The Supralapsarian Purpose of Providence in Double Predestination

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Providence is defined as that God’s sovereignty, pleasure, and omnipotent power to actively cause everything in this world to run by the means of nature (that can be empirically grasped and perceived by man) without His direct miraculous, supernatural intervention.[1] Providence, which follows upon the work of creation in the beginning, is divine power that keeps all things in existence and governs them, and the power of providence is directed by the counsel of providence, which is the wise plan of God decreeing that and how all things will glorify Him in the day of Jesus Christ.[2] Leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come to us not by chance but by His fatherly hand.[3]

Double Predestination is God’s decree of election and Reprobation. There are the single predestinarians who accepts the doctrine of election without reprobation because they throw logic out of the window. Since God has chosen some to salvation, there must be others whom God has not chosen. Election is God’s decree whereby on His own free will, He has ordained certain men to salvation, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Reprobation is that part of predestination, whereby God, according to the most free and just purpose of his will, hath determined to reject certain men unto eternal destruction, and misery, and that to the praise of his justice.[4]

Supralapsarianism teaches that God’s decree of double predestination (choosing the elect and reprobate) logically precedes the decree of the fall or sin. Logical order speaks of how the logical mind plans before a person executes it in the temporal order. God is the Logos and therefore Logic is how God thinks. John 1:1 says that the Logos is God, which means that logic is not something external of God which He has to abide to. The Logos is the very structure of God’s thinking. Logic is God. God is His own thinking. Romans 9:11 implies the supralapsarian logical order in the eternal mind of God i.e., God elected Jacob and rejected Esau unconditionally before they did anything good or evil that the sovereign purpose of God according to His decree of double predestination might stand, not of works, but of God that calls. God unconditionally loves Jacob with an everlasting love and unconditionally hates Esau with an everlasting hatred (Romans 9:14). Election and reprobation are unconditional without any reference to the goodness or evil of man, and therefore wholly depending on the pleasure of God who also sovereignly ordained the providential means to the end that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirt are glorified in their functional roles in salvation and consensual wise eternal decree and execution of double predestination. The doctrine of the logical order in God’s decree in salvation is more important than many might have surmised, and it is not a mere speculation into the divine mind. To those who care for the glory of God, Supralapsarianism provides the only biblical solution to the understanding that there is nothing outside of God nor any external condition (such as sin or God foreseeing the future to see the independent decisions of man) can influence God’s sovereign decision in electing and reprobating. It’s by God’s sovereign pleasure alone that He predestined some men as elect and some men as reprobates. For someone who is new to the logical order of God’s decree may want to read Douglas Douma’s article on Supralapsarianism as taught by Gordon H. Clark (https://www.douglasdouma.com/2014/06/02/the-supralapsarianism-of-gordon-h-clark/). I would also recommend Robert L. Reymond’s treatment of Supralapsarianism in his “A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith” and Herman Hoeksema’s in his “Reformed Dogmatics”.

Now that terms have been defined, the question of the supralapsarian purpose of God’s providence in double predestination will be answered. God has an end or goal in mind in creating this world and He has also ordained the means that will lead to the end. That end or goal of creation is for the display of God’s wisdom in the election and reprobation of men. In other words, creation is the arena where God wants to glorify Himself in executing His wise decree of double predestination. Ephesians 3:4-12 explains that God created the world in order to show His manifold wisdom of His decree of salvation to the Universal Church:

4Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

 

Ephesians 1:9-12 also provides an answer to God’s goal of the end of the world i.e., the gathering of the Universal, Catholic Church unto Himself for His own glory:

9Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

 

The means which He has ordained will lead to the fulfilment of the end or goal that He desires. The means to the end are the providence of God. Romans 8:28 tells us the purpose or the goal of God’s active providence in this world - “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” This also logically implies that all things do not work for good to them that do not love God, to them who are not the called according to His purpose. These people who do not love God are the wicked reprobate whom God has unconditionally predestined to eternal damnation. Psalm 92:7 also speaks of the purpose or the goal of God’s active providence for the reprobate - “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:” God has set the reprobate in slippery places and He has cast them down into destruction (Psalm 73:18). God providentially raised up Pharaoh that God might show His power in him and that His name might be declared throughout all the earth (Romans 9:17). He actively hardened the heart of pharaoh so that God might show His power to the Israelites by splitting the red sea to provide their escape and surely it is all for the good of the elect Israelites.

