Category: Creeds & Confessions

Question 31: Why is He called Christ, that is, anointed?

Answer: Because He is ordained of God the Father, and anointed with the Holy Ghost,1 to be our chief Prophet and Teacher,2 who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption; and to be our only High Priest, who by the one sacrifice of His body, has redeemed us,3 and makes continual intercession with the Father for us;4 and also to be our eternal King,5 who governs us by His word and Spirit, and who defends and preserves us6 in the enjoyment of that salvation He has purchased for us.

As the HC continues breaks down the meaning of the Apostle’s Creed (AC) so as to teach us what it means to be delivered from our Sin & Misery we first looked at the name, “Jesus.” Now we, take up His title, “Christ.” The most obvious thing to say here first it that “Christ” is a title and not a name. Jesus is the name. Christ is the title. Christos is the Greek word  used as a synonym for Old Testament word “Messiah.” Both of these words carry the meaning of “the anointed one.” The Greek word “Christos” is from a root word that means to smear or rub with oil and is usually associated with a sacred setting aside of the one anointed. John’s Gospel demonstrates that Messiah and Christ are used synonymously.

John 1:41 (NASB) He [Andrew] found first his own brother Simon and *said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ).

It should be added here that though we associate Christ and Messiah with deity there were many anointed ones prior to the coming of the Christ. However, with the coming of Christ and His fulfillment of all the OT Messianic types certainly deity is properly tied in our thinking of the word “Christ” in our present context.

The above thus takes us to the idea of anointing itself. The HC, following Scripture, teaches that Jesus was ordained of God the Father be the Christ (the anointed one).

1Heb. 1:9, Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Jesus Himself at the beginning of His public ministry quotes from Isaiah;

This ordaining of the Father of the Son to be the Christ was an eternal ordination. From the foundations of the world the Son is set apart to be the anointed one. As the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8) the eternal Son was eternally ordained by the eternal Father to be the Christ.

In the Old Testament those entrusted with certain offices were set apart to their office of Prophet, Priest, or King, by means of being anointed with oil. Oil would be poured over them as an assignation to the office that they were being invested unto.

1 Samuel 16:13 (NASB) Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

 When David was anointed with oil the Bible says that the Holy Spirit came upon him. Therefore, we find the anointing with oil symbolizing the work of the Holy Spirit setting apart a person to a particular office.

Now the question arises where do we find this anointing of Jesus to His work of prophet, priest, and King? The answer to that is found in Jesus Baptism account. However, instead of being anointing with the type (oil) Jesus is anointed with the one whom the type pointed — the Spirit of God.

^{Matt 3:16} When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and ^[b]He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

So, Jesus is set apart by His anointing — an anointing ordained by the Father and occurring just prior to entering into His public ministry. The HC then teaches us that the offices that Jesus is anointed unto are Prophet, Priest, and King. In theological jargon this is called the “Munus Triplex.” Jesus the God/Man is anointed to these three offices. No other person in OT history ever filled these three offices at the same time. However, Jesus being the fulfillment of all the shadows of the OT fulfills all three. Jesus fills all three offices because fallen man needs the anointed one to represent him as a Prophet, Priest, and King.

The HC teaches that Jesus is our chief Prophet. This necessity and coming of a chief prophet was prophesied early in Israel’s existence;

2Deut. 18:18, I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

And in Acts 3 Peter explicitly says of Jesus Christ that He was that Prophet long ago promised by God;

We learn then that Jesus the Christ is set apart;

to be our chief Prophet and Teacher, who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption

A Prophet’s role is speak for God the mind of God to the people. 

This idea of Jesus being anointed to be our chief prophet teaches us that there is no knowing of the Father or the mind of the Father apart from the work of the Prophet. Put bluntly, God cannot be known apart from the revelation of Jesus as Prophet. This means that all other God’s who claim to be God who have not Jesus as the anointed prophet are not God. By extension it means those who will not submit to the Christian Bible can not have God as their God since Jesus’ work as our Great High Prophet is found only in Scripture.

