Providence: God's Sovereign Hand in Everyday Life (Part 1): A Study in the Westminster Confession of Faith

WEBVTT
00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:32.960
Welcome back to Catechizing Conversations.
00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:39.039
We're here in this podcast talking about the Westminster Confession of Faith.
00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:47.759
And today we're talking about chapter five of Providence, joined again by Drew Brackbill.
00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:48.560
Drew, welcome back.
00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.280
It's been a while.
00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:52.159
Yeah, it's been a couple months, I feel like.
00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:55.920
And now we're not only in the middle of summer.
00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:57.600
It feels like we're at the end of summer.
00:00:58.079 --> 00:00:59.600
Summer can't end fast enough.
00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:03.280
My power bill is out of control.
00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:09.599
I can't believe it's almost August.
00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:11.599
But how has summer been?
00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:12.560
Any any plans?
00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:13.840
What are you looking forward to doing?
00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:22.239
I have uh a vacation coming up with all my all my buddies, just kind of a guys' weekend coming up in August that I'm really looking forward to.
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.439
Some of them, I think maybe they're regular listeners of our podcast.
00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:29.280
So just know I I uh you know if you're if you're listening, guys, I'm excited.
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:31.040
They have something to talk about.
00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:34.159
This is a way for me to test whether or not they're actually listening.
00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:34.879
Yeah, exactly.
00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:38.400
What was uh chapter five UCF about?
00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:44.319
No, and then uh Catherine and I are going away to Canada for I think a whole week uh family.
00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:46.400
So we always we we try to do that every year.
00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.000
It's it's it's always fun.
00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:56.959
Well, highlight for my summer so far has been I took Katie to a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game for her birthday, which sat doesn't even sound right.
00:01:57.840 --> 00:01:59.439
Well the best baseball team.
00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:05.040
I mean, but I mean the fact that that's what she asked for is like a gift for me too.
00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:06.719
You gotta keep her there, Cisco.
00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:08.719
Yeah, we're working on it.
00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:12.240
But I caught a foul ball, so that was the highlight of my summer.
00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:22.639
When I was proud of myself because I I've I used to play center field in Little League, and I was I think a pretty good center center fielder, but I wondered if I still had coordination.
00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:28.479
So this ball came my way and I caught it, and that was the first for me in a major league baseball game.
00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:36.560
And and then the the other highlight so far is my brother got me a ticket to the MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia, which was really cool.
00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:39.759
So that was like once in a lifetime thing.
00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:41.360
I don't think I'll be back.
00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:49.599
Yeah, it's well, I I was down there for work, I guess the week before the All-Star game, and there it was just advertised everywhere.
00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:49.919
Yeah.
00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:52.000
I wish I'd come in for uh work a week later.
00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:56.479
Well, they had the World Cup, they had the All-Star Game, was it 250th?
00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:59.199
There were celebrations going on for that.
00:02:59.360 --> 00:02:59.599
Yeah.
00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:03.199
So hop in hop in town, Philly.
00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:03.919
Absolutely.
00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.240
Yeah, it's good to go and good to leave.
00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:19.039
My my son was with me, and I uh I don't eat much breakfast, uh, but I went into a breakfast place and got him a sandwich and me a bagel, and it was twenty dollars, and I said, I need to get out of this city.
00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:20.879
Yeah, that sounds about right.
00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:28.879
So, uh speaking of providence and and how the Lord uh leads all and guides all things, that's our subject today.
00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:39.599
And since it's been a while, just a quick recap recap, we're going through the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was written in the 1640s, hammered out by the divines.
00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:50.560
And and for clarification, that means those who have studied divinity, they were theologians and men of great competency where that's concerned, but they were merely men.
00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:55.759
But they wrote this document, which we as Presbyterians affirm.
00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:02.960
And some may question, well, why why do you hold to a confession instead of just saying we believe the Bible?
00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:07.919
And and certainly the the Bible is over any confession.
00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:08.400
Oh, yeah.
00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:10.960
A good confession isn't a replacement for the Bible.
00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:17.839
And Chad Van Dixhorn, who is the expert of experts on the Westminster Confession of Faith.
00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:22.160
I think he's certainly the greatest living expert on the Absolutely, I would say so.
00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:23.600
Uh he has a great illustration.
00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:34.959
He says, Imagine driving to Yellowstone, picking up the park map at the entrance, and then just staying in the parking lot with the map, never seeing anything, never walking a single trail.
00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:39.600
Of course, nobody d does that because the map is no substitute for the park.
00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:42.720
And so the confession is like the map.
00:04:42.959 --> 00:05:04.480
But plenty of people tried to read scripture without any map at all, end up missing the high points, unsure where the good trails are are at, where the water is, and so the confession is what we believe a tested, well-worn map to the terrain of scripture, drawn by people who walked it closely and cared about getting the paths right.
00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.879
So a great illustration by Van Dixhorn.