God indeed provides the physical and cognitive growth of man, food, water, rain, wealth, pain, suffering, diseases, and many other things to both the elect and reprobate. This providence is, however, for two different purposes: 1) It is by God’s love and grace that He provides all these things to the elect for their spiritual good as Romans 8:28 has said, and 2) it is by God’s hatred and justice that God provides all these things to the reprobate as a means to their eternal destruction as Psalm 92:7 has stated. Herman Hoeksema said: “... when the wicked well-doer is successful, increases his wealth, enlarges his place, gains in power and influence, he merely enhances his obligation to serve God. For the things of this present time are God’s capital, entrusted to us, placing us under the obligation to serve and glorify the Most High with it all. But the wicked cannot and will not employ all things in His service. To him the things of this present time are means to satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And, therefore, the more he increases his substance and position, the greater sinner he becomes, the more he aggravates his judgment, the severer will be his eternal punishment”.[5] Christians cannot be envious of them because prosperity can be a tool in God’s hands to harden people’s hearts.

Now knowing the purpose of God’s providence in reprobation, can anyone in his right mind still believe in 1) God’s common grace (God’s non-salvific grace and favour or blessings to the reprobate wicked), 2) God’s universal love, 3) God’s universal sincere offer of the Gospel, and 4) God’s desire for the reprobate to be saved? It is impossible for God to have determined the destructive fate of the wicked from eternity according to His pleasure, and yet still be gracious and loving to the reprobate. God’s grace and love is only reserved for the elect. The Lord Jesus Christ in His high priestly prayer prayed only for the good of the elect (John 17:9, 20), because He loves and is gracious only to the elect. This is the true doctrine of God’s love and grace.

God loves and is gracious to the elect unconditionally and He will surely provide them the way to salvation in time by the means of the indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel and the gift of faith. Whereas for the reprobate, God hates and is ungracious to every single one of them unconditionally and He will surely harden their hearts by the means of the indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel and their wilful sinning to the end that they will not believe and experience the second death. Both instances lead to the ultimate end of creation: the glory of God. This is the supralapsarian purpose of God’s providence. 

 

Summary[6]

 Logical Order in the mind of God  \

  1. The election of some sinful men to salvation in Christ and the reprobation of the rest of sinful mankind in order to make known the riches of God’s gracious mercy to the elect and justice to the reprobate
  2. The decree to apply Christ’s redemptive benefits to the elect sinners
  3. The decree to redeem the elect sinners by the cross work of Christ
  4. The decree that men should fall
  5. The decree to create the world and men

 

Temporal Order (exact reverse of logical order):

  1. The world and men are created
  2.  Men fell to sin
  3. Christ died on the cross and resurrected
  4. Christ's redemptive benefits applied to all the elect
  5. The gathering of the universal church to the praise of the glory of His grace and the second death of the reprobate to the praise of His glorious justice


[1] This is far from deism which, according to Wikipedia, is the belief in the existence of God, specifically in a creator who does not intervene in the universe after creating it, solely based on rational thought without any reliance on revealed religions or religious authority.

[2] Confusion of Grace and Providence. David J. Engelsma. https://cprc.co.uk/articles/confusiongraceprovidence/

[3] Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 10. http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/10.html

[5] Herman Hoeksema. The Curse-Reward of the Wicked Well-Doer, p. 19

[6] Robert L. Reymond in “A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith”. Supralapsarianism: The Teleological Principle

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