The
decree of God is His
1. eternal,
2. unchangeable,
3. holy,
4. wise, and
5. sovereign purpose.
The decree of God comprehends
at once all things
1. that ever were,
2. are, or
2. will be.
These things are comprehended in their
1. causes,
2. conditions,
3. successions, and
4. relations.
The decree of God also determines the certain future existence of all things.
Man’s thoughts are free thoughts. We are
self-determined creatures, moved by our desires, circumstances, upbringing, our natures.
Our
inclinations drive what we
desire (want). We
choose according to our
greatest inclinations at the moment we so choose. If we have no inclinations to choose, we deny the very inclinations that led us to not choosing. So even "
no choice" is a choice, by these terms.
To be genuinely bereft of inclination is to be wholly arbitrary, truly random, independent of reality, and anything we would "choose" would be of no consequence and meaningless. It would be the mule standing before two buckets, sweet corn and sweet apples, unable to choose, ultimately starving to death in a frozen pose. This is not what Scripture teaches us about man's constitution, which serves but one of two masters (Matthew 6:24).
Naturally, God is the
antecedent cause of all things, yet we are the
proximate causes of our actions. God is not the
author of sin; He does not, as Luther stated, "
work evil in us by creating fresh evil in us." God's sovereign decree always intersects with the moral agent’s free choices.
The many contents of God’s single eternal purpose are, because we are finite and God is infinite, limited by our faculties to comprehend fully, hence when we speak of the decree of God, we conceive of the decree in partial aspects and/or logical relations, and thusly we, as finite creatures, speak of the
decreess of God. So while we may write or speak about the “decrees” of God, we should always remember that there is but one
decree.
Also, we should be on the same page with respect to God’s
foreknowledge and God’s
foreordination.
Foreknowledge is an act of God, infinitely intelligent,
knowing from eternity, without change, the certain future existence of all events of every type that ever will come to pass.
Confusion about the foreknowledge of God is seen in what immediately follows:
Necessity of a hypothetical inference...
If God foreknew Peter would sin, then Peter cannot refrain from sinning.
(This is Incorrect)
The interpretation above wrongly interprets God's foreknowledge as impinging upon Peter's moral free agency. God's knowledge of the future is not direct cause of the events of the future that God knows. Instead, for the example above, the proper understanding is:
The necessity of the consequent of the hypothetical...
Necessarily, if God foreknew Peter would sin, then Peter does not refrain from sinning.
(This is Correct)
In other words, the actions of moral free agents do not take place because they are
foreseen, the actions are foreseen because the actions are
certain to take place.
God's knowledge of our past, present, and future is grounded in His
ordination of all that happens. God's ordaining (decreeing), is an act of the
will of God, who is infinitely intelligent,
foreknowing, benevolent, and righteous.
Foreordination is an act of God from eternity
determining the
certain future existence of all events of every type that will come to pass.
Foreknowledge recognizes the certain future existence of events, while
foreordination makes them
certainly future.
In summary:
1. God's decrees are
eternal. Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:4; 3:11; 1 Pet. 1:20; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Cor. 2:7.
2. They are immutable. Ps. 33:11; Isa. 46:9.
3. They comprehend all events.
(1) The Scriptures assert this of the whole system in general embraced in the divine decrees. Dan. 4:34, 35; Acts 17:26; Eph 1:11.
(2) They affirm the same of fortuitous events. Prov. 16:33; Matt. 10:29, 30.
(3) Also of the free actions of men. Eph. 2:10, 11; Phil. 2:13.
(4) Even the wicked actions of men. Acts 2:23; 4:27, 28; 13:29; 1 Pet. 2:8; Jude 4; Rev. 17:17. As to the history of Joseph, compare Gen. 37:28, with Gen. 45:7, 8, and Gen. 50:20. See also Ps. 17:13, 14; Isa. 10:5, 15.
4. The decrees of God are
not conditional. Ps. 33:11; Prov. 19:21; Isa. 14:24, 27; 46:10; Rom. 9:11.
5. They are
sovereign. Isa. 40:13, 14; Dan. 4:35; Matt. 11:25, 26; Rom. 9:11, 15-18; Eph. 1:5, 11.
6. They include the
means. Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2.
7. They determine the
free actions of men. Acts 4:27, 28; Eph. 2:10.
8. God himself works in his people that faith and obedience which are called the conditions of salvation. Eph. 2:8; Phil. 2:13; 2 Tim. 2:25. God is not doing the believing for the regenerated man, but God will certainly be acting, according to His ordained free, necessary, or contingent means, to ensure that the believing man will persevere in his belief.
9. The decree renders the event
certain. Matt. 16:21; Luke 18:31-33; 24:46; Acts 2:23; 13:29; 1 Cor. 11:19.
10. While God has decreed the free acts of men, these moral agents are none the less responsible, for had God not decreed man's freedom to act, there would be no freedom at all. Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23; 3:18; 4:27, 28.
1. Since God has decreed all events and, as I have defined above, thusly made all events certain to occur in the future, God
foreknows all events.
2. The decree of God relates equally to all events of every type that will occur. This includes free actions of moral agents, the actions of necessary agents, whether these actions be morally right or sinful.
3. That said, and what is often abused by those that are not well-informed about this doctrine,
things have been eternally decreed by God under certain aspects.
- God has decreed some things Himself immediately. For example, God’s act to create the universe.
- God has decreed to do make certain some things through the action of secondary causes, causes which act under laws of necessity, such as physical aspect of nature, e.g., planetary motion.
- God has decreed to move or to permit free moral agents to act in the exercise of their free moral agency. Nevertheless, despite these distinctions between these classes of events, they are all rendered certain by the decree of God.
4. While God has decreed all events, it is vitally important to note that while God’s decree includes the
ends, His decree encompasses the
means, the
causes as well as the
effects, the
conditions as well as the
instrumentalities, for all events that will depend upon the same.
5. While the decree of God determines the
certainty of future events, the decree of God
neither directly effects or causes no event. (Please read that statement one more time!) But…stay with me…
in every case the decree of God provides that these events are rendered certain by causes that are acting in such a manner that is perfectly consistent with the nature of these events in question.
In other words, when considering every free act of a moral agent, God’s decree provides at once, that:
1. the agent is a free agent;
2. the agent’s antecedents and every antecedent of the action in question be what they are;
3. the present conditions of the action be what they are;
4. the action by the agent be perfectly spontaneous (i.e.,
freedom of spontaneity) on the part of the agent; and
5. it shall be certainly future.
6. The purposes of God that relate to every kind of event constitute one single, comprehensive intention by God’s comprehending all events. Thus God comprehends the free events as free events, the necessary events as necessary events, all together, including all their causes, their relations, their conditions. This comprehension is one, indivisible system of things, every link of which is essential to the vital integrity of the whole.
