Lesson 8 & 9 Flashcards
The foundation of all divine revelation is
creation
Creation may be defined correctly as
bringing something into existence that did not exist before
God is the origin of
all things
God’s primary purpose in creating the universe was to
bring glory to himself
Usues existing matter to create something new
- creation of animals
- creation of birds
- creation of Eve
Mediate Creation
Uses nothing to make something
- creation of heaven
- creation of earth
- creation of angels
Immediate Creation
We may safely conclude about creation that
God created each living creature according to its kind
God’s role in relation to the created order is that He
Actively preserves and maintains it
living or having life
plants and animals
God controls them
Animate creation
No living
rocks and weather
God controls them
Inanimate creation
- Shows how He directs events so that everything works out for the purpose of His will
- That continuous agency of God by which he makes all the events of the physical and moral universe fulfill the original design with which he created it
- closely parallels sovereignty
- just as God’s decress are sovereign, so are his works
Providence
God does not intervene to stop certain things
Permissive
God “on occasion” intervenes in a persons life in a restraining way to keep that person from sinning
Preventative
God directs or guides the actions of people even though they are unaware of His directing hand
Directive
God limits the extent of satanic activity
Determinative
What is the tension between God’s providential government and humanity’s free will?
- It can seem to some that God is simply carrying out what He has decreed in eternity, then people have no part in the process of salvation.
- Scripture shows that people must appropriate what God offers, and in this sense they do have freedom
According to James, believers sometimes fail to achieve their purpose in praying because
they pray with incorrect motives
According to Thiessen, there is perfect harmony between God’s providence on the one hand and
people’s freedom on the other hand
Prayer is powerful and effective in accomplishing objective results and in effecting
positive spiritual change in belivers
Explain the place of prayer in divine providence
- prayer is the means by which God’s people communicate with Him and acknowledge His sovereignty over their lives
- he urges us to engage in this exercise and attaches certain conditions to it
- even so, the matter of what answers He gives and when there are issues He sovereignly decides
- prayer changes us and develops our spiritual faculties
God sovereignly rules
nations, rulers, and governments
God has determined that people should
populate the whole earth,
when and where they should live