That which our Great High Prophet speaks to us is concerning our Redemption. Redemption bespeaks the idea that we, as ruined and lost rebels are reclaimed by God by means of the Cross work of Jesus Christ. Our Redemption speaks of everything from our renewal to our glorification.

Jesus not only speak to us as Prophet the mind of God but as our Great High Priest He speaks for us to God. He is our representative. He is our mediator. He is our surety — the one who is responsible for His people. 

Jesus is our Great High Priest spoke of in the passages above. The function of a Priest in the OT was to offer up the sacrifices for the sins of the people that their sin might be removed and to intercede for the people. Jesus fulfills this office by offering up Himself as our sacrifice. Jesus then is both the Priest who offers up the sacrifice and the sacrifice itself. Jesus also continue to fulfill the office of Priest by continually praying for His people. The Scripture teaches that Christ ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). So, as He prayed for us on earth as our Great High Priest (John 17) so He continues to pray for us at the right hand of the Father just by His presence.

4Rom. 8:34, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

All of this bespeaks again of the centrality of Jesus Christ should one desire to have peace with God the Father. There is no safety from God apart from coming under the priestly work of the revealed Jesus of the Bible and not any other Jesus. If one desires to be rescued/saved they must have a Priest who will save them. Jesus is our great High Priest ordained by the Father and anointed by the Spirit to that end.

Just as the work of Jesus the Christ as Prophet centered on teaching us all things concerning our redemption so the work of Jesus the Christ as Priest centers us His redeeming us as well as interceding for us. Understanding the Christian faith is impossible apart from understanding the tie between Jesus and redemption. Flee from any teacher who would teach you Christianity and put redemption on the back burner.

The third office that Jesus has been anointed to is the office of King.

The prophet speaks the mind of God to the people. The Priest represents the people before God. As we know a King leads His people. This is what the HC teaches;

Jesus governs us by His word and Spirit, and who defends and preserves us6 in the enjoyment of that salvation He has purchased for us.

As God’s people we have the King’s word. Once redeemed by Christ, Christ comes to us via Word and Spirit to answer the question; “How shall we now live?” We as His redeemed people live the redeemed life as governed by His Word and Spirit.

Don’t miss again the centrality of the Word. We, as the Kings people, are to be governed by His Word under the afflatus of the Holy Spirit. Christians are a Word centered people.

This question hints at the idea of the perseverance of the saints. The Lord Christ, having purchased salvation for His people, will not allow, as our King, for His people to be stripped of the salvation He purchased for them. He defends and preserves us from all enemies.

John 10:28, And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.

Like Pilgrim in “Pilgrim’s Progress” we will all arrive to the Celestial City because of His defending and preserving work as our Liege-Lord. We only persevere because the King preserves us. The anointed Jesus can do this because;

Matt. 28:18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.

As a King not only does our majestic Lord Christ govern us but as King He takes it upon Himself to defend and preserve us in the enjoyment of that salvation He purchased for us.

Upon learning such truths how can the Christian not be lost in wonder, love and praise. To think that God us provided us a Christ who has done it all and who continues to shepherd until we arrive at the gates of the Celestial city where we will hear the “Well Done,” of the one who gave us grace to be “good and faithful servants.”

Question 29: Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, a Savior?

Answer: Because He saveth us, and delivereth us from our sins;1 and likewise, because we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other.2

Remember the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) is in Section II (our Deliverance) as a significant portion explaining the meaning of Apostle’s Creed (AC). We have looked at the first strophe of the AC and now we turn to the second strophe that confesses the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep in mind before we press on that the meaning of the AC that we have confessed as mere Christianity has already left much of the Christian Church in the West as strangers to the true meaning of Biblical Christianity. The high view of God’s Sovereignty set forth already in the HC has separated us from Arminians (All Pentecostals, Wesleyans, Nazarenes, Church of God, Methodists, Free Methodists, etc.)  and Roman Catholics. We may all mouth the same words when confessing the AC but we are each clearly filling those words with different meaning. Nobody, among the various expressions of Christianity has the high view of God that the Reformed have as has been set forth in the HC. This means that the Reformed vis-a-vis the other expressions of Christianity have a very different feel about them. The upshot of that is that we Reformed are not only strangers to the world but we don’t exactly fit in with the non-Reformed crowd either.