00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:13.120
And one of the reasons why we're we're working through this ancient document.
00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:18.959
And today we come to chapter five, which I've been excited about.
00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:23.199
Getting to this chapter, and we're here now, and it's of providence.
00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:27.279
So I guess we start with what is providence?
00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:27.759
Yeah.
00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:33.600
Well, there's some scripture we can read, right, to give us an idea of the scriptural basis of providence, right?
00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:39.839
Psalm 115.3, our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:43.199
And of course, we always go to Romans 8, Romans 8.28.
00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:49.279
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:55.600
I think we've even quoted Ephesians 1.11 before in in prior chapters on these similar themes.
00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:03.199
That we we would say we have an inheritance, we've been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:14.480
And then I think this is probably my favorite verse about Providence is in Matthew, when Jesus says, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father?
00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:19.839
Even the hairs of your head are numbered, fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.
00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.680
That's probably that's definitely in my top five Bible verses.
00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:24.319
Yeah.
00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:30.959
And certainly our understanding of providence springs from that verse.
00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:31.680
Yeah.
00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.319
Matthew 10, 29 to 31.
00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:55.759
So I think pr Providence is the idea that God is continuously preserving, governing, and directing every creature and every event according to his eternal wisdom and his holy will, and we would say for his own glory.
00:06:56.319 --> 00:07:05.600
And I think Providence pretty much every Christian is eventually going to have questions about what is God doing?
00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:07.519
Why is God doing this?
00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:09.839
Why do tragedies happen?
00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:13.600
Is God in control when it seems like evil is prevailing?
00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:16.800
You know, how should the unbeliever understand suffering?
00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:18.399
We've talked before about the problem of evil.
00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:22.160
Providence is also an answer to the problem of evil.
00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:35.439
And I think another big question people have, right, is history moving towards some grand design, towards what we would say is God's purpose, or is it just unfolding through sheer chance?
00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:50.160
And chapter five of the Westminster Confession is addressing these kind of questions, and it's laying out some of the reformed distinctives when it comes to our concepts of God's sovereignty and divine rule.
00:07:50.480 --> 00:08:03.199
But you know, and we'll probably get to this in episode two, maybe, because we've been trying to divide these into two episodes per chapter, and sometimes that's worked out well, and sometimes we've got one really long episode and one pretty short one.
00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:07.040
I think these will be two evenly balanced episodes.
00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:13.360
But the doctrine of providence is not just some abstract theological concept.
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:23.439
I think perhaps of all the things we've talked about so far, this is the one with the most serious impact on Christians' everyday lives.
00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:23.920
Right.
00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.040
The doctrine of Providence is for the comfort of believers.
00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:27.519
Right.
00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:35.840
And I was thinking as we're preparing for this episode, other Christian traditions believe in Providence.
00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:36.320
Yeah.
00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:49.519
They may not have it defined, it may not be in confession like ours, but a broad view of Christian traditions, Christian traditions, excuse me, has an understanding of providence.
00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:50.720
Yeah.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:53.360
I mean, pretty much all of them do, right?
00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:53.919
I would say.
00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.279
And many of them are pretty close.
00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:57.679
Yeah.
00:08:57.919 --> 00:08:59.039
I mean, there's some variations.
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:06.639
We're not talking about open theology or some of the more extreme views, but most anybody, uh just somebody's gonna say God is in control.
00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:10.960
We don't understand why things happen, but God is God.
00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:12.000
Yeah.
00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:24.399
I mean the the Catholics have a really interesting and robust kind of, and to my reformed mind, very different understanding of God's, you know, how God's goodness interacts with the problem of evil.
00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:34.080
And and theirs centers much more on kind of questions of human free will, which we sort of don't worry about to the same degree.
00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:37.519
I mean, we're gonna talk about free will and predestination instance.
00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:39.200
It always comes up a lot.
00:09:39.440 --> 00:10:09.200
But you know, they they would say that, you know, for example, when when God created the world, although he created it good, he didn't create it perfect, and so it's in a state of of journeying towards greater goodness, and that our you know, God's providence towards Christians is in drawing us towards our good and and you know, his ultimate good designs, which is uh like not that far off from what we believe, I don't think, but um, because they're also coming out of the Augustinian tradition.
00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:14.960
I mean, they basically get their theology of providence from Augustine, which is where we get ours from.
00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:19.679
And you know, this in the systematic details of how they would describe it, it's probably a little different.
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:28.799
But like the roots are coming from Augustine's ideas about you know the the earth being pregnant with with the promise of goodness, right?
00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:31.360
The seeds of goodness are sown by God and that kind of thing.
00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:36.399
So how does providence differ from creation?
00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:52.000
Because if we're following the trajectory of the Westminster Confession, we've talked about just in the previous chapter about God speaking all things into existence, and we've talked about predestination and and so forth.
00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:56.240
But how is Providence different than those?
00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:57.519
Yeah.
00:10:57.919 --> 00:10:58.320
Right.
