The Dangerous Doctrine of Providence
It’s be a while, but I’m back to Substack Systematics. Let’s pick up where we left off, the Works of God, and for the next 4 posts, God’s work of Providence.
In 1933, the German Christian Church wrote these words about Adolf Hitler coming to power:
"To this turn of history, Hitler taking of power, we say a thankful yes. God has given him to us, to him be the glory. As bound to God's word, we recognize a great event of our day, a new commission of God to his church."
A year later, they doubled down:
"We are full of thanks to God that he, as Lord of History, has given us Adolf Hitler, our leader and savior... We acknowledge that we with body and soul are bound and dedicated to the German state and to its führer." [1]
That didn't age well, to say the least.
The Trap of Providence
When it comes to Providence, we instantly look with our limited perspective at a piece of time and think, "Oh, God's doing something wonderful here!" But with the perspective of history—or better yet, God's perspective of eternity—we realize that what we were praising God for was actually God's severe judgment and great evil.
This is why Providence is what I’d call a dangerous doctrine. We don't want to jump too quickly into judging God's Providence. But we also don't want to say that governments or circumstances are outside of God's hands. We want to put God's Providence over all things, but we don't want to be too quick to interpret what God's doing in all things.
The Secret and the Revealed
One of the most helpful verses for navigating this tension is Deuteronomy 29:29:
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
Moses identifies two kinds of things: secret things that belong to God, and revealed things that belong to us. What's interesting is that God doesn't tell us things just to satisfy our curiosity (though sometimes he does). He gives us what we need to know to glorify him and honor him. The things we don't know—his purposes, his plans in all the minutia of history—that's okay. We don't need to know everything. We've been given enough to honor him in any given situation.
What Is Providence?
So what exactly is Providence? Providence is God's ongoing direction and governance of all things.
You might ask, "Isn't that just sovereignty?" I think of Providence and sovereignty like speed and velocity. Speed is how fast you're going. Velocity is how fast you're going in a particular direction. You can drive north at 50 miles an hour or south at 50 miles an hour—same speed, different velocity.
Providence is God's sovereignty with direction. It's his purposeful sovereignty. It's God's power, but not just abstract power—it's his purposeful power to do things.
John Piper defines God's Providence as "his joyful glorification of his own grace in beautifying undeserving people whose beauty is their enjoyment and praise and reflection of Christ, now and forever in the new heavens and the new earth."[2]
That's a mouthful, but it's helpful because it shows that God isn't just doing things purposelessly. He's working for a purpose: to show his beauty through his people praising him.
The Comfort in the Mystery
Providence is given to us as a supreme comfort to Christians. It's not so much knowing how God works out his plan, but that God works out his plan—that's the comfort.
When we say God has Providence over "all things," what exactly does that include? Well, buckle up. We're talking about nature, Satan and demons, kings and nations, suffering, life and death, sin, conversion, and Christian living (those are all categories from Piper – he gets an overall footnote for this series)
That's a lot to work through. Over the next three posts, we'll take a biblical tour of what God has Providence over, how he works through means, and how we should respond to this truth.
But here's the thing: when you know God—when you've studied his nature, his character, his kindness, wisdom, love, and mercy—Providence transforms from either an undesirable taking away of your freedom or a philosophical puzzle into the supreme comfort. We know the God who's in control, and he's working all things according to his perfect, wise, loving, and sovereign plan.
[1] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House, 1998), 429–30.
[2] John Piper, Providence (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020), 515.