(Extracts from Francis Turretin, edited into modern English)
God’s providence means that God continually preserves, governs, and directs everything He has created. Nothing in heaven or earth exists outside His control. Creation was not something God made and then abandoned. He actively rules over all things every moment.
The Scriptures teach this clearly:
“In him we live, and move, and have our being.” — Acts 17:28
“He upholdeth all things by the word of his power.” — Hebrews 1:3
“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” — Isaiah 46:10
Providence is God’s wise, holy, powerful, and continual government over the universe.
Turretin explains providence in three chief acts:
Preservation
Cooperation (Concurrence)
Government
God preserves all created things in existence.
If God withdrew His sustaining power, all creation would immediately perish. Creatures do not continue by their own strength. Every breath, heartbeat, and movement depends upon God.
Nehemiah 9:6 — “Thou preservest them all.”
Colossians 1:17 — “By him all things consist.”
The sun rises because God sustains it. The earth continues because God upholds it. Angels exist because God preserves them. Man lives because God gives life continually.
Providence is therefore not merely God watching the world. It is God actively sustaining it.
Creation depends upon God every moment just as much as it did at the beginning.
A lamp depends on oil to continue burning. In the same way, creation depends upon God’s power to continue existing.
This is one of Turretin’s most careful points.
God works in and through creatures without destroying their nature or turning them into machines.
When people act, God is also active as the First Cause while creatures are secondary causes.
For example:
Fire burns.
Rain falls.
Men think and choose.
Kings rule.
Farmers plant seed.
Yet behind all these actions is God’s providential power enabling creatures to act according to their nature.
Philippians 2:13 — “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do.”
Acts 17:28 — “In him we live, and move, and have our being.”
Turretin carefully rejects this.
God governs sinful actions without Himself being sinful.
This must be understood carefully.
Every action has two aspects:
The action itself
The corruption of the action
For example:
A murderer uses strength, breath, intelligence, and motion—all gifts sustained by God. But the evil desire and wickedness come from the sinner, not from God.
God gives the power to act. Man supplies the corruption.
The sun shines on a filthy swamp. The sunlight is pure, but the foul smell comes from the swamp, not from the sun.
Likewise, God’s providence is holy, even when governing sinful events.
James 1:13 — “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”
Habakkuk 1:13 — God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil.”
God directs all things to their appointed end.
Nothing happens by accident, luck, chance, or blind fate.
Even events that appear random are under divine rule.
Proverbs 16:33 — “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”
Ephesians 1:11 — God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
This includes:
Nations rising and falling
Wars and peace
Wealth and poverty
Sickness and health
Life and death
The actions of rulers and ordinary people
God rules all things wisely and perfectly.
Turretin strongly defends both truths:
God sovereignly governs all things.
Humans act willingly and responsibly.
God’s providence does not force people against their will. Men freely choose according to their desires.
A wicked man sins willingly. A righteous man obeys willingly.
Yet God remains sovereign over all events.
This is seen in the crucifixion of Christ:
Wicked men freely crucified Jesus.
Yet it happened according to God’s eternal plan.
Acts 2:23 — Christ was “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.”
Acts 4:27–28 — Herod, Pilate, and the Jews did “whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
The greatest sin in history was also part of God’s holy redemptive plan.
Though God governs all creation, He has a special fatherly care toward His people.
Romans 8:28 — “All things work together for good to them that love God.”
Matthew 10:29–31 — Not even a sparrow falls without the Father.
Believers may suffer deeply, but nothing happens outside God’s wise and loving purpose.
Afflictions are not signs that God has abandoned His children. Often they are instruments of sanctification.
Hebrews 12:6 — “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”
Providence may at times appear dark and mysterious, but faith trusts God’s wisdom even when His purposes are hidden.
Some wrongly think:
“If God controls everything, why pray or work?”
Turretin rejects this error.
God ordains not only the ends, but also the means.
God ordains:
Food to preserve life
Preaching to save sinners
Prayer to obtain blessings
Labor to provide daily needs
Therefore believers must still pray, obey, work, repent, and use lawful means.
James 4:2 — “Ye have not, because ye ask not.”
2 Thessalonians 3:10 — “If any would not work, neither should he eat.”
Providence encourages diligence rather than laziness.
The doctrine of providence gives great comfort to believers.
If events were ruled by chance, life would be terrifying. But Scripture teaches that the world is governed by a wise, holy, and loving God.
Therefore the Christian may say:
My trials are not meaningless.
My enemies are limited by God.
My future is in God’s hand.
Even painful events serve His purpose.
Like Joseph said to his brothers:
Genesis 50:20 — “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.”
Providence does not mean life is easy. It means suffering is never purposeless.
God preserves all things.
God works through secondary causes.
God governs every event wisely.
Nothing happens outside His decree.
God is never the author of sin.
Humans remain responsible for their actions.
God specially cares for His church.
Providence encourages prayer, obedience, and trust.
The providence of God is not cold fatalism. It is the wise government of a sovereign Father.
The believer rests not in luck, chance, or human power, but in the hands of God.
Psalm 103:19 — “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.”