You've all read the chapter in Grudem on the providence of God. Some of you were confused. Some of you were angered. Some of you threw the book across the room. I bet one or two maybe.
Just because of difficult... issues that arose from that chapter. What I want to do is not necessarily go in detail through the chapter again, but give you the big background issue. One of my huge concerns is that you as good theologians pay attention to the big background issue. issues that underlie the more specific application of those issues in theological questions.
Obviously, lots of questions arise out of the chapter on providence, especially in relation to God's relationship to evil and his sovereignty. So what I want to do is make sure we catch the big picture of all of this. In light of the doctrine of God, the doctrine of humanity, we now ask the question, how does God relate to his creation?
What does it look like when God is involved in the way he is in creation? creation. And that's what I want to do. I want to back up and go all the way back to the doctrine of God and thinking about the issue of providence and remind us of the way God relates to His creation.
Remember when we talked about the names of God, vital aspects about God and the way He relates to us came out around the names of God. Do you remember the two aspects of God's character that were vital when we talked about the names of God? What was that big central tension? Do you remember?
Two ways of... What's that? Okay, that comes from an even bigger issue. Yes, Nicole, I wanted to give you a little headbutt, but I'll give you that instead. There you go.
Yes, God is always the great I am, which emphasizes... Yeah, you get it. It emphasizes His transcendent qualities, His eternal majesty. And at the same time, we said, as Nicole just helpfully remembered for us, He's the God of our fathers. And there is a radical distinction between God and us and creation, but he, since the beginning of creation, has always been working in time and space in human history in relationship with his people that's so intimate.
he compares this covenant to a marriage. And then when we talk about what this means for Christians, it gets to a radical new level, doesn't it? What happens to this engagement with creation for Christians in our Christian view of things? What happens? It's not just time and space and human history he enters into.
What is it? Humanity itself, Rory, yes. Good, he enters into humanity itself and takes this relating as far as he possibly can.
That's why when people say, God really... wanted me to know him, he'd write my name in the sky. That ain't nothing compared to what he does in the incarnation and becoming a man and becoming a human being, taking on our nature and taking his relating to us as far as he possibly can without ever compromising his great I am-ness, his otherness, his distinction from creation, right? And so we affirm both of these truths at the same time. You lose either, you're in trouble.
So when we think about the doctrine of providence, this is the underlying issue. you that we need to return to and think about again. So the Bible teaches this concept that God is transcendent.
I don't know why that T got cut off, but he's transcendent. This is a term I want you to learn. He transcends creation.
He transcends everything else. You know this term, don't you? To be transcendent or to have a transcendent experience.
You know, when you say, man, that time of worship was amazing. I think a big part of what you're saying is, is in that that time of worship, we just transcended the norm. We became aware of something that is well beyond just the created order, right?
Isn't that what you're saying when you have those kinds of experience? So God is transcendent. He goes beyond. He transcends.
He's other than. He's distinct from us and everything else, yes? So qualities like He's infinity.
He's without qualitative limitations. Qualities like His His independence. He doesn't need us or the rest of creation for anything. Like His immutability.
He's unchanging in His being, perfections, purposes, and promises. Transcending qualities. What's another term we have for these attributes of God?
We classify them as, what is it? Incommunicable show, yes, don't sneeze on me. Yes, yeah, incommunicable attributes, good, he doesn't change.
You can sneeze on your friends. And then finally, sovereignty. He rules over everything, he's king, he determines everything.
that happens. So he's sovereign. And the Bible talks about his sovereignty over and over again.
Psalm 113, the Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the one who sits enthroned on high? who stoops down to look on the heavens. Transcendence, right? And also, though, we find in Acts, Paul's preaching at the Areopagus, and he wants these people to know that this God he's talking about is so different than those idols that they worship.
And here's how he says it. The God who made the world, that's who I'm talking about, and all things in it, since he's the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to the world. to all life and breath and all things.
What attribute of God is this talking about? Most clearly. What attribute? What would we say this attribute is? Independence.
Who said that? Ben said it. Nicole.
Nicole's just firing on all cylinders today. Good. Yes. Independence. No one met needs.
Doesn't need us for anything. So transcendence. God has these transcendent qualities. Got it? But he's not just the transcendent great I am.
He's also the God of the covenant. He's the God who's with us, and this is imminence. This imminence of God.
This is a spatial term, not imminence with an I, which would be a time relation. So we say the return of Christ is imminent with an I, and we mean it could come at any moment, right? The imminent return of Christ is what we affirm right in our biolodocrinal statement, that he could return at any moment.
But this is an imminence of location. It's a nearness. It's a with. and you may be thinking that if all we've got is these transcending qualities, well, we don't have a God who's with us, but we do.
He's also the God of our fathers. So we affirm he's infinite, but we also affirm that he's personal. We don't think of infinity as impersonal infinity. We think of it as personal. Definite characteristics, mind, volition, will, relational capability and expression.
So he's infinite, but he's personal. He's independent. No one met needs. But he is relational, always has been.
He creates us and starts talking to us. He relates to us. He doesn't need us, but he desires relationship with us. He's unchanging, but he's engaged in that immutability.