As we come to HC Q. 29 the catechizers turn to consider the magnificent Lord Jesus Christ as the bringer and provider of our salvation. The Catechizers point out here the essence of the name and title of our Deliverer.

Jesus has the name He has because He saves us from our sins.

1Matt. 1:21, And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.

The name “Jesus” literally means “Jehovah is Salvation.”  Jesus’ name in English comes from the Latin Isus, which is a transliteration of the Greek Iesous, which is a transliteration of the Aramaic name Yeshua, which comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, or Joshua. The name comes from the Hebrew verb yasha, which means “he saves,” and the proper name “Ya,” which is short for the name Yahweh.

Paying close attention here we understand that the Joshua of the OT in his work then is a prefiguring of the Jesus which was to come. Just as Joshua was faithful in bringing God’s people into the Promised land so Jesus brings God’s people into God’s Kingdom. Joshua as God’s warrior for God’s people is a preview of Jesus being God’s warrior for God’s people. Joshua fights the enemies of God and Jesus does the same, triumphing over them as Joshua did. Jesus is thus the greater Joshua in the deliverance/salvation He provides. Joshua provided only a temporal deliverance. Jesus provides an eternal deliverance from our sins.

The sins which Jesus saves us from are those acts whereby we seek to de-God, God while seeking to en-God ourselves as God. The sins which Jesus saves us from are our acts of treason and rebellion against the rightful ruler of the cosmos. The sins which Jesus saves us from includes our sin nature as from our Father Adam, our own lack of conformity to God’s law standard and any violation of the same. Jesus as savior saves us from sin, self, and Satan’s hegemony over us as his vassals, and most importantly from the just wrath of God. When we think of Jesus the first reality that we should think of is that Jesus is our salvation.

All men who refuse this salvation live their whole lives seeking to find some kind of salvation precisely because they refuse to be saved with the only salvation that can save them. It is only in the Christ of the Bible wherein men can cease their pursuits of pseudo-salvations and know the peace that deliverance from danger brings. The people you know or meet who are not saved by this Jesus are people who are twisted by their rebellion, and their instinctual understanding that God’s wrath remains upon them. That twistedness that comes from a lack of being saved will demonstrate itself in a host of possible permutations.

The unsaved refuse to learn that we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other.2

This teaches the hard exclusivity that is characteristic of Biblical Christianity. Christianity teaches that there is no way to salvation (to be right and so have peace with God by our sins being extinguished) except through He who was provided by God the Father Almighty as the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.

 2Acts 4:12, Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

If we will not be saved from our sins by He who is named “Jehovah is salvation,” then we will not be saved. This of course means that all those who put their hope in religions other than Biblical Christianity remain dead in their sins and so remain unsaved. Our compassion on unsaved men compels us to tell Muslims, Mormons, Jews, Hindus, Roman Catholics (see HC Q. & A. 30) Eastern Orthodox, etc. that it is only the Jesus of the Bible that can save.

Out of love for God and for those unsaved we placard and herald Jesus Christ as the only way for lost, wearied, and sad men to have salvation and so find peace with God.

Question 28: What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and by His providence doth still uphold all things?

The Heidelberg Catechism, being closer to the Medieval Church than it is to the modern Church that came in with the Enlightenment breathes with a devotional air. Throughout the HC the Catechizer will provide this kind of question and answer in order to make sure that student comprehends what we might call the cash value of the doctrine. The HC is not interested in an abstracted theology that doesn’t have traction in every day life. As such we get these kind of questions. Here we find a rich and still practical theology.

Here, the interest is making sure that the student understands the impact of the truth of God’s providence as in the life of the believer. Urisinus and Olevianus as the Catechizers desires their students to take the truth of God’s providence and find daily comfort in their lives from the belief of this Doctrine.

The question once again pushes the student in the direction that all of their living is conditioned by the Creator, Sustainers, and Governor of all things. There is no living absent of God’s providence and control. Indeed, it is the case that in God we live, and move, and have our being. All of our lives are lived out before the face of God to whom we must give an account. For the Catechizer’s the God of the Bible is not remote but closer to us than our next breath.