00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:07.600
Well, so you know, chapter if chapter four is about creation, chapter five is about providence, they're sort of I would say two sides of the same coin.
00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:13.679
I th that might be putting a little bit too fine a point on it, but creation is asking, you know, how did the world begin?
00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:17.759
How did God set everything into motion?
00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:23.200
And then providence asks, how is the world continually sustained and governed?
00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:34.000
And there are several differing theories of providence, even held by, you know, people in the sort of reformed camp, I guess.
00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:36.320
I don't know if you could say deists are really in the reformed camp.
00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:40.720
It's sort of a product of of the of post-Reformation philosophy.
00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:53.600
But, you know, there are people who would say that the creation and providence are essentially the same thing, right?
00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:57.679
That God is constantly creating every instant he is recreating the world.
00:11:57.840 --> 00:11:59.200
That's what Jonathan Edwards thought.
00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:00.000
We'll talk about that.
00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:17.440
And then on the flip side of the coin, there are those who would say the deists would say that uh, you know God is sort of merely choosing not to destroy the world, that providence is is God's you know mere permission of the world to continue existing.
00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:18.879
This is deism, right?
00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:30.960
The the the uh divine watchmaker idea that that God created everything s with such intricate processes, set it set it all in motion, and then he sat back and just let it run.
00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:32.559
And that's what we would disagree with.
00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:34.000
Yeah, we disagree with both.
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:41.200
I mean, we we being Presbyterians would probably disagree with both of those worldviews, right?
00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:43.919
The both deism and the continuous creation idea.
00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:50.720
But that God upholds moment by moment uh this this universe.
00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:51.120
Yeah.
00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:52.879
And he is active within it.
00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:53.519
Yeah.
00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:00.320
I mean, so I'm gonna quote heavily from uh a Presbyterian uh theologian named Charles Hodge.
00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:06.480
He was very active in at Princeton before Princeton got totally crazy.
00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:15.919
And Hodge said that that deism is this view that those it's the view of those who assume that everything is to be referred to the original purpose of God.
00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:22.559
He created all things and determined that they should continue in being according to the laws which he impressed upon them at the beginning.
00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.639
There is no need, it is said, of supposing his continued intervention for their preservation.
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.759
It is enough that he does not will that they should cease to be.
00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:38.159
This is the theory adopted by the remonstrants, which are like post-Darminian Dutch post-Calvinists, and generally by the deists of modern times.
00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:47.679
According to this view, God is seated on his throne in the heavens a mere spectator of the world and of its operations, exerting no direct efficiency in sustaining the things which he has made.
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:52.960
And this was actually a surprisingly popular view among the intellectual elite in America.
00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:59.600
You know, in the 17, late 1700s, several of the founding fathers were deists, or at least sympathetic to deist ideas.
00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.879
Ben Franklin was had a flirtation with deism.
00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:08.480
Thomas Jefferson was a dedicated deist.
00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:18.480
So, you know, their their idea of God was, like I said, a divine watchmaker who's just an observer of creation, and he's he's not intervening.
00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:22.559
And that's totally out of step with what scripture teaches.
00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:25.840
But right, I mean, scripture teaches that God actively rules the world.
00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:30.720
Like Psalm Psalm 104 says that when you hide your face, they are terrified.
00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:33.279
When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.
00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:36.639
When you send your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:41.279
That is not a picture of a God that is standing above and outside of creation.
00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.879
That's a picture of a God that's actively involved.
00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:53.519
I think deism is also totally incompatible with all of the times in scripture that God miraculously intervenes, right?
00:14:53.919 --> 00:15:14.000
And Thomas Jefferson famously had this version of the Bible that he created for himself where he used a razor blade to like cut out, cut, cut up several different copies of the Bible and mushed them all together into one that had removed all the references to miracles because he thought it was incompatible with his his deistic conception of God.
00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:23.120
So we we would repudiate that very strongly as being totally incompatible with scripture, and and I think that's it's thoroughly outside the the stream of orthodoxy.
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:24.720
Yeah, Hebrews 1, 3.
00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:32.720
He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:33.440
Yeah.
00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:41.200
So our our conception of providence is that God is upholding the world actively.
00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:47.039
And the in the language the confession is going to use is directs, disposes, and governs.
00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:48.000
Yeah.
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.559
So all creatures.
00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.519
He created everything by the word of his power, he's sustaining everything by the word of his power.
00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:12.480
Then another distortion of, I think, the scripture is this idea on the on the flip side of deism, this idea that when God preserves things, that's the same type of act as creating things.
00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:15.279
So what they would call continuous creation.
00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:28.720
Hodge would say there's several different meanings of this term continued or constant creation, some of which are just references to the idea that as God created all things by the word of his power, so he also upholds all things by the word of his power, which is orthodox.
00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:31.039
But there is a different sense of this term.