He's got, it's been said, a relational mutability in the midst of an essential immutability. And he's sovereign. He's the king who determines everything that happens.
But he does this in a way where he's engaged with his creation. So the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective, and a man reaps what he sows in the midst of this sovereign transcendence. Yes?
There are plenty of passages that teach imminence. Jeremiah 23-24, Can anyone hide in secret places that I do not see him, cannot see him, declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?
Now, what attribute does this teach us about? What would you call it? Omnipresence.
Who said that? Yes, omnipresence. omnipresence. Yes. He's everywhere present with his whole being.
Well, I thought we were talking about imminence. That's a transcendent incommunicable attribute. So why am I including a passage that teaches the omnipresence of God in an imminent teaching?
See what's going on here? The reason God can be with us the way he is is because he's so transcendent. This is really cool.
because he's everywhere present with his whole being, because he is so distinct from us and the great I am, he's able to be as personal as he really is. He's able to be as present as he really is. He's everywhere present with his whole being. Can anyone hide in secret places that I cannot see him, declares the Lord?
Do I not fill heaven and earth? So the reason he's able to be as with you as he is, is because he's so wonderfully transcendent. Look at Acts.
Remember Paul says, very same breath, he says, the God I'm talking about made the world. He doesn't have any unmet needs. He doesn't dwell in temples made with human hands. And in the same breath, look what he says.
Though he's not far from us, don't think because he's so transcendent, he's not imminent too. He's not far from us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your poets have said, even aware of this because of general revelation.
Where's offspring? Now isn't that cool? He's everywhere present.
in his majesty. And then Luke, oh this is so precious. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God, the cheapest thing you could buy, the cheapest animal in the market you could buy. Yet not one of them is forgotten.
by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. And so the conclusion, don't be afraid.
You're worth more than many sparrows. You see this tender, personal, engaged imminence. Notice again, what is it that enables him to be that imminent in this passage?
What quality of God enables that sort of imminence? What is it? What character of God, what attribute is in this? What is it? Omniscience, Rob, yes.
He's all-knowing. Right down to what's more trivial than the hairs on your head? Well, if you're bald, it's not very trivial.
But it's a pretty trivial thing, right? And he's making a point here, isn't he? Look, if he knows that kind of stuff, he knows the important stuff.
He knows you perfectly. So again, his omniscience, his great I am-ness, gives him the ability to be as engaged and intimately involved in you and your life as he really is. I wonder how many Facebook friends you have. Hundreds, probably.
And when you start to have hundreds of them, you really start to mean something very different than we typically do by friend. Right? And actually, technology gives you the illusion of being able to have 500 friends.
But you don't. You've actually, even at this young phase in your lives, started to realize that it's really hard to have more than five friends. Right? Why?
Because you just don't have the... the capacity, the ability to know what you need to, to appreciate and care for and love and attend to and serve friends when it gets beyond five or eight, right? sort of have that sense.
Well, the great news is God can have as many friends as He wants. There's no limit on His friends that He can have and can have completely and personally and in this engaged way. See, He has no limits on His ability to befriend you because of His transcendence and that's the very thing that enables Him to be as imminent as He really is.
So we don't want to compromise either of these vital aspects of who God is. God's eminence is clearly taught in the Bible. There are some passages that bring transcendence and eminence together beautifully. Like Isaiah 6.3. Holy, holy, holy.
Distinct from everything creation and free from all moral sin and evil. Holy, three times. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. Almighty, omnipotent, able to do all His holy will. Transcendent qualities and then what?
The Holy Spirit. The whole earth is full of His glory. What?
You don't expect it to go that way, but that's where it goes. Again, because of who He is in His transcendence, He's able to be who He is in His imminence. And then Psalm 95, For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker, for He is our God.
And we are the people of His pasture. You can see this tender shepherding imagery, the flock under His care. Beautiful. picture of God's imminent care for his people in the midst of and starting with affirming his transcendence.
Bow down in worship. We kneel before him and we find then his shepherding care for us. Isaiah 57 15. Guys, no more important passage in this discussion than this one. Oh, this is so precious.
Listen, this is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy. I live in a high and lofty place. And then you expect him to say, so don't think I'm hanging out with you.
That's not what he says. Or maybe he'll say, so I only hang out with other high and lofty ones too. He says just the opposite, the counterintuitive thing. And he says, but I live where? In a high and lofty place, but also with him who what?
Is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the high. the heart of the contrite. Guys, this is powerful.
This is so important. God is high and lifted up and holy. He lives in a high and lofty place. Affirm that, and then we realize something vital here.
So we not only get the transcendence and imminence teaching, we get a vital teaching on who it is that gets to experience God the most. Who is it? Who experiences God the most? Contrite people, lowly people, humble people.
Now, biblically, who are those people? What leads to the kind of contrition God's talking about here? What is it?
Who are the people who are this way, biblically? Who gets this? What leads to this sort of biblical understanding of lowliness and contrition?
Miguel. Well, their oppression helps them get this, yes. But that's not ultimately what it is. Who is it?
Okay, good. So, what leads them to that understanding? Because sometimes they're just in rebellion and they don't care about it. So what leads them to that sort of humble, contrite, repentant spirit? Tight pants, yes.
