Hodge continues, “The interpretation of Divine providence is indeed often a matter of great difficulty and responsibility. It requires humility and caution. Some of His dispensations are, as to their design, perfectly clear, others are doubtful, and others to us and for the present inscrutable.” Then Hodge comes out with evidence that he is willing to “go there” and try to bring some meaning out of the recently concluded great civil war.
Many Reformed and Evangelical Christians had to struggle mightily with the choices in the most recent presidential election.
As we look back on it now, can we attempt to interpret God’s providential working? A clear statement of the biblical and our confessional declarations on God’s Providence may be helpful. The Bible’s teaching on this is summarized by: WCF III: I Of God’s Eternal Decree, which says:
“God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass …”
Then the Confession goes on to give several ways that you can go astray with this great doctrine. In the final section it warns: “The doctrine of this high mystery … is to be handled with special prudence and care….. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel.” (Emphasis mine). So we can receive lots of consolation remembering that God’s plan is never Trumped. The “Consolation Round” in a Tennis Tournament is for those who have lost in their first round match. So if there are 50 players, 25 of them do not win their first round match and they then compete in an consolation round when this is offered by the Tournament Director. So consolation comes to those who have suffered loss.
So these doctrines must be handled very carefully, because it is difficult to say, “This happened because of this, or that happened because of that.” But there is “abundant consolation” for all who obey the Gospel in this great, rich, and comforting doctrine of the church. We may have suffered loss, as our preferred candidate did not win, yet we can still have consolation and “admiration of God; and of humility, diligence and abundant consolation” afforded to believers when we reflect on the recent presidential election.
I think we need to stand back and look at this crazy presidential election and realized God did indeed ordain that Donald Trump should be the next President of the United States, simply because He ordains everything that comes to pass, and sure enough, this crazy result, has indeed “Come to Pass.” Yes, God used lots of means, so as the Confession says, He “foreordained all the means thereunto” so there were things like the reckless use of a prohibited email server, the investigation of FBI director Comey, the timing of his discoveries in the case, the way the Media overwhelmingly supported Mrs. Clinton, the way her husband behaved with an intern many years ago, her demeanor during the race, her health crisis on 9/11, her likability, his choice of a solid Evangelical Christian for his VP choice in Mike Pence and the role of Kellyanne Conway directing the Trump Campaign and helping him hone his message and smoothing out his many imperfections, and very rough edges, yes, God ordained it all.
There are a couple of teachers in our great Reformed tradition who tried to bring some of the comfort and “abundant consolation” offered in this doctrine to the church as they surveyed the Providential outworking of God’s Plan in light of some of their current events which took place during their lifetimes.
The first is the great Scottish, become American Presbyterian theologian John Witherspoon (1723-1794) who on the eve of the American Revolution preached a most remarkable sermon which was widely published in America and even in Great Brittan. The sermon is called: “The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men.” The Sermon was preached on May 17, 1776, when the colonies teetered on the edge of war with England, on a day designated by the Congress as a fast day, he preached the sermon that was to become one of the most famous sermons delivered during the Revolution. The church historian William Warren Sweet called it “one of the most influential pulpit utterances during the whole course of the war.”[i]
You can read the full 54 page sermon here: http://tinyurl.com/j63tnov
Unfortunately the sermons in that era were a little longer than we are used to, so let me summarize some of the main points in the sermon. On page 24 in the sermon Witherspoon says, “While we give praise to God the supreme disposer of all events, for his interposition in our behalf, let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in or boasting of an arm of flesh.” So Witherspoon is echoing the Confession’s cautions here. Then a few sentences later he asks, “How many instances does history furnish us with, of those who after exulting over, and despising their enemies, were signally and shamefully defeated?” Then in a footnote Witherspoon cites the Battle of Agincourt, which was so wonderfully portrayed in Kenneth Brannagh’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V. In this great piece of modern acting, the King (Brannagh) senses God’s Providential Hand is at work and talks about how men will discuss this battle “On the Feast of Crispin” “This story shall a good man teach his son” “We few, we happy few.” Etc. etc. When the king finally hears the results of the mighty pitched battel he says, “Praised be God and not our strength.”
Then the King is careful not to take the credit for the victory but says it must be ascribed it to the Hand of God. So he instructs that spiritual songs of praise be sung Non Nobis and Te Deum and he says that the men are only allowed to tell the outrageous numbers of the French dead as compared with the King’s men, only if they include this acknowledgement: “That God fought for us.”
So I think there are times in the course of history and current events when we have to say, something very surprising has taken place. Instances where the numbers were so stacked against you, that the only way to explain the outcome is to see some kind of special intervention by the hand of God in the proceedings. As our Confession says in chapter V:III “God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.”
