After spending the last two weeks discussing that God is the all-powerful Creator, it seems logical to conclude that he also preserves and governs everything in the universe as well. Even though the word providence is not found in Scripture, it has been traditionally used to summarize God’s ongoing relationship in his creation. When we accept the Biblical doctrine of providence, we avoid common errors in thinking about God’s relationship to creation. The biblical doctrine is not deism (which teaches that God created the world and then essentially abandoned it), nor pantheism (which teaches that the creation does not have a real, distinct existence in itself, but is only part of God), but providence, which teaches that though God is actively related to and involved in the creation at each moment, creation is distinct from him. Moreover, the biblical doctrine does not teach that events in creation are determined by chance (or randomness), nor are they determined by impersonal fate (or determination), but by God, who is the personal yet infinitely powerful Creator and Lord.
We may define God’s providence as follows: God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he (1) keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them; (2) cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and (3) directs them to fulfill his purposes.
(1) God keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.
Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Christ is “upholding the universe by his word of power.” The Greek word translated “upholding” is phero, “carry, bear”. This is commonly used in the New Testament for carrying something from one place to another, such as bringing a paralyzed man on a bed to Jesus (Luke 5:18), bringing wine to the steward of the feast (John 2:8), or bringing a cloak and books to Paul (2 Timothy 4:13). It does not mean simply “sustain,” but has the sense of active, purposeful control over the thing being carried from one place to another. In Hebrews 1:3, the use of the present participle indicated that Jesus is “continually carrying along all things” in the universe by his word of power. Christ is actively involved in the work of providence.
Also in Colossians 1:17, Paul says of Christ that “in him all things hold together.” The phrase “all things” refers to every created thing in the universe (see verse 16), and the verse affirms that Christ keeps all things existing; in him they continue to exist or “endure”. Both verses indicate that if Christ were to cease his continuing activity of sustaining all things in the universe, then all, except the triune God, would instantly cease to exist. Such teaching is also affirmed by Paul when he says, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), and by Erza: “You are the LORD, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you (Nehemiah 9:6). Peter also says that “the heaven and earth that now exist are being kept until the day of judgement” (2 Peter 3:7).
God, in preserving all things he has made, also causes them to maintain the properties with which he created them. God preserver water in such a way that it continues to acts like water. He causes grass to act like grass, with all its distinctive characteristics. Until it is acted on by some other part of creation and thereby its properties changed (for example, if something, like wood, is burned with fire and it becomes ash), the wood will continue to act like wood so long as God preserves the earth and the creation that he has made.
We should not, however, think of God’s preservation as a continuous new creation: he does not continuously create new atoms and molecules for every existing thing every moment. Rather, he preserves what has already been created: he “carries along all thing” by his word of power. We must also appreciate that created things are real and that their characteristics are real. I do not just imagine that the rock in my hand is hard, it is hard. If I bump the rock against my head, I do not just imagine that it hurts, it does hurt! That is because God keeps this rock maintaining the properties with which he created it, the rock has been hard since the day it was formed, and (unless something else in creation interacts with it and changes it) it will be hard until the day God destroys the heaven and earth.
God’s providence provides a basis for science: God has made and continues to sustain a universe that acts in predictable ways. If a scientific experiment gives a certain result today, then we can be confident that (if all the factors are the same) it will give the same result tomorrow and a hundred years from tomorrow. The doctrine of providence also provides a foundation for technology: I can be confident that gasoline will make my car run today just as it did yesterday, not simply because “it has always worked that way,” but because God’s providence sustains a universe in which created things maintain the properties with which he created them. The result may be similar in life of a unbeliever and the life of a Christian: We both put gasoline in our cars and drive away. But he will do so without knowing the ultimate reason why it works that way, and I will do so with knowledge of the actual final reason (God’s providence) and with thanks to my Creator for the wonderful creation that he has made and preserves.
(2) God cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do.
This second aspect of providence is an expansion of the idea contained in the first aspect.
