Chapter 5 Of Providence Section 1 God, the Great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. The authors of the Westminster Confession compressed the doctrine of the Trinity into one section of five lines, but when they came to God's control over all His creatures and all their actions, they wrote two fairly lengthy chapters. The eight sections of chapter three outline the Bible's teaching on predestination to life and foreordination to death. so that those who sincerely obey the gospel may praise God in humility and be assured of their eternal election from the certainty of their effectual calling. Chapter 5 differs in that predestination is more specific and providence is more general, and also in that it considers God's controlling power during the course of history rather than His eternal plan itself. The devout scholars who made these chapters so long must have done so under the belief, a belief fully justified, that the Bible has a great deal to say about God's sovereignty and that it is all-important. Calvinism proportions its emphases to those of the Bible. Not all Christians are Calvinists. Some do not believe that all things come to pass immutably and infallibly. They wish to reserve some sphere in which man can be independent of God. It must not be supposed that these people are therefore lacking in sincerity and devotion, or that they are outside the fold of Christ, but such is the clarity of the Bible in its teachings on God's sovereignty that Presbyterians cannot convince themselves that such people have a sufficient understanding to discharge the responsibilities of an ecclesiastical office. They stand in need of further instruction. They should study the proof texts cited by the Confession. For example, he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand. Daniel 4.35. What to have the Lord pleased that did he? Psalm 135.6. Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Ephesians 1, 11, and many other verses. Because the doctrines of predestination and providence are sometimes misunderstood, the Calvinists, when they explain these doctrines, regularly try to absolve them of the charge of fatalism. Then, too, because the words predestination, foreordination, and election are indisputably in the Bible, The non-Calvinists also try to rid the Bible of any appearance of fatalism. Although the latter and some of the former succeed better in removing the predestination than the fatalism, there is a technical and there is a popular view of fatalism. The more technical view, if the word is to be used at all, is that of scientists and philosophers who deny that the universe has a purpose. Natural processes seem not to be directed to any foreseen end. Such is the view of Spinoza, Bertrand Russell, and others. Obviously, this is exactly the opposite of the biblical doctrine of providence. God sees the end from the beginning and controls all his creatures and all their actions so as to guarantee the planned result. In this sense, the Bible is not fatalistic. A more popular view comes from Moslem countries. My uncle once hired a chauffeur to drive him around a mountainous part of Turkey. As the chauffeur kept up too fast a speed around the sharp curbs along the precipices, my uncle urged more caution. But the Turk replied that the date of their deaths was fated, and if this was the day, caution would be of no use, whereas if this was not the day, caution was unnecessary. The Turk was clever, but not Calvinistic. The Bible teaches that all things are certainly determined, but that God's providence, Chapter 5, Section 2, arranges events according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. God does not decree an auto wreck apart from its causes. Caution is the usual cause of safety, and wrecks are caused by recklessness. Superficially similar is another popular view to the effect that fatalism means that man should sit quietly by and do nothing to avert the tragedies which threaten him. Not very many people are tempted to believe such a theory. It is not much of a danger to Christianity, but if a few are so tempted, they can easily see that the Bible commands us to do various things. Adam was commanded to subdue nature to his needs. Abraham was commanded to leave his home. Christ, who was delivered up by the determinate counsel of God, went deliberately to his death. None of these sat idly by. Now, no one denies that the Bible contains these commands and these actions. The Bible also teaches predestination and election. If a person is puzzled, and thinks these two facts constitute an inconsistency, a puzzle, or a paradox, he ought at least admit that the Bible so teaches. Therefore, he ought to preach both and slight neither. Unfortunately, his bewilderment is likely to reduce the force of his preaching. But it is not necessary to remain bewildered. This is not to say that a man can become omniscient. and solve all the problems with which he may be confronted. It does mean, however, that the Bible itself, all of which is profitable for doctrine, contains enough information to show that action and volition by man are not inconsistent with poor ordination by God. God decreed the peculiar status of the Jews, and he decreed to bring it about by Abraham's journey to Palestine. God decreed that Joseph would be sold as a slave in Egypt. in order to preserve the family from famine. God decreed the death of Christ from before the foundation of the world, and therefore Christ steadfastly set his face toward Jerusalem. It was by means of, not in spite of, these volitions and actions that God had determined to accomplish his purpose. The Christian should always remember that God is the potter and man is the clay. of the same lump God can make a vessel of honor or a vessel of dishonor. The Christian should also remember that God works in us of his own good pleasure, both to will and to do. So remembering, the Christian will be a Calvinist and will praise God that his servants at Westminster constructed our confession as a standard against error and as a bulwark of truth. Section 2 Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly. Yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. Section 3. God in his ordinary providence maketh use of means. It is free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure. Section 2 first acknowledges that all events are predetermined. The course of history has from all eternity been immutably and infallibly fixed. But this does not deny the role of secondary causation, and secondary causation seems to be either necessary, free, or contingent. What do these three words refer to? In theology and philosophy, necessity has been regarded sometimes as mechanical causation and sometimes as logical implication. One may say that if a given force is applied to one end of a lever, the other end will, of necessity, lift a certain weight. Or one may say that two premises necessarily imply a given conclusion. Spinoza held that the world follows necessarily from God as conclusions follow from premises. More frequently, philosophers have defended mechanical necessity. Which does the confession refer to? Similarly, one would like to know the meaning of freely and