{"id":8260,"date":"2021-07-20T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/?p=8260"},"modified":"2021-07-13T09:02:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T15:02:41","slug":"common-grace-2-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2021\/07\/common-grace-2-49\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Grace, 2.49"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This post is part of a series walking through the second volume of Abraham Kuyper\u2019s\u00a0Common Grace<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Having seen in the previous chapters that God\u2019s foreknowledge is tied to His\u00a0decree<\/em> rather than to His\u00a0foresight<\/em>, Kuyper recaps his argument that God does not \u201csee\u201d what will happen in the same way the Biblical prophets do. There is no \u201cwhat will happen\u201d outside of God\u2019s counsel. Which tells us that God does not \u201csee\u201d obstacles and then remove them: He sets the goal and then determines the means by which His goal will be accomplished. This does not, however, negate the relativity of the human perspective:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we must not be oblivious to the fact that, from our human perspective, everything is in a state of constant change, and in terms of our own finite awareness there is something profoundly reassuring in holding on to this notion of a fatherly care that accompanies us. In relation to spiritual reality, everything has two sides, and everything can be presented in two ways: how it manifests itself from God\u2019s side, and how it manifests itself in our human awareness.\u201d (426)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scripture presents both the Divine perspective and the human perspective, and we must not forget that. That human perspective, if nothing else, has a pedagogical value\u2013the future is uncertain from our perspective by God\u2019s design:<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing would have had a more devastating impact on our spiritual life than if God had laid open before us the \u2018book\u2019 of his decrees. In reading what it had decreed, we would have lost all courage, our resilience would have vanished, and any growth or development in us would have simply been aborted. For this reason, the truths of God\u2019s eternal counsel have been deliberately hidden from us. From our perspective, then, our whole future is uncertain<\/em>, notwithstanding the fact that it is totally certain and fixed with God.\u201d (427)<\/p>\n

The antithesis is at work here, \u201cwhich for us seems irreconcilable\u2013between the eternal in God and the temporal in our human existence.\u201d (428) God\u2019s Transcendent goodness was Incarnate, so these temporal statements have meaning. In this tension, \u201cprovidence\u201d becomes a comforting doctrine. We live in the flux, so God changes things for us (from our perspective) and brings peace.<\/p>\n

We must not say that God\u2019s absolute decrees are hidden from us because of sin; even Adam wasn\u2019t told all things before the Fall. God ordained this mystery in the world from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is part of the decree itself that the decree should remain hidden from our understanding until it had been implemented. God himself, who created us, has therefore ordained our human nature in such a way that, apart from any knowledge of the decree, we should continue our life day by day, from past to present. This occurs by the urging of our hearts and our minds, and the resilience of our wills. In all of this we are guided by God\u2019s commands and exhortations, his threats and promises, and this proceeds in the context of all the circumstances and under the impact of all the influences that are part of his decree.\u201d (430)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We are and live as human beings and must not extrapolate back onto God a contradiction with His revelation. Ultimately, these difficulties are all the problem of immanence and transcendence. We must remember both the this-world \u201cour Father\u201d and the above-this-world \u201cin heaven\u201d for us to live and worship well.<\/p>\n

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the\u00a0City of Man Podcast<\/a>\u00a0and an Associate Profess<\/em>or of Political Science at\u00a0Southwest Baptist University<\/a>\u00a0in Bolivar, MO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuyper on Transcendence and immanence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1469,"featured_media":7410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,6,115],"tags":[942,1128],"class_list":["post-8260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-christian","category-classics","category-philosophy","tag-abraham-kuyper","tag-common-grace"],"yoast_head":"\nCommon Grace, 2.49<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kuyper on Transcendence and immanence\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2021\/07\/common-grace-2-49\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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