(upbeat music) - Well this summer, you Pastor John finished up a book on the providence of God, a 600 page book coming out in a little over a year from now. Really eager to see it, really looking forward to reading it. And we talked about it recently in Ask Pastor John episode 1371.

You can go back and listen to that. Sometimes I say it's a book about the sovereignty of God. Sometimes I say it's a book about the providence of God. And it leads to a question from Masiel in the Dominican Republic. Hello Pastor John, for years I have been blessed by your ministry, your sermons and books especially.

Thank you for future grace and desiring God. Likewise, Ask Pastor John has been an instrument to help me know Jesus better. I thank God for you and for Tony. I was looking for definitions on the sovereignty of God and the providence of God and I couldn't really find one that would make me understand the differences between the two terms.

Could you please explain it Pastor John? Are they synonyms or how would you define each of these glorious truths, God's providence and God's sovereignty? - Excellent question and I will answer very specifically in just a moment the very question that was asked. But first, it really is important to say a few words about definitions and specifically definitions about words that are not used in the Bible.

Providence is not a word in the English Bible. In that sense, it's like the words Bible, biblical, trinity, discipleship, evangelism, exposition, counseling, ethics, politics, charismatics, none of those words is in the Bible. Which shows that the reality that words point to is more important than the words themselves even though the words are precious, indispensable, in this case with the Bible, inspired, God-given.

They are God's inspired words but they are pointing to reality and that reality may be so woven into the scriptures that it's helpful to have a word that pulls the threads of reality together, a word that may not be in the Bible itself. But now what's the implication of that for definitions that I'm being asked for?

Well, since providence is not used in specific biblical texts, there's no biblical governor on its definition, its meaning. We can't say the Bible defines providence this way. We could only say that if the Bible actually used the word providence. Whenever you ask what does blank mean, what does providence mean, what does justification mean, what does faith mean, whenever you ask what does anything mean, there has to be a meaner, one who means, if the meaning is going to have any validity so that you can say it means this and not that.

So if the meaner is not the Bible writers, then when I use the word providence, I must assign a meaning, I'm the meaner. And that's what I do in the first chapter of my book on providence. I don't assign it an arbitrary meaning. I hope if you do that, nobody will understand you.

You won't be able to have any shared meaning with people because you've chosen a meaning that's just so far off the charts it doesn't make any sense to anybody. So I try to stay close to what others, other meaners have meant by the word in church history. But I do choose the meaning.

Now you can see what that implies when we are trying to talk about the biblical view of providence, since the Bible doesn't use the word. It implies that the issue before us in those conversations about the meaning of providence, and in my book, the issue before us is not the meaning of the word providence.

I choose a meaning to use in my book, and I will choose one here because you asked me to. The issue is, is the reality which I see in the Bible and call providence really there? That's the issue. Let me say it again. Is the reality which I see and describe in my book, is the reality which I call providence really there in the Bible?

There's no point in quibbling over whether providence, the word providence, is the best word for the reality. That's relatively unimportant. The all-important thing is whether there is a reality in the Bible, which means is there a reality in the universe that corresponds to my description of the goal, nature, extent of God's providence.

So here are my answers to your question, Maceo. No, sovereignty and providence, sovereignty and providence are not the same. God's sovereignty is his right and power to do all that he decides to do. Job 42.2, I know that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

But notice, nothing in that definition of sovereignty refers to God's wisdom or God's plans. It's just right and power. You have the right and you have the power to do what you decide to do. When he decides to do a thing, he does it, and no one can stop him.

That's sovereignty. So to make sovereignty a Christian concept, a Christian concept, not just a philosophical one, to make it a Christian concept, we have to bring in other things we know about God from the Bible, like wisdom and justice and righteousness and grace. Providence, however, includes what sovereignty doesn't.

Providence, as I use the word, and as most Christians have used it, is sovereignty in the service of wise purposes. I'll say it again. Providence is sovereignty in the service of wise, good purposes. Or you could say wise and purposeful sovereignty. That's what providence is. Since his purpose is so central to his providence, I spend, what, 150 pages or so clarifying what the Bible says God's ultimate purpose is.

It's not very helpful to try to nail down the meaning of a word like providence by picking apart its etymology, the history of its pieces, like providence. Because the Latin behind provide or vide is ambiguous. It can mean foresee, so vide si, pro for, foresee. Or it can mean see toward.

And we have an idiom in English that says see to that. That's an interesting idiom, isn't it? - Yeah. - What does it mean? It means take the steps to make sure it happens. In fact, I think that is one of the most helpful paraphrases of God's acts of providence.

It is God's seeing to everything. Absolutely everything that needs to be done to bring about his purposes, God sees to it that they happen. Isaiah 46, 10, I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel will stand, I will accomplish all my purpose.

In other words, I will see to it, see to it, provide. I will see to it, I will provide, I will see to it that everything works together for the goals that I have for the world. Let me close with one example from history that I think is so beautiful.

This is question 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Date on that is 1563. Question goes, what do you understand by the providence of God? Answer, the almighty, everywhere present power of God whereby, as it were by his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.

That's a good summary of God's providence, his wise and purposeful sovereignty. - Amen, thank you for that summary, Pastor John. All flowing from your book, "Providence," tentatively scheduled for release early in 2021. Be looking for it. Thanks for subscribing to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube.

We appreciate having you along. I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and Pastor John and I will see you on Monday when we ask, do stay-at-home moms get a day off? It's a good question. We need to address it. It's up next. We'll see you on Monday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)