Sunday, January 9, 2011

Is God capricious in His sovereignty?

From Donald J. Westblades essay in For the Fame of God's Name entitled The Sovereignty of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards:
The threat of capriciousness in God might stand if reason were to permit Edwards to ascribe an Arminian view of freedom to God, as though God begins his choices from a position of utter indifference. A God unconstrained not only by the laws of nature he authored but also by his own nature and loves and sense of order, whose will made its choices spontaneously apart from any motives, would indeed be utterly free-even of the consistency of keeping promises and covenants. To such a God his subjects may be obliged to bow. They surely, however, would find in him few grounds for trust. (118)
Read the excerpt again. Amazing. We can be thankful that God is constrained by His nature, His good and perfect and holy nature, because if He was not he would be directing things out of indifference. How is that a praiseworthy action? However, we can trust God because He makes decisions with motives, preferences, commitments, and most of all, His love. This is magnificent! We serve an awesomely sovereign God!

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