Oh, let's see, those tight pants are good for you, yes. Yes! Exactly, the ones who see him in his transcendence are the ones who get to experience him most in his imminence. It's so counterintuitive.
Look, who wrote this book? Isaiah, right? And how did he come to know these things? Do you remember? Isaiah 6. How does it all start?
Before he says, Woe is me, in lowly contrition, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. What does it take to get him there? What does he say before he says, Woe is me?
Oh, please. What does he say? Isaiah 6. Really? You don't know what precedes this?
You don't know what precedes, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. Yeah, of what? What does he see a vision of? He sees a vision of God's glory and says what? I.
I saw the Lord seated on the throne. Oh, I saw this glorious picture of God and the train of his robe filled the temple with this glorious perception of who God is. I saw the Lord seated on his throne, high and lifted up in all his transcendence.
And that's when I said, woe is me. That's when I became lowly and contrite. And I said, I've got unclean lips.
And until that happens, he doesn't get those lips cleansed. Until that happens, God doesn't come to him and say, It's okay. Get up.
I'm going to take some... coal from the altar and I'm going to purge you of your sin. I'm going to atone for your sin right off the sacrificial altar.
I'm going to take care of your sin. And he does this. And do you see this vital principle in the Bible? Guys, do you realize how counterintuitive? intuitive this is.
When we want to know God, our temptation is to pull him down to our level or pull ourselves up to his level. And this is something totally different. This is seeing God as high and lifted up as he really is and seeing ourselves as lowly and contrite and then having the hard attitude where God then comes and says, it's okay.
You can. I got you covered. Guys, this is so vital in the God of the Bible.
And so much of even what the church does these days misses this. We're trying to bring God down to our level or exalt ourselves to His. Instead of letting that gap get massive and letting the cross fill it in every step of the way. So there's a vital principle of how you know God.
Those who know him best know him as high and lifted up. Now let me just say something here about this. There's a book out now, Love Wins, and it's championing... Championing the love of God.
And the author will say, I lead with the love of God. I start with the love of God. I ground everything in the love of God. And he'll quote, God is love.
But what's happened is, is he's made an idol out of love. And he's fallen into a way of viewing God where he's focusing on love. And ignoring other attributes as important. What do we call that?
What have we called that in the past here? This class, what's that referred to? What's that? No? When you focus on an attribute at the expense of others.
Pedal theory, right? Yes! And if you realize the pedal theory, I mean, Roger Nicole wrote about the pedal theory in the 1940s.
He coined that term, and he said, we run into grave error when we take one attribute... love or wrath or justice or wisdom or compassion or truthfulness or jealousy or whatever it is, and consider it independent of other ones and give it preeminence over other ones. And yes, John does say God is love. But you do know, before he even says that in 1 John 4, he says in 1 John 1, God is light.
And in him there's no darkness at all. And so it seems John leads with holiness. He leads with purity, and there does seem to be this biblical pattern of not leading with love.
Oh, we'll get there. But leading with a sense of who God is so you even realize how desperately you need that love. Yes?
Until you see God in all His glory, you won't recognize how desperately you need Him to come in His love and save you. Let's not fall into the pedal theory. Let's not fall into interdependent views of God's love. We won't even understand love right. Because if love isn't just love and holy love and righteous love and pure love and wrathful love and truthful love and all-knowing love and all-powerful love.
And a wise love, it's not God's love. So I'm going to lead with love and camp everything. No! I don't even want that kind of love.
I don't, never mind that kind of God. This whole controversy that's big right now is solved so soon. simply with a unity of God's attributes. That doesn't lead with or camp on or give preeminence to any one attribute.
But I think there's a biblical case to be made. Although we don't fall in the pedal theory, we do see a progression where you see God and that aligns everything else up. Behold him in his greatness, in his majesty, that he is the great I am, and that makes you lowly and contrite, and then you get to have an experience with God, an intimate God, personal relationship with God, like you could have with anybody else.
could never have imagined or manufactured yourself. So God is transcendent and imminent. Transcendence, imminence. The best Christian worship, the best Christian prayer, and ministry, and daily living, and devotion, and relationships gets this, guys. It doesn't lose the great I Am-ness of God.
withness of God. It maintains this healthy biblical tension without ever missing either end of this tension. I don't want to overdo the tension because actually the Bible doesn't present this as a big intention.
It just presents it. And in some ways, this drives the whole narrative of the Bible itself. And the Bible will say things like, what is man that you're mindful of him? The son of man that you care for him, what is that assuming? This sense of God's otherness and his independence, yet an acknowledgement, you really do care.
You're really with us. And it astounds me. You miss either of those, you miss the God of the Bible, and you miss true relationship with God.
Got to get this right. And so great Christian worship gets this, right? In the same hymn, in the same sentence, it'll say things like, High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art. It gets this God of the Bible is the great I am and the God of our fathers who's transcendent and imminent all the time.
All right, questions or comments at this point? All right, as you think about this, you want to maintain this tension. You say, well, it's a biblical tension. It's a wonderful mystery in how an infinite God engages with finite creatures.
