God’s eternal, sovereign, all-inclusive plan
“1. God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”
God has such a plan (Rom 9:15; 11:33; Eph 1:11; Heb 6:17). This plan contains all things and events:
All things that occur are related to each other. If God controls one, he must control them all.
The Bible says God controls all things (as Eph 1:11 above).
He controls “chance” events (1 Kgs 22:34 [compare vv. 20, 23]; Prov 16:33; Matt 10:29- 30).
He controls the free actions of people (Prov 21:1; Eph 2:10; Phil 2:13; cf. King Cyrus).
He controls even the sinful actions of people (Gen 45:4-8; 50:20; 2 Sam 24:1 [compare 1 Chr 21:1]; Isa 10:5; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28 [compare Matt 17:12]).
But note that God is not the author of sin. The sin arises in the will of the sinner, which is corrupted by his sinful nature, as we see in Gen 50:20. God’s sovereign or decretive will is not to be confused with his revealed or prescriptive will—his commandments. While his prescriptive will forbids sin, his decretive will ordains sin for his own glory. Yet when angels or humans sin, they do so of their own free will and desire—they are responsible and accountable. The Bible says that God cannot originate sin (Jas 1:13-17; 1 John 1:5). Rather, he uses and channels the sin of his creatures into the actions he desires (see Ps 76:10 in most translations).
The “liberty” of second causes means that God does not override the freedom of people when he uses them to cause events for other people. The “contingency” of second causes means that God indeed uses those second causes to bring to pass his desired will.
WCF 3.1