00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:46.480
Sometimes by continued creation, it's meant that all efficiency is in God, that all effects are to be referred to his agency, as there was no cooperation in calling the world out of nothing, so there is no cooperation of second causes in its continuance and operations.
00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:54.639
God creates, as it were, de novo at each instant of the universe, as at that moment it actually is.
00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:57.279
De novo just means newly.
00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:01.519
So this was the theory of providence that Jonathan Edwards held to.
00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:04.000
No, I'm gonna criticize Edwards.
00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:05.440
It's not really a criticism.
00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:13.039
I just you know, Edwards had one real banger of a sermon, and he had some goofy beliefs about other stuff.
00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:14.480
I mean, he was a congregationalist.
00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:18.319
So you're not gonna be getting the new Jonathan Edwards study Bible that's coming out?
00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:19.759
I'm kidding.
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:20.319
I don't think so.
00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:23.839
I mean, like Edwards was spot on.
00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:26.880
All the men that we're we're reading, are these are mere men.
00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:36.400
So there's there's errors, there's truth, there's there's uh and he he was Edwards was sort of a also a philosopher.
00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:45.440
He's best remembered as a preacher, but he he spent a lot of time writing philosophy too, and he's kind of a lost philosopher in that in some sense.
00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:52.000
But you know, this idea of constant creation has some issues too, right?
00:17:52.160 --> 00:18:02.000
As Hodge would say that creation, preservation, and government are in fact different, and identifying them together leads not only to confusion but to error.
00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:12.319
Creation and preservation differ first, as the former is the calling into existence what before did not exist, and the latter is continuing or causing to continue what already has a being.
00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:18.079
And secondly, in creation there is and can be no cooperation, which means God did it himself, right?
00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:20.960
He didn't use the angels to create, right?
00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:23.039
He didn't need our help to create.
00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:29.519
But in preservation, there is a concursus of the first with second causes.
00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:32.559
We'll get into this disc discussion of what concursus means.
00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:36.319
It just means a concurrence, you know, a co-working.
00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:39.599
And then in the Bible, therefore, the two things are never confounded.
00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:43.920
God created all things, and by him all things consist.
00:18:44.160 --> 00:19:00.240
And Hodge also describes Jonathan Edwards's sort of continuous creation idea as as like a basically like a kind of Christian pantheism, in which the heavens and earth, with all their changes and with all they contain, are but the pulsations of the universal life of God.
00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:14.799
But we know that although we owe our existence to God, and his will is what continually sustains our own existence, nevertheless, created beings, we do have a continuity of existence apart from God's own existence.
00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:24.480
We are our own beings with our own minds and wills, and you know, to say otherwise, would make would make God the author of sin.
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:27.200
So we got we can throw that one out.
00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:30.960
We have deism, continuous creation, and then thirdly.
00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:38.079
And then the third, probably the mo the most common orthodox position is this idea that's called concursus.
00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:46.960
And this is the idea which has been adopted to a greater or lesser extent by Augustine and pretty much everybody that was a successor to his system of theology.
00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:53.359
So most of the Western Church, right, including the scholastics, Thomas Aquinas, I think, thought this.
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:59.359
Most of the reformers, Luther, Calvin, thought, thought of Providence in this way, right?
00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:04.640
That as Hodge would say, that no second cause can act until acted upon.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:08.000
Nothing created can originate action.
00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:11.759
And this is the most commonly held reformed position.
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:25.759
I think it in plain English, it's the idea, as we've discussed before, right, that God is at work in the ordinary means of human decisions because he's the primary cause, and then man's actions are the secondary causes.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:32.960
And also natural laws and chance and the weather, you know, these are other secondary causes.
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:38.960
And then the theologian Herman Bavink phrased it this way when speaking of concursus.
00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:49.680
He said that the constant teaching of the Christian church, nevertheless, has been that the two causes, though they are totally dependent on the primary cause, are at the same time also true and essential causes.
00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:54.559
He's talking about separating secondary causes into two other types of causes.
00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:56.799
This gets really complex really fast.
00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:06.400
But with his almighty power, God makes possible every secondary cause and is present in it with his being at its beginning, progression, and end.
00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:12.240
It is he who posits it and makes it move into action, precursus, right?
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:17.680
This is the starting the cause, and who further accompanies it in its working and leads it to its effect.
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:19.039
Concursus, right?
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:27.119
So concursus is the idea that there's some element of compatibilism at work between the human and the divine will.
00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:34.400
Bavink quotes Philippians 2.13, he is at work in us both to will and to do for his good pleasure, right?
00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:36.319
So God is working through us.
00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:42.240
There are still, I think, some possible objections to this theory, right?
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:48.880
Not least of which is that it's like Hodge says this in his essay that I'm cribbing substantially from.
00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:52.240
He would say that it's an attempt to explain the inexplainable, right?
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:58.160
There's some element of holy mystery at work in how God and man interact with separate wills.
00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:06.559
But of all the Overly detailed, nerdy ways of conceiving of the distinction between God's work in creating, sustaining, and governing the world.
