18 Mar '06 20:33>
S. Some things God decreed to do Himself. These are the “immediate” things, in contrast to “mediate” things which He decreed that some other agency, such as the free will of man, would perform. For example, creation is “immediate.” There had to be a place for God’s creatures to live, so He created space. Space is incomprehensibly vast, mind-boggling in size. The basic unit of measure for space, the light year is used in increments of billions to describe what can be seen of the universe. God created space in a split second so that angels and man might have somewhere to live. The angels inhabit all of space, whereas we live in a very small part of it to resolve the angelic conflict. On this planet the angelic conflict is being resolved.
God decreed that He would “immediately” create time. He set the earth on its rotation and orbit to give us our standard for measuring time. Besides space and time, salvation was also decreed to be provided by God Himself. Likewise, control of history by Jesus Christ is “immediate”--- He often takes a direct hand in a matter rather than relegating everything to secondary causes.
T. God accomplishes some things, however, through the action of secondary causes acting under the law of necessity. Thus, the decree includes both primary and secondary causes.
U. Other things God has decreed to promote or permit free agents to do in the exercise of their own free will and self-determination. On one hand, man’s own volition is responsible for sin, human good, and evil from the sin nature. On the other hand, man is free to believe in Christ through non-meritorious positive volition resulting in eternal salvation.
V. One category of events is rendered by the decree of God to be just as certainly future as any other category. All events are equally certain to occur whether caused directly by the sovereignty of God or caused by the free will of man. Primary, secondary, or tertiary, every cause for every event is equally in the decree and will occur. Therefore, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist in human history as an extension of the angelic conflict.
God decreed that He would “immediately” create time. He set the earth on its rotation and orbit to give us our standard for measuring time. Besides space and time, salvation was also decreed to be provided by God Himself. Likewise, control of history by Jesus Christ is “immediate”--- He often takes a direct hand in a matter rather than relegating everything to secondary causes.
T. God accomplishes some things, however, through the action of secondary causes acting under the law of necessity. Thus, the decree includes both primary and secondary causes.
U. Other things God has decreed to promote or permit free agents to do in the exercise of their own free will and self-determination. On one hand, man’s own volition is responsible for sin, human good, and evil from the sin nature. On the other hand, man is free to believe in Christ through non-meritorious positive volition resulting in eternal salvation.
V. One category of events is rendered by the decree of God to be just as certainly future as any other category. All events are equally certain to occur whether caused directly by the sovereignty of God or caused by the free will of man. Primary, secondary, or tertiary, every cause for every event is equally in the decree and will occur. Therefore, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist in human history as an extension of the angelic conflict.