Systematic Theology – Creation and Providence

Naturalistic Providence

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 8 of 17

Track: #8

Year:

Dictation Name: 8 Naturalistic Providence

[Rushdoony] Our subject now is naturalistic providence. We discussed Calvin’s doctrine of providence; a very important argument in Calvin’s discussion concerned Pharaoh. God’s predestination and providence are tied very, very closely to mans will in contradiction to fatalism and mechanism. Now in Exodus 7:3 God declares “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” and in Exodus 8:15 we are told that “Pharaoh hardened his heart.” Calvin discuss this in length, and he says in part and I quote: “some elude the force of these expressions with a foolish cavil- that since Pharaoh himself is elsewhere said to have hardened his own heart, his own will is stated as the cause of his obduracy; as though these two things were at all incompatible with each other, that man should be actuated by God, and yet at the same time be active himself. The whole matter may be summed up thus, that as the will of God is said to be the cause of all things, His providence is established as the governor and all the councils and works of men. So that it not only exerts its power in the elect, who are influenced by the Holy Spirit, but also compels the compliance of the reprobate.”

Now Calvin is fully aware that the mystery of predestination, providence, and human responsibility is really beyond the scope of man’s mind after a point. But it is sin for a man to reject a truth, he says, which scripture plainly testifies to. And Calvin goes on to say that because something in scripture exceeds our ability to understand is no warrant for refusing to believe in it.

Now Calvin discuss providence at the end of book one of his Institutes of the Christian Religion on the knowledge of God the creator. He sees it as a part of the meaning of the confession in the Apostle’s Creed “I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” Calvin’s doctrine of the triune God was a battle standard for some generations. Today it is the faith of men who are really on the sidelines of history, Calvinists are irrelevant by and large to our day; in particular the historic Calvinist churches. The reason for it lies in part in eschatology and in part in the doctrine of providence. When men have an eschatology, a doctrine of the last things, which spells defeat this will affect them. And if their doctrine of providence is a naturalistic, a mechanistic one, it will wipe out the nearness of God. God the Lord is a very present God. Providence is not a cold and remote plan, but a totally present help and assurance of God’s presence, His protection, and His over-ruling meaning. This is why providence and predestination, if separated, become very difficult to understand, and they lose their power and their walk. No man who believes in providence is ever alone. He is always totally surrounded by the totally personal God, and all creation works for that personal God.

This is another way of saying there is no brute or meaningless factuality. Every fact in the universe is God created, God ordained. Calvin in one of his sermons from Job in 1554 said, and I quote: “since God loves us we shall never be confounded, and so far as our afflictions from preventing our salvation, that they will be turned to our help, for God will take care that our salvation shall be advanced by them, by our afflictions.” The French confession of faith in 1559 expressed this very same faith “We believe and confess that there is but one God who is one soul and simple essence, spiritual, eternal, invisible, immutable, infinite, incomprehensible, ineffable, omnipotent, who is all wise, all good, all just, and all merciful. As such this God reveals Himself to man, firstly in His works, in their creation as well as their preservation and control. Secondly and more clearly in His word, which was in the beginning revealed through oracles, and which was afterward committed to writing in the books which we call the Holy Scriptures. We believe that He not only created all things but that He governs and directs them, disposing and ordaining by His sovereign will all that happens in the world.

Not that He is the author of evil, or that the guilt of it can be imputed to Him, as His will is the sovereign and infallible rule of all right and justice. But He hath the wonderful means of so making use of devils and sinners that He can turn to good the evil which they do and of which they are guilty. And thus confessing that the providence of God orders all things we humbly bow between the secrets which are hidden to us; without questioning what is above our understanding, but rather making use of what is revealed to us in Holy Scripture for our peace and safety. And as much as God who is all things in subjection to Him, watches over us with a Father’s care, so that not a hair of our heads shall fall without His will. And yet He restrains the devils and all our enemies so that they cannot harm us without His will.”

Now other confessions, such as the Heidelberg catechism 1563 also spoke plainly and beautifully on providence. The Westminster confession and catechism gave even more attention to the doctrine. The French confession says of our enemies that they cannot harm us without His will. And the Heidelberg catechism joyfully affirms that since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move. These men saw themselves enveloped always by the supernatural providence of God.

What happened to this faith in providence? Bekwith {?} gives us an important key to the later development and decline of the doctrine, and I quote: “Orthodox Protestants, scholasticism, later made belief in providence a mere part of natural theology, thus depriving it of its real Christian significance.” As European thought moved into the age of reason, the Enlightenment, nature replaced God as the determining power. And what Theologians did was to naturalize providence. They made it an aspect of the cosmic order of nature; a mechanistic, a naturalistic view which made God remote and man very much alone. The difference between being in the hands of the totally personal God, and in the processes of a cosmic machine, are very great. The result was in the name of the Bible a return to Greek philosophy, which did speak of divine providence, but only met a cosmic and impersonal natural order. As a result Calvinism waned in its influence, when it naturalized providence. The vitality was gone from it, and man was left alone.

The sparrow does not fall because a cosmic machine is in operation. Our Lord says it falls because our Father brings it to pass. We may not understand why He does so, but we are told that He does so. We may undergo grievous experiences which we cannot understand, but if we believe that it is our Father who has brought it to pass, and that He is all wise and all good, then we know the end thereof will be good. But if these things happen in a blank, in a mechanical universe then we are very much alone. When Christ speaks of providence he does not suddenly become abstract in His language; He describes our Father’s way with us. It is not a matter of natural laws, it is His personal, immediate, love and care. Just as we have naturalized our doctrine of providence, so we have politicized our lives, we have made the state the mediator of providence and care. The only personal providence today is the welfare worker who knocks on the door, and the difference between the God of scripture and the welfare worker and the welfare or providential state hardly needs describing. We have gone astray; we need to return to the God of all providence and to His care. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God in whom we live and move and have our being; make us ever mindful that Thou art closer to us than we are to ourselves. There is not a burden oh Lord but Thou oh Lord knowest it, has decreed it, will deliver us from it, and will bless us by means of it. Give us faith, trust, obedience, and patience. Make us strong in Thee, in Jesus name amen.