00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:08.799
This is probably the most scriptural.
00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:23.839
And then Hodge, for his part, would say that all we know and all we need to know is one, that God does govern all his creatures, and two, that his control over them is consistent with their nature and with his own infinite purity and excellence.
00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:28.160
Which is a much simpler way of describing this.
00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:38.240
But so those are kind of the three prevailing theories of providence of how God sustains creation.
00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:42.720
And the simpler way is what the the uh confession says.
00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:45.680
Who's ever said that?
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:46.960
That the confession is simple.
00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:53.440
Well, I mean, the the confession is the summary, you know, of really big, hefty theological themes.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:19.440
God, the 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.
00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:27.839
So the confession doesn't stop at God upholds, he directs, he disposes, and he governs.
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:31.200
And so it's not in any passive sense.
00:23:31.359 --> 00:23:36.079
He's actively steering, arranging, and ruling everything that happens.
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:47.519
And we see this, Paul, when he's preaching to in Athens, that God Himself gives all mankind life and breath and everything that in him we live and move and have our being.
00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:48.880
Yeah.
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:54.000
The confession says God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs, right?
00:23:54.160 --> 00:24:06.400
So that's kind of 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.
00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:28.319
So when we say that God upholds all things, we mean that God is not just the creator, he is the continual sustainer, every heartbeat, every child's first cry, every supernova, every electron moving around the nucleus of every atom continues because God wills it.
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:32.799
And when God governs all creatures, right?
00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:41.200
Big picture stuff.
00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:45.119
He governs every action, every event, every circumstance.
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:48.000
You know, not a sparrow can fall to the ground apart from him.
00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:53.680
So and providence is for God's glory, right?
00:24:54.079 --> 00:25:04.640
It says that he does all these things by the free and immutable counsel of his own will to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.
00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:19.599
So as we've said in uh at least once in in prior episodes, probably multiple times, the reformed presupposition about God's divine will is that human happiness isn't the ultimate end of reality.
00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:20.079
Right?
00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:21.519
We're not gods.
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:22.559
God is God.
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:27.039
The ultimate end towards which reality is oriented is to display God's glory.
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:27.680
Right.
00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:41.759
So And yeah, and we're probably I'm probably jumping ahead here a little bit, but just to return to that Matthew 10 passage, which you said was one of your favorite, are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:59.119
Uh so the interpreters and and commentators have noted that the sparrow is one of the least significant creatures you can name, sold to for a coin, if it falls to the ground outside, it does not fall to the ground outside of God's act of oversight.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:07.440
And then Jesus is going to tighten that argument even further when he says, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:19.680
So the idea is if God numbers something as trivial and unnoticed as a hare or a sparrow, there is nothing too small to escape his governing hand.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:20.640
Yeah.
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:26.000
And so Jesus actually arguing from the lesser to the greater.
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:34.880
If if God cares this much about a sparrow and a hare, things of seemingly no apparent consequence, then how much does he care for you?
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:35.680
Yeah.
00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:56.960
And, you know, although we would say that human quote unquote human happiness is not God's goal, we know that our good is not opposed to his glory, right?
00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:06.400
In Romans 8 28 through 30, it says we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:13.279
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:20.160
And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:24.880
So when we love God, we participate in glorifying him, and he glorifies us.
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:28.319
And we become co-heirs with Christ of God's glory and eternity.
00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:34.559
So our good is not opposed to God's glory.
00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:35.039
Yeah.
00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:38.880
So when we talk about providence, we're not talking about superstition.
00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:39.359
No.
00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:41.519
We're not talking about fate.
00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:53.359
Now you've studied Latin, and uh so is it true that providence comes from two Latin words, pro meaning before, and then video meaning to see?
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:54.319
I think so.
00:27:54.640 --> 00:28:05.279
So it's but then it's not just foreknowledge, God seeing what will happen before it happens, it's God seeing before his own face in the in the sense of continual oversight.
00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:12.240
God's total active government of everything he has made, and he is fully and completely aware of it all.
00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:12.960
Yes.
00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:19.039
So it is, it can be unsettling and providence can be an unsettling topic.
00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:22.640
God sees all and God is active in all.
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:27.119
Then I know there's going to be some objections that come from that, and we'll and we'll get to some of that.
00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:31.200
But we want to say up front here, or at least not up front, we're middle.
00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:33.599
Up middle towards the end.
00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:37.200
This is one of the most comforting doctrines in scripture.
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:40.720
Particularly go back to what Jesus said in Matthew 10.
00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:45.440
The God who sees everything is the same God who cares.
00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:51.359
The old spiritual, his eyes on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.
00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:54.400
So it's it's it's comforting, it's rich.
00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:59.839
And and you've spoken of both God ordaining the ends and the means.
00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:08.720
Yeah, so I'm gonna read paragraph two here, as we're we're kind of moving into this discussion, or section two of the of chapter five of the confession.
