Blogging the Institutes Day 39 1.18.3 - 1.18.4

Calvin puts an appropriating ending to the first of three books with this statement,

"Those to whom this seems harsh [Providence of God, Will of God in good & evil) had better consider how far their captiousness (petty objections) is entitled to any toleration, while, on the ground of its exceeding their capacity, they reject a matter which is clearly taught by Scripture, and complain of the enunciation of truths, which, if they were not useful to be known, God never would have ordered his prophets and apostles to teach. Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility (obedience), and without reservation, whatever the holy Scriptures have delivered. Those who indulge their petulance (childish sulking), a petulance manifestly directed against God, are undeserving of a longer refutation."

And in everyday terms he is basically saying,

"I just laid it out for you. I backed it up with Scripture, I called names of those who object and addressed their objections. Now if you still can't understand, this may just be over your head. And if it is over your head, you might want to be careful about throwing objections at it. Because its all written in the holy Scriptures. So now, if you still object, well I really don't think anything I say will ever convince you."

Blogging the Institutes Day 38 1.17.13 - 1.18.2

Isaiah 14:27

For the Lord of hosts has purposed,

and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

and who will turn it back?

The Providence of God will be executed to the exact point at which He wills it to. There is no man or creature that can change this. As a child of God I have no fear in that statement. For those who are not, there is much sorrow.

Blogging the Institutes Day 37 1.17.8 - 1.17.12

Ok, so I know I put a lot of quotes in these blogs, and trust me, even that is a restraint from what I would like to include. But today I could not help myself, I think summarizing this passage would not do it justice. Shall we begin:

Here we are forcibly reminded of the inestimable felicity (intense happiness) of a pious (God Centered) mind. Innumerable are the ills which beset human life, and present death in as many different forms. Not to go beyond ourselves, since the body is a receptacle, no, the nurse, of a thousand diseases, a man cannot move without carrying along with him many forms of destruction. His life is in a manner interwoven with death. For what else can be said where heat and cold bring equal danger? Then, in what direction soever you turn, all surrounding objects not only may do harm, but almost openly threaten and seem to present immediate death. Go on board a ship, you are but a plank's breadth from death. Mount a horse, the stumbling of a foot endangers your life. Walk along the streets, every tile upon the roofs is a source of danger. If a sharp instrument is in your hand, or that of a friend, the possible harm is manifest. All the savage beast you see are so many beings armed for your destruction. Even within a high-walled garden, where everything ministers to delight, a serpent will sometimes lurk. Your house, constantly exposed to fire, threatens you with poverty by day, with destruction by night. Your fields, subject to hail, mildew, drought, and other injuries, denounce barrenness, and thereby famine. I say nothing of poison, treachery, robbery, some of which beset us at home, others follow us abroad. Amid there perils, must not man be very miserable, as one who, more dead than alive, with difficulty draws an anxious and feeble breath, just as if a drawn sword were constantly suspended over his neck? It may be said that these things happen seldom, at least not always, or to all, certainly never all at once. I admit it; but since we are reminded by the example of others, that they may also happen to us, and that our life is not an exception any more than theirs, it is impossible not to fear and dread as if they were to befall us. What can you imagine more grievous than such trepidation? Add that there is something like an insult to God when it is said, that man, the noblest of the creatures, stands exposed to every blind and random stroke of fortune. Here, however, we were only referring to the misery which man should feel, were he placed under the dominion of chance.

But when once the light of divine providence has illumined the believer's soul, he is relieved and set free, not only from the extreme fear and anxiety which formerly oppressed him, but from all care. For as he justly shudders at the idea of chance, so he can confidently commit himself to God. This I say, is his comfort, that his heavenly Father so embraces all things under his power--so governs them at will by his nod--so regulates them by his wisdom, that nothing takes place save according to his appointment; that received into his favor, and entrusted to the care of his angels, neither fire, nor water, nor sword, can do him harm, except insofar as God their master is pleased to permit.

Blogging The Institutes: Day 36 1.17.3 - 1.17.7

With the doctrine of Providence comes many questions and many objections from the unbeliever. Who will say that if God is Provident over all actions, then why should we punish those that do wrong. "Was it not God's Providence that lead to that action?" They will say if God's Providence is true then what should be my reason for taking medicine or even take the safe walk home?

Calvin provides great answers to these questions, answers we should take to heart if we ever plan of discussing the doctrine of Providence with others (which we should!)

In regard to the role of Providence in evil acts:

" God requires of us nothing but what he enjoys. If we design anything contrary to his precept, it is not obedience, but contumacy and transgression. But if he did not will it, we could not do it. I admit this. But do we act wickedly for the purpose of yielding obedience to him? This, assuredly, he does not command. No, rather, we rush on, not thinking of what he wishes, but so inflamed by our own passionate lust, that, with destined purpose, we strive against him. And in this way while acting wickedly, we serve his righteous ordination, since in his boundless wisdom he well knows how to use bad instruments for good purposes."

In regard to taking care of ourselves and watching out for our safety:

"For he who has fixed the boundaries of our life, has at the same time entrusted us with the care of it, provided us with the means of preserving it, forewarned us of the dangers to which we are exposed, and supplied cautions and remedies, that we may not be overwhelmed unawares.

