Divine Providence or the Preservation and Government of the World.
(De providentia Dei.)
1. The concept of divine providence.
As God created the world, so he sustains it. Col. 1:16-17: έν αντώ έκτίσϑη τα πάντα ... και τα πάντα Ιν αύτ'φ σννέστηκεν. This fact, according to common usage, we call divine providence, providentia Dei. We understand, then, by divine providentiality, the actual preservation and government of the universe and of all individual creatures by God's omnipresence and omnipotent operation. Synonymous with providentia have been used the Greek expressions πρόνοια and διοίκησις. The creation and preservation of the world stand closely bound together, Col. 1:16-17. God did not withdraw from the world in whole or in half or in the least after the creation of the world, but remains present to the world in the greatest and the smallest and
1475) Vol. II, p. 5, and note 13.
1476) Quenstedt I, 693: Neque causa creationis προηγούμενη ulla fuit praeter solius Dei non ex necessitate naturae, sed ex libertate voluntatis se communicantis beneplacitum. [Google] Baier II, 96: Vid. Ps. 136:5 sqq, ubi memoratis operibus creationis semper additur formula: "Quoniam in saeculum benignitas eius" [Google] (חַסְדּֽוֹ [HEBREW]). Correctly also Kirn, Grundriß der Evangelical Dogmatik 3, p. 59: "According to the biblical view, the world did not come into being by necessary emanation from God, nor by the evolution of an eternal world substance from itself, but was called into existence by God's free creative will.”
588 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Creation of the Wett and the Man. [English ed. 483-484]
maintains it by his divine power and effect. Through this alone, the world has its existence. If God were to withdraw from the world, the world would disappear without a trace. If God were to withdraw from a part of the world, that part of the world would cease to exist. This is clearly stated by the words τὰ πάντα ἐν αντφ αννέατηκεν [“everything in a man's life”]. The concept of the preservation of the world in the face of error probably no one has described more clearly on the basis of Scripture than Luther. One, in order to take the now existing world wholly or partly out of God's hand and to hand it over to the "laws of nature," has appealed to Gen. 2:2, where it is said that God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made. In contrast, Luther says of this passage:1477) "The Sabbath or the rest on the Sabbath means that God rested in such a way that He did not create another heaven or another earth (aliud coelum et aliam terram), and does not mean that God ceased to maintain and govern the heaven and earth that He had created. For in what way and by what means God created the heavens and the earth, Moses clearly taught in the previous chapter, namely that God created everything by the Word of God, as he then said: "The sea is filled with fish, the earth produces leaves and grass and animals," etc. Such words still remain today and are powerful; therefore we see that the multiplication goes on and on, without end. And even if the world should stand for innumerable years, the power of these words would not perish, but would be an eternal increase, from the power and might of this word or, that I call it so, of this first foundation. Therefore, the question is easily resolved: ‘God rested from his works', that is, he was content (contentus fuit) with the heavens and the earth, which he had created at that time by the Word, did not create a new heaven or a new earth or new stars and new trees, and yet God always works, because he has not left the creature, which he once created, but governs and sustains it by the power of his Word. So now he has rested from creation and not from preservation and government." Luther therefore also says precisely:1478) "We Christians know that with God creating and preserving is one thing" (idem est creare et conservare). If we have reservations about the proposition that divine providence
1477) St. L. I, 91 f.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1478) St. L. 1, 1539.
589 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Creation of the Wett and the Man. [English ed. 484-485]
can also be described as continued creation (creatio continuata), this strongly indicates that we harbor inadequate conceptions of both creation and the maintenance of the world. Perhaps the thought has forced itself with us that the world is at least partly in the hands of the "laws of nature" or the causae secundae. More about this later.
The fact of divine providence can and should already be recognized from the realm of nature (Acts 14:17: "God has not left Himself unwitnessed" etc.) as well as from history (Acts 17:26-28: "God has made generations of one blood of all men to dwell on the face of the whole earth" etc.), thus by means of reason. But because of the blindness and perverseness of the human heart, the divine providence is also taught in many places of the Holy Scriptures. Thus by Christ Himself in detailed exposition Matt. 6:26-32: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink. ... Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, they do not reap, they do not gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. ... Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow. ... So God clothes the grass of the field" etc. Matt. 5:45: God τον ήλιον αντον άνατέλλει. Thus Paul and Barnabas testify to the heathen at Lystra Acts 14:17: "God has not left Himself unwitnessed, has done us much good, and has given rain from heaven and fruitful seasons." And Paul to Athens, Acts 17:28: "In him we live, move, and have our being." Scripture also teaches that the preservation and government of the world as an opus ad extra is a work of the Triune God. John 5:17-19 says the Son of God precisely in reference to the preservation of the world: "Ό πατήρ μον εως άρτι έργάζεται, κάγώ Εργάζομαι. But especially does the Scripture emphasize for the comfort of Christians that the Son of God, who became man, therefore also according to human nature, according to which He is our brethren, governs all things and sustains them in existence. Eph. 1:20-23: Ό άναβάς νπεράνω πάντων των ονρανών, ϊνα πληρώσγ] τά πάντα.1479)
The object of divine providence. Scripture names as the object of divine providence both τά πάντα, Col. 1:17,
1479 The detailed exposition vol. II, 183 ff.
590 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Creation of the World and of Man. [English ed. 485]
and the individual things that make up the universe: the plants, Matt. 6:28-30; the animals, Matt. 6:26; man, Acts 17:25-28. At the center of divine providence stands the Church. Scripture explicitly teaches that all things and all processes in heaven and on earth must serve the church. Rom. 8:28: τόϊς άγαπώσιν τον ϑεόν all things must serve for the best. Matt. 24:14: The world stands only for the sake of the church. Hebr. 1:14: The angelic world is placed in the service of the church.