XLIV.    THE PURPOSES OF GOD

In today’s lecture, the words ‘purpose’, ‘design’, and ‘intention’ all have similar meanings.  A purpose is a result or an effect that is intended or desired.  A purpose is an intention.  Every purpose that God has must be either an ultimate purpose or a proximate purpose.  That is, God must have an ultimate goal.  He must purpose to accomplish something by His works and providence, which He regards as a good all by itself or as important to Himself and to others in general.  This is His ultimate goal.  That God has such an ultimate goal or purpose follows from the already established facts that God is a moral agent and that He is infinitely wise and good.  For surely God could not be justly consid­ered as either wise or good if He did not have an intrinsically important goal which He aims to realize by His works of creation and providence.  His purpose to secure His great and ultimate goal, I call His ultimate purpose.  His proximate purposes are the means He uses by which He aims to accomplish that goal.  If God purposes to realize a goal, He must also purpose the necessary means to accomplish that goal.  The purposes concerning the means are what I call His proximate purposes.  

J        What is the difference between purpose and decree? 

1    ‘Decree’ in the Bible, is used in many ways.

a       Decree often means foreordination or determination, appointment.   

1)         “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’”  (Psalms 11:2)  

2)         “He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which shall not pass away.”  (Psalms 148:6) 

3)         “When He assigned to the sea its limit (gave to the sea His decree), so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth” (Prov. 8:29) 

4)         “‘Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord. ‘Will you not tremble at my presence?  Who has placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?  And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.’”  (Jer. 5:22)  

5)         “This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king:” (Daniel 4:24)  

b       Decree often means ordinance, statute, and law.  

1)         “He cuts out channels in the rocks, and His eye sees every precious thing. When He made a law (decree) for the rain, and a path for the thunderbolt,” (Job 28:10, 26)    

2)         “All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.  Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.  I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.  For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end.”  (Daniel 6:7‑8, 26)  Theological writers generally use the word ‘decree’ to mean the same thing as fore‑ordination and appointment.  To decree is to appoint, ordain, establish, settle, fix, or make certain.  These writers also often confuse decree with purpose, and use decree to mean the same thing as purpose.  I see no objection to using the term decree concerning a certain class of physical events, like a physical appointment, a foreordination, a fixing, or making certain.  But I think that applying the word decree to the actions of moral agents is highly objectionable and conveys the false idea the actions of men are fatal and necessary.  I can’t see how anyone cay say that God decrees the free actions of moral agents, in the sense of fixing, settling, determining, or foreordaining moral agents in the same way that He fixes, settles, and makes certain physical events happen.  God fixes or determines physical events by the law of cause and effect.  The law of cause and effect does not fix free acts, even though those acts may be certain.  No ordinance or decree can fix any free acts that they are no longer free.

2   Concerning God’s government, I prefer to use the term purpose to signify the design or plan of God, both concerning the goal He aims for, and the means He intends or purposes to use to accomplish His goal.  The definition of decree that I use often means command, law, or ordinance.  Concerning foreordination or determination, I use the word purpose to express what God purposes to do Himself, and by His own agency, and also what He plans to accomplish through others.  When it is used as ordinance, statute, law, I use the word purpose to express God’s will, command, or law.  God regulates His own conduct and agency according to His purposes.  God requires His creatures to conform to the His decrees or laws.  We will see, in its proper place, that both His purposes and His actions are conformed to the spirit of His decrees, or laws; that is, that God is love in His purposes and in His conduct, just as He requires us to be.  I would like to distinguish between what God purposes or plans to accomplish by others, and what they plan or purpose.  God’s goal or purpose is always love.  He always plans good.  But his creatures are often selfish, and their plans are often directly opposite to God’s purpose, even in the same events.  For example: 

a       “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me.’  And they came near.  And he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.  But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.’”  (Gen. 45:4‑6)  “Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?  But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.’”  (Gen. 50:19‑20)  

b       “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation.  I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.  Yet, he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.  Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, ‘I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.’”  (Isaiah 10:5‑7, 12) 

c        “But Pilate answered them, saying, ‘Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’  For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.”  (Mark 15:9‑10)  

d       “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)  

e       “Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:23)

K       There must be some sense in which God’s purposes extend to all events. 