It is good to return to these realities if only because modern man lives as if the sky above him is bronze with no notion of the reality of God. The Christian is a different kind of man. He knows that all of life is life as dictated and directed by the kind and merciful providence of God. All of life is riven with the testimony of the God’s divine control and we as God’s people should find the benefit/advantage of that truth.

Answer: That we may be patient in adversity;8 thankful in prosperity;9 and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father,10 that nothing shall separate us from His love;11 since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.12

The Catechizers are brutally honest. God’s providence does not erase the reality of adversity that we face in our lives.

Ps. 39:10, Remove Thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand.

However, with their confession of God’s providence the sting is taken out of the adversity the Christian faces because the Christian knows that any and all adversity is adversity that is under the direction and control of God the Father Almighty. We do not live in a world that is dictated by chance, fate, or bad luck. All that comes into our lives, including our adversity, comes into our lives as fashioned by God’s providence.

8Rom. 5:3, And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience hope.

Even in our adversity the Christian can glory because we know that as God’s providence is directing all things the final outcome of that adversity will work in us godly character, and one of the things that the Christian desires above all else is godly character.

God’s providence is also intended to cause us to lift our eyes in gratitude when God determines to bless us with prosperity. The tears of heaven sent adversity may last through the night but the joy of heaven sent prosperity cometh in the morning.

What a glory that we should be given the instinct to be thankful to our benevolent God when He heaps prosperity upon us.

9Deut. 8:10, When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.

Thankless Christians when soaked with prosperity is a terrible oxymoron.

This truth of God’s providence of course makes a completely dependent people shut up to God’s wisdom as to what is best for us. This embrace of the doctrine of God’s providence has the ultimate purpose, in terms of the advantage it is to be to God’s people, to work in us a placing of our firm trust in our faithful God and Father. God the Father Almighty knows what is best for us — both in terms of adversity and prosperity — and this providence of God is intended that we invest our reliance upon Him who has shown His faithfulness to Himself and us in providing His Son as a surety that we did not deserve. If our lives were only characterized by daily adversity (God forbid) the reality that God the Father Almighty has provided the prosperity found in providing Jesus Christ as our deliverance announces that God has shown Himself faithful in His providence.

1 Thes. 5:18, In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

This firm trust in God driven by confidence in His exhaustive providence is to fill us with the confidence that nothing shall separate us from His love.

^{Romans 8:35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This reality that we, as the people of God the Father Almighty, can be separated from the love of God for His people reminds us that it is God’s love for His people as conditioned by love for Himself, that everything that comes into our lives by way of God’s providence is from the hand of God who is expressing His love to us in His providence as it unfolds in our lives.

The hard thing in all this is the ability to continue to believe in God’s goodness and love for us when providence brings adversity. It is at those times when we will be tempted to question a providence of God that is anchored in His love for us as conditioned by His love for Himself.

This is why it is good to learn our catechism and the truths therein before being visited by a hard providence because when we are in the hot box of a hard providence it is even more difficult to learn the truth being taught here. When parents are holding a child born crippled at birth it is hard at that point to lean on God’s providence if we have not already learned it. When persecution comes knocking it is hard at that point to lean on God’s providence if we have not already owned it. When wasting disease visits us it is hard at that point to lean on God’s providence if we have not already learned it. Let us pray earnestly that we might get this doctrine in the very marrow of our bones.

The catechism ends here reminding us again that “all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.12″

Every event that happens in creation serves God’s purposes because every event that happens in creation has no reality apart from the reality that God gives it in His providence. Whether we consider the malevolence of our arch-enemy;

12Job 1:12, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

Job 2:6, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Or rather we consider the movement of Satan’s armies;

Matt. 8:31, So the devils besought Him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

Or rather we consider the operation of any secondary cause;

Isa. 10:15, Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood

Nothing happens in all creation apart from our Father’s leave. Nothing can come into our life apart from our Father’s leave.