contingently. What the Reformation theologians meant by these terms may be fairly well surmised from a passage in Jerome Zankeus' book, Absolute Predestination, The Will of God, Position 11. He writes, Position 11. In consequence of God's immutable will and infallible foreknowledge, whatever things come to pass, come to pass necessarily, though with respect to second causes and us men, many things are contingent, that is, unexpected and seemingly accidental. Thus the term contingent refers to man's way of looking at events, or more explicitly to man's incomplete knowledge of how the events were caused. The scripture references appended to this section of the confession also provide some hints as to how these words should be understood. They refer to the succession of seed time and harvest, summer and winter, the sun as a light for the day, and the moon by night. Presumably these things are examples of what is necessary, but the framers may not have meant that these things occur by the philosophic theory of mechanism. Other references point to accidental homicide, shooting an arrow at random, and the role of Assyria in carrying out God's purposes without knowing it. Are these pre- or are they contingent? Can we be sure that they are not necessary? Is the shooting an arrow, even at random, any less mechanical than the alteration of summer and winter? Theories of causation have varied greatly over the ages, but whatever our theory of secondary causation may be, the scripture is clear that God ordains events in relation to each other, and not in the disjointed fashion that the turkey chauffeur had in mind. The strong recommendations frequently found on these pages may suggest to someone that the confession itself is the very word of God. Of course, this is not true. The Presbyterian churches recognize the Bible alone as the Word of God, and they explicitly refer to the Confession and catechisms as subordinate standards of the Church. No claim is made that the Confession is infallible. Through the years, different Presbyterian denominations have altered it in one way or another. Later we shall see one chapter that was substantially altered. And in other chapters there may be errors or at least infelicities in a few phrases. Such may be the case here in section 3. The first idea is that God uses means to accomplish his purpose. This was said before and is incontestably true. But is God free to work without, above, and against them? One might reply that God can do all things. He is omnipotent, quite true, but irrelevant. The first thing we must do is to determine what without, above, and against mean. Let us take these three terms in reverse order. One of the proof texts shows that God can work against means, refers to the miracle of the floating axe head. The other proof text concerns the safety of the three young Hebrews in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace. Now if the word against means nothing other than God's power to work miracles, and thus to accomplish his aim in opposition to the usual processes of nature, it is clear that the Bible supports this word in the Confession. What then is meant by working above means? Here again the one-proof text has to do with the miraculous, or at least the very unusual, birth of Isaac. Perhaps then above and against are synonymous. Next we ask, does God ever work without means? Hosea 1.7 merely says that God will not save the Israelites by means of sword and battle, but there is no indication that God will not use some other means. Matthew 4.4, another proof text, says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. This surely does not teach that God works without means. In fact, it states what the means are. The third proof text is Job 34.10. How this verse got attached to this phrase in the confession is a puzzle. It seemed to be completely beside the point. And if so, the confession just might be an error in using the word without. Think a moment first, however. Does God ever accomplish his purpose without using some means or other? Perhaps in two of God's actions, he uses no means. In creating the world from nothing, there were no means to use. Also, in continuing to uphold in existence the universe in its entirety, there could be no means. But these two actions are not to be classed as His ordinary providence. And so we may continue to wonder whether this is a mistake in the Confession. Section 4 The Almighty Power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in His Providence, that it extended itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them in a manifold dispensation. to his own holy ends, yet so as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approve of sin. Section 5. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts. to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled, and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends. Section 6 As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God as a righteous judge for former sins doth blind and harden, from them he not only withholdeth his grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings and brought upon their hearts, but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had, and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin, and withal gives them over to their own lusts. the temptations of the world and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others. Section 7. As the providence of God doth in general reach to all creatures, so after a most special manner it taketh care of his church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof. God's relation to the sinful acts of men, the stumbling block that so many people find in chapter 3, is considered again in section 4 of chapter 5. The sphere of providence extends to the first sin of Adam and to all other sins of angels and men. God's relation to sin is not that of their permission. In fact, as Calvin shows in his Institutes 2, 4, 3, and 3, 23H, Permission in the case of the Almighty has no specific meaning. The proof texts cited in the Confession, and many other passages not cited, amply support the creedal statement. God bounds, orders, and governs all sinful actions for his own holy purpose. How could it be otherwise? This does not mean, as the Confession makes plain, that God commits sin, or that God approved sin. On the contrary, God punishes sin. Many people think that this is paradoxical, but is it not clear in the case of good deeds that God does not himself do the good deed that his servant does? It was Abraham, not God, who left Ur to go to Canaan. Similarly, it was Herod and Pilate with the Gentiles who crucified Christ. God approved Abraham's act and disapproved of Pilate's, but he foreordained both. And in particular it says that the crucifixion was determined before the world was. The scripture is clear, but some people are recalcitrant. Section 5 spells out the details of God's providence with reference to his children. Section 6 does the same with the children of disobedience. There is little to do but verify the fact that the confessional statements simply summarize hundreds of biblical passages. The last section of one sentence applies the same truth to the Church.