God’s Providence Defined
The Scriptures clearly teach that all things outside of God owe their continued existence to the will of God. [1] And in the work of redemption, while the Bible teaches that this providential control is universal, powerful, wise, and holy, it nowhere attempts to inform how it is reconciled with man’s free will. What the Bible is clear on is God’s character precludes Him to govern His creatures and control them in a way where no violence is done to their natures.
God’s Foreknowledge Defined
What God foreknows must be as fixed and certain as what is foreordained. Foreordination makes the events certain, while foreknowledge presupposes they are certain. Another way of saying this is to say if future events are foreknown to God, they cannot take a turn contrary to His knowledge. The Calvinistic doctrine of the foreknowledge of God proves also His predestination. Boettner says:
“Since these events are foreknown, they are fixed and settled things; and nothing can have fixed and settled them except the good pleasure of God – the great first cause – freely and unchangeably foreordaining whatever comes to pass.”
[2]
[1] Acts 17:28 NIV; Col. 1:17 NIV; Heb. 1:3 NIV.
[2] Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company), 46.
