Katy Reed-Hodges

Minister of Congregational Life

Consider God!

Ecclesiastes 7:13-14

13 Consider what God has done:

Who can straighten what he has made crooked?

14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover

anything about their future.

“Although certain ways of being and behaving are wiser than others and in general tend toward life rather than death… in the end we must remember that the universe is not a predictable machine but a personally governed and complex space. Wisdom is not magic. God is not an object to be manipulated, more does God’s world belong to human beings. If God makes something crooked, it is beyond human power to make it straight.” – Dr. Iain Provan (Regent Seminary)

The consensus regarding sovereignty:

1) God is the good and just governor of nature and history in that he not only created but also sustains, guides, provides for and judges everything;

2) Nothing at all can happen in either nature or history that God does not at least allow;

3) God’s sovereign governance of nature and history is both “general” (i.e., through natural laws built into processes) and “special” (i.e.; extending to details of people’s lives).

Meticulous Providence – Whatever happens in nature and history is completely, exhaustively willed by God and not merely permitted. (Calvinism)

Limited Providence – God restrains himself for the sake of a certain, limited degree of autonomy of both nature and human agency. Promotes true moral freedom of choice. (Arminianism)

There is one wiser than Solomon