I now come to a doctrine that stands in direct and irreconcilable opposition to the Pelagian and Arminian exaltation of free will: the providence of God.
The historic Christian doctrine of God's providence and the Arminian understanding of human freedom cannot peacefully coexist. They are as incompatible as fire and water, light and darkness, Christ and Belial. Attempts to join them together result only in distortion. One must eventually give way to the other.
What makes the Arminian position especially remarkable is that it elevates the creature against the Creator. It is not merely the complaint, "Why have You made me thus?" but rather the ambition, "I will not be governed thus. I will exalt myself." Even refined pagan philosophers rarely advanced human freedom to such heights.
Ironically, some pagans came closer to the truth. They imagined Providence as a goddess because they understood that nature itself could produce nothing without a higher governing power. Though their mythology was false, it contained a greater respect for divine government than the teaching of those who claim that God merely preserves the world by not destroying it.
To expose these errors clearly, I will explain what Scripture teaches about divine providence and what sound Christian reasoning confirms.
In its broadest sense, providence refers to all God's outward dealings with creation.
Since God works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11), three aspects of His providence must be considered:
Before creation, God ordained all things and appointed their ends.
God infallibly knows everything that will come to pass.
God continually acts within creation to accomplish His purposes.
The first two subjects have already been discussed. Here we focus on the third.
Providence may therefore be defined as the incomprehensible work of God by which He preserves, sustains, governs, and directs everything He has created, moving all things according to the natures He has given them toward the ends He has determined.
The whole universe is governed by God.
Nothing exists outside His care.
This includes:
Nations and kingdoms
Good and evil people
Great events and small occurrences
The highest heavens and the smallest creatures
To deny this would imply that God created the world without purpose or lacks either wisdom, power, goodness, or willingness to govern His own handiwork.
Such a thought is impossible.
Even the account of Noah's flood demonstrates divine providence. Was it chance that preserved representatives of every living kind? Was it fortune that guided the ark safely through judgment and brought it to rest upon the mountains?
The entire event displays the hand of God.
Our Lord declared:
"My Father is working until now" (John 5:17).
God ceased His work of creation on the seventh day, but He has never ceased His work of governing creation.
Psalm 104 beautifully portrays God's continual care for the world. Scripture repeatedly teaches that His eyes are everywhere, observing both evil and good (Proverbs 15:3).
Nothing escapes His knowledge.
Isaiah records God's own declaration:
"I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create calamity."
God governs everything He has made.
Although God's providence extends universally, He exercises a special providence toward His people.
The church occupies a unique place in His care.
God promises:
The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Christ will remain with His people always.
Their needs will be supplied.
Their cares may be cast upon Him.
No one may touch them without touching the apple of His eye.
This special providence is directed toward a supernatural goal: the eternal salvation and preservation of God's people.
The wicked are excluded from God's saving care but not from His sovereign government.
God:
Sustains their lives.
Restrains their sins.
Protects them from one another.
Bestows temporal blessings upon them.
Uses even their actions to accomplish His purposes.
Though they rebel against Him, they still live and move and have their being in Him.
No sinner exists outside the reach of God's rule.
God's care descends to the smallest details of creation.
Some theologians imagined that God's majesty would be diminished if He concerned Himself with insects and insignificant creatures.
Owen rejects this entirely.
The God who formed the flea and the gnat also governs them.
Scripture teaches that:
God feeds the birds.
God clothes the grass.
God appoints the growth of plants.
Not a sparrow falls apart from His will.
The very hairs of our heads are numbered.
God used frogs and lice to judge Egypt.
He used a worm and a plant to teach Jonah.
Even locusts are called His army.
The God who commands such creatures certainly knows and governs them.
Providence consists especially in four activities.
God continually preserves the existence and powers of every creature.
Acts 17 teaches:
"In Him we live and move and have our being."
God does not do everything without creaturely participation, nor does He leave creation to exist independently.
Both extremes are false.
Everything continues because God continually upholds it.
God works in and through created agents.
Creatures truly act.
Yet every action ultimately depends upon God's sustaining power.
Exactly how God's activity and creaturely activity relate is beyond full human comprehension.
What matters is this:
Nothing exists apart from God's sustaining power, and nothing acts apart from His continual assistance.
God's sovereignty is displayed especially in events that appear accidental.
Human life seems filled with chance occurrences:
Diseases
Accidents
Unexpected events
Yet Scripture says our days are numbered.
Even events that appear random are directed toward God's appointed purposes.
The casting of lots is a classic example.
Lots appear entirely accidental, yet Scripture declares:
"The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord."
God governs even what appears most uncertain.
This is the point Owen regards as especially offensive to the Arminian system.
Human beings act freely according to their nature.
Yet God determines the outcomes of their actions according to His eternal purpose.
This does not mean coercion.
God does not force people against their will.
Rather, He governs their wills in such a way that they freely choose what He has ordained.
Scripture repeatedly speaks of God:
Inclining hearts
Directing minds
Turning kings
Governing thoughts
Ordering human decisions
Such language cannot be reduced to mere permission.
Owen argues that Arminianism attempts to preserve human freedom by stripping God of His active rule over human actions.
According to the Arminian view:
God does not effectively move the will.
God does not determine human choices.
God merely offers a general influence.
The final decision belongs entirely to man.
God becomes little more than a spectator waiting to see what people will choose.
His influence is passive rather than sovereign.
Owen considers this a disastrous corruption of biblical teaching.
If the human will possesses complete independence:
Human actions become a realm beyond God's effective government.
God may intend something, yet human freedom could prevent its fulfillment.
If future choices are completely undetermined, certainty regarding them becomes difficult to explain.
Man effectively becomes lord over his own destiny.
The throne of God is partially occupied by another ruler: autonomous human will.
Scripture repeatedly teaches that God governs human hearts.
Jeremiah declares:
"It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps."
Solomon writes:
"A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."
Again:
"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will."
Even mighty rulers remain under God's control.
Their decisions ultimately serve His purposes.
Owen observes that believers regularly pray for God to incline their hearts toward obedience.
David prayed:
"Incline my heart unto Your testimonies."
Believers ask God to:
Create clean hearts.
Renew right spirits.
Put His fear within them.
Cause them to walk in His ways.
Such prayers make little sense if God merely provides a neutral influence and leaves the final outcome entirely undecided.
Christians instinctively pray because they know God can effectively move the human heart.
Many divine promises depend upon human actions.
God promises:
Favor from others.
Preservation of His people.
The growth of His church.
The accomplishment of prophecy.
If human wills are completely independent, then fulfillment of these promises ultimately rests upon man rather than God.
But Scripture presents God as the One who turns hearts, inclines affections, and brings His purposes to pass.
The certainty of prophecy depends upon God's sovereign government of human actions.
Owen concludes with several objections to the Arminian doctrine.
If human actions arise independently, then something exists for which God is not ultimately responsible as Creator and Sustainer.
Since particular acts become good through specific choices, moral goodness would originate primarily from man rather than God.
Any divine purpose depending upon human actions could fail.
If future free choices are entirely undetermined, certainty regarding them becomes difficult to maintain.
The great controversy is not merely about free will.
It is about the glory of God.
Owen believes the Arminian system elevates human autonomy at the expense of divine sovereignty. In seeking to make man's will absolutely free, it diminishes God's providence, weakens His government of the world, and places a rival authority beside His throne.
Against this, Owen insists that Scripture presents a God who not only creates and sustains all things but also actively governs every event, every circumstance, and every human heart according to His eternal wisdom and purpose.
Human beings act freely and willingly, yet their freedom never exists independently of the God "who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11).
That, for Owen, is the biblical doctrine of providence.