SEMESTER 4
154 – Terminology – Part 4
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: THEOLOGY IV LESSON # 54
WORDS AND TERMS DESCRIBING THE GENERAL ACTIVITIES OF GOD
ETERNAL DECREE:
All things which God has eternally purposed, which must subsequently include all things that shall ever come to pass. We should never think in the terms of divine decrees, but rather divine decree. That is to say, that all things which God purposes are part of one singular and totally unified decree. Though the following issues properly belong to soteriological philosophy, and not to divine activities, I place them here, because they, in relativity to the fall, basically address divine decree.
LAPSARIAN:
A Lapsarian is one who believes that man fell from his first estate of innocence and holiness by the act of sinning. While various divisions of Lapsarians are in error, this general view is biblically accurate. The divisions of Lapsarianism essentially address what they feel to be the logical (not the chronological) order of divine decree, as related to the fall of man thus:
THE SUPRALAPSARIAN ORDER OF DECREES:
- The decree to elect some to salvation and leave others in just reprobation.
- The decree to create both the elect and the non-elect or the reprobate.
- The decree to permit the fall of all men in the person of Adam.
- The decree to provide salvation for the elect.
- The decree to apply that purposed salvation to the elect.
THE SUBLAPSARIAN ORDER OF DECREES:
- The decree to create both the elect and the non-elect or the reprobate.
- The decree to permit the fall of all men in the person of Adam.
- The decree to provide salvation for the elect.
- The decree to elect some to salvation and leave others in just reprobation.
- The decree to apply that purposed salvation to the elect.
THE INFRALAPSARIAN ORDER OF DECREES:
- The decree to create both the elect and the non-elect or the reprobate.
- The decree to permit the fall of all men in the person of Adam.
- The decree to elect some to salvation and leave others in just reprobation.
- The decree to provide salvation for the elect.
- The decree to apply that purposed salvation to the elect.
LOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:
Chronological order means the order of events as they occur in time. Logical order means the order of events as they relate to each other, as to cause and effect. While the teachers of the above orders of decree, claim to only address logical order, there remains the likelihood that they yet regress to chronology. If this be true, whereas God is omnipresent, and whereas His decree is singular, and whereas there can therefore be no chronology of decree with God, the issues of Supra, Sub, and Infra Lapsarianism become supra-scriptural, and thus moot points. It should be duly noted that Sublapsarianism and Infralapsarianism vary only in the inversion of points three and four. They are very often considered and stated to be the same.
FOREORDINATION:
The activity of God in setting in order the motives, forces and restraints, necessary to bring to pass all things which He has eternally decreed, whether by restraining sinful men, or by placing before them opportunity to exercise their depravity.
PROVIDENCE:
God’s governing and guiding power over all things in the universe, in providing, guiding and restraining, all forces within His creation, so as to effect His eternal decree.
COMMON GRACE:
This refers to the common goodness and benevolence of God which He bestows upon all His creatures, saved or unsaved (Matthew 5:45
). Some men have taken upon themselves to interpret this revelation of divine benevolence as an indiscriminate love of God, i.e., that He loves all men exactly the same, but Scripture forbids such an interpretation.
FORBEARANCE:
The patient activity of God, by which He allows violators of His holy law, and revealed will, to continue, until the fulfillment of their iniquity or their conversion.
SUFFERANCE:
The activity or passivity of God in allowing wicked deeds to be carried out, within the limitations of eternally purposed restraints.