Call to Worship, November 15, 2026
Of Divine Providence
1._____ God the good Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will; to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy. (Hebrews 1:3; Job 38:11; Isaiah 46:10, 11; Psalms 135:6; Matthew 10:29-31; Ephesians 1:11)
2._____ Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that there is not anything befalls any by chance, or without his providence; yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
(Acts 2:23; Proverbs 16:33; Genesis 8:22)
3._____ God, in his ordinary providence maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure.
(Acts 27:31, 44; Isaiah 55:10, 11; Hosea 1:7; Romans 4:19-21; Daniel 3:27)
4._____ The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence, that his determinate counsel extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sinful actions both of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, which also he most wisely and powerfully boundeth, and otherwise ordereth and governeth, in a manifold dispensation to his most holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness of their acts proceedeth only from the creatures, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
(Romans 11:32-34; 2 Samuel 24:1, 1 Chronicles 21:1; 2 Kings 19:28; Psalms 76;10; Genesis 1:20; Isaiah 10:6, 7, 12; Psalms 1:21; 1 John 2:16)
Dr. James Renihan wrote in his commentary on the 1689 Confession, “What is providence? The word itself means ‘to see before hand—foresight or forethought’ (from Latin pro- video/videre). In scholastic Reformed theology, and thus in our Confession, it is used to refer to the ongoing work of God subsequent to creation. It is dependent on creation and, prior to that in the order of chapters, the doctrine of divine decrees, and is an attempt to express the fact that God continues to operate in the world after His act of creation. The doctrine expresses the ‘continuing act of divine power, subsequent to the act of creation, by means of which God preserves all things . …’ William Ames’s brief definition furthers our understanding: ‘The Providence of God is that Efficiency whereby he provides for his Creatures now made, in all things, according to the counsel of his owne will.’ We said in our exposition of chapter three that there was a conscious effort made in the construction of the Confession to integrate the doctrine of the decrees with the doctrine of providence, cf. 3.1. The Reformed theologians used this doctrine to describe the outworking of God’s decrees subsequent to the work of creation. The eternal decree of the eternal God does not cease with creation but extends to all things. Thus, God and His decree must have a relationship with the existence and development of the real world.
But God does not react to the world; He is not contingent. The doctrine of the decree teaches us that He is sovereign over all things. When God ‘executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence,’ the first brings the world into existence, the second sustains, governs, and directs it.
The initial words of chapter five bring together the acts of creation and providence. God, here used not just of the Father but of the Godhead (and remembering to understand this noun in light of chapter two) is the good creator. WCF and Savoy employ the adjective ‘great,’ making the change in 2LCF interesting. Certainly not doubting the greatness of God as the maker of all things, the Baptist substitution subtly shifts the focus of the doctrine. Adding good harmonizes the statement with the words of 4.1, which spoke of creation in terms of the divine appropriations (eternal power, wisdom, and goodness), and also serves as something of an inclusio for the paragraph, since goodness appears again near its conclusion. The idea is that providence is a genuine expression of the fact that God is, in His essence, good. When we think of divine acts in the world, we must consider them as expressions of God’s goodness. The idea of goodness appears at several places in this chapter (see paragraphs four, five, and seven). This is intentional, in order to emphasize that all the acts that take place in this world relate to this attribute of God. There is no form of dualism allowed in Christian theology. God is good, and all His acts partake of His goodness.
A further addition, from 1LCF46 article five, confirms the harmonization by incorporating the other appropriations, infinite power and [infinite] wisdom. The adjective infinite supplies a slightly different nuance to the term eternal which modifies these nouns in 4.1. Eternal speaks of the timelessness of the Trinitarian persons as revealed in creation, while infinite evokes their boundless nature. As God is infinite, so also are the divine appropriations. Not only does creation show forth God’s glorious attributes, but so also does providence. It is God’s continuing care of the world and all that is in it. He did not make the world and leave it to fend for itself; He sustains its every moment—every heartbeat, every breath of air. Humanity exists because He upholds, directs, disposes, and governs life.
Like creation, providence is general or natural revelation, a continuous testimony to the reality of God. It is true, it is real, and it constantly calls us to the Lord. Our problem is that our blind eyes misunderstand and misinterpret the world around us. We exchange the truth for a lie, being blind to the glory of God in creation and providence. Remember the words of Solomon: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ Without the fear of the Lord, and because in our sinfulness we want to believe anything except God’s truth, we twist the good revelation of creation and providence into foolishness, as if we can erase God from the very means He designed to show His glory. We must not do this. God made and sustains the world so that we might come to Him and worship.”[1]
[1] James M. Renihan, To the Judicious and Impartial Reader: A Contextual-Historical Exposition of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, vol. 2, Baptist Symbolics (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2022), 148–50.