Witherspoon cites several of these moments when God seemed to work above or against the ordinary means in history in his sermon. He says,
“The power of divine providence appears with the most distinguished luster, when small and inconsiderable circumstances, and sometimes, the weather and season, have defeated the most formidable armaments, and frustrated the best concerted expeditions. Nearly two hundred years ago [so that would be 1588 for Witherspoon], the monarchy of Spain was in the height of its power and glory, and determined to crush the interest of the Reformation. They sent out a power armament against Britain [in the form of the Spanish Armada] giving it ostentatiously, and in my opinion profanely, the name of the Invincible Armada. But it pleased God so entirely to discomfit it by tempest that a small part of it returned home, though no British forces had been opposed to it at all.”
Reiterating the point in the Confession that talks about how this doctrine of Providence should humble us, he says that:
“I look upon ostentation and confidence to be a sort of an outrage upon Providence, and when it becomes general, [as when all the media, and all their polls, such as the New York Times and Politico and MSNBC are predicting Clinton has a 90% chance of winning, just a few days before the election] and infuses itself into the spirt of a people, it is a forerunner of destruction. How does Goliath the champion, armed in a most formidable manner, express his disdain of David the stripling with his sling and his stone, …Then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear, and with a shield, but I come unto thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (1 Sam 17:45).
Donald Trump did have a few things working against him. So his victory was very surprising. “Sometimes the only way to explain the outcome is to see a special intervention of the hand of God in the proceedings.”
One second and final teacher in our great Reformed tradition who is willing to try to “go there” and see God’s hand in the outworking of current events is the great Professor of Systematic Theology at old Princeton, Charles Hodge. In an article that he wrote for the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review Vol XXXII, Number 3, pp. 435-458 for July, 1865 — so that would be just a few short months after the assassination of President Lincoln – he is looking to Providence for some comfort for the nation after this traumatic event and for the for whole course of last four years of Civil War. You can read his outstanding 23 page article here: http://tinyurl.com/hv4ktzg
Let me summarize it for you again. Dr. Hodge starts out warning about the dangers of tying to interpret God’s providential dealing in current events, but then says, but there are times when it is appropriate to seek out His purposes in current events.
His first rule of thumb, “God is to be acknowledged as the Giver of all good.” Here is another, “Every great event [say, a surprising result in an American President Election] therefore is to be viewed in two different aspects: first, as the effect of natural causes; and secondly, as a design and result of God’s Providence” (P. 436).
Hodge continues, “The interpretation of Divine providence is indeed often a matter of great difficulty and responsibility. It requires humility and caution. Some of His dispensations are, as to their design, perfectly clear, others are doubtful, and others to us and for the present inscrutable.”
Then Hodge comes out with evidence that he is willing to “go there” and try to bring some meaning out of the recently concluded great civil war. He says,
“No Christian can look upon the events of the last four years [i.e. the Civil War Years] without being deeply impressed with the conviction that they have been ordered by God to produce great and lasting changes in the state of the country, and probably of the world.”
Now he wants to stand at the close of a great epoch [the Civil War] and he says that he wants to “look back and to look around us, that we may in some measure understand what God has wrought.”
Isn’t it appropriate for us to do something similar? It has been nearly four years of almost incessant presidential campaigning where there were many ups and downs, for the 17 Republican contenders and for the 2 Major Democratic contenders for the Presidency. Then it finally came down to Clinton vs. Trump which posed a grave difficulty for many Christian believers, because neither candidate was very ideal. Now that it is over, isn’t it time to stand back and “in some measure try to understand what God has wrought?”
Moving on to page 439, Hodge’s article continues:
“The first and most obvious consequence of the dreadful civil war just ended, has been the final and universal overthrow of slavery within the limits of the United States.” Yes, this is a good thing and as Hodge observed before, “God is the giver of all good.” In fact Hodge is willing to say, “This is one of the most momentous events in the history of the world. That it was the design of God to bring about this event cannot be doubted.” Yes, he is definitely going there! Then he says many had predicted otherwise, namely that some sort of compromise would have to take place between Northern and Southern states that would keep slavery intact, “But God has ordered it otherwise.” Hodge wants us to behold the hand of the Lord doing a great work in the midst of this great cataclysm.
Then on page 444 he get to the sorrowful topic of the recent assassination of the President. “It is in the first place a most mysterious event. We cannot see the reason for it, nor conjecture the end it is designed to accomplish.”
