BEYOND A REASONABLE FAITH

#12: The Providence of God

The Troubling Nature of Deism

Atheism = There is no GodAgnosticism = I don’t know if there is a GodDeism = There is a God, but He’s absentee.

Well Known (Possible) Deists

• Charles Darwin – believed that some creating intelligence designed the universe and set up absolute natural laws.

• Benjamin Franklin?• Thomas Jefferson• Thomas Payne?

The Science Of Intelligent Design Referred to as

“pseudoscientific” A “form of creationism” Won’t identify the

intelligent designer Little better (if any) than

pure deism.

Should we be satisfied with this?

God’s Responsibility For HisCreation

Deists and intelligent design proponents rob God of His true nature.

God did NOT wind up the universe like a clock and take a permanent vacation.

God is very much still involved in His creation.

God Is Obligated By His Goodness

Psalm 31:19 – “How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, before the sons of men!”

Psalm 34:8

Obligated By His Love

1 John 4:16 – “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

Obligated By His Righteousness

Psalm 31:1 – “In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; in Your righteousness deliver me.”

Psalm 143:1 – “Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!”

Obligated By His Faithfulness

Psalm 36:5 – “Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”

Psalm 119:90 – “Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands.”

God Provides Providential Care Psalm 135:6-8 -- Whatever the

Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries. He smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast.

All Things Under God’s Control

Proverbs 16:4 – “The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

Romans 8:28

God controls all elements of life in His universe.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

He controls world governments

Romans 13:1-2 : “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and

those who exist are established by God. Therefore whoever

resists authority has opposed

the ordinance of God…”

Ephesians 1:11

“…also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works a things after the counsel of His will.”

Hebrews 1:3

…and upholds all things by the word of His power….

Luke 12:6-7: “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God…”