1   Our own reason confirms this.  His plans must include every event to some degree.  He must foreknow all events by a law of cause and effect.  This is implied in His omniscience.  He must have matured and adopted His plan in view of every event that has ever existed.  He must have had some purpose or design concerning every event that He saw ahead of time.  All events happen because of His own creating agency; that is, they all result in some way, directly or indirectly, by His design or tolerance, from His own agency.  He either brings events to pass by design, or allows them to happen without interfering to prevent them.  He must have known that they would occur.  Concerning any event God must either 1) positively design that it should happen, or, 2) knowing that the event would result from the mistakes or the selfishness of His creatures, He negatively designs not to prevent it, or, 3) He has no purpose or design concerning that event.  That last hypothesis is simply impossible.  God cannot be indifferent to any event.  He knows all events, and He must have some purpose or design concerning every event.

2   The Bible reveals that God’s purposes extend to all events.  For example:  

a       “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.”  (Deut. 32:4)  

b       “O Lord, how manifold are Your works!  In wisdom, You have made them all.  The earth is full of Your possessions” (Psalms 104:24)  

c        “Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.”  (Job 14:5)  

d       “This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.”  (Isaiah 14:26)  

e       “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,” (Acts 17:26)

f     “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,” (Eph. 1:11)

g       “Jesus, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;” (Acts 2:23)  

h       “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”  (Acts 4:27‑28) 

i     “Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.”  (Acts 13:29)  

j     “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condem­nation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Jude 4)  

k        “For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.”  (Rev. 17:17)  

l     “And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.  For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’”  And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.’”  (Acts 27:22‑24, 30‑31)  

m     “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,” (2 Thess. 2:13)  

n       “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multi­plied.”  (1 Peter 1:2)  

o       “Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.  He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens that cry.  He sends out His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly.  He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand before His cold?  He sends out His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.”  (Psalms 147:8, 9, 15‑18)  

p       “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”  (Isaiah 45:7)  

q       “At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me.  My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.”  (Daniel 4:36)  

r“If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?  If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?”  (Matt. 10:29)  

s        “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever” (Romans 11:36)  

t     “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11)

u       “That you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  (Matt. 5:45)  

v        “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”  (Matt. 6:26, 28-30)

w      “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”  (Jer. 10:23)  

x        “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord.  “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!”  (Jer. 18:6)  

y        “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,” (2 Cor. 3:5)  

z        “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever!  ‘Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise!  You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all.  The host of heaven worships You.’”  (Neh. 9:5-6)  

aa   “And if the prophet is influenced to speak anything, I the Lord have influenced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.”  (Ezek. 14:9)  

bb   “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.’”  (Luke 10:21)  

cc    “Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, lest they should turn, so that I should heal them.’  These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”  (John 12:32, 40, 41) 

dd   “Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.”  (Romans 9:18)  

ee   “And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”  (2 Thess. 2:10‑12)

L        The different ways God plans different events.  

1   The great goal of all God’s works is His own good and the highest good of the universe.  This is what God has set His heart on securing.  God, from eternity past, intended to secure this goal.  This must have been His ultimate intention.  This goal was a direct object that God chose.  

