Dogmatic Theology Vol 1 - Shedd - XXXV - Chapter 8 Providence

Required reading

Dogmatic Theology Vol 1 by William G.T. Shedd (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 8 Providence.

My summary

Today Shedd teaches about the doctrine of providence: God's most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.

Firstly Shedd looks at the preservation of creation by demonstrating that what is created ex nihilo must be sustained in order to continue being.  Therefore deism and pantheism must be rejected.  Shedd also outlines the extent of providential agency from physical nature to even the sinful actions of men.

Secondly Shedd looks at the government of creation by God's providence.  God has absolute control over all of:

(i) the natural world;

(ii) the mental world.

What grabbed me

A quick chapter today but a good one.

I appreciated the opening paragraph: 'Nothing that is created ex nihilo is self-sustaining. Consequently it must be sustained in being. It would not require a positive act of omnipotence, antithetic to that exerted in creation from nothing, in order to annihilate created existences. Simple cessation to uphold would result in annihilation. For to suppose that matter, for example, could persist in being after the withdrawal of God's preserving power, with such an intensity as to necessitate a direct act of omnipotence to annihilate it, would imply that matter has self-existence, and self-continuance. But this is an attribute that is incommunicable to the creature. This is true of finite mind, as well as of matter. Created spiritual substance is not immortal because it has self-subsistence imparted to it by the Creator, but because he intends to uphold and sustain it in being forever.'

We are truly in the hands of God!

Next week's reading

Read Chapter 9 Miracles.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.