PROVIDENCE (Lat. providentia). Providence concerns God’s support, care, and supervision of all creation, from the moment of the first creation to all the future into eternity. Jesus Christ said, “My Father is working still, and I am working” (John 5:17). Providence is God’s activity through His unlimited power and knowledge to fulfill His purpose for the whole creation, including man. “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” (Westminster Confession of Faith. V. i).
Two points are to be observed in the study of providence. God’s control is all-inclusive and certain, yet God does not violate the freedom of rational and moral creatures. It may be hard to understand how this can be because there are no personal experiences to which one can compare God’s providential working, but the Scriptures clearly teach both these points. Joseph insisted that God had sent him to Egypt, and indeed this confidence had doubtless supported him through all his adversity. Yet he said “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt” (Gen 45:4). Isaiah likewise declared that God sovereignly brought the Assyrian invader to punish Israel, yet the Assyrian came in the pride of his own heart and therefore would be punished when he had finished God’s assigned task (Isa 10:6, 7, 12). The Pharaoh of Moses’ day was raised up by God to show God’s power (Exod 9:16). Yet Pharaoh acted in his own human will and pride. The section, Exodus 5 to 11, has an interesting alternation between the statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Both were true. Both divine foreordination and human freedom are plainly stated also in the prayer of the Early Church:
There were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy plan had predestined to take place (Acts 4:27, 28).
Very specifically Peter said that Christ “being delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23).
A. Creation and providence. It is easy to confuse creation and providence, for both deal with the activity of God. Creation is the bringing into existence of something new that had no prior being or existence. Providence is God’s activity in relation to what was created previously. Creation is a single act of God, whereas providence is the continuing activity of God in relation to His whole creation. Providence embraces God’s activity not merely in regard to the big things in the universe, but also in regard to every single item, no matter how small or ultra microscopic it may be. Providence affects not only the “material” universe and the “inanimate” objects in the universe, but includes all forms of life, esp. man. The human mind sees problems in the relationship between God’s activity in providence and man’s free agency and between God’s providence and moral evil and sin, but these will be discussed below. However difficult it may be for men to understand, God’s providence extends over every single item in the whole universe.
How should one classify every “new” item that appears in the universe, either apart from human agency or as the product of the ingenuity of man? Just where is the line between creation and providence?
On the whole it seems best to restrict creation to the first creation of the universe and everything in it, including all energy, atoms, and subatomic particles, and to regard everything that has happened since the creation under the realm of providence.
B. Scope of providence. A basic concept of providence is that all “chance” is ruled out of the universe. Nothing happens by chance. Chance implies that there is a realm in which even God cannot enter. Such a view denies the sovereignty of God over the whole universe. Even the casting of lots was not by chance, according to Scripture, it was under the disposition of God (Prov 16:33).
The idea of blind fate is also excluded in the light of the Word of God. Men are not under the control of mechanistic forces that operate in the whole universe inexorably, as the atheist would claim, but are in the hands of a loving heavenly Father who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die in the place of His people on the cross of Calvary.
1. Providence and means. In the created universe there are objects brought into a real existence by God whether their inner essence be spiritual or energistic, which are relatively separate from God though subject to His constant sustaining power and control. God, in the exercise of providence, usually uses created objects and forces as His means of accomplishing His eternal purposes. God, however, is not bound to act through such means. God acts independently of all means when it pleases Him so to act.
Secondary causes or natural laws are merely the properties with which the Creator has endowed matter and force. God
endowed matter with these forces and ordained that they should be uniform...He is independent of them. He can change, annihilate, or suspend them at pleasure. He can operate with or without them. The “Reign of Law” must not be made to extend over Him who made the laws (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology [1871], Vol. 1, p. 607).
The Scripture speaks of “signs and wonders and mighty works” (2 Cor 12:12), which may be classed under the term “miracles.” Strictly speaking, however, it seems better to limit the term “miracle” to the change in the mode of God’s activity apart from means. For example, in the Exodus from Egypt God “drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night” (Exod 14:21). God used means (the wind) to accomplish His purpose. On the other hand, the changing of the water into wine (John 2:1-11) was a miracle since it was accomplished without means, for the water in the jars was not a means in the production of the wine.
2. Providence and prayer. In the relationship between providence and man’s free agency, what is the relationship between providence and the answers God gives to prayers? The problem is this: If God has from all eternity foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, as the Bible teaches, then both the prayers and their affirmative answers must also have been foreordained. In that case, why should men pray since praying cannot change God’s plan or persuade Him to do what would be contrary to His eternal plan.
The answer to this problem is in the fact that the individual steps producing both the prayer and the answer are also foreordained. The one making the prayer is conditioned by God’s Holy Spirit in providence so that at the given moment he desires to pray for the particular object for which the prayer is uttered. The prayer is uttered freely by the individual, but the Holy Spirit conditions the soul so that the desire to pray that prayer freely arises in the mind of that individual. Experience indicates that prayers are answered by God and men are commanded by Christ to pray. The prayers of believers are heard by God and are answered affirmatively if they are according to the will of God. God’s providence supervises the whole process of the prayer and its answer, without infringing on the freedom of the one who prays.
3. Providence and free agency. Men are not created as automatons. They have freedom to act according to their natures, but that does not mean that they can defeat the plans, or the providence, of God. Although they act freely, the springs of their desire and activity are supervised by the providence of God, so that all actions are included in His active or permissive providence. God never forces the individual to act contrary to his desire, but in His omnipotence and omniscience, God’s providential supervision acts upon the springs of the individual’s desires, so that he acts freely, but yet in accordance with the providence of God.