Blogging The Institutes: Day 35 1.16.9 - 1.17.2

It can be a difficult pill to swallow for some, this 'pill of providence', but like so many medicines, the taste may at first seem awful, but the effects are great, and therefore the medicines start to be our first defense, instead of a feared last resort.

"For while our adversities ought always to remind us of our sins, that the punishment may incline us to repentance, we see, moreover, how Christ declares there is something more in the secret counsel of his Father than to chastise everyone as he deserves. For he says of the man who was born blind, 'Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him'." Here, where calamity takes precedence even of birth, our carnal sense murmurs as if God were unmerciful in thus afflicting those who have not offended. But Christ declares that, provided we had eyes clear enough, we should perceive that in this spectacle the glory of his Father is brightly displayed."

Blogging The Institutes: Day 34 1.16.4 - 1.16.8

My brother and I like to say, "There are no such things as coincidences." We state this because by insinuating coincidence you are saying that an event, or series of events, happened randomly. And if there existed "random" events, God would not have full control of His creation, and if that were the case that would make him less than God. I believe that is the reason Providence is such a huge part of my faith. That our God must have full control and knowledge of everything that has happened and that will happen is crucial, if He doesn't have that power, then who is to say that He has the power to SAVE but not the power to control all the workings of His creation.

The ultimate reason that Providence has such an impact is that it IS the source of my strength. To know that I have a Creator God who has my back in all situations, and is continually working on my behalf for the good of me, that He may ultimately be glorified. Through the toughest of times I know He is working and in the best of times I know He is working. "When Abraham said to his son, God will provide, he meant not merely to assert that the future event was foreknown to God, but to resign the management of an unknown business to the will of him whose province it is to bring perplexed and dubious matters to a happy result."

"Hence we maintain, that by His providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also he counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined. What, then, you will say, does nothing happen fortuitously, nothing contingently? I answer, it was a true saying of Basil the Great, that fortune and chance are heathen terms; the meaning of which ought not to occupy pious minds. For if all success is blessing from God, and calamity and adversity are His curse, there is no place left in human affairs for fortune and chance."

Blogging The Institutes: Day 33 1.15.8 - 1.16.3

"Let him, therefore, who would beware of such unbelief, always bear in mind, that there is no random power, or agency, or motion in the creatures, who are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed."

As you can tell from the title of this blog one of the attributes I find myself most attracted to is the Providence of God, so you can imagine my joy as Calvin approaches this attribute at the start of the 16th chapter. He opens with this, "It were cold and lifeless to represent God as a momentary Creator, who completed his work once for all, and then left it." At first reading, this line made my heart sink. For the thought of that being true, that God would create this glorious work, and then leave it to run alone, is absolutely frightening and soul stealing. Lucky for us that is not the case, our Provident God continues to govern and direct His creation, leave us stress free and full of joy, for "without preceding to His Providence, we cannot understand the full force of what is meant by God being the Creator, how much soever we may seem to comprehend it with our mind, and confess it with our tongue."

Here are a few select quotes from these sections on Providence, please take a few minutes to soak these in, they have the power of changing your life:

"If one falls among robbers, or ravenous beast; if a sudden gust of wind at sea causes shipwreck; if one is struck down by the fall of a house or a tress; if another, when wandering through desert paths, meets with deliverance; or, after being tossed by the waves, arrives in port, and makes some wondrous hair-breadth escape from death--all these occurrences, prosperous as well as adverse, carnal sense will attribute to fortune. But whoso has learned from the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his head are numbered, will look farther for the cause, and hold that all events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God."

"No created object makes a more wonderful or glorious display than the sun. For, besides illuminating the whole world with it s brightness, how admirable does it foster and invigorate all animals by its heat, and fertilize the earth by its rays, warming the seeds of grain in its lap, and thereby calling forth the verdant blade! This it supports, increases, and strengthens with additional nurture, till it rises into the stalk; and sill feed it with perpetual moisture, till it comes into flower; and from flower to fruit, which it continues to ripen till it attains maturity. In like manner, by its warmth trees and vines bud, and put forth first their leaves, then their blossom, then their fruit. And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the sun. No pious man, therefore, will make the sun either the necessary or principal cause of those things which existed before the creation of the sun, but only the instrument which God employs, because he so pleases; but these miracles God declared that the sun does not daily rise and set by a blind instinct of nature, but is governed by him in its course, that he may renew the remembrance of his paternal favor toward us."

"God is deemed omnipotent, not because he can act though he may cease or be idle, or because by a general instinct he continues the order of nature previously appointed; but because, governing heaven and earth by his providence, he so overrules all things that nothing happens without his counsel."

"Those who attribute due praise to the omnipotence of God thereby derive a double benefit. He to whom heaven and earth belong, and whose nod all creatures must obey, is fully able to reward the homage which they pay to him, and they can rest secure in the protection of him to whose control everything that could do them harm is subject, but whose authority, Satan, with all his furies and engines, is curbed as with a bridle, and on whose will everything adverse to our safety depends."

"I say superstitious fears. For such they are, as often as the dangers threatened by any created objects inspire us with such terror, that we tremble as if they had in themselves a power to hurt us, or could hurt at random or by chance; or as if we had not in God, a sufficient protection against them."