God is actively involved in preserving His creation, also in overseeing that creation in accordance with His sovereign, eternal plan. These two activities, of preserving and of overseeing, combine together under the heading of providence. In performing such tasks, His providence is characterized or described by His efforts both to preserve and also to govern. By preserving, He maintains the existence of His creation. By governing, He is constantly overseeing the intimate details of their life. How does God govern in the affairs of His people? At times, He performs miraculous or supernatural feats. By this, one should realize that He is able to counter the natural laws of the universe through the use of supernatural force. Nothing in the universe is outside His realm of control. In dualism, a secondary system exists which can sometimes be thought of as an evil force that battles God. But our universe and our existence does not come under the constraints of a dualistic apparatus. Instead, God is our monotheistic creator. As such, He does not have to battle any other eternal force to have His way or to see His plan come to pass.
The Bible shares many instances where God intervened into the normal activities of mankind in order to bring His plan to pass. Three such occasions are in the lives of Abimelech, Joseph, and Job. In Genesis 20:3, Scriptures record that God came to Abimelech in a dream and warned him to stay away from Abraham's wife. Literally, He was holding Abimelech back and keeping him from sin. Because of Abraham's lie, Abimelech had innocently gone beyond God's boundary with Sarah, a married woman and also Abraham's wife. In that instance, God protected him from really going too far! In Genesis 45:1-7, Joseph shares with his brothers that their evilness towards him had been turned into good for all of Israel. Thus, God had allowed a particular evil to go in a special direction so that He could work it for good according to His plan. Finally, in the case of Job, in Job 1:12 and Job 2:6, God placed boundaries on the devil so that His plan for Job's life could be accomplished.
Tom of Spotswood "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 30 - Five Approaches For Explaining The Presence Of Evil
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