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ND we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:28-31)
The Providence of God is a term which describes not only the foreknowledge of God in all things, but His fore-action as well. When God speaks, whether prophetically or in present terms, the action is as good as complete. The Founding Fathers of the United States believed it was the Providence of God that not only led them in the formation of a new nation of liberty, but was also the orchestrator of their actions – the Invisible Hand that Guided and Ordained.
The biblical text from Romans 8 (above) summarizes the profound doctrine of God’s omniscience as well as His omnipotence. He knows ALL things past, present and future; but He also is sovereign over all things in the space/time continuum. He not only rules in the affairs of nations, but also in the lives of His people to work all things for their profound good.
Article XVII of the Articles of Religion of the Reformation Church of England summarizes the doctrine of the absolute predestination of all things in the plan of God. Quoted below is an excerpt of that Article:
Predestination to life is the eternal purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he has consistently decreed by his counsel which is hidden from us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he has chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them through Christ to eternal salvation as vessels made for honour. Hence those granted such an excellent benefit by God are called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working at the appropriate time. By grace they obey the calling; they are freely justified, and made sons of God by adoption, are made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, they walk faithfully in good works and at the last by God's mercy attain eternal happiness.
The doctrine of predestination is actually one of the foundational cornerstones of the English and Continental Reformation. It was a departure from the Roman doctrine of self-determination in salvation (a doctrine of works apart from grace). The Westminster Confession, as well, provides the same doctrine in different language:
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. (WCF 5.1)
The question of the Sovereignty of God is at the heart of all biblical doctrine. Remove a single dimension of the three-dimensional structure and the substance escapes. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Col 1:17) For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28) My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. (Psalm 63:8) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)
We are dead men walking! A dead man can do NOTHING to save himself. He must be imbued with faith from on high to respond to the grace of God in his once-dead heart: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:1-7)
If it is God who is the Sovereign of your soul, well and good. But if it is you who presumes to bear the scepter, ruin lies at the door.
