...rooted in the assumption of total divine control," he explained. The Westminster Confession asserts that "God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy...freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass."152 Pinnock recounted that it was out of this theological presupposition of total divine control...

...why the Westminster statement of faith can say that God ordains whatever comes to pass and yet add, "Yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence done to the will of the creatures, nor is liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather...

...exists, and nothing exists which is not foreordained by Him. The Westminster Confession of Faith states: God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy...freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass....4 If anything were to exist independently of God, it would, of necessity, be coequal with God....

...occurrence. Although his purpose comprehends all things, and is immutable, yet thereby "no violence is offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty...contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."10 The teaching of Scripture is unequivocal. God's knowledge is all encompassing and ultimately...

...in God's immutable decrees and cannot be other than they are. As the Westminster Confession puts it, "God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy...and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass" (chap. III). The divine initiative in such a theology is so powerful and irresistible that it can determine...

...a first cause for history — God's sovereign will — and a second cause — human responsibility: God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy...comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the A Warning Against the Spirit of the Age ... Unless men's every thought is brought into captivity to...

...will." When they spoke of God's eternal decree, that is, God's eternal purpose, they declared that "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy...and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." The ease with which the confession speaks of the decree of God creates a difficulty for contemporary...

...comfortable dependence on him. III. OP GOD'S DECKER. — I. God hath decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass ; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath...

...Puritan divines, speaks in a very similar fashion. Chapter 3, "Of God's Eternal Decree," states that "God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy...and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." As for those who are predestined to salvation, "their number is so certain and definite that it cannot...

...and became commonplace in our heritage. ' The Westminster Confession of Faith, for example, says that "God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy...freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass."2 Calvin himself declared that we "are governed by God's secret plan in such a way that nothing...