Survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 5)

Survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter 5

Of Providence

I. God the great Creator of all things does 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.

The Confession has said that God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass. It then began to explain how God’s decree is “worked out,” so to speak. Basically, there are two ways in which God gives expression to His perfect will: creation and providence. We have studied the doctrine of creation. Now we are ready to consider providence.

The term “Providence” is given to the Bible’s teaching that God upholds, directs, and governs all His creatures and all of their actions according to His decree. If God’s decree is unchangeable, as the Confession teaches, it follows that God must be able to “enforce” His decree. The doctrine of providence says that God manages His creation so that His will, as expressed in His decree before the foundation of the earth, is carried out.

The Confession notes that God’s providence extends “from the greatest even to the least” of God’s creatures. In other words, there is no part of God’s creation that it not subject to His control. Note also that the Confession speaks of God’s foreknowledge in connection with His providence. This is a reference to God’s predetermination of all things before creation (this concept was explained in Chapter III).

The Confession refers to the foreknowledge behind God’s providence as “infallible”; it refers to His will, also behind His providential governing, as “free and immutable.” The point is that providence is a consequence, if you will, of who God is. The God of the Bible is one with infinite power and knowledge; He is holy and righteous. It is natural, therefore, that such a God would govern His creation as it is described here, and it is natural that this government would be characterized by the same wonderful attributes that characterize God Himself.

As with everything else, God’s providence is intended to bring praise for the glory of “His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.” The only response toward God that the Bible ever allows and condones is one of adoration. Because of who God is, this is the only appropriate reaction from His creatures. If we recall Rom. 1:21, the downfall of man is his failure to honor God as God should be honored. This is the common element found in every sin.

II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.

This paragraph explains something of the nature of God’s providence. The decree of God is the “first Cause”; it is the basis for everything that comes to pass in history. Whatever God has decreed, as we learned earlier, must come to pass. The Confession, however, explains that the execution of God’s decree should not be thought of as a simple sequence of events. On the contrary, the infinitely knowledgeable God has incorporated into His decree second causes; His wisdom has made use of consequences, results from actions, choices, etc.

The fact that God has incorporated into His decree second causes, consequences, etc., makes His decree all the more fascinating and praise worthy. The decree of God is infinitely detailed and yet in perfect harmony in all its parts.

III. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.

This paragraph states that while God’s providence follows a “normal” pattern, that is, the pattern of life that we come to recognize and anticipate as human beings, He is free, nevertheless, to work “outside” the so-called “normal” patterns of reality as He sees fit. The idea here is that God’s creation is characterized by order or cause and effect; the creation manifests and is, in a sense, subject to, certain “laws” or principles that are universal (e.g., gravity). It is within or according to the nature of His creation that God works out His decree.

God causes His will to be accomplished in ways that do not “violate” those very principles that characterize His creation. However, the Confession points out that God is not, therefore, bound by the laws and principles of His creation. He is, after all, the Creator! God can, if He chooses, accomplish His purposes in ways that are contrary to the nature of the creation in which we live and to which we become accustomed.

IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.

The inevitable question that comes when God’s providence is discussed has to do with the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Was that event under His control and, if so, why did He let it happen? Let us first admit that while we can be certain about some things, there are other things about which we cannot speak with certainty. This is the case with the Fall of man.

What do we know for certain? We know that man did fall; we know that effects of the Fall are passed on to all of Adam’s descendants; we know that Jesus Christ came as the second Adam to reverse the effects of the Fall for His people. We also know that nothing occurs that is a surprise to God, nothing occurs that He has not foreseen, nothing occurs that He has not ordained.

Therefore, we can say that the Fall of man was within the providential control of God; the Fall of man was part of God’s decree. But in answer to the question of why God “permitted” the Fall or, to be more precise, why God decreed the Fall, we must plead ignorance. The Bible clearly teaches those matters that we have stated here with certainty; it just as clearly does not speak in detail about the “why” of the Fall in light of God’s decree and the working out of that decree in providence.

The Confession goes beyond the event of the Fall and includes within the boundaries of God’s providence “all other sins of angels and men.” Note also that the Confession warns against thinking of God’s providential control of the Fall and other sins as “bare permission.” They mean that God’s providence is more than merely tolerating sinful actions; on the contrary, God’s providence, in some manner, incorporates all the sinful actions of sinful human beings so that God’s aims and purposes are always accomplished whether we are talking about the end of history or the events we each experience on a daily basis.

The Confession states this truth as plainly as it can be stated. It is a truth that is taught on the pages of Scripture, but a truth that does not exist in complete harmony with other facts we know or observations we make. The duty of the Church is to recognize what the Bible teaches and then repeat it and explain it as clearly as possible. This task belongs to the Church whether or not she can explain every truth of the Bible in exhaustive detail.

The Confession stresses that God’s providence is ultimate, yet the guilt for the sin that exists in this realm belongs to the creature, not the Creator. Again, we know for certain that God is holy and righteous–few facts about God are as manifestly stated in the Bible. What we know for certain must govern our understanding, interpretation and explanation of what we do not know for certain (such as the relationship between God’s providence and the creature’s sin).

(To be continued)