Let us briefly ask what we would have to say if all this were not true. We would have to say that

1.) God is not God since God by definition is one who has totalistic and exhaustive sovereignty. If God’s providence is not true than God would not be worth worshiping since he would be just some kind of celestial bystander who would be as taken by surprise at the events that enter into our lives as we are. Take pity on those who worship a God who does not have the kind of providence that we learn in our Heidelberg Catechism.

2.) We would have to cower in fear of man. If God’s providence is not true than we are fools to cross tyrants or the wicked in our lives. It is God’s providence that gives us the courage to have no fear of man. It is God’s providence that causes us to realize that man can do nothing to us apart from God’s leave. A lack of confidence in God’s providence would make cowards of all of us.

3.) We would go mad with the grief that enters into our lives. It is only confidence in God’s goodness and providence that steadies us when hardships and persecutions come into our lives. If we really lived in a time plus chance plus circumstance world we would not be able bear up under the burdens of this life. Only the reality of God’s providence provides a backdrop wherein we can press on when life presses us down.

4.) We would not continue to contend for the crown rights of Jesus Christ in every area of life. Were we not confident of God’s providence we would not strive to bring every area of life under His authority. Apart from God’s providence we would hunker down and not risk great things for the glory of God, being fearful of what might come into our lives absent a God who controls all things.

God’s providence works in us both to accept hardship as from the hand of God while at the same time energizing us to contend, compete, and contest for the glory of our great God.

O Sovereign God,

We thank thee with all our being for your providence. We thank you that it is true that all our life is conditioned by you and dependent upon you. We pray that we might grow to adore you more and more because of your providence in our lives. We pray that you might keep us from being like Job’s wife who assigned wickedness to you because of what you ordained for Job and His family. Grant us thy favor to be confident in your goodness no matter come what may. Help us to be like our Father Job, who, despite the hard providence in his life refused to curse God. Help us to be like our Father St. Paul who was driven on by the confidence in your providence to never cease in opposing your enemies at every turn.

Grant us your grace, in light of your providence, to never surrender.

In Christ’s name we pray 

AMEN

Question 27: What dost thou mean by the providence of God?

Answer: The almighty and everywhere present power of God;1 whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures;2 so that herbs and grass, rain and drought,3 fruitful and barren years, meat and drink,4 health and sickness,5 riches and poverty,6 yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.7

In Question 27 we are still dealing with the work of the Father confessed in the Apostles Creed. We now have moved from the creation work of God the Father Almighty to His ongoing work of sustaining (upholding) and governing His creation. The word the Catechizers use for God’s continuous work of upholding (sustaining) and governing His creation is “providence.”

This idea of providence was once central to the ways Christian’s spoke. If you listen carefully, the way we currently speak lacks this idea of providence. Instead, you will hear the idea of “luck” falling out of people’s mouths. And while we don’t want to be too exacting when we deal with people, it simply is the case that “luck” in our thinking has often replaced the idea of God’s total and overweening providence. This is to be expected from a people who have lost awareness of living in God’s presence. “Luck” bespeaks mindless chance, whereas “providence” reminds us that all things happen by God’s almighty and everywhere present power. We live in a world that pulses with God’s providential control exercised as by His upholding and governing all things.

Heb. 1:3, Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

The reality of God’s providence reminds us we do not live in a world upheld and governed by dark chaos and old night. The world and the events of the world do not unfold randomly or haphazardly but unfold as ordered by God the Father’s everywhere present power. This providence of God reminds us that God is always present — always present as a Father to His people and always present as an exacting judge to the reprobate. God the Father Almighty is never in need of anything from His creatures and is the one who;

giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 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; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.

Acts 17:25–28

Were humans wise they would, upon learning this, fall on their faces to worship He who upholds and governs all things.

The fact that God the Father Almighty upholds and governs all things reminds us that God is not absent from the world He has created. God is present and is not silent. His presence is attested to by all that happens. The idea that God upholds all things communicates the truth that the continuance of the cosmos and everything in it is dependent upon God the Father Almighty. The idea that God governs all things communicates the truth that this continuing cosmos is ordered and ruled by the God whose power and person is always and everywhere present.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in ^[c]hell, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall ^[d]fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
¹² Indeed, the darkness ^[e]shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

Psalm 139

Whereas before we have been considering God’s Almightiness (Omnipotence) here it is God’s omnipresence (everywhere present at all times) that is emphasized.