00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:13.279
Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, right?
00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:17.440
God is the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly.
00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:25.200
Yet by the same providence, he orders them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:32.480
And so we've we've we've discussed this actually in our episode on Predestination.
00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:35.440
Well, yeah, I think it was on God's God's eternal decree.
00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:42.079
We we kind of skipped ahead a little bit in that episode to help illustrate the theological points in those episodes.
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:48.880
But when we're talking about what we would call second causes, here's some examples of the second causes, right?
00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:51.759
The ordinary means that God uses to carry out his will, right?
00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:54.640
The rain falls and the crops grow, right?
00:29:54.799 --> 00:30:00.000
A doctor heals patients, parents raise children in governments restrain evil.
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:04.960
All of these are God ordaining both the outcome and the process.
00:30:05.359 --> 00:30:08.799
And crucially, we know that these secondary causes are real.
00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:11.039
This is a, I think, a critical nuance.
00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:15.519
The the divines, Westminster divines, rejected fatalism, right?
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:20.240
Fire really burns you, the laws of thermodynamic thermodynamics apply.
00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:27.119
People really make decisions whether you know ordinarily follows a set pattern.
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:35.599
Human choices matter, but beneath it all, beneath all secondary causes, there stands the first cause of God.
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:37.839
And I have an illustration here.
00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:51.279
This is maybe again another trite illustration, but when a novelist is writing a story, he controls the outcome of every chapter without kind of destroying, at least in the context of the story, the genuine actions of the characters.
00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:55.440
So, like let's say Agatha Christie, for example, the great murder mystery novelist.
00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:57.440
She's she's writing murder on the Orient Express.
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:06.480
She's controlling the outcome of the story from an area outside the reality that's experienced by the characters in the in the meta of the story.
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:10.319
But you can't say that she committed the murder on the Orient Express, right?
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:14.880
I'm not going to spoil the book for anyone who's wondering who did commit the murder on the Orient Express.
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:25.279
But Hercule Poirot, who's the detective in, I think, most, almost all of her of her famous stories, he solves the mystery because Christy wanted him to, right?
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:29.200
That was her objective in writing the story, was that Poirot would solve the mystery.
00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:37.599
So I think maybe that's another trade example, but it's not totally out of step with how Presbyterians think about God, right?
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:47.440
We think of God as the author of a grand story, or you might say the weaver of a grand of a great tapestry in which we are participants, even though we can't perceive it in its fullness.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:52.480
Ecclesiastes 3.11 says he has he hath made everything beautiful in its time.
00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:58.480
Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:01.839
We are participants in this story without knowing how it's going to go.
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:04.079
To some degree, that is frightening, like you said.
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:21.839
To some degree, knowing that there is an author who has foreordained what will occur in our lives is a little disconcerting, but it shouldn't be if you believe that that author has your good in mind, which we believe that God does.
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:22.160
Right.
00:32:22.559 --> 00:32:28.720
So I was reading Puritan commentator William Gage, who is also one of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:36.160
So William Gouge Gage, he said, divine providence extent extends itself to all things, even suffering and hardship.
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:38.160
And we're going to get to that.
00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:46.240
But if you strip that away, the only alternative left is chance, fortune, and luck.
00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:47.359
Right?
00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:57.359
So if you strip away what we're talking about about God's providence, we have a universe where no one is watching, no one is governing, and there's no one to trust.
00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:02.480
And so as you continue to look up, are we pronouncing William Gage or Gowt's name right?
00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:03.200
He was British.
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:03.839
He was British.
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:04.319
Okay.
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:19.279
I was reading a sermon that he preached on providence, and it was in the aftermath of some calamities that happened, not only to him personally, but as a people corporately.
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:25.039
And he takes as his text Ezekiel 36.11.
00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:31.039
And this matches this coincides with what you just quoted from Ecclesiastes 3.11.
00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:48.240
Ezekiel 36.11 says, I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful, and I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before.
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:50.880
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:55.039
And what did you figure out is a gauge or gouge?
00:33:55.359 --> 00:33:56.880
I'm gonna guess that it's gouge.
00:33:57.359 --> 00:34:10.960
What gouge says is because redemptive history hasn't reached its final day, we're meant to read our own moments, both the good and the bad alike, within that same framework.
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:17.920
God is still multiplying good and still working toward an appointed end.
00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:22.800
And so he was reading Ezekiel 36, 11 as to the church.
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:29.519
And he was reading, I will do more good to you than I've ever done before as the day that is coming.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:44.079
But he's saying in the midst of hardship, understanding God's providence, we have to understand what's happening with that knowledge that the best is still to come.
00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:55.199
That God is working all things for his good, all those that love God according to his purpose, he's working and he's going to make all things beautiful in his time.
00:34:55.519 --> 00:35:04.079
And I think that is in the midst of this another hard doctrine here of Providence, I I think that's where the comfort is.