In Ephesians 1:11 Paul says that God “accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will.” The word translated “accomplishes” (energeo) indicates that God “works” or “brings about” all things according to his own will. No event in creation falls outside of his providence. Of course this fact is hidden from our eyes unless we read Scripture. God’s work of is not clearly evident from observation of the natural world around us. There are many things in creation that we think of as merely “natural” occurrences.
God causes the grass to grow: “You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth (Psalms 104:14). God directs the stars in the heavens, asking Job, “Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?” (Job 38:32). Note: “the Bear” or Ursa Major is commonly called the Big Dipper.
Scripture affirms that God feeds the wild animals of the field, for, “These all look to you, to give them food in due season. When you give them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hid your face, they are dismayed” (Psalms 104:27-29). Jesus also affirms this when he said, “Look at the birds of the air…your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26). And he said that not one sparrow “will fall to the ground without your Father’s will” (Matthew 10:29).
From a human perspective, the casting of lots (or its modern equivalent, the rolling of dice or flipping a coin) is the most typical of random events that occur in the universe. But Scripture affirms that the outcome of such an event is from God: “The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33).
For any of these foregoing events (rain and snow, grass growing, sun and stars, the feeding of animals, or the casting of lots), we could (at least in theory) give a completely satisfactory “natural” explanation. A botanist can detail the factors that causes grass to grow, such as sun, moisture, temperature, nutrients in the soil, etc.. Yet Scripture says that God causes the grass to grow. A meteorologist can give a complete explanation of the factors that causes the rain, and can even produce rain in a weather laboratory. Yet Scripture says that God causes the rain.
This shows us that it is incorrect for us to reason that if we know the “natural” cause of something in this world, then God did not cause it. Rather, if it rains we should thank him. If crops grow we should thank him. In all of these events, it is not as though the events were partly caused by God and partly by factors in the created world. If that were the case, then we would always be looking for some small feature of an event that we could not explain and attribute that (say 1% of the cause) to God. Rather, these passages affirm that such events are entirely caused by God.
Scripture also speaks of God’s providential control of human affairs. We read that God “makes nations great, and he destroys them: he enlarges nations, and leads them away” (Job 12:23). “Dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the Nations” (Psalms 22:28). He has determined the time of existence and the place of ever nation on the earth, for Paul says, “he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).
If God does indeed cause, through his providential activity, everything that comes about in the world, then the question arises, “What is the relationship between God and evil in the world?” Does God actually cause evil actions that people do? If he does, then is God not responsible for sin?
In approaching this question, it is best to read the passages of Scripture that most directly address it. We can begin by looking at several passages that affirm that God did, indeed cause evil events to come about and evil deeds to be done. But we must remember that in all these passages it is very clear that Scripture nowhere shows God as directly doing anything evil, but rather as bringing about evil deeds through the willing actions of moral creatures. Moreover, Scripture never blames God for evil or shows God as taking pleasure in evil, and Scripture never excuses human beings for the wrong they do. However we understand God’s relationship to evil, we must never come to the point where we think that we are not responsible for the evil that we do, or that God takes pleasure in evil or is to be blamed for it. Such a conclusion is clearly contrary to Scripture.
There are literally dozens of Scripture passages that say that God (indirectly) brought about some kind of evil. I will mention four in the next few paragraphs because Christians are often unware of the extent of this teaching in Scripture. It must be remembered that in all of these examples, the evil is actually done not by God but by people who choose to do it.
A very clear example is found in the story of Joseph. Scripture clearly says that Joseph’s brothers were wrongly jealous of him (Genesis 37:11), hated him (Genesis 37:4, 5 and 8), wanted to kill him (Genesis 37:20), and did wrong when they cast him into a pit (Genesis 37:24) and then sold him into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37:28). Yet later Joseph could say to his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5), and “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Here we have a combination of evil deeds brough about sinful men who are rightly held accountable for their sin and the overriding providential control of God, whereby God’s own purpose were accomplished. Both are clearly affirmed.