As Question 27 ends we return to the matter of God’s everywhere present power with a litany of examples explaining the exhaustiveness of God’s upholding and governing. It is God’s the Father’s almighty upholding and governing hand that accounts for;

herbs and grass, rain and drought,3 fruitful and barren years, meat and drink,4 health and sickness,5 riches and poverty,6 yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.7

We should not miss here that the Catechizer’s insist everything — both what we call blessing and what we call tragedy — come to us ordered by God’s sustaining and upholding. This life for the Christian is ordered by a personal God whose sovereignty is total and complete.

This is a truth that is required to be embraced by faith. For example, it is only faith in God’s goodness and providence that carried and carries me through having a much loved grand-daughter who was born broken and damaged with severe cerebral palsy. Can I receive even this as coming from the hand of God the Father Almighty who upholds and governs all things by His mighty hand or shall I begin to conclude that somehow God was absent from such a sorrow filled reality? If God is absent from the bumps and bruises of life then when those times come where is the Christian to turn? To the fates? To the idea that somehow Satan overcame God? To some kind of idea that teaches, “well, God didn’t want this but, you know, sometimes God is sovereign enough to not be sovereign.” Away with all such foolishness. If God is God then away with ideas of “bad luck,” or “chance” or anything else. If God is God let us praise His name by kissing the Shepherd’s staff when in His wisdom He wields it upon us. If God’s providence is not true in just this kind of manner then I have no interest in worshiping God. All things are from the Lord God omnipotent. And while I may struggle with some of those realities (a broken grand-daughter for example) at the end of the day I must join with my Father Job and say;

“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Other faith traditions (Arminianism) who seek to lessen God’s sovereignty don’t solve the problem of evil. Instead what they give you is the reality of the evil as combined by a God who can’t do anything about it. One ends up with not only the evil but also a severely diminished God hardly worth worshiping.

When God chooses to send to His people drought, barren years, sickness, and poverty, God’s people must be equipped in knowing that God is good and that this good God has sufficient reasons yet unknown and undeclared to us as to His purposes for the drought, barren years, sickness, and poverty that are providentially sent and ordered for our lives. We must remember that our good God will “will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my advantage.”

The Scriptures that explicitly teach that God the Father Almighty, in His work of providence, does indeed governs all that comes into our lives is taught explicitly in Scripture;

A.) God’s providence and rain

3Jer. 5:24, Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in His season: He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

4Acts 14:17, Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

B.) God’s Providence and sickness and health;

5John 9:3, Jesus answered, Neither hath this (blind) man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

C.) God’s providence in wealth and poverty;

6Prov. 22:2, The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.

Job 1:21, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

D.) There is no such thing as chance. God providentially ordains all;

7Matt. 10:29–30, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Eph. 1:11, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

Christians have a choice. They can either worship the God of the Bible who by His providence upholds and governs all things and so be realistic about the word “sovereignty” or they can worship a god of their own imagination.

Addendum

One final word here. When it comes to God’s providence we insist that though we affirm God’s providence we admit that we don’t always know what God is doing in His providence. There is, within some expressions of Christianity, a knee-jerk pseudo-prophetic inclination for people to think they can always interpret God’s providence. Some people are inclined to think they can file through God’s filing cabinets are hard drives and be able to tell you why a hardship comes into your life. While, it is certainly true that there are times when we may be able to trace out the lineaments of what God is doing in His providence, we need to be careful about falling into a “this is that” mentality. It simply is the case that we often do not know why God is doing or has done what He is doing or has done. For example, I will never know, in this life with certainty, why God wounded my Grand-daughter Ella. Similarly, there are many things that will come into our lives that we will have to wait till the eschaton arrives in order to understand. Be wary of people who think they can tell you what every piece of God’s providence in our life means. They can be well intended and fruit-cakes at the same time.