00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:14.000
Especially people who have gone through God's people that have gone through some horrific tragedies in life and and pains and deep grief.
00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:19.039
That yes, God is going to make everything beautiful in his time.
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:22.000
In his time, too, is is the crucial thing.
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:28.159
We're not promised that life is going to be per se easy.
00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:28.960
No, right?
00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:30.559
No, Gallage would say it's heaven.
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:30.800
Yeah.
00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:32.960
I'm gonna do more good to you than I've ever done before.
00:35:33.039 --> 00:35:33.519
That's heaven.
00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:34.400
Yeah.
00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:39.199
But we are promised that God is working for our good.
00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:39.599
Right.
00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:40.880
For our ultimate good.
00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:46.960
Which, of course, in the the modern American kind of idiom is like completely inconceivable, right?
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:50.880
Like if we're experiencing discomfort for a week, it's like the worst thing we've ever felt.
00:35:51.760 --> 00:36:09.440
We're so used to to being essentially pampered and and coddled by society that like we can't really conceive of experiencing the providence of God in a way that involves our tragedy.
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:20.719
In fact, uh we're just remembering when Gouge preaches this sermon, it's in the aftermath of church building that collapses and dozens and dozens are killed and injured.
00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:26.800
And so he's preaching on the providence of God in the in the aftermath of great tragedy.
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:27.679
Yeah.
00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:33.599
So the providence of God is not something that we need to shrink back from or be ashamed of.
00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:43.039
And I think on some of these hard topics we're often tempted to do that, but we need to get to the core of what it means scripturally, because this is where the real comfort is.
00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:55.920
And I think, you know, to some degree, whether it's through, you know, ordinary means that make us happy or ordinary means that make us sad, right?
00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.039
God is still working out his purposes.
00:36:59.199 --> 00:37:11.440
We'll get into this more in probably what will become the second episode, but it's often hard to see the gloriousness of providence until much after the fact.
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:12.320
That's right, right?
00:37:12.400 --> 00:37:20.000
Like when Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, it would probably be hard for him to trust that this was for the best.
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:25.360
And yet God used that to save many, you know, many, many lives.
00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:27.840
Save people from famine and starvation.
00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:43.519
So we perceive tragedy because we're limited by the temporality of our minds, we perceive tragedy very it's it dominates our consciousness when we're experiencing it.
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:50.000
And then after the fact, when the pain has passed, I think sometimes you can look back and see, oh, that was the hand of God.
00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:52.719
I've seen that in my life many times.
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:53.519
Yeah.
00:37:53.840 --> 00:37:55.760
At least, you know, a handful of times.
00:37:55.920 --> 00:38:00.000
And you think of what David said, it was good that I was afflicted.
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:00.320
Yeah.
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:03.920
I mean, I don't think he's saying that as he's being afflicted, but as well.
00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:07.440
No, it was after and reflection, in time of reflection.
00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:10.559
As he's being afflicted, he's saying, Lord deliver me from my affliction.
00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:11.360
Right.
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:13.679
Lord deliver me from my enemies.
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:14.000
Yeah.
00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:31.199
And both of these things, the cry of the suffering Christian, you know, the cry of the psalmist in in anguish, and the gratitude of of you know, a mature look back on what you went through, those are both legitimate utterances, right?
00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:34.719
We we call upon the name of the Lord in distress.
00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:40.960
Because we trust that he's going to work everything for our good.
00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:41.760
Right.
00:38:42.079 --> 00:38:47.599
And uh so then paragraph three or section three talks about this is the shortest one.
00:38:47.760 --> 00:38:50.639
So before we close, I think I want to address this.
00:38:50.800 --> 00:39:02.000
It says, God in his ordinary providence maketh use of means, which is to say secondary causes, yet he is free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure.
00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:11.920
And so this is talking about how God can supernaturally intervene in in the the proceedings of the world that he's created.
00:39:12.239 --> 00:39:18.239
And it's not you know hard for a kid who went through Sunday school to think of some miracles, right?
00:39:18.480 --> 00:39:23.039
The parting of the Red Sea, sending the manna from heaven, virgin birth, the resurrection.
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:25.519
These are these are miracles, right?
00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:28.719
But they're not outside of God's providence, right?
00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:31.360
Yeah, his use of miracles never contradicts his providence.
00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:38.800
It's not like he's thinking, oh, you know, I didn't actually want XYZ thing to happen to ABC people, so I'd better intervene and stop it, right?
00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:43.119
This is just God revealing another mode of his government of the world.
00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:43.679
Yeah.
00:39:43.920 --> 00:39:47.679
So someone can be surprised that Presbyterians believe in miracles.
00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:48.239
Yeah.
00:39:48.400 --> 00:39:51.519
Well, I mean, we believe the Bible.
00:39:51.920 --> 00:39:53.519
There's a lot of them in there.
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:55.760
God is God and he can do what he wants.
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:57.280
Yeah, God can do whatever he wants.
