God of All My Days

"In your book were written all the days that were formed [lit. squeezing into shape] for me, when none of them as yet existed" (Ps. 139:16 NRSV). The preceding post, "You Can't Kill John Piper," needs a positive form of the sovereignty of God as it relates not only to our death but also to every day which precedes our end from a Classical Arminian perspective. 

James Arminius affirms that, not only does "the very nature of God and of things themselves, but likewise the Scriptures and experience do evidently show that Providence belongs to God."¹ The word providence, in Arminius' usage, denotes God's meticulous sovereignty or governance of His world. Calvinist theologian Richard A. Muller notes, with regard to Arminius' doctrine of God's sovereignty, that it

represents the working out of the principles developed in his doctrines of God and creation, directed specifically toward a solution to the problem that has been with us since the discussion of the proofs of God's existence -- the problem of the relationship of God to the contingent life [the conditions and possibilities] of the created order.² 

God is sovereign over every minutiae of life; but does that fact, either implicitly or explicitly, indicate that God has already predetermined every minutiae, bringing to pass all that He has foreordained merely by decree? For Calvinists, the answer is yes, and they either work diligently to provide solutions as to how God is not the Author of sin and responsible for all evil (link//link), or they merely attempt to cope with the tension (link//link).

Classical Arminians, however, are freed from both diligent effort and tension because we do not insist that God did, by decree, "unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass" (link) -- nor do we believe Scripture attests to such a theory, but rather the direct contrary (link).

For example, the Israelites rebelled against several commands of and forsook their God (cf. Jer. 2:5-9, 13-17). Did God not foreordain their rebellion, according to Calvinist theology? By logical, consistent necessity, He must have foreordained their rebellion and subsequently complained about and then punished them for that rebellion.

Yet God responded, "Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God, while he led you in the way?" (Jer. 2:17 NRSV; cf. Jer. 2:20, 29, 30; 3:21-22; 4:3-4, 14; 5:19, 23) Here, Calvinists must either abandon their presupposition, or overtly misinterpret these texts in order to substantiate their foundational claims. 

For another example, God claimed, "They know no limits in deeds of wickedness" (Jer. 5:28). But, according to consistent Calvinist theology, God foreordained that they know no limits in deeds of wickedness. Why this complaint, then? God responds, "Shall I not punish them for these things?" (Jer. 5:29; cf. Jer. 6:16; 7:30) God wants to punish them for doing what He foreordained for them to do? Is this what we learn about God's nature and character from Scripture? No, this what we learn about God's nature and character from an errant theology such as Calvinism.

For yet another example, during one of Israel's darkest moments, they sacrificed their children to a false god. The God of Israel confesses that such a despicable act was not commanded by Him, nor did it enter His mind that they should act so wickedly (Jer. 7:31; 19:5).

But if God has already unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and does so without foreknowing future free will choices and decisions, as tenaciously held by Calvinists, then the Israelites burned their children in the fire to a false god because that is exactly what God foreordained to take place. He then complains about their wickedness and holds them accountable for their actions -- the actions that He Himself foreordained and decreed. We believe that this is false teaching.

Arminius and Classical Arminians confess that "God does nothing, or permits it to be done in time, which He has not decreed from all eternity either to do or to permit."³ The Remonstrants hold the same:

For this [the sovereignty of God] is nothing else than a serious and continual inspection, care and control of the entire universe, but especially of man (for whose good, to the glory of God, all things were composed), or the preservation and sustenance of all creatures, namely, of things and persons, likewise the governing and directing of our actions and of all events (whether they be good or evil) which happen in time by whatever manner to His creatures, but especially to men and most of all the godly.⁴

Remonstrant Hugo Grotius insists that God is sovereign, ruling not only people but also animals, according to His goodness, due to the fact that He "is all-wise and all-powerful, and cannot but know every thing that is done, or is to be done, and with the greatest facility direct and govern them . . . to promote the good of the whole."⁵ God is, with certainty, sovereign over every detail in reality. But in what manner does He foreordain the future?

Rather than imagine that God foreordains the future merely by decree, Arminius, the Remonstrants and all Classical Arminians, as well as the early Church fathers from the first to the fourth century, maintain that God, according to His wisdom, demonstrating what is worthy of Himself, acts "according to His goodness, His severity, or His love for justice or for the creature, but always according to equity."⁶ In other words, to echo Scripture, God, the Judge of all the earth, always acts justly (cf. Gen.18:25).

The Psalmist writes, "The LORD loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked" (Ps. 97:10 NRSV). God hates sin. His will is for the sanctification or holiness of His redeemed children. Therefore, God does not foreordain sin merely by decree.

"In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed" (Ps. 139:16 NRSV). The God of all my days is sovereign; and He has in no uncertain terms foreordained what sin I sin, when I sin, in what manner I sin, or that I sin (cf. 1 John 2:1).

God "accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will" (Eph. 1:11 NRSV), and He does so exhaustively, foreknowing every choice and decision that I and everyone else ever to exist will make in actuality. God's holiness, justice, love, sovereignty, nature and character are richly preserved in the theology known as Arminianism. The same cannot be said of Calvinism.           

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¹ James Arminius, "Disputation XXVIII. On the Providence of God," in The Works of Arminius, the London edition, three volumes, trans. James and William Nichols (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 2:366. God's exhaustive knowledge is derived from "His own and sole essence" (2:341), by which He may meticulously plan all future events, since His understanding is "certain and infallible," without obligating Himself to decree evil of necessity. Neither does His exhaustive knowledge in any sense "impose any necessity on things, but it rather establishes contingency in them" (2:342). In other words, His foreknowing any event is not tantamount to His necessarily causing or bringing about any event, as in Calvinism.

² Richard A. Muller, God, Creation, and Providence in the Thought of Jacob Arminius: Sources and Directions of Scholastic Protestantism in the Era of Early Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991), 235.

³ Arminius, 2:368.

⁴ The Arminian Confession of 1621, trans. and ed. Mark A. Ellis (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2005), 58.

⁵ Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion, ed. John le Clerc (Edinburgh: Thomas Turnbull, 1819), 16.

⁶ Arminius, 2:367.