And so let's leave it as this wonderful, mysterious, massive tension. And I want to say yes to that. that.
But there can be a temptation in then working out the details of a chapter 16 in your text or in specifics of life and ministry to say, well, let's be simplistically embracing of attention. So this Calvinism and Arminianism issue that comes into play when you read a chapter on Providence. There can be a temptation to be simplistic or even lazy and then working this out in our lives and say, well, if it's a tension, Calvinism and Arminianism, let's just be happy Calvinians and we just live there.
And think anybody who thinks this is a big issue that needs to be debated and discussed and argued over is just missing this. No, there's a reason this has been a big issue in the church. And I think, often done in an unedifying way, but we're called to do this discussion in an edifying way. In a way that helps us understand how this works out.
And so... as Christians have read the Bible in the history of the church, they'll say, yes, I want to appreciate this tension. I want to appreciate that God is both transcendent and imminent. But if you read the Bible and you say, but I think as we think about how this works...
itself out. Although this is so true, there is an emphasis biblically here that puts the stress on the sovereignty of God as how things play themselves out. It seems to put an emphasis here.
If that's how you talk, I would call you an evangelical Calvinist. If you say, however, I appreciate transcendence and eminence, and I certainly appreciate transcendence, but I think God in his sovereign transcendent wisdom has chosen to create a world where he can create a world and relate to a world in a way where he values persons as persons. He values the freedom they need to make the decisions in relationship they need to.
So he has chosen to create a world and relate to a world where the emphasis then is on the human decision, this freedom that enables the kind of relationship he's after. He could have created the kind of world an evangelical Calvinist talks about, but he's chosen not to as I read the Bible. and it ends up here.
If you talk that way, I would call you an evangelical Arminian. Both of these are trying really hard to appreciate both transcendence and imminence, but do see biblically a reason to put the stress here or here. If you push evangelical Calvinism too far, you'd fall into what I'd call hyper-Calvinism. It's important to know the distinction.
A lot of times, someone's arguing, and they're not arguing. against evangelical Calvinism, but hyper-Calvinism. And it's important to realize that thoroughgoing evangelical Calvinists have had their greatest opponents often in the history of the church, not among Arminians, but among hyper-Calvinists.
So you get a guy like Charles Spurgeon, who's a Calvinist, who has his greatest opponents from this camp saying, Spurgeon, why are you preaching with such passion and emotion? You're acting like a closet Arminian who isn't really a Calvinist and thinks it's all about the human free decision. that can be persuaded by human means. Or Spurgeon, Edwards, why are you giving a universal call to people to be saved when you don't know who's elect?
You're giving a call to people who aren't elect most likely. So you can't do that. And so they got all this criticism from people who push Calvinism, emphasize sovereignty, to the point where you do lose an imminence.
You push hyper-Calvinism far enough it falls into what I would just consider a kind of deism, where God now is so determined detached from the world and above the world that he's not really involved in it and engaged in it anymore if you push evangelical arminianism too far you fall into what we'd call pelagianism by the way this chart is just a couple pages over on page 62 i'm sorry gary it's probably been good for you though i bet you're learning it as you write that no i realize yeah no good for you that might even be helpful i probably shouldn't even told you um really pelagianism says, well, I so believe in this necessity of freedom that I can't even believe in inherited sin or original sin because that limits my freedom in some way. If I'm born inclined towards sin, that sounds like a limitation of my freedom. And Pelagianism ends up moving out of just what we'd call Arminianism into a Pelagian view that denies original sin.
Pelagius was a heresy in the early church. And that's a pushing of this to a degree. Now, there's semi-Pelagianism. in here that we could talk about, but Pelagianism is going over the line of what I would consider biblical. Open theology is a progression of this.
Don't get overly concerned about the definitions of these things to go now, but open theology says, well, this human freedom is so necessary that if God knows the future, even if he doesn't determine it, if he knows what your free decision is going to be, that means it's somehow determined, and so we need to remove then God's exhaustive foreknowledge, and he doesn't know the future. perfectly anymore. So open theology pushes it even further.
And then you fall into what could be called process theology where God's in process along with his creation, learning and growing and developing. And finally you fall into a kind of pantheism where God's so involved in his creation he ends up not being distinct from it. And I hope you notice you end up basically with the same useless God wherever you go in these extremes. I think there's a lot of good discussion and debate and arguing to be had in here, like we do at a place like Biola, where you don't make a call, and who gets to go here and teach here, and we leave this one open for discussion, believing it's an issue of importance. but not an issue to divide over as long as we're working hard to stay in here.
On one hand, let's not dismiss this. I know many of you in your junior year, which is your end, you say, man... had these debates in the dorm and people arguing and all these cocky Calvinists, which is a huge oxymoron, and so abrasive about it and it can cause division. And so let's just skip it.
It's a mystery, it's grounded in a mystery of God. Let's just skip it. It's not important. Now, there's truth to that, but you need to say, well, why has it seemed to be an issue worthy of debate among the greatest theological minds in the history of the church? For you to sit back as a 19-year-old Biola student and say, you know, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Arminius, come on guys, chill.
Seriously, you chill. And realize that these issues are important. And because once you move into real life in ministry, you've got questions.
