued existence, with all their properties and powers, to the will of God.
It is unthinkable that a God of infinite wisdom and power would create a world without a definite plan for that world. And because God is thus infinite his plan must extend to every detail of the world’s existence.

The Westminster confession states that,

"It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create or make of nothing the world and all things therein whether visible or invisible.

Also that,

God, from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever come to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. ( This material I will go over in detail in another post)

God did not have to create at all, but he chose to create to display his eternal glory and will.

"The heavens are declaring the glory of God, the vast expanse displays his handiwork. Day after day they pour speech, Night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech, there are no words; no sound is heard from them. Their voice goes out into the earth, Their words to the end of the world" (Psalm 19;1-4)

Our world clearly shows the work of a creator displaying his glory. In Gods plan and creation he will guide it to its ended purpose. This is what is meant by God’s providence.

There has to be an eternal reference point for reality!

Reality exists, so there must be an eternal foundation for its existence. As reality can not come into existence from nothing. Nothing has know power and from nothing, nothing comes.
If nothing can produce "nothing", then there has to be an eternal foundation, which has no cause for its existence. It is self-existent. To explain it simple, there has to be a starting place.

This foundation is either rational or impersonal, God or the universe. If it is God and science is correct, the universe had a beginning so God is the eternal foundation for all finite reality. If it is not God then the universe is impersonal (irrational) with no meaning to it or behind it. Also this universe would have to of existed forever, as being eternal.

There are only two choices the rational or the irrational. Because I believe the world is rational and science is correct I believe that God is the eternal foundation for all finite reality.

Some might think that it everything needs a cause, but this is not logical, as only things that have a beginning need a cause. God is the eternal uncaused cause or all causes in the universe.
Because God is eternal and has existed from all eternity as the absolute fixed foundation of ultimate reality. He is the creator and source of all other existence.

He is the sole interpreter of all events and facts in this universe. He is the sovereign creator of all things. Also all finite things are governed, guided, preserved, sustained, and accomplished according to the counsel of his will and purpose for his Glory (Eph 1; 11). Every event runs according to a rational purpose, there is a plan behind the running of the universe.
This we will look at more, when we look at God’s Sovereignty and Degree’s.

So how did God create the universe out of nothing, I’m sure some one is going to ask! Well this is not an easy answer and I am not God with all-knowledge. But I do believe that an eternal mind does have the power to project his thoughts (plans and creations) out into a hologram world, which is our universe. God speaks his thoughts and its comes into existence. His creations come from his rational plan for the universe designed with purpose and meaning. This may be far from correct, but I do believe it is more rational than saying nothing at ‘ALL" has the power to be the source for all things existing. Is it rational to believe that an irrational world made intelligence, a moral world full of design and purpose? You choose?, but don’t make un-intelligence more intelligent than intelligence please as that is irrational. At least my view has an entity to be the first cause of some thing.

God is the rational fixed foundation for all finite reality, he is the Sovereign creator and we are just precious clay shaped by the maker (the potter) for his Glory.

What is Death!

What is Death!!

The world says that death is the cessation of consciousness. When one dies that is the end of life, you go out off existence. You are nothing!!
I think if one thinks on this they will soon see that this concept and mind-set is philosophical unthinkable.

We say we have a thought of dying and not existing. This is non-being. But how can one have a thought of something that does not exist. Non-existence is not a realm or an entity.
It is impossible for one to enter in to a state of non-being, because there is no realm to enter nothing is nothing. One cannot enter into something that does not exist. Also the idea of something going out of existence is not possible, as where does the something go. It disappears to where?

Many people have had near death experiences, and science is trying to tell us that it is all just a chemical reaction in the brain. But I believe this is false as I have read claims that people who have had near death experiences have travelled out of their bodies to other parts of buildings or streets and have brought back information they could not know unless they were there. One case I read was a lady who died on a hospital table for a few minutes and then was brought back to life. As she woke up she said she had left her body and had gone up through all the floors of the hospital on to the roof and there she clearly had seen a blue shoe on the roof. The doctor was puzzled and went and checked, and when he got on to the roof he found the exact shoe. This shows that we can see without our eyeballs, it is our soul that sees through these lenses.

Yes I do believe our brains and its chemical reactions are depended on our souls acting, but once we leave our bodies our soul is free and does not need this bit of meat in our heads.
Also for one to know that he had crossed into any realm of any sort he would have to be conscious. The idea that death is the end of life is an illusion, we will pass through this world into another realm, the spiritual.

Things dont go out of existence, but they can be created. God is eternal and can create, but then when something is created it can not just go out of existence, unless God calls it back. Everything must go back to its source.

But for the atheist, he says, the power of nothing created our consciousness and us. That we will one day go back to nothing. So the atheist wants us to believe that None existence, created all things, and we will go back to non-existence.
So they are saying that there never was a realm that created us and there is no realm we can enter,. This is the great power of nothing.

We will live for ever!!!