2   God must have purposed all the necessary means to this goal.  Any actions that naturally tended to this goal, He must have purposed in the positive sense that He delighted in them, and chose them because of their own natural relationship to the great goal that He proposed to accomplish by those actions.  The goal is God’s ultimate goal, delighted in and chosen for its own sake.  This goal is the highest good of Himself and the whole universe.  This naturally follows from the nature and attributes of God.  If this were not true, He would be neither wise nor good.  Since God delighted in and chose the goal for its own sake or importance, and purposed it with a positive purpose, He must also have chosen and delighted in the necessary means to accomplish that goal.  He created both the physical universe as well as the universe of the mind, and established its laws for the sake of the goal He purposed to accomplish.  The goal is important all by itself.  God chose that goal for that reason.  The necessary means are just as important as the goal that depends on those means. 
     The real importance of these means, because of their tendency and their natural results, is relative.  In other words, these means are not important all by themselves; but since they are the necessary means to accomplish God’s goal, they are only as important as the goal that depends on those means.  For example, the food we must eat is not important all by itself, but it is the necessary means of prolonging our lives.  Therefore, even though food itself is not an ultimate good, it is a real good that is very important because of the end that naturally depends on food as a means.  The naturally necessary means that we need to use to secure an important end, we consider just as important as the end itself, even though this importance is not absolute.  It is only a relative importance. 
     We are so accustomed placing an importance on the means that is equal to the estimated importance of the end, that we often regard and speak about these means as being important all by themselves, when, in fact, their importance is not absolute but relative.  God must have purposed to secure, as far as He wisely could, obedi­ence to the laws of the universe.  God established these laws to accomplish the goal they were ordained for, and God regards obedience to these laws as a real importance, but not an ultimate importance, equal to the importance of the goal, because these laws were ordained to accomplish that goal.  God must have delighted to obey these laws for the sake of His goal, and He must have purposed to secure this obedience as far as He could in the nature of things; that is, in as far as He wisely could.
  Since moral law is a rule for governing free moral agents, it is conceivable, that, in some situations, the subjects of His Government might violate this law unless God resorts to using means to prevent them from violating that law.  However, those means might introduce a far greater evil than the evil that would result from simply violating the law itself.  It is also conceivable, that, in some situations, God could do things after they violate a law that would secure a greater good than He could secure if He introduced a change into the policy and measures of His administration that would prevent them from violating that law.  In this situation, God might consider those violations of the law as the lesser of two evils and He may allow the subjects of His government to violate the law rather than change the arrangements of His government. 
     God might sincerely deplore and abhor every violation of the law, and yet He might see that it would not be wise to prevent them from breaking the law because the measures necessary to prevent them might result in an evil of even greater magnitude.  Rather than prevent His subjects from violating, He might purpose to allow those violations and afterwards make an effort to overrule them, as far as it was possible to promote the goal He had in view.  These violations He might not have purposed in any other sense than that He saw them ahead of time, and purposed not to prevent them, but on the other hand, He allows them to occur, and then He overrules them, as far as it is practical for the common good.  These events, or violations of the law, have no natural tendency to promote the highest good of God and of the universe, but have in themselves an opposite tendency.  Nevertheless, God allows them because these violations would be a lesser evil than that change would be that could prevent them.  Therefore, God might purpose only to allow violations of the law, while He plans to produce or secure obedience to the law.  

3   We have seen, that God and men may have different motives for the same event, as in the case of Joseph’s brothers that we already mentioned: “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me.’  And they came near.  And he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.  But now, do not therefore be grieved nor angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.’”  (Gen. 45:4‑6) 
     Also, in the case of the king of Assyria: “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation.  I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.  Yet, he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.  Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, ‘I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.’”  (Isaiah 10:5‑7, 12)  Also, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)  “Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.”  (Acts 2:23)
  These, and similar scriptures, show that wicked agents often entertain very different reasons for their conduct from what God entertains by allowing it.  They have a selfish end in view.  Therefore, they do it for a selfish reason.  God, on the other hand, has an unselfish end, a benevolent end in view, even when He does not interfere to prevent their sin.  He hates their sin as something that tends to destroy, or defeat the great end of pure unselfish love.  But, because God sees ahead of time that the sin, in spite of its natural evil tendency may, overall, result in a lesser evil than the evil produced by the changes required to prevent it; He benevolently prefers to allow the sin rather than to interfere to prevent it.  I have no doubts that God would rather have their perfect obedience under the circumstances that they are in, but He would rather allow them to sin than to change the circumstances in order to prevent it, if that change would be the greater of two evils.  Therefore, God allows them to violate His laws whenever He cannot benevolently prevent it under the circumstances.  He allows it for benevolent reasons.  However, the sinner always has selfish reasons.  

