01.08 - Chapter 8 - The Decrees of God

Chapter 8 THE DECREE OF GOD A Confession of Faith: God Has A Purpose

"God hath decreed in Himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass" (The Baptist Confession of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Section 1). The Scriptures prove the decree of God.

♦ Isaiah 14:27 "The Lord hath purposed and who shall disannul it?"

♦ Isaiah 43:13 "Yea, before the day was I am He; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand; I will work and who shall hinder it?"

♦ Isaiah 46:10 "Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."

♦ Daniel 4:35 "He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand."

♦ Acts 15:18 "Known unto God are all His works from eternity."

♦ Acts 17:26 "And hath determined the times before appointed."

♦ Ephesians 1:11 "Being predestined according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." A Distinction in the Divine Decree The divine decree is rooted in the very nature of God who is absolutely sovereign. In His domain nothing is left to chance. As He is eternal and immutable, so are His purposes. "His plans never require revision: His decrees shall never be revoked." The good and the bad that men do are but the outworking of His will. When evil things happen they occur because of divine permission as per Acts 2:23. The "determinate counsel of God" took place at the hands of "wicked men." "And yet, in executing His purpose God did not violate the moral freedom of the agents through whom His permissive decree took effect in the death of His Son." (W.G.T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology) Not all students of Scripture are comfortable with the concept of the decree of God including evil. To try and "protect" the character of God they have made a distinction between a positive decree of God and Divine permission. The positive decree of God is said to include all those things that God purposed to do or wills to do. Divine permission is the allowance of things that are contrary to the revealed perfect will. "Whether or not a distinction between a positive and permissive facet of the Divine decree is justified is open for discussion. Perhaps it would be better to observe a distinction between what God positively proposes to cause [or permit] in time, from His perceptive [ethical] will which relates to what individuals ought to do or ought not to do in time." (David Clark) In all of this the inevitable question returns, "Why does God permit sin?" The problem is without a solution because, as A.A. Hodge puts it, "it is grounded in the inscrutable relations of the eternal to the temporal, of the infinite to the finite." The Decree of God The Divine decree embraces all events that shall ever be. “God hath decreed in Himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin nor hath any fellowship with any therein; nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established; in which appears His wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness in accomplishing His decree” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Section 1; study Isaiah 46:10; Ephesians 1:11; Hebrews 6:17; Romans 9:15, Romans 9:18; James 1:13; 1 John 1:5; Acts 4:27-28; John 9:11; Numbers 23:19; Ephesians 1:3-5).

• God Has Decreed the General Course of History

♦ Acts 17:26 "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."

! Special Note. Though God has decreed the general course of history, yet He is pleased to use means to accomplish His will. “God in His ordinary providence maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them at His pleasure.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 5, Section 3).

• God has Decreed Particular Events in the General Course of History. The life of Joseph offers one example while the birth of Christ offers another.

♦ Genesis 45:7-8 "God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity on the earth and to save your lives--so now it was not you that sent me but God."

♦ Micah 5:2 “But thou Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

• God Has Decreed the Salvation of Sinners

♦ Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice.” (study 1 Timothy 5:21; Matthew 25:34; Ephesians 1:5-6; Romans 9:22-23; Jude 1:4) “These angels and men thus predestined and foreordained are particularly and unchangeable designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Sections 3,4; study 2 Timothy 2:19; John 13:18).

♦ John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit.”

• God has Decreed the Evil that Men Do

♦ Proverbs 16:14 "All things hath the Lord wrought for their destined purpose; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil."

♦ Acts 2:23 "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."

♦ Acts 4:27-28 "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together. For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."

• God has Decreed all Accidental (Incidental) Events ♦ Psalms 34:20 "He keepeth all His bones not one of them is broken."

• God has Decreed the Means as well as the end of all Things

♦ Acts 27:31 "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." “As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so He hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto; wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power through faith unto salvation; neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Section 6; study 1 Peter 1:2-3; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10; Romans 8:30; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:5; John 10:26; John 17:9; John 6:64).

♦ 2 Thessalonians 2:13 "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."

♦ 1 Peter 1:2 "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." [Note: If God chooses a man unto salvation, He chooses the necessary means, which will bring him to salvation as well.] The Order of the Decrees

There are two main positions postulated for the order of the Divine decrees expressed in the technical terms of "supralapsarian" and "infralapsarian."

• Supralapsarianism states that the decree to secure the salvation of individuals preceded the decree to create the world and permit the Fall (study John 15:19; Romans 8:30; Romans 9:13; Romans 11:5-7; Ephesians 1:4-6, Ephesians 1:9, Ephesians 1:11; Ephesians 2:5, Ephesians 2:12; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; 1 Peter 1:2). This position places the disposal of all things into the hands of an absolute Sovereign who can and will do whatsoever He pleases according to the counsel of His own essence. “Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving Him thereunto.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Section 5; study Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 1:9, Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:30; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Romans 9:13, Romans 9:16; Ephesians 2:5, Ephesians 2:12).

• Infralapsarianism argues that the decree to save and the decision to use all necessary means to secure the salvation of the elect followed creation and the Fall. Those who embrace the Infralapsarian view emphasis the point that men as sinners, and not men apart from their sins, are the objects of God’s saving grace in Christ. In other words, condemnation is an act, not of sovereignty, but of justice, and is grounded in the guilt of the condemned (Romans 2:6-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10). One main purpose of the Infralapsarian view is to shield the image of God from an arbitrary disposal of His universe prior to or apart from sin.