You have questions like, can I lose my salvation? is my determinative factor? My free decision or God's sovereign election even before that free decision?
And those are good questions to ask. Does it mean we'll completely resolve them? We need to maintain good mystery.
But those are important questions. And so the Those boxes I have for you on 62 lay out these basic ideas. You know, the five points of Arminianism predated the five points of Calvinism. Most people don't realize that.
But five points of Calvinism were a response to the five points of Arminianism. And Arminianism emphasizes the free will of a human, and then you can see the logical flow. Therefore, election of people to salvation is conditioned upon the free decision to trust Christ of that individual. individual. Universal atonement says that Jesus died in the same way for everyone.
Obstructible grace says God's saving grace can be rejected, obstructed from saving. And falling from grace is this idea that you can lose your salvation. The five points of Calvinism responds to that and says we believe in total depravity. You don't have a free will that has the ability to respond to God. Now Wesleyan Arminianism would say yes we believe that.
but then we believe God moves in with prevenient grace, levels the playing field, and then gives everybody the ability to make a free decision. Everybody. And so unconditional election for the Calvinists isn't based on the condition of a free decision to follow God, but on the condition of God's, unconditionally, as a result of God's sovereign choice from the foundation of the world.
Limited atonement says Jesus dies. In the mind of God, God knows to whom He will give. whom the benefit of the atoning work Christ will rest on. And so he dies for the elect, those who benefit from that atoning work, in a different way than he dies for the whole world.
And irresistible grace is this idea that when God moves in in saving grace, it can't be obstructed or resisted. And finally, perseverance in the saints. Calvinist has no problem saying God's going to keep you saved because he's the one who did it in the first place unconditionally.
So he keeps you that way unconditionally. So... So, you'll see that it's not as easy as saying, let's just skip the whole thing, because there are questions to be answered. It's like saying, do you believe the miraculous gifts of the Spirit still are functioning today in the church or not? That's an issue of debate in the church, and a good question.
There are good ways of arguing on both sides. But then to say, you know, that's a tough issue. There's a lot of debate.
So, do you believe in the miraculous gifts functioning today? Yes and no. I'm in the middle on that one.
Really? It sounds like a cop-out to me. It just sounds lazy and unhelpful at the end of the day. So when I practice the miraculous gifts then, how do you view that? Well, yes and no.
How long do you want to do it? And that's the spirit of the age. Please realize that.
Let's just skip all the nuances and the definitions and the refining so we can all get along in our blissful ignorance. And so please realize that there's a right aspect of the yes and no. There is a yes and no to this, isn't there?
When you get it right. And so Paul talks in yes and no sorts of language, doesn't he? He says, work out your faith with fear and trembling. Then what's he say?
Say it, say it, Aurora. For it is God who is at work within you, both too willing to work for His good pleasure. That's kind of a yes and no sort of thing to say, isn't it? So, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with what?
All his energy that he powerfully works within me. So there is a yes and no-ness to this. Paul says in Philippians 2, live up to what you've already obtained.
So there is that yes and no aspect of it, but when you start to ask certain questions, like can you lose your salvation? What's the ultimate cause of someone's salvation? Well, then I do think it's important to start to align yourselves with certain ways of thinking and nuance them as you go. And not to end the conversation, but to get some categories on the table to helpfully continue the conversation. Yes?
So I do think it's a worthy discussion and debate, and the history of the church proves that. And at the same time, I do think it's one of those issues that should fit in the conviction category, which is why I like teaching in a place like Biola, where we have a lot of lot of this going on. We don't have one or the other. And realize that you can have great respect for both sides.
So George Whitefield and John Wesley had heated debates over this issue. Heated. You read some of these letters like, whoa, we are.
are thin-skinned today. And they just are aggressively going after each other. And when Wesley died, Whitefield was asked, because of how heated these debates were, do you think you're going to see Wesley in heaven? And Whitefield said, no. And everybody was shocked.
But then he said, because Wesley's mansion is going to be so far away from my little shack that I won't get to see him. tremendous respect and love and appreciation for this man in the midst of legitimate disagreement. And disagreement that I think is worthy of having.
So, I think that's all I want to say about this. Questions or comments at this point? A Calvinist like Spurgeon would never hesitate to preach with a longing, wooing confidence, hoping and expecting and praying for God to work in that hard heart. But the whole time realized... that unless God does in an irresistible way, it's nothing going to happen.
And so not necessarily because that's knowledge God has. It's not knowledge we ever have. This side of glory and seeing it all, how it all turns out. We don't have that now.
Yeah, I think this is one of those issues that solid believers in both areas can do really well, to the point where sometimes you'll wonder which camp they're in. So you'll hear a solid evangelical Calvinist preach a sermon on persevering, you know, to press on and fight the good fight and keep the faith. And you may be sitting there saying, man, I wonder if it sounds Arminian to me. But not necessarily. It just happens.
happens to be what the Bible's emphasizing in the passage he's teaching. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's a whole system in place because the Bible will emphasize things that before you back up and put it all together would make you think it's got to be just here. That's why there's such a need for good big picture systematic theology.
