/sp12/st113/lecture-13.markdown

# Lecture 13

* Exam
  * 2 hours
  * ID terms
  * Memorize WCF 7.1
  * Short essay questions
  * Long essay question (half the grade)

* Turretin's discussion on will of God is one of the best (Bavinck's is good as well)
  * Hypothetical Will
    * Will of hypothetical necessity
    * Hypothetical = something that underneath (the necessity)
    * God's decision to do something
    * Anything in creation that is necessary is necessary hypothetically and not absolutely
      * Only God is absolutely necessary
      * Everything else is necessary relative to God's determination and decree
    * Necessity does not obtain wrt creation and wrt God in the same way
    * Contingent necessity - necessity that is contingent on God's free determination
      * Once he determines it it will be necessary, but he didn't have to determine it
  * Decretive Will
    * That which God decrees, and will happen
    * Matt 11:25-26
    * Acts 2
    * Romans 9:17-19
    * Eph 1:11-12
  * Preceptive will
    * That which aligns itself with God's character
    * That which God desires
    * Things that are consistent with God's character, but may or may not be
    * Exekiel 18:23
    * 2 Peter 3:9
  * Calvin (III.23.8)
    * If we're going to use the language of "permission", then behind any permission is hte willl of God - he permits what he wants, and there is no inactivity
* The decrees
  * Eternal and Universal
    * "God from all eternity, did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangably ordain whatsoever comes to pass"
    * God's decrees are eternal - takes place in eternity
    * God decrees whatsoever comes to pass = anything that happens
    * Nothing left outside of God's decree - could not be b/c the decree is the foundation for anything else that tkaes place/exists
    * Eph 3:8-12 - plan of God, according to his eternal purpose
    * Eph 1:3-6 - God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined us in love
      * All of this is to the praise of God's glorious grace - we are secondary, not primary
    * Eph 1:11-12 - works all things according to the counsel of his will
    * Isaiah 46:8-11 - God determines and it will be done, and there's nothing outside God's determination
  * Three implications
    * Sin - God is not the author of sin
      * James 1:13
      * 1 John 1:5
      * Acts 2:23 - "Jesus, delivered up according ot the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."
        * Delivering up Jesus is according to God's decree
        * The ones who perpetrated the act are responsible (lawless)
        * The decree decrees choice, contingency, and responsibility
        * Need to take both of these things (sovereignty + responsibility) together, but we don't know how to do that
    * Determinism? - "nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures"
      * In some mysterious way, the will of God works with and not against our own wills
      * We still choose and are responsible for that which we choose
      * Prior to our choice of something, we don't even know what God has decreed
      * We are responsible for our choices b/c we are meant to make those choices in the context of contingency
      * Cause wrt what God does is different from the kind of cause-and-effect that we see in the world
      * God ordains things that will happen, and they happen because of the contingency of the world that he has made
      * Determinism requires a univocal understanding of causality
        * As if cause-effect relationship of God to the world is the same that we have in creation
      * It is pagan thinking to think that because God ordains everything, contingency doesn't matter
    * Responsibility - "nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."
  * Limiting concepts (Van Til) - can't understand one side without bringing in and understanding the other
  * WCF on predestination
    * "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlansting life; and others foreordained ot everlasting death.
    * Cna't change number
    * God chooses without foresight of faith, works, perseverance, or anything in the creature
    * To the praise of God's glorious grace/for the manifestation of God's glory
      * Cannot praise God for who he is until you understand God's utter incomprehensibility (and his knowability)
    * WCF is talking about predestination and reprobation
    * Different activities on God's part that accomplish these things
    * Predestination - actively extending mercy to sinner
    * Reprobation - doesn't need to do anything because they're already sinners
    * 1 Peter 2:7-8 - "They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do"
    * Jude 4 - "Long ago were designated for this condemnation"
    * Romans 9:6-29
      * Romans 8 - Paul establishes the fact that God foreordains, predestines, etc.
      * Recognizes that he'll have to deal w/ relationship of ethnic Israel to the election of God
      * Romans 9:1-5 - Paul feels the anguish of what it is the Spirit is revealing to him
      * 3 Questions
        * Implicitly from Rom 9:6 - "What do we do with those promises that say that Israel will be the Lord's people? Has the word of God failed?"
          * Word of God has not failed because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel
          * Israel is the church in the New Covenant
          * OT show this - its about all nations
          * Answer is NO - word of God has not failed, because we need to understand promises/purposes properly
        * God made a distinction between Jacob and Esau - loved Jacob and hated Esau - even though there was nothing distinct about them
          * Malachi 1:2-3
        * Explicitly from Romans 9:14 - "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means!"
          * Romans 9:15-18 - goes back to Exodus, says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whome I have compassion."
            * Talking about God's electing purposes in salvation (not just about national identity, but about salvation)
            * "It depends not on human will" - cannot be plainer than this
              * Grace, not a contract
              * Character of God is to be able to do what he wants to do, extend mercy and compassion on who he wants to
              * Does not depend on us
            * "So then, he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills"
          * God doesn't have to save anyone - not obligated, but does it by grace and mercy
        * Explicitly from Romans 9:19 - "You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?'"
          * Why can God hold me responsible, if it all comes about because of his sovereign will
          * Answers question with a question: "who do you think you are to question God?"
          * Romans 9:20-24 - 
          * God is sovereign and almighty, sits in heaven and does whatever he pleases
        * Free will is an idol, because nothing is free of God's will
          * But choices are will
        * Romans 10 - necessity of a preacher, if someone is to have faith
          * Confronts the conclusion that "if all this is true from eternity past, then we don't need to evangelize"
* Supra vs. Infra
  * Bavinck has it about right - we don't have to commit ourselves
  * William Twisse was supra
    * Apex logicus (a point of logic)
    * "And were it not a mere madness to make a breach of unity or charity in the church merely upon a point of logic?"
  * Thornwell - staunchly infra
    * Thinks the differences go far beyond a logical point
  * WCF is generally infra, which is interesting in that Twisse was firs president
* WCF 3.7 - "The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in HIs Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matters of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel."
  * The doctrine of election is not the good news - the good news of the gospel is that Christ has come to save sinners - Ferguson
  * But we need to understand this once we are in Christ
  * What God do we worship?

