The Divine Providence and human freedom.
By having life, movement and existence only in God, men do not become machines, but remain moral beings, free from coercion (libertas a coactione), that is, responsible to God, or — which is the same thing — persons. The fact stands firm a. from Scripture, Acts 17:30: God judges the circle of the earth; the judgment of the world is based on the responsibility of men; b. from
1494) 1 Tim. 2:1, 2; Rom. 13:1-4. Cf. the section: "The Good Works of the Heathen", Vol. III, 52 ff.
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experience, namely from the fact of conscience, Rom. 2:14-15: the thoughts that accuse or excuse one another; Rom. 1:32: sinners know that those who do these things are worthy of death. So the fact stands. But in this life it remains unknowable how this is possible with the omnipotence of God.
Included in this is the special question: Must the events in the world happen as they do (necessitas immutabilitatis), or can they also happen differently than they do (contingentia rerum)? According to Scripture, both necessity and contingency are to be noted, necessity from the point of view of divine providence, contingency from the human point of view. Examples for the necessity: Of Judas' betrayal and the killing of Christ on the part of the Jews and the heathen, Scripture says that they had to happen according to God's decree, Acts 4:27-28: They gathered together concerning thy holy child JEsum, Herod and Pontius Pilate with the heathen and the people of Israel, to do what thy hand and counsel had decreed beforehand that it should be done (προώριοεν γενέσϑαι). Likewise, in reference to the capture of Christ, it is said Matt. 26:54: ουτω δει γενέσϑαι. But the same events are also presented as contingent from the human point of view; for Christ, by warning Judas, sought to dissuade the Jewish people and Pilate from the betrayal and murder, Matt. 26:24: "The Son of Man is passing away, as it stands written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him that the same man had never been born." Christ's proceedings with Pilate also had the purpose of keeping Pilate from an unjust judgment. True, the Lord says, "He that delivered me unto thee hath greater sin." At the same time, however, the words contain the instruction and warning that Pilate also sins when he yields to the demand of the Jews. The words also make an impression on Pilate, because "from that time Pilate sought how he might let him go," Jn. 19:11-12. Therefore the precisely speaking ancient theologians say: Ratione providentiae Dei, quae omnia regit, necessario omnia fieri recte dicuntur; respectu hominis libere et contingenter res fiunt et aguntur omnia in rebus humanis. [Google]1495) These two ways of looking at events, taught in Scripture,
1495) Cf. Heerbrand, Compendium, p. 214-216. Communicated in Baier-Walther II, 176.
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must certainly be held so that, on the one hand, epicureanism and atheism (things happen without God), and, on the other hand, fatalism and stoicism (setting aside the means ordered by God) are kept out of the Christian religion. The following rule of life is to be kept: We men are to use the means in the world kingdom and in the kingdom of grace to which God has directed us, step by step, on our path of life. In bodily illness, for example, we use care and the help of the physician, and with regard to the attainment of salvation we use the means of grace through which God works faith and preservation in faith. To want to know the divine providence a priori, that is, setting aside the means ordered by God, is a foolish undertaking. We thereby enter a realm that is closed to our cognition in this life. We presume to investigate God in His mere majesty (in His nuda maiestas, Luther says).
This finds its application to the further special question of the terminus vitae. On the one hand, the doctrine teaches that the end of life of every man is immovable, Job 14:6: "Man has his certain time. ... You have set a goal; he will not pass it over." On the other hand, the Scriptures say just as clearly that human life is capable of prolongation and of shortening. Hezekiah prays to God for prolongation of his life, and his prayer is answered.1496) Regarding the shortening of life, it says Ps. 66:24 of the bloodthirsty and the false that they do not bring their life to the half. Both, the immovably fixed terminus vitae and its shortening and lengthening, are to be held as true. The former is spoken from God's point of view, the latter from the human point of view to which God condescends and according to which God directs us men to the means which he has arranged for our life here on earth. The contemplation of the end of our life from the divine point of view, setting aside the means ordered by God, is not suitable for the power of comprehension that we have in our life on earth. Therefore, it is God's will and order that we adhere to the means to which we are directed for the preservation and prolongation of our life. The exceptions, according to which God
1496) Is. 38:1 ff; 2 Kings 20:1 ff.
600 ><w:t xml:space="preserve"> Angels [English ed. 493-497].
can sustain us even without means, we leave to Him.1497) As means ordered by God, the Scripture names: working (Ps. 128:2: "You will be fed by the work of your hands"; 2 Thess. 3:10: "If anyone does not want to work, he should not eat"), food (Acts 27:33-36: Paul admonishes the shipmen to take food to sustain their life), possibly also drink a little wine (1 Tim. 5:23), especially a pious life (Eph. 6:3: "that it may go well with you and that you may live long on earth") and prayer (Hezekiah, Is. 38:1 ff.), also fleeing from danger (Acts 9:23-25: Paul's escape from Damascus when the Jews wanted to kill him), etc. Because these means are ordered by God, they are made a part of the divine providence. This is still especially expressed Acts 27:31: "If these [the shipmen] abide not in the ship, ye cannot abide in life." By keeping or despising the means ordered by God, it comes to the teminus vitae that God has immovably established.1498)