4. Providence and personal responsibility. The question of personal responsibility is, of course, linked with the matter of free agency and God’s providence. The Word of God declares that human beings are personally responsible for their actions, both good and bad. They will be held responsible for their actions on the judgment day. Only those whose names are written in the “book of life,” will escape punishment for their evil actions (Rev 20:15). If God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, how can He justly hold man responsible for his actions?
The answer is that the Spirit of God never coerces any human being to commit sin. He simply does not prevent the evil action if God has foreordained to permit it for reasons that God alone knows. Some hints have been given as to why God permits sin. Unbelieving Assyrian kings were used to punish the Israelites for committing idolatry. That in no way excused those Assyrian kings for the wicked acts that they freely committed, though those acts were overruled to further God’s plan (Isa 10).
In the case of God’s elect individuals, the Holy Spirit regenerates them and so changes their natures that they freely repent and believe in Christ as Savior and Lord, and as an expression of their redeemed natures, they perform acts that please God. Those free acts are not forced by the Holy Spirit, but are committed because the child of God wants to please his Savior and God. Thus the free acts of both the elect and the nonelect are governed by the providence of God without taking away the freedom of action according to their natures.
5. Providence and sin and evil. The Scriptures forbid regarding God as the author of sin and evil, however difficult it may be for human minds to reconcile the permission of sin and moral evil with the goodness of God. God has not revealed all the reasons for the permission of sin and evil, but a glimpse of the divine motives may be discerned in one of the greatest sins ever committed by man: the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot. Judas was a man chosen by Christ Himself to be one of His twelve most intimate companions. He was even given supernatural powers (Mark 3:14, 15). For over three years he accompanied Christ. The other disciples thought highly enough of him to appoint him as treasurer of the Twelve. Apparently they did not suspect his evil nature, even on the night of the Lord’s Supper. Yet Judas sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. The providence of God permitted this betrayal as a necessary link in the redemption of God’s people by the death of Christ on the cross. That was the motive for God’s permitting one of the worst sins in history. If God could permit that sin—one of the greatest sins in history—can He not be trusted (though He condemns and usually punishes sin in this life) with the sins of even His elect, which He permits for reasons that are not fully understood? Evidently He allows those sins to train the sinner in humility or to prepare him to help others similarly tempted, but that in no way condones the sin or excuses the sinner. He permits the sins of the non-Christian, even though those sins are links in the chain that drags the sinner into eternal death.
6. Providence and eternal punishment. “How can a good God condemn any of His creatures to eternal punishment?” is the question that unbelievers and some Christians ask in bewilderment. There is no completely satisfactory answer to this riddle, but there are several observations that can be made. Men are in the hands not of blind fate but of a loving heavenly Father, who so loved men that He came in the person of God the Son to bear on the cross the punishment due His people. Certainly one can trust Him where he cannot fully understand the reasons for what God most certainly does—that He punishes unrepentant sinners eternally. No one who goes into eternal punishment ever sincerely wanted salvation through believing in Christ alone for salvation. Even those who never heard of Christ, who will be judged according to the light of conscience, freely admit that they do not live up to the light they have. The picture sometimes presented of a mass of unsaved people stretching up their hands to Christ in seeking salvation, is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. Christ Himself said: “him who comes to me I will not cast out” (John 6:37). The unbeliever, therefore, gets exactly what he deserves, for no one was ever refused salvation if he sincerely wanted it in the right way. The fact is that he never had a sincere desire to repent and be saved through faith in Christ alone. God’s providence simply leaves him alone, so that he willingly rejects salvation and so condemns himself to eternal punishment.
7. Providence and repentance. Since the fall of man every human being is dead in sin except when God’s Holy Spirit regenerates him and enables him to do good works and think good thoughts. The consciousness of being a sinner leads to true repentance from sin and to faith in Christ as the offer of salvation is accepted. Repentance and faith are like the two sides of a coin; they are inseparable. Only those whom the Holy Spirit regenerates can freely repent of their sins and believe in Christ to salvation. God’s providential control thus surrounds the elect individual so that he freely repents and believes in Christ for salvation. At the time he repents, the gift of faith is bestowed by the Holy Spirit. In the providence of God, the Holy Spirit acts upon the springs of his desires, to enable him to hate sin and to love his Redeemer, and want to please Him by living a good life.
8. Providence and grace. What is the relationship between providence and grace? The distinction may be made between “common” grace and “special” grace.
Common grace is a term used for the beneficent providential care that God bestows upon all men, evil men as well as good. God sends His rain “on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45). Food and other physical blessings are all included under common grace. Some races and nations and individuals are more blessed than others, according to the good pleasure of God, but common grace in the providence of God has no necessary connection with salvation, or “special” grace. All grace of God is the unmerited favor of God.
“Special” grace concerns only God’s elect children. All the blessings that are inherent in salvation are a part of God’s “special” grace to the elect. From regeneration to glorification, when Christians will see Christ in glory and be made like Him, God’s special providential grace surrounds them, and through the work of the Holy Spirit enables their growth in sanctification while they are bathed in the providential care of God.
9. Conclusion. God’s providence embraces all of life and the whole universe. It extends from the greatest to the least in creation. It concerns the sinner and the saint. It is impossible to escape, for it encompasses all of life.
Bibliography J. Calvin, Institutes, I; C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, I; W. G. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, I; R. L. Dabney, Theology; L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, rev. ed. (1946); G. C. Berkouwer, The Providence of God (1952).