PROVIDENCE: God owns and controls His world and

actively works in it using human decisions for His own glory and His

people’s good.

WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH - 1649 (ENGLAND)Chapter 5 – Of Providence1. God, the great Creator of all things, does uphold, direct, dispose, andgovern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to theleast, by his most wise and holy providence . . .

PROVIDENCE:Proverbs 15:33 The eyes of the LORD are everywhere,  keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

II Chronicles 16:99 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

Psalm 145:1717 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.

Psalm 104:2424 How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all;    the earth is full of your creatures.

2nd HELVETIC CONFESSION – 1561 (SWITZERLAND)Chapter 6: Of the Providence of God

ALL THINGS ARE GOVERNED BY THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. We believe that all things in heaven and on earth, and in all creatures, are preserved and governed by the providence of this wise, eternal and almightyGod.

Psalm 113:4 ff. “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth?”

Psalm 139:3 ff. “Thou searchest out . . . all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether”

Acts 17:28 “In him we live and move and have our being”

Romans 11:36 “from him and through him and to him are all things”

Therefore Augustine most truly and according to Scripture declared in his book De Agone Christi, cap. 8, “The Lord said, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will’ ” (Matt. 10:29). By speaking thus, he wanted to show that what men regard as of least value is governed by God’s omnipotence. For he who is the truth says that the birds of the air are fed by him and the lilies of the field are clothed by him; he also says that the hairs of our head are numbered (Matt. 6:26 ff.).

Heidelberg Catechism – 1562 (GERMANY)

Q. 1. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

A. That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

PROVIDENCE: God owns and controls His world and

actively works in it using human decisions for His own glory and His

people’s good.

BROAD CATEGORY BIBLICAL TIMELINE (Old Testament)

•CREATION TO MONARCHY 6000 – 1050 (1030)B.C.

•MONARCHY 1050 (1030) – 586 B.C.•EXILE 586 – 539 B.C.•2nd TEMPLE JUDAISM 539 B.C. – 70 A.D.

I.PERSIAN 539 – 331 B.C.Ezra (Daily Readings)Esther

Xerxes (Ahasueras) – 486 B.C. – 465 B.C.