Whether one embraces the supralapsarian or the infralapsarian position, there is common agreement that, “The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election; so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Section 7; study 1 Thessalonians 4:5; 2 Peter 1:10; Ephesians 1:6; Romans 11:33; Romans 11:5-6, Romans 11:20; Luke 10:20).

God’s Decrees makes Foreknowledge Possible In the discussion of the Divine decree, attention is concentrated on the concept of knowledge. The consistent position of Scripture is that God knows all things, past, present, and future (Psalms 33:11), as well as all the alternatives. In His sight, time is an eternal "now" (cp. Isaiah 57:15; Psalms 90:4). The reason why God knows all things is because He wrote the program. God foreordains. "Foreordination means God’s ordaining, or decreeing, or determining, or appointing, from eternity, whatsoever is to come to pass" (Dr. John Gerstner) (study Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 33:11; Psalms 104:24; Proverbs 16:33; Isaiah 40:26; Isaiah 46:10-11; Matthew 10:30; Acts 15:18; Romans 11:26; Ephesians 1:11; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 4:11) God foreordains because God always acts according to a plan with a purpose.

Unfortunately, this position causes concern for some individuals who continually want to know, "How can the knowledge of God and a decreed plan be reconciled with man being a free agent and responsible. Are all things truly decreed, or merely foreseen?" The answer has to be that all things are truly decreed and not merely foreseen for this reason: logically, God cannot foresee anything unless He had decreed it. "Only that is foreknown which is certain, and that only is certain which is decreed. God’s decree cannot rest on an undecreed event for then certainty would rest on uncertainty which is impossible." (David Clark)

What is foreknown must first be predetermined. What is predetermined must be purposed. That which is purposed is purposed because of the Divine will and not because of something foreseen.

There is no scriptural basis for believing that God comes into knowledge by looking down the corridors of time and seeing how things will transpire. Rather, He is the divine Author who writes the script for the stage of life upon which the creatures of creation appear to perform their parts before being dismissed to other Divine undertakings. “Although God knoweth whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 3, Section 2; study Acts 15:18; Romans 9:11, Romans 9:13, Romans 9:16, Romans 9:18). Rather, God decrees all things according to the pleasure of His will. The Decree in Reference to Free Agency

Having argued strongly for the sovereignty of God, predestination, and foreknowledge according to divine plan, it can also be argued that the decree of God, though rendering future events certain, does not violate free agency. "Free agency must not be divorced from the understanding of every person acting according to his nature. Those whose natures are enslaved by birth and by choice to sin are at liberty to act in a way consistent with their nature." (David Clark) What this means is that sinners will sin. In like manner, those who have been born again and are regenerated by the Holy Spirit have a “freed” nature from the power of sin and will act according to their re-newed nature. The redeemed will live a righteous life in accordance with the power of God. Paul said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Php 1:21) "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20) The summary of the situation is this. "In evil acts, God allows the person to carry out his own will within the confines of his own nature whether that nature is enslaved to sin as a child of Adam, or whether that nature is infected with the remnant of sin notwithstanding the new birth." (David Clark) Scriptural evidence for the validity of these thoughts may be found in the lives of Nicodemus, Saul of Tarsus, and Judas.

• Nicodemus. The night that Nicodemus came to Jesus he did so of his own persuasion. He was influenced by reasonable arguments to yield his will to the ways of God and obey Him. Though not yet born again when he met Jesus (John 3:7), Nicodemus exercised his freed agency in moving to the Master having been morally inclined to do what was right before God.

• Saul. Saul was regenerated by God’s supreme and gracious power and given a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). He was not an agent in his regeneration, no person is for regeneration comes to the soul. But Paul was an agent in every act of his life.

• Judas. Despite associating with Christ for over three years, Judas yielded to no persuasion either ordinary or extra-ordinary. In the end, God allowed him to follow his own chosen path according. Judas acted as a free agent in his nature. Since his nature was bound to sin, Judas fulfilled the intense desires of the flesh. He coveted money and was willing to let Christ be crucified to satisfy that lust. In the selling of Jesus to the Sanhedrian, Judas committed his dark deeds, not because of outward compulsion, but because of inward pleasure. The fact that God foresaw how Judas (and all sinners) should act does not take away human responsibility.

Additional Arguments

Again, it is argued that foreknowledge is inconsistent with free agency; if anything is foreknown it cannot be free; foreknowledge requires certainty and certainty negates freedom. But all this is not true. A person who can foresee a trip planned in great detail and then goes on the planned trip is no less free in all that happens. Or take another illustration. Suppose a person is standing on the top of a hill looking down into the valley below. He sees many things, including two cars traveling in opposite direction towards a turn in the road. As the cars approach one another, from the vantage point on the hill, it is certain that they will collide. There is no turning back. Despite the certainty of the situation, despite the foreknowledge of the coming collision, the drivers of each vehicle are still free in their individual acts. Walter J. Chantry say that there is song sung by children which tells the story of the hornets stinging the Canaanites, causing the enemies Israel to flee the land. The chorus then sings:

God never compels us to go, Oh, no, He never compels us to go;

God does not compel us to go ’gainst our will, But He just makes us willing to go.

If God foreknows what He is going to do, it is because He is simply a free agent and the larger point is established: foreknowledge is not inconsistent with free agency; and certainty is not equivalent to necessity. “Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that there is not anything befalls any by chance, or without His providence; yet by the same providence He ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith of 1689, Chapter 5, section 2; study Acts 2:23; Proverbs 16:33; Genesis 9:22).