4   The Bible informs us, that God brings good out of evil, in the sense that He overrules sin to promote His own glory, and the good of others:  

a       “Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; with the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself.”  (Psalms 76:10)  

b       “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?  Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?  (I speak as a man.)  Certainly not!  For then, how will God judge the world?  For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?  And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?  As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say.  Their condemnation is just.”  (Romans 3:5-8)  

c        “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,” (Romans 8:28) 

5   The Bible also tells us that God does not try to produce sin in creation and providence; that is, that He does not purpose the existence of sin in such a sense as he plans to secure and promote sin in the administration of His government.  In other words, sin is not the object of any positive purpose on the part of God.  Sin exists only because He allows it to exist, and sin is not something that He uses to secure His great end.  God does not promote sin like He promotes obedience to the law.              

a       “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?”  (Jer. 7:9‑10)  

b       “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”  (1 Cor. 14:33)  

c        “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full‑grown, brings forth death.  Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  (James 1:13‑17)

d       “But if you have bitter envy and self‑seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.  This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.  For where envy and self‑seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there.  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”  (James 3:14‑17) 

e       “For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.”  (1 John 2:16)                                   

6   Obedience to the law is a goal God’s positive purpose.  God purposes to promote obedience and uses many means to obtain obedience.  Sin occurs incidentally, as far as the purpose of God is concerned.  Sin is not the object of any positive design or purpose, but sin happens because God cannot wisely prevent it.  God uses many means to promote obedi­ence.  But moral agents, because they exercise their free will, often disobey in spite of all the inducements to obey that God wisely sets before them.  God never sets aside the freedom of moral agents to prevent them from sinning, or to secure their obedience.  The Bible everywhere represents men as acting freely under the government and universal providence of God, and the Bible represents sin as the result of, or as consisting in, an abuse of their freedom.

a       “Then they said to one another, ‘we are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.’”  (Gen. 42:21)  

b       “But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.”  (Exodus 8:32)  

c        “And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘I have sinned this time.  The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.’”  (Exodus 9:27)

d       “Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.  Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only’” (Exodus 10:16‑17)  

e       “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30:19)  

f     “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:15) 

g       “Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’  And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people.  So David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very fool­ishly’” (2 Samuel 24:1, 10)

h       “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.  Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.”  (Prov. 1:10, 29‑31)  

i     “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”  (Prov. 16:9)  

7   The following things appear to be true concerning the purposes of God, as taught by both reason and revelation:  

a       God’s purposes extend to all events, to some degree.  

b       God positively purposes the highest good of the entire human race as His goal.  

c        God has ordained wise and wholesome laws as the necessary means of securing this goal.  

d       God positively plans to secure obedience to these laws as far as He wisely can, and uses the best means that He can possibly use with this plan.  

e       God never positively plans to secure disobedience to His laws in any situation, nor does He use sinful means in order to secure obedience.  God only plans to allow free moral agents to violate His law rather than prevent them because He foresees that, by His overruling power administered after they violate the law, He can prevent the violation from resulting in as great an evil as the change necessary to prevent it would do.  In other words, the evil that results from violating the law would not be as great as the evil that would result from the change that God would have to make to prevent that law from being broken.  (See I Cor 5:5)
  God sees that He can secure a greater good overall by allowing the violation under the circumstances in which it occurs, than He could by intervening to prevent it.  However, to say that sin is a necessary means of the greatest good is wrong.  For if all moral agents would obey perfectly under the very same circumstances in which they now disobey, this would result in the highest possible good.  But God, foreseeing that it is more conducive to the highest good of others to allow some to sin rather than to change the circumstances to prevent it, purposed to allow their sin and overrule it for good.  However, God never aims at producing sin or using any means with the intention of producing sin.  