Yeah, go ahead. Sometimes I'm amazed at the sameness that an Arminian and a Calvinist go about things when they're working hard to study. stay from the errors.
I'm an evangelical Calvinist. And I am top three people, men, who have influenced me in my life is Robert Coleman, who was a committed Wesleyan fiery evangelist. And he and I co-taught a theology of evangelism class at Wheaton College.
We co-taught it. And so sometimes he and I would start arguing about these things and the students would just sort of back up and let us go, right? And so, and Coleman... I have tremendous respect for this man.
I so look up to him. But I think he's dead wrong in some things. And he thinks I'm wrong on things.
And he would say, so you think you can, if you died in the midst of being in the arms of a harlot, you would then regain consciousness in the arms of Jesus? Because he thinks you'd lose your salvation. And I would say, yes. When David's in the arm of Bathsheba, I didn't think he'd go to hell.
And so we'd get in great discussion. about this, but loving each other and appreciating, but having some real disagreement about it at the same time. Okay.
I think you can do it with a tone in a way of relating where it's ultimately out of fine. Let me just make some points about providence. That's what this is a backdrop for, guys.
So then Grudem comes and he deals with the doctrine of providence. And there's transcendence and imminence on the top of 63. But here's the definition of providence Grudem comes up with. He says that God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that one, he keeps... them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.
That's preservation. So that's neither deism nor pantheism. He is actively involved all the time, sovereignly keeping everything going.
And two's really important. God calls cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. Really important. Remember we talked about the doctrine of humanity where we're created independent and persons at the same time. So God works in persons as persons.
God doesn't have to turn us into things to work in us, even in our hearts. And you get this, don't you? You get God's unique and miraculous ability to work in a human. human heart in the way he decides to, without that human heart having to be shut off, or the person being shut down does some tinkering, then wakes us up again, and now we're robotic.
You know that God doesn't do it that way. Yet you still pray. Pray, God, change my heart. Or change her heart.
Go get her, Lord. She's running away from you. Go grab her. Not gently persuade her or nudge her or try to give a little influence.
No, what do you say? Go change her heart. You get that God has the ability to do it.
You don't say, no, Lord, don't change your heart, because if you do that, it won't be real, and we won't have a real relationship, and the love that comes out of that won't be real love anymore. You realize, no, God has the ability to do that. He has the ability to do that.
to work in a human heart without objectifying or depersonalizing that person or that heart. And that's what concurrence is. Within the created properties of a person, mind, volition, will, relational ability, sense of humor, creativity, and a human. human heart, God works within it as that.
Doesn't turn you into a rock to get you to move and do something. He can do that. We can't.
That's why it's so hard for us to imagine God being able to do this. And there's this beautiful picture in the Bible that really gets this. It's this, the day of judgment when you get jewels in your crown for righteousness. So Aurora is going to hear one day, well done, my good and faithful servant. And she's going to get a crown and jewels in her crown.
And she's basically going to get appreciation and applause from God himself. And it's really her. It's really her acts of faith. And he's going to say, these things you did in the power of the Spirit, by faith, for my glory, well done, my daughter.
He's going to say that. But the crown doesn't stay on her head, does it? What does she do with it? What does she do with the crown? That's really her crown.
What's that? Yeah, she takes it off her head and she throws it at the feet of Jesus. In this final grand gesture that says what? What does that say?
Come on, what does that say? Yeah, yeah, you're worthy. So all of this is to your credit. It's really mine.
And I'm not dissing your appreciation. I'm just putting it all in perspective. I'm going to take it off and I'm going to throw it at the feet of Jesus. final gesture that's all grace it's all gift yeah you really did these things in me and and we get rewards but at the end of the day it's all to his glory because it's all by his grace and so there's this image of of the end of it all that really gets this doesn't it and so the doctrine of providence says you know god's sovereign and providentially working in this way directing all these things to fulfill his purposes and that's government and so in little things like weather and food on your table and lots being cast and big things like kingdoms and kings and and and all the events of life to salvation on 64 all these key passages that grudem goes through Sanctification and the work of the ministry.
All these things God is sovereignly, providentially working within. Now, it gets tough, though, on the doctrine of evil, doesn't it? How do we think about God's providence over evil?
Because the Bible talks very strongly about God's sovereignty over evil, doesn't it? Middle of 65. When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Whoa!
I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things.
So God talks very directly about His involvement with evil. But we need to be equally concerned with God's holiness as we affirm His sovereignty over evil. That's the tension, isn't it? That as we affirm God's sovereignty, as the Bible does over evil, and draw great encouragement from it. Do you realize that throughout the history of the church, the primary source of comfort for God's people in the midst of suffering is what?
Trusting God's sovereignty in that. That's the story. God's in this. He's in control of this.
He knows what He's doing. He hasn't taken a day off. And so we affirm sovereignty, but never to the point where we compromise. holiness, purity, righteousness. God is never morally blameworthy for evil.
Now, Arminians explain that by saying, well, God has so valued relationship and love that He has given that freedom to humans that results in evil, but it's a worthy trade-off for Him. Calvinists say, no, we don't think that's the main cause. We think God's sovereign in a more direct way, but not... directly in that he's ever morally blameworthy for it.