In the story of Job, though the LORD gave Stan permission to bring harm to Job’s possessions and children, and though this harm came through the evil actions of the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, as well as a windstorm (Jon 1:12, 15,17 and 19), yet Job looks beyond those secondary causes and, with the eyes of faith, sees it all from the hand of the Lord: “the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). The Old Testament author follows Job’s statement immediately with the sentence, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22). Job has just been told that evil marauding bands had destroyed his flocks and herds, yet with great faith and patience in adversity, he says, “The LORD has taken away.” Though he says that the LORD had done this, yet he does not blame God for the evil or day that God had done wrong: he says, “Blessed be the name of the LORD.” To blame God for evil that he had brought about through secondary agents would have been to sin. Job does not do this, Scripture never does this, and neither should we.
The life of Jonah is a remarkable illustration of God’s simultaneous actions in human activities. The men on board the ship sailing to Tarshish threw Jonah overboard, for Scripture says, “So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging” (Jonah 1:15). Yet only five verses later Jonah acknowledges God’s providential direction in their act, for he says to God, “You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas” (Jonah 2:3). Scripture simultaneously affirms that the men thre Jonah into the sea and that God threw him into the sea. The providential direction of God did not force the sailors to do something against their will, nor were they conscious of any divine influence on them; in fact, they cried to the Lord for forgiveness as they threw Jonah overboard (Jonah 1:14). What Scripture reveals to us, and what Jonah himself realized, was that God was bringing about his plan through the willing choices of real human beings who were morally accountable for their actions. In a way not understood by us and not revealed to us, God caused them to make a willing choice to do what they did.
Finally, the most evil deed of all history, the crucifixion of Jesus, was ordained by God, not just the fact that it would occur, but also all the individual actions connected with it. The church at Jerusalem recognized this, for they prayed:
For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:27)
All the actions of all the participants in the crucifixion of Jesus had been “predestined” by God. Yet the apostles clearly attach no moral blame to God, for the actions resulted from the willing choices of sinful men. Peter makes this clear in his sermon at Pentecost: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). In one sentence he link’s God’s plan and foreknowledge with the moral blame that attaches to the actions of “lawless men.” They were not forced by God to act against their wills, rather, God brought about his plan through their willing choices, for which they were nevertheless responsible.
When evil comes into our lives to trouble us, we can have from the doctrine of providence a deeper assurance that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). This kind of conviction enabled Joseph to say to his brothers, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
The third (3) aspect of God’s providence indicated that God has a purpose in all that he does in the world and he providentially governs or directs all things in order that they accomplish his purpose.
Though in God his will is unified, and not divided or contradictory, we cannot begin to understand the depths of God’s will, and only in a small part is it revealed to us. There is God’s moral will (Sometimes called his “revealed” will). This includes the moral standards of Scripture, such as the Ten Commandments and the moral command of the New Testament. God’s moral commands are given as descriptions of how we should conduct ourselves if we would act rightly before him. On the other hand, another aspect of God’s will is his providential government of all things (sometimes called “secret will”). This includes all the events of history that God ordained to come about, for example, the fact that Christ would be crucified by “lawless men”.
Some have objected to this distinction between two aspects of the will of God, arguing that it means there is a “self-contradiction” in God. However, even in the realm of human experience, we know that we can will and carry out something that is painful and that we do not desire (such as punishing a disobedient child or getting an inoculation that temporarily makes us ill) in order to bring about a long-term result that we desire more than the avoidance of short-term pain (to bring about the obedience of the child, for example, or to prevent us from getting a more serious illness). And God is infinitely greater and wiser than we are. Certainty it is possible for him to will that his creatures do something that in the short term displeases him in order that in the long term he would receive greater glory. To say that this is a “self-contradiction” in God is to fail to understand the distinctions that have been made so that this explanation is not contradictory.