## God's Providence

* WCF 5.1 - worked out according to infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable conself of his own will, to the praise and the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy
* Calvin (I.17.1) - strives to the end that God may reveal his concern for the whole human race, but especially his vigilance in ruling the church, which he deigns to watch more closely
  * Providence is given to us as a matter of comfort - God is working out his plan
* Preservation 
  * Romans 11:36 - from him (creation), through him (preservation), to him (government)
  * God sustains all that is by virtue of his power
  * Nehemiah 9:6 - you preserve all of them...
  * Hebrews 1:3 - he upholds the universe by the word of his power
  * Colossians 1:17 - in him all things hold together
  * Teaches us that Deism is wrong; what God creates, he sustains and holds together
  * If he ceased to do it, everything would be annihilated
  * God holds it all together at every point, sustaining and governing everything that takes place
* Alfred Freddoso
  * T1 - God gives being-as-such to every creature at every moment it exists
  * T2 - Creatures themselves act as causes of other creatures and thus give them being (not in the sense of creation, but in the sense of effecting somethign in the thing that was not there before)
  * Conservationism  (preservation) - T2 is true and T1 is false
    * God, having created all things, now contributes to the ordinary course of nature solely by conserving natural substances, including their active or passive causal powers
    * Creatures are the sole cause
    * Not many have held this view
  * Occasionalism (opportunity or context)  - T1 is true and T2 is false
    * God gives being at every moment, and creatures have no role
    * Continual creation
    * Some argue that Jonathan Edwards held this position
    * Here God is the sole efficient cause of every state of affairs brought about in nature
    * Molina - God and God alone is the cause, we are just there as the vehicle (we are causes sine qua non)
  * Concurrentism (coincidence) - T1 and T2 are both true
    * A Molinist would be concurrentist, but would hold that what God is causing is the occasion or context in which the decisions are made
    * Reformed took it over - both are happening repletively - in every case, to everything, in every choice that we make
    * Everything has its meaning in terms of the plan of God - Van Til
* Governance