So Calvinists will talk about direct and indirect causation. God causes good directly and evil indirectly, as Edwards would say, the way the sun causes darkness and coldness with its withdrawal, with its absence, not its presence. So God causes good with his presence.
and evil with the withdrawal of his presence. So he's not the direct cause of it, but the indirect by the withdrawal of his restraining grace in those ways. Or they'll talk about God's perspective having a grief over evil and a hatred for evil, but realizing that at the end, what it ends up accomplishing is worth it.
So even God can take pleasure in the bruising of his son. Most evil thing that's ever happened. Why? Because he knows what he's going to accomplish. It doesn't mean he lacks any grief or hatred for that grievous evil done to the Son and his suffering and death, but because he can look and see what it accomplishes, he can take pleasure in it and the Son can come joyfully to the cross.
So evil is a tough question. Now, these sources I have for you are helpful on 66. We've already talked plenty about God's self-glorifying purposes. That's just a little review there for you, up to 69 and 70. And I want you to know 71 through 77 are just yours for reference. You're not accountable for them. I don't expect you to know for the exam or your creed or anything like that.
These are just resources for you. Guys, the reason I go over this fairly quickly is because you tend to camp on this issue of human responsibility, human freedom, and sovereignty in theology too when you talk about the doctrine of salvation. and how people are saved and how they're sanctified.
So I trust that you'll get three weeks of it there so we can spend less time here. And I want to do it in light of the doctrine of God and humanity, and so that's why we've done it this way. So 71 through 77 are just for your resources.
77 has some good resources to read further on these issues. Okay, the reason we camp on the image of God in this class is because you've been spending your whole life defending the reality of sin as a Christian. You've never had an argument with someone trying to convince them that people are good. you've had lots of them trying to convince them that we've got a major sin problem and so this isn't the hardest thing to understand that we learn in this course but I think it's the hardest thing for us to accept in spite of the fact that of everything we believe I think the doctrine of sin is the easiest one to prove watch the news and tell me we don't have a sin problem.
Ponder the fact that every car, the hundreds of cars on this campus, and on Biola Avenue right now, they're all locked. Why is that? Every time you get out of your car and you go, think depravity.
Really look for ways to remind yourself of basic truth throughout your day. Every time you get off your bike and lock that billy up, think, humans are depraved. I have to go buy a $40 lock and lock it up here at a Christian campus.
Realize that we've got evidence everywhere we turn our eyes, and there's no greater evidence than an honest look inside your own heart. And an honest look at humanity. Parents never have to teach their children to be selfish. It comes really naturally. But, it is incredibly hard for us to accept this.
I have conversations with people about Christianity a lot, who aren't Christians, and it's common for them to go... with me on a lot of the stuff I believe. But there is nowhere they slam on the brakes more than the fact that human beings are horribly sinful, terribly depraved and desperately in need of a Savior.
That's where people just want to back off and say well, no, I think people are basically good. I want you to realize how profoundly infected you've been by cognitive contamination in this area. I think it's so incredibly difficult for us to really appreciate sin and grieve over it and be broken hearted by it and sorrowful for it and committed to the only solution for it, which is the gospel. I've never done research, but this is one of those research things that doesn't need research.
It's like every other week a research finding comes out. It's good to eat fruits and vegetables. Oh, good.
Thanks for letting me know. It's bad to smoke. Oh, good.
All right. Thank you. So, appreciate the $200,000 you spent on that research study.
Thank you. And so, this one doesn't need help either. I know the place you see the word sin used most outside of the church. I'm sure of it.
Do you know where you see the word sin outside the church used more than outside? than anywhere else? Where do you think that might be?
Where? No, that's an illustration. You don't see the word sin used in archery. Where do you see it?
Who arches anyway? Arch! Anyway, so, where do you see it used most?
Throughout your normal day? Do you know where in your life you've seen the word sin used far more than anywhere else? The freeway? No, I don't mean see sin, I mean the very word. Yeah, just in life.
Yes, exactly. Guys, you see the word sin used more than anywhere else on dessert menus. What does it do to you to be able to really appreciate the grievousness of sin, God's deep hatred of sin, when you see the word most on dessert menus? Sinfully delicious. Enjoy the gift.
Hagen-Dazs had a whole ad campaign, enjoy the guilt. Chocolate decadence. And it's actually usually the best thing on the menu. They call sinful.
What's the message you keep getting from that? It's so up for, it's not even subtle. Look, I came across this a while ago. Look at these cookies in the 7-Eleven. Sinful selections.
It's not even the least bit subtle. They say, you know, marketers are the smartest people in our culture. creative. They got the readout.
So I'm going to put sinful here and people are going to buy it because there's something that's going to draw them to this. And they do it. That's right. You know, Jaguar had an entire ad campaign all revolving around the seven deadly sins.
The Jaguar will be able to help you satisfy these seven deadly sins. So pride, lust, envy, greed, sloth, wrath, gluttony. And we read it and say, oh, it's just kind of tongue-in-cheek. Really?
