WCF III.1-2:
1. 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.
2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath he not decreed any thing because he foresaw it as for as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.
This section of the Confession teaches its
(1) that God has predetermined all things that happen,
(2) that this predetermination (plan) is eternal,
(3) that there is nothing too large or small to he excluded from this predetermination,
(4) that this does not make God the author of sin,
(5) that God does not force men to do what they do not want to do (in the way of sin),
(6) that this does not destroy "freedom" or cause-and-effect relationships (rather, it is the very basis upon which these exist), and finally,
(7) that this sovereign plan of God is not "conditioned upon" anything foreseen by hini (which would make God dependent upon something outside himself.
What distinguishes a person from a thing (or being without personality) is that a person acts according to purpose. God is an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable person. Therefore his plan or purpose must ever have been a part of his infinite, eternal, and unchangeable existence. So Scripture testifies: "Known to God from eternity are all His works" (Acts 15:18). Scripture speaks of this as "the eternal purpose which He accomplished" (Eph. 3:11). It is an unchangeable purpose (Heb. 6:17). The infinity of it is seen in the fact that we are predestined "according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). Little wonder that Christ could say confidently that not even a sparrow "falls to the ground apart from your Father's will" (Matt. 10:29), and that even "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (v. 3d).
As the Bible declares that the whole system of things is controlled by God (Eph. 1 :11), it declares with equal insistency that every single thing, however small and insignificant it may seem to us to be, is ordered by God ahead of time in his perfect plan. Even what seems to us to be a chance event can therefore be prophesied ahead of time by the true prophets of God (see I Kings 22:1-40, especially vv. 28, 34, 37).
The free actions of men are also predestined by God. Please note: these acts are both free and predestined. That is, those who commit these acts do so because they want to.
And yet the acts which they do are predetermined by God so that Scripture says they must happen. Christ said, "Offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!" (Matt. 18:7).
This statement recognizes two things:
(1) the certainty of the occurrence of a future event, and
(2) that those who will perform the act will do so freely and therefore with guilt.
So in Acts 2:23 we read of Christ "being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God," and yet also as "taken by lawless hands ... and crucified, and put to death." "For truly against ... Jesus . . . both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatever [God's] hand and purpose determined before to be done" (Acts 4:27-28).
As God predetermines evil actions which are freely performed, so he predetermines good actions which are also freely performed. Christians repent, believe, and seek to do the will of God because they want to. But in this case "it is God who works in them both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). There is, in this case, an internal operation of God's Spirit, which is wholly absent from the wicked. But this still does not mean that the good (converted) any more than the wicked (unconverted) are not acting freely in doing what God has predestined that they shall do.
Freedom may be defined as "the absence of external coercion." If a man is not forced by any power outside himself to do that which is contrary to what lie wants to do, then we may properly say that he is "free." The wonder of God's predestination is that God does leave men free in this sense, even though he predestines everything that every man will ever do.
Some people use the word "freedom" in another sense, however, which is false in the extreme. They mean, by the "freedom" of man, that man has power or ability to do good or evil at any moment of time. To say that a man is able to do good or evil is very different from saying that a man is at liberty to do what he desires. We believe that the natural man has liberty but not ability to do what is right. For the truth is that man, while free from coercion from the outside, is not free from the control of his own nature.
He who is evil by nature must of necessity do evil (just as a corrupt tree must of necessity produce corrupt fruit, Matt. 7:17-19). Just as we may say that God is good and therefore cannot do evil, so we may say that man (by nature) is evil and cannot (of himself) do good.
In the case of the unconverted who are not elect, the very fact that they are never regenerated by God makes it inevitable that they will do evil for the simple reason that this is the one thing that they want to do (Gen. 6:5; Ps. 14, 53).
In the case of the elect, God regenerates, effectually calls, and sustains in grace, and then—because these are made new creatures (with new desires, new natures)—they will do the good that God has predestined for the simple reason that they want to.
In either case there is entire absence of external coercion, and yet the will of God is surely done. Even where internal power is exerted (in the case of the converted), it does not force man to do what he does not want to do, but rather creates a new will which is in accord with the will of God.
Some have thought that God makes predestination depend on what he foresees. Thus many have held that God predestines to everlasting life those lie foresees will by their own power turn unto him. This contradicts Scripture, which teaches clearly
(1) that no man has the power to do this by nature,
(2) that such power is a gift of God, and
(3) that the gift is given to those chosen of God for the gift. It is not, then, a question of predestination or foreknowledge.
It is, and can be, only a question of predestination and foreknowledge. This we may indicate by asking two simple questions:
(a) Does God know for certain what will happen before it happens? All Christians would no doubt say yes.
(b) But if God knows that a thing is certain to happen before it happens, we may then ask, what makes it certain? There can be but one answer: God makes it certain.
We are unable to escape the conclusion that God foresees with certainty only because he guarantees the certainty he foresees. Things are "predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). God foresees that the elect will be "holy and without blame before Him" (Eph. 1:4), and that they will experience "sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13). But this is foreseeable only because he "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). His predestination is the cause of the holiness which he foresees. He [God] does not choose us because he foresees that we will believe, but he foresees that we will believe because he has chosen us. Only thus are works wholly excluded (Eph. 2:8-10).
Source: G. I. Williamson. Westminster Confession of Faith: For Study Classes
AMR
1. 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.
