Quote 1008
Not a single thing that has been made, or that will be made, escapes the knowledge of God. Through his providence, every thing has received its nature, rank, number, and uniqueness. Nothing has come about by accident or for no purpose. Everything has been made with exact appropriateness and by the exercise of transcendent knowledge.
Irenaeus
Adversus omnes haereses 5.22.21.9K
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God is not at a distance from history, uninvolved and on the periphery, an interested spectator or distant 'first cause;' rather he is governing all things by his providence and wisdom.
People treat God's sovereignty as a matter of controversy, but in Scripture it is a matter of worship.
In the first Adam we offended God, because Adam did not obey the divine commandment. But in the second Adam we have been reconciled to God and made obedient even to death. For we were debtors to no one except to him whose commandment we had transgressed. Therefore, in the last times the Lord has restored us into fellowship through his incarnation. He has become the Mediator between God and man, propitiating the Father against whom we had sinned, by his death. He has cancelled our disobedience by his obedience.Adversus omnes haereses 5.16.3-5.17.1
Our times are in God's hand. Whether they be prosperous times or calamitous times, it is He who has determined them.
No revolving world, no shining of star, no storm, no creature moves, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of Devil—nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed.
But now the question arises, Why has God demanded of man that which he is incapable of performing? The first answer is, Because God refuses to lower His standard to the level of our sinful infirmities.
If God is not sovereign, then God is not God.
All Christians believe in divine sovereignty. On our feet we may have arguments about it, but on our knees we are all agreed.
To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the godless, but it stabilizes the saints.
There is no broader way to apostasy than to reject God's sovereignty in all things concerning the revelation of himself and our obedience
He is a simple, uncompounded Being, without diverse members, and altogether like, and equal to himself, since He is wholly understanding, and wholly spirit, and wholly thought, and wholly intelligence, and wholly reason, and wholly hearing, and wholly seeing, and wholly light, and the whole source of all that is good.
By transgressing God's commandment, we became his enemies. Therefore, in the last times, the Lord has restored us to his friendship through his incarnation. He has become the Mediator between God and man, propitiating the Father against whom we have sinned. He has cancelled our disobedience by his obedience and conferred upon us the gift of communion with, and subjection to, our MakerAdversus omnes haereses 5.17.1
I ought to begin with the most important point, which is that God the Creator made heaven and earth and everything in them... and demonstrate that there is nothing above him or behind him, as well as that he made everything of his own free will, uninfluenced by anyone else. He is the only God, the only Lord, the only Creator, the only Father, the only one who contains all things and who commanded everything else to come into existence. How can there be any other fullness, principle, power, or god above him, since it is necessary for God, who is the fullness of all these things, to contain them in his immensity without being himself contained by anyone?Adversus omnes haereses 2.1.1-2
make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has the right to do as He pleases with His own, and he may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.A Camaraderie of Confidence, p. 31
It is not freedom that is canceled out by sovereignty; it is autonomy that cannot coexist with sovereignty (see James 4:12).Chosen by God (29)
What a vain pretense it is to profess to honor God by a doctrine that makes salvation depend on the will of man! If it were true, you might say to God, "We thank thee, O Lord, for what thou hast done; thou hast given us a great many things, and we offer thee they meed of praise, which is justly due to thy name; but we think we deserve more, for the deciding point was in our free will." Beloved, do not any of you swerve from the free grace of God, for the babblings about man's free agency are neither more nor less than lies, right contrary to the truth of Christ, and the teachings of the Spirit. How certain, then, is the salvation of every elect soul! It does not depend on the will of man; he is "made willing" in the day of God's power. He shall be called at the set time, and his heart shall be effectually changed, that he may become a trophy of the Redeemer's power. That he was unwilling before, is no hindrance; for God giveth him the will, so that he is then of a willing mind. Sermon:
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