The decrees of God are the eternal plans of God whereby, before the creation of the world, he determined to bring about everything that happens. This is that God’s decisions were made before the world was created, rather than his providential actions in time. His providential actions are the outworking of the eternal decrees that he made long ago. There was a “definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23) by which Jesus was put to death, and the actions of those who condemned and crucified him were “predestined” (Acts 4:28) by God.
The benefit of an emphasis on God’s decrees is that it helps us to realize that God does not mke up plans suddenly as he goes along. He knows the end from the beginning, and he will accomplish all his good purposes. This should greatly increase our trust in him, especially in difficult circumstances.
We may forget that God works through human actions in his providential management of the world. If we do, then we begin to think that our actions and our choices do not make much difference or do not have much effect on the course of events. To guard against any misunderstanding of God’s providence we need to understand the following points of emphasis.
First, we are still responsible for our actions. God has made us responsible for our actions, which have real and eternally significant results. In all his providential acts God will preserve these characteristics of responsibility and significance.
The fact that we are responsible for our actions means that we should never begin to think, “God made me do evil, and therefore I am not responsible for it.” Significantly, Adam began to make excuses for the very first sin in terms that sounded suspiciously like this: “This woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12). Unlike Adam, Scripture never blames God for sin. If we ever begin to think that God is to blame for sin, we have thought wrongly about God’s providence, for it is always the creature, not God who is to be blamed. Now we may object that it is not right for God to hold us responsible if he has in fact ordained all things that happen, but Paul corrects us: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, a man, to answer back to God?” (Romans 9:19-20). We must realize and settle in our hearts that it is right for God to rebuke and discipline and punish evil. And, when we are responsibilie to do so, it is right for us to rebuke and discipline evil in our families, in the church, and even, in some ways, in the society around us. We should never say about an evil event, “God willed it and therefore it is good,” because we must recognize that some things that God’s will of decree has planned are not in themselves good, and should not receive our approval, just as they do not receive God’s approval.
Secondly, our actions have real results and do change the course of events. In the ordinary working of the world, if I neglect to take care of my health and have poor eating habits, or if I abuse my body through alcohol and/or tobacco, I am likely to die sooner. God has ordained that our actions do have effects. God has ordained that events will come about by our causing them. Of course, we do not know what God has planned even for the rest of this day, to say nothing of next week or next year. But we do know that if we trust God and obey him, we will discover that he has planned good things to come about through that obedience! We cannot simply disregard others whom we meet, for God brings many people across our paths and gives us the responsibility to act towards them in eternally significant ways, whether for good or ill.
Third, prayer is one specific kind of action that has definite results and that does change the course of events. God has also ordained that prayer is a very significant means of bringing about results in the world. When we earnestly intercede for a specific person or situation, we often find that God had ordained that our prayer would be a means he would use to bring about the changes in the world. Scripture reminds us of this when it tells us, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Jesus says, “Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).
Finally, in conclusion, we must act! The doctrine of providence in no way encourages us to sit back in idleness to await the outcome of certain events. Of course, God may impress on us the need to wait on him before we act and to trust in him rather than in our own abilities; that is certainly not wrong. But simply to say that we are trusting in God instead of acting responsibly is sheer laziness and is a distortion of the doctrine of providence.
One good example of vigorous activity combined with trust in God is found in 2 Samual 10:12, where Joab says, “Be strong and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God,” but then adds immediately in the same sentence, “and may the Lord do what is good in His sight” Joab will both fight and trust God to do what he thinks to be good.
There is no such thing as “luck” or “chance”. All things come to pass by God’s wise providence. This means that we should adapt a much more “personal” understanding of the universe and the events in it. The universe is not governed by impersonal fate or luck, but a personal God. Nothing “just happens”; we should see God’s hand in events throughout the day, causing all things to work together for good for those who love him.
This confidence in God’s wise providence certainly does not equal superstition, for that is a belief in impersonal or demonic control of circumstances, or control by a capricious deity concerned for meaningless ritual rather than obedience and faith. A deepened appreciation for the doctrine of providence will not make us more superstitious; it will make us trust in God more and obey him more fully.