Hodges says it was necessary to pass through four years of almost unremitting carnage in order for the institution of slavery to be completely overthrown. “Had we been as overwhelmingly successful at the beginning as we have been at the close of the war, none of the great results to which we just referred would have followed. Slavery would not have been overthrown, … and our stand among the nations of the earth would have been very different.”
When it comes to the assassination, “God however is wont to move in a mysterious way.”…. “There is a use in mystery. What are we, that we should pretend to understand the Almighty unto perfection, or that we assume to trace the ways of him whose footsteps are in the great deep? It is good for us to be called upon to trust God when clouds and darkness are round about him. It makes us feel our own ignorance and impotency and calls into exercise the highest attributes of our Christian nature.”
Hodge then sums up the significance of Abraham Lincoln to the nation and to the world on p. 449:
“The work however has been done; the Union is restored; the constitution is preserved; the right of property, liberty of speech and of the press remain intact. No breach has been made in our fundamental law; no encroachment allowed on the character of our rights. We are as free a people at this moment as when the war began. We have risen immensely in power and influence among the nations of the earth. Four Millions of slaves have been emancipated by the course of events, and without infraction of the constitution. Mr. Lincoln’s administration bids fair to form one of the most important epochs in the history of the world.”
So we see that Hodge is willing to “go there” and try to understand God’s providential hand in the course of the last four years.
Similarly can’t we “go there” and try to evaluate the last four years of nearly incessant struggle between the two major political parties trying to understand, What has God wrought in all of this?
The significance to the election to the future of the Supreme Court no one denies is absolutely profound. The two parties were about as diametrically opposed as is possible. Trump, probably in an effort to woo evangelical and conservative votes, committed himself to a list of candidates who are strict constructionists and committed to protecting the life of the unborn. His lists of potential nominees sprung from advisers within the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation. Clinton, on the other hand, argued for an evolving theory of the meaning of the Constitution and claimed that “under our constitution” there is no “right to life” in the womb, even up to the day of delivery. The difference between these two positions was absolutely monumental. Similar to the freeing of Four Million slaves, isn’t is now a strong possibility that a major change in the makeup of the Supreme Court is definitely coming as CBS News reports that in the next few years, the Supreme Court may face as many as four vacancies as some of the justices enter retirement. That means the outcome of November’s elections was critical in determining the court’s future composition. Like the end of Slavery, can we now hope and pray for the possibility of the end of Abortion on demand?
There have already been some surprising cabinet selections. Even if you didn’t vote for him, many Christians will cheer the appointment for the new Secretary of Education. She is a graduate of Calvin College, a life-long advocate of educational choices for children and she fully supports the option of home school. This election put a person in a position of leadership who will introduce competition for the best educational choices for children to begin in earnest in America! How about the significance of having an evangelical Christian as CIA Director like Mike Pompeo? Don’t we want someone guided by Scripture in that critical post of CIA Director? Pompeo has also voted to defund Planned Parenthood, calling it the “largest commercial provider of abortions in the United States.”
These and other appointees such as Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choice to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are amazing choices. Pruitt, Oklahoma’s Attorney General is a deacon at First Baptist Church in Broken Arrow, Okla., and a trustee at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been endorsed by Peter Jones of Truth Exchange and a group of 136 other leaders, many of them Southern Baptists, who have sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump in support of Pruitt: “We affirm an ongoing debate on the proper balance between the unleashing of human enterprise and the protection of creation. … We believe that Attorney General Pruitt has been misrepresented as denying ‘settled science,’ when he has actually called for a continuing debate. … Because he does not embrace their exaggerated fears of human-induced global warming—fears that go well beyond the empirical evidence crucial to genuine science—or their antipathy to the development of the abundant, reliable, affordable energy indispensable to lifting and keeping whole societies out of poverty and the disease and premature death that invariably accompany it.” More balance is needed here when many have embraced “global warming alarmism” as a religion. Many have elevated “Climate Change” as the greatest societal crisis of our times as the previous administration has done.
I think many of these things many Christians would have to say is a good thing. And Dr. Hodge reminded us: “God is the giver of all good.” So shouldn’t we be, in Witherspoon’s words: “praising God the supreme disposer of all events, for his interposition in our behalf?” but Witherspoon warns us, “let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in or boasting of an arm of flesh.” Prayerful, humility in the light of this amazing election result offers consolation, even if our preferred candidates did not prevail.
Douglas Fox is a Ruling Elder at the Presbyterian Church of Coventry (PCA) in Coventry, CT.
[i] Roger Kimball, “The forgotten founder: John Witherspoon ,”This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 24 June 2006, on page 4. Found at: http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-forgotten-founder–John-Witherspoon-2437
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