Cancel

Tabletalk Subscription
You have {{ remainingArticles }} free {{ counterWords }} remaining.You've accessed all your free articles.
Unlock the Archives for Free

Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.

Try Tabletalk Now

Already receive Tabletalk magazine every month?

Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.

{{ error }}Need help?

Psalm 97

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad! (v. 1)

As we studied through chapter 6 of 1 Samuel last week, we witnessed the Philistines trying to achieve some certainty as to whether the afflictions that came upon them when they captured the ark of the covenant were due to God or to “chance.” This same question is often on the minds of contemporary unbelievers. Did God create the universe, they wonder, or did it simply happen “by chance”? How about the neighbor’s lung cancer —is he just a victim of “chance,” one of the “unlucky” ones, or is there another explanation as to why he is stricken and others are not? Or what about that fender-bender on the freeway—was it just a “chance” occurrence, two drivers in the wrong place at the wrong time? The world constantly presents us with twists and turns that are difficult to understand. And so we wonder: What lies behind it all? With the help of Dr. R.C. Sproul’s teaching series Providence, we will spend this week exploring this issue.

Thankfully, we need not spend much time debating the viability of chance as an explanation for things that happen. The word chance is perfectly appropriate if we are speaking about the odds of something happening (“There is a 50 percent chance of rain today”). It is even acceptable for describing something unexpected that happens (“I bumped into an old friend by chance“). But when we begin to say that chance causes something, we are denying the testimony of Scripture. To attribute anything to chance is to characterize it as an impersonal mechanical cause, which is to discount the very existence of God.

Scripture affirms with the greatest possible force that there is a God, and that all things occur because He wills them or allows them to happen. It says the universe came to be at His command and that He continues to govern it. The Bible paints a picture of a God who is intimately involved in the affairs of His creation, not (as some have theorized) one who set the world spinning and then sat back to let natural processes run their course. He is the sovereign God, ordaining all things, from the greatest event to the smallest. This is the Biblical doctrine of providence, the teaching that God “directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things,” as the Westminster Confession of Faith puts it (V, 1). It assures us that chance causes nothing— just as the Philistines learned.

Coram Deo Living before the face of God

We have many expressions by which we attribute events to impersonal causes. We say we have an “accident” in a car, that we experience a “coincidence,” or that “fate” leads to a particular outcome. Do you use these or other expressions? As we study God’s providence this week, think about ways you casually deny providence by your words.


For Further Study
  • Pss. 115:3; 135:6
  • Acts 17:25–28
  • Eph. 1:11
  • Heb. 1:3

    Just Give Us What We Want!

    Providence over Empires

    Keep Reading Made in Man's Image: Open Theism

    From the February 2003 Issue
    Feb 2003 Issue