Session 11: WCF Chapter III Of God’s Eternal Decree, Sections 1&2

I Ask a Favor Let’s not talk about election (predestination) today.

Psalm 33:11 Ephesians 1:11 Hebrews 6:17

Psalm 5:4 James 1:13-14 1 John 1:5

Acts 2:23 Matthew 17:12 Acts 4:27-28 John 19:11 Proverbs 16:33

CHAPTER III - Of God’s Eternal Decree 1. God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

“Ordain” - to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law “Author” – the maker of something; creator; originator “Second cause” – a cause caused by something else: an “original” or “preceding” cause “Violence” – something that diminishes or limits

1 Samuel 23:11-12 Matthew 11:21, 23

Romans 9:11, 13, 16, 18

CHAPTER III - Of God’s Eternal Decree 2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed any thing because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.

Not Foreknowledge of Occurrence Decree But Decree Occurrence

Foreknowledge Socinians (e.g., Unitarians and Jehovah’s Witnesses) and Rationalists (e.g., deists) maintain that God cannot absolutely foreknow free actions, because by their very nature they are uncertain until they are performed. Arminians admit that God absolutely foreknows free actions, but deny that He determines them. Calvinists affirm that God absolutely foreknows future free actions because He has determined them to be so.

Personal Personal Focus Focus

How do you avoid becoming fatalistic?