No, and you're even supposed to laugh when it says, uh, envy. Sin number five, envy. Aerospace-inspired aluminum...
alloy body, designed to be stronger, faster, safer, smarter, limited availability, good thing, because if everyone had one, who would be envious? This is your way of not being envious and getting other people to be envious of you. What does that do to you? What does it do to you to get constantly barraged with a message that sin is fun and it's what you really want? Sin is fun.
Righteousness is boring. You want to kill a movie? Intended for adults, give it a G rating.
No one will go see it. Movie makers who don't put any trash in their movies plead that they not get a G rating if it's intended for adults. Because it'll kill a movie.
They'll put stuff in it just to make it PG so it doesn't die at the box office. Because we really do deep down believe sin's what we really need. It's really what we want. It's really what's attractive.
And righteousness is boring. And so, even if the words aren't being thrown out there, the concepts are. I mean, I read this article in one of my favorite publications. I faithfully read Cosmo Girl.
Cosmo Girl. As if Cosmo isn't messing up grown women enough, we need to make one for little girls. Good.
I'd just love to have a Cosmo and Cosmo Girl bonfire in the Stater Brothers parking lot sometime. Wouldn't that be great? Just go collect all we can.
Steal them. I don't want to buy them and give them money. But steal Cosmo Girls and Cosmo from every store we can and have a big bonfire and make a statement. So let's mess up little girls and give them Cosmo Girls rules for...
love. You ready? Rule one, when you like a guy, don't tell your girlfriends. Rule two, talk to a guy as if you don't like him.
Rule three, always have an opinion. Are you sure these aren't rules to make people despise you? And here's the cardinal rule, the big one, they say, this is the big one. Cosmo Girls rules for love. No matter what, put yourself first.
Okay, Satan. Whatever you say. Seriously, rules for love.
I mean, what does it mean to have stuff like that in our culture and get sin? Understand sin the way we're supposed to. It's really hard. Realize what you're up against to be grieved by sin.
It's no wonder we're so offended by the doctrine of hell. It's no wonder we're so offended by the wrath of God. Because when you have a low view of God, God's reaction to sin will always be the same.
always seem like an overreaction. It always will. You'll always think God's so carried away, so concerned about these little indiscretions or mistakes or lack of education or lack of time. And we get to be masters at excusing and rationalizing and explaining away our sin.
And we come up with all kinds of euphemisms to describe it. And God hates it. And we need to hate it too.
Until we do, we will never realize how desperate we are for a Savior. And you'll never be able to glory in the grace of God the way you're intended to if you don't get how much you really needed it. So, we need to get the doctrine of sin. And we need to realize how hard it is for us to do this. It's constantly trivialized and mocked and celebrated.
It's not enough just to... to allow for it or tolerate it. We need to celebrate it in our culture or you're intolerant.
So, I don't know about you, but when I think about these ways that we've been cognitively contaminated, I want to run to the Bible and get this right. right. So, the doctrine of sin discussion begins on page 78. And realize what a huge concept this is biblically.
It is something God is very concerned we understand in a big, nuanced and a deep way. Look at all the ways the Bible talks about sin. Missing the mark.
There's Sean's archery term. But other biblical terms. Sin is called evil or disobedience or transgression or stepping over a line or iniquity, pollution or dirtiness.
Lawlessness, trespass, ignorance, godlessness, wickedness, unbelief, unrighteousness and unholiness. And then two really good definitions of sin. These are great, biblically grounded, concise statements that get to the point.
Think about all the ways we think about sin and talk about sin, and then listen to these definitions. Sin is any lack of conformity, active or passive, to the moral law of God, which reflects His character. This may be a matter of act, of thought, or of inner disposition, or state. Or Buswell's really gets at it. Sin is anything in the creature which does not express or which is contrary to the holy character of the Creator.
The vital truth of these definitions is that sin is personal. And it's related to God. When I say personal, I mean it's not primarily just ethical or societal or institutional. I mean it's personal.
It's a personal offense against a personal God, a holy God, and I'm shaking my fist in His face. That's the fundamental awareness of what sin is. It's got all kinds of ethical and relational and societal and institutional ways it works itself out. But the core issue of sin is that it's profoundly personal.
That's why these definitions are so helpful. helpful. Sin is personal. So let's just look at the first way we need to unpack this definition.
Sin is a particular kind of evil. It's moral evil. That's what sin is.
When we use the word sin, we're talking about moral evil. That's why it's personal. It's moral agents, personal moral agents. Your dog is not sinful.
The fact that he eats the neighbor's cat is a result of human sin that's caused the world to be in that sort of adversarial relationship. But your dog is not sinful, you are. Because you're a moral agent. And you have offended a holy God who is...
a moral agent and personal as well. And when we talk about sin, we mean moral evil. Now, natural evil, cancer, earthquakes, is a result of moral evil, this personal expression of hatred toward God, but it in itself is not sin.
So let's make a distinction between moral and natural evil. Natural evil is the result of moral evil. And we get that, don't we? When we see that stuff happen in Japan, something deep in us knows we're seeing something that isn't just explained by plate tectonics.
We know that. We know we're seeing evil, don't we? And that causes us to ask big questions about life. And we start to ask questions about why this feels so wrong to us, and what evil really is.
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