I decided to look up other forms of the word.
providential.... as if decreed by divine providence
providence .... care, guardianship and control exercised by a deity (that's helpful).
provide....to furnish, supply, to make available
As I look around me -- listening and watching -- it seems to me there is no point at which our ideas of God come into greater conflict with modern (postmodern?) culture than with this doctrine of providence.
Think about it. Providence means God has not abandoned His creation. He actually works with His creation to direct all things according to the "immutable counsel of His Will" (phrase from the Westminster Confession). We don't use the word immutable much any more. At least I never hear it. It means never changing or varying, unchangeable.
Watching television and movies, reading newspapers and listening to those around us, it is apparent that people of the "world out there", even if they acknowledge the idea of a god, they certainly don't acknowledge that he intervenes in any way with this earth and its problems.
Most people do not really believe in prayer. Things just happen -- coincidentally, randomly, without any rhyme or reason.
The Bible is replete with pictures of how false that notion is. Think of Jonah, even in disobeying God, God still worked out His plan through His prophet. Think of Joseph, even though he was sold in slavery, unjustly accused and imprisoned, God's ultimate plan was still worked out...in spite of man's sin.
A Christian's view of history is completely different from the view of secularists/humanists.
(A humanist lifts man to great heights and diminishes God and His role. A Christian elevates God and His role and diminishes man's role).
We believe there is a flow of history toward a goal. We believe history has a purpose.
Before the Jews entered the historical picture, all other civilizations viewed their history as a circle...round and round....planting time, harvest, drought and famine, eating and sleeping, good times and bad....history was just re-cycling over and over again.
Then the Jews came along and saw history as a road, a straight path, with a goal at the end.
This was a radical suggestion.
The providence of God shows that His plan is directed to a specific conclusion. There is such a thing as real history. The flow of events is going somewhere.
The Westminster Confession (a different document than the catechism, but written about the same time) states:
God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest even to the least by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible knowledge and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy.
What is more, we know that the flow of history for the glorification of God is to our good also. For
We know that in everything God works for good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Our greatest good is to enter into the great destiny for which we were created originally: to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and thus to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
The providence of God does not relieve us of responsibility, of course. Sin is still
sin and it has its consequences. Evil is still evil, but God is greater than the evil. That is the point. And He is determined to complete His plans and purposes in
spite of the evil that men do.
Remember Shakespeare: The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
The evil of slavery haunts us today. That evil has lived a long life. And the good --those courageous acts of many people who struggled to adolish slavery -- we don't even remember most of those people. We remember some -- but in reading journals and papers from our early history, there were great numbers of people trying to stop slavery.
Sometimes evil, it appears, just wins. It appears. But the whole story is not finished. The play is not over yet.
The doctrine of God's Providence does not relieve us of seeking wise solutions, or for perseverance, or for seeking to spread His Kingdom.
God works through the integrity, hard work, obedience and faithfulness of Christians. And sometimes through others who do not even recognize or acknowledge their place in God's plan.
As we recognize God's Providence our frame of mind will allow us to cease to fret in circumstances and to grow in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ and of His Father, who has made us and who has planned and accomplished our salvation.
Remember the answer to Questions 28 in the Heidelberg Catechism?
Because of God's providence we can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature can separate us from His love, for all creatures are so completely in His hands that without Him they cannot do as much as move..
If our lives are in any one's hands, it is a relief to know it is in the hands of our God -- the one revealed to us in Holy Scripture -- the good and loving and holy God who is immutable! (And I'm sure glad is not in my hands!)
Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the Ages.
Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.
Revelation 15:3-4
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