2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath he not decreed any thing because he foresaw it as for as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.
This section of the Confession teaches its
(1) that God has predetermined all things that happen,
(2) that this predetermination (plan) is eternal,
(3) that there is nothing too large or small to he excluded from this predetermination,
(4) that this does not make God the author of sin,
(5) that God does not force men to do what they do not want to do (in the way of sin),
(6) that this does not destroy "freedom" or cause-and-effect relationships (rather, it is the very basis upon which these exist), and finally,
(7) that this sovereign plan of God is not "conditioned upon" anything foreseen by hini (which would make God dependent upon something outside himself.
What distinguishes a person from a thing (or being without personality) is that a person acts according to purpose. God is an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable person. Therefore his plan or purpose must ever have been a part of his infinite, eternal, and unchangeable existence. So Scripture testifies: "Known to God from eternity are all His works" (Acts 15:18). Scripture speaks of this as "the eternal purpose which He accomplished" (Eph. 3:11). It is an unchangeable purpose (Heb. 6:17). The infinity of it is seen in the fact that we are predestined "according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). Little wonder that Christ could say confidently that not even a sparrow "falls to the ground apart from your Father's will" (Matt. 10:29), and that even "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (v. 3d).
As the Bible declares that the whole system of things is controlled by God (Eph. 1 :11), it declares with equal insistency that every single thing, however small and insignificant it may seem to us to be, is ordered by God ahead of time in his perfect plan. Even what seems to us to be a chance event can therefore be prophesied ahead of time by the true prophets of God (see I Kings 22:1-40, especially vv. 28, 34, 37).
The free actions of men are also predestined by God. Please note: these acts are both free and predestined. That is, those who commit these acts do so because they want to.
And yet the acts which they do are predetermined by God so that Scripture says they must happen. Christ said, "Offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!" (Matt. 18:7).
This statement recognizes two things:
(1) the certainty of the occurrence of a future event, and
(2) that those who will perform the act will do so freely and therefore with guilt.
So in Acts 2:23 we read of Christ "being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God," and yet also as "taken by lawless hands ... and crucified, and put to death." "For truly against ... Jesus . . . both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatever [God's] hand and purpose determined before to be done" (Acts 4:27-28).
As God predetermines evil actions which are freely performed, so he predetermines good actions which are also freely performed. Christians repent, believe, and seek to do the will of God because they want to. But in this case "it is God who works in them both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). There is, in this case, an internal operation of God's Spirit, which is wholly absent from the wicked. But this still does not mean that the good (converted) any more than the wicked (unconverted) are not acting freely in doing what God has predestined that they shall do.
Freedom may be defined as "the absence of external coercion." If a man is not forced by any power outside himself to do that which is contrary to what lie wants to do, then we may properly say that he is "free." The wonder of God's predestination is that God does leave men free in this sense, even though he predestines everything that every man will ever do.
Some people use the word "freedom" in another sense, however, which is false in the extreme. They mean, by the "freedom" of man, that man has power or ability to do good or evil at any moment of time. To say that a man is able to do good or evil is very different from saying that a man is at liberty to do what he desires. We believe that the natural man has liberty but not ability to do what is right. For the truth is that man, while free from coercion from the outside, is not free from the control of his own nature.
He who is evil by nature must of necessity do evil (just as a corrupt tree must of necessity produce corrupt fruit, Matt. 7:17-19). Just as we may say that God is good and therefore cannot do evil, so we may say that man (by nature) is evil and cannot (of himself) do good.
In the case of the unconverted who are not elect, the very fact that they are never regenerated by God makes it inevitable that they will do evil for the simple reason that this is the one thing that they want to do (Gen. 6:5; Ps. 14, 53).
In the case of the elect, God regenerates, effectually calls, and sustains in grace, and then—because these are made new creatures (with new desires, new natures)—they will do the good that God has predestined for the simple reason that they want to.
In either case there is entire absence of external coercion, and yet the will of God is surely done. Even where internal power is exerted (in the case of the converted), it does not force man to do what he does not want to do, but rather creates a new will which is in accord with the will of God.
Some have thought that God makes predestination depend on what he foresees. Thus many have held that God predestines to everlasting life those lie foresees will by their own power turn unto him. This contradicts Scripture, which teaches clearly
(1) that no man has the power to do this by nature,
(2) that such power is a gift of God, and
(3) that the gift is given to those chosen of God for the gift. It is not, then, a question of predestination or foreknowledge.
It is, and can be, only a question of predestination and foreknowledge. This we may indicate by asking two simple questions:
(a) Does God know for certain what will happen before it happens? All Christians would no doubt say yes.
(b) But if God knows that a thing is certain to happen before it happens, we may then ask, what makes it certain? There can be but one answer: God makes it certain.
We are unable to escape the conclusion that God foresees with certainty only because he guarantees the certainty he foresees. Things are "predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). God foresees that the elect will be "holy and without blame before Him" (Eph. 1:4), and that they will experience "sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13). But this is foreseeable only because he "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). His predestination is the cause of the holiness which he foresees. He [God] does not choose us because he foresees that we will believe, but he foresees that we will believe because he has chosen us. Only thus are works wholly excluded (Eph. 2:8-10).
Source: G. I. Williamson. Westminster Confession of Faith: For Study Classes
AMR