00:39:58.719 --> 00:39:59.760
I mean, we do believe that.
00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:01.280
We believe that God can do what he wants.
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:08.159
The the medieval had this really healthy debate going about whether God's limited by his own rules, right?
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:13.519
So so they had this concept of potential, they called it potentia ordinata, right?
00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:19.599
His ordained power as contrasted with potentia absoluta, which was its absolute power.
00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:29.199
And this ordained power idea describes the power that God exercises within the bounds of laws and natural orders and covenants that he's freely established.
00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:48.480
And then, you know, the absolute power idea that's the medieval philosopher Dun Scotus and the scholastics, they thought of God's ability to do this uh absolute power is God's ability to do to do anything that doesn't involve a logical contradiction outside of those established rules that he's imposed on himself.
00:40:48.719 --> 00:40:59.519
So, and I, you know, not to get into a long discussion on this topic, because it is it is a theological and philosophical topic that I don't understand that well.
00:40:59.679 --> 00:41:08.000
A friend of mine who may or may not listen to the podcast, who's uh now a law professor, actually, is an expert on divine simplicity.
00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:10.000
He's written journal articles about it.
00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:14.000
And so if I uh am butchering this, I'm sure he'll correct me if he hears.
00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:19.679
But in the reform tradition, we adhere to this idea that is called divine simplicity, right?
00:41:19.760 --> 00:41:27.440
The idea that God is not merely possessed of the metaphysical quality of goodness, but he is the metaphysical quality of goodness.
00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:28.400
He is goodness.
00:41:28.559 --> 00:41:31.199
So his being and his attributes are indivisible.
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:35.360
And he is goodness, he is justice, he is love.
00:41:35.519 --> 00:41:51.280
That's what the divines, the Westminster divines, meant when in chapter two, when they're talking about God's attributes in the Trinity, they say that God is a most pure spirit, invisible invisible without body parts, without body, comma, parts, comma, or passions, right?
00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:58.639
So he is without parts, which means he is simple, right?
00:41:58.800 --> 00:41:59.599
Divinely simple.
00:41:59.760 --> 00:42:06.079
So if we carry forward that idea of divine simplicity, simplicity in this sense being a good thing, right?
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:15.360
It's not a dig at God's intelligence or something, we would say and then we apply it to the concept of potentia absoluta, the the absolute power.
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:32.480
God being the creator of the laws of reality, he's not per se bound by the laws of physical reality, but because he is rationality and because he is logic, therefore the laws of logic are a reflection of his own rational nature.
00:42:32.719 --> 00:42:36.239
So, and because he's he's consistent, it doesn't change.
00:42:36.559 --> 00:42:39.440
His actions and decrees are inherently logical.
00:42:40.079 --> 00:42:44.079
And in other words, he can operate outside the rules of reality, right?
00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:46.800
He can raise the dead, something that doesn't normally happen.
00:42:46.960 --> 00:42:57.039
He can part oceans, something that doesn't normally happen, without logical contradiction, and this this does not in any way invalidate his providence.
00:42:57.280 --> 00:42:59.840
It's not like he's changing his mind, right?
00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:08.320
He's choosing to operate outside of the you know his his ordinary power, right?
00:43:09.119 --> 00:43:10.639
Ordained power, I should say.
00:43:11.199 --> 00:43:22.880
Well, as our listeners are tuned into this podcast, we trust that this beginning uh talk on the providence of God would have been an encouragement to you, and it is an encouragement to you.
00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:29.920
And I'll leave you just with that, with the God's ability, his power, his his presence, his activity in the world.
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:36.159
And if if he's active in the world, he's also active in the most minutiae of events and and your very own life.
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:39.760
And perhaps you're feeling today like that's not the case.
00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:46.880
There's a sense of maybe meaninglessness or happenstance, or why am I going through what I'm going through?
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:58.480
Just to reiterate that beautiful passage that we read earlier from the words of Christ, are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
00:43:58.800 --> 00:44:04.079
You indeed, child of God, are worth much more than many sparrows.
00:44:04.159 --> 00:44:13.920
And so, how much more is God active and at work in your life, despite how you feel or what's going on circumstantially?
00:44:14.159 --> 00:44:17.920
We're praying for you and so thankful that you tuned into this podcast.
00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:20.400
My name is Sisko Victor with uh Drew Brackville.
00:44:20.559 --> 00:44:21.920
Thanks again, Drew, for being with us.
00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:23.760
Yeah, welcome back.
00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:32.159
And um, if you're in the Lebanon County area, our church is Lebanon Valley Presbyterian Church, PCA.
00:44:32.719 --> 00:44:35.920
We meet Sunday mornings, Sunday at 10 a.m.
00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:41.199
53 Chestnut Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
00:44:41.280 --> 00:44:42.880
We'd love to meet you in person.
00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:44.559
The Lord bless you.
00:44:45.119 --> 00:44:46.719
Have a wonderful day!