M      God’s revealed will is never inconsistent with His secret purpose.  

1   Many people today look at sin as a necessary occasion, condition, or means of the greatest good, in such a sense, that God secretly, but really, prefer sin to holiness in those situations where it exists.  They believe that, although God always forbids sin under pain of eternal death, yet because sin is a necessary condition of the greatest good, God really prefers its existence to holiness in those situations where it exists.  I have actually heard this said: “Sin exists.  God does not prevent it.  But He could and would prevent it if He did not generally prefer it to holiness in the circumstances that it occurs in.”  I have heard people say that sin’s existence is proof that God secretly prefers its existence to holiness in every situation where sin occurs.  Otherwise, He would prevent that sin from occurring.  This conclusion does not follow from the existence of sin, that God prefers sin to holiness in the circumstances where it occurs.  Perhaps God only prefers sin to the change of circumstances that would be necessary to prevent it.  Suppose I require my son to do a certain thing.  I know that he will do it if I remain at home and watch over him.  But I also know that if I leave home, he will not do it.  Now I might prefer that he should do what I told him to do, and consider his disobedience as a great evil; still I might regard it as a lesser evil than for me to stay home, and keep my eye on him.  I might have excellent reasons for feeling that, under the circumstances, I could secure a greater good overall by leaving home, even though he might be disobedient, than by staying home and preventing him from disobeying me.  Therefore, unselfish love might require me to go. 
     However, if my son thinks that, because I left him under these circumstances means that I really, although secretly, prefer his disobedience to his obedience, would his reasoning make sense?  No, indeed!  All that he could justly conclude from the fact that I left him, knowing that he would disobey me if I did, would be, that although I considered his disobedience as a great evil, yet I felt that staying home would be a greater evil.
  The same is true whenever sin exists.  God is sincere in prohibiting it.  He would prefer that sin didn’t exist.  All that we can conclude, from the fact that God did not prevent that sin, is that, although He regards its existence as a great and real evil, yet He generally regards that sin as a lesser evil than what would result from the great change in the administration of His government that would be necessary to prevent it.  Therefore, God is completely and infinitely sincere in requiring obedience, and in prohibiting disobedience, and His secret purpose is in strict keeping with His revealed will.  If everyone simply obeyed the moral law under the circumstances in which we all exist here on earth, no one could say that this would not be better for the universe and more pleasing to God than disobedience is in the same circumstances.  Nor is it fair to conclude, that God must prefer sin to holiness, where sin occurs, simply from the fact that God does not prevent it.  As I have already said, all that you can justly conclude from that fact that God does not prevent sin is that, under the circumstances, He does not prefer sin to holiness.  However, He does prefer to allow the agent to sin and suffer the consequences, rather than introduce those changes in the policy and administration of His government that would prevent it.  The present system is the best system that infinite wisdom could devise and execute, not because of sin, but in spite of it, and in spite of the fact that sin is a real, although an incidental, evil.

N       It is an obvious contradiction as well as absurd to claim that we can sin, thinking that, by sinning, we are promoting the greatest good.  This is obvious when we consider:

1   That all moral agents admit that unselfish love is virtue.  

2   That true unselfish love consists in willing the highest good of others as its goal. 

3   That it is our duty to not only will that goal but to also will the necessary means to promote that goal.  

4   That right and true unselfish love, are always one, that is, unselfish love must always be right, and cannot be wrong. 

5   Therefore, it can never be sin to choose the highest good of others with all the necessary occasions, conditions, and means of promoting that highest good.  

6   Therefore, it is impossible for us to sin, or to consent to sin as an occasion, condition, or means to promote the highest good of others, for these means would have to be virtue, and not sin.  Every form of virtue must be consistent with love, unless you can prove that there can be a law of right that is inconsistent with, and opposed to the law of love.  But, in order to do this, you would have to admit that two moral laws could be opposed to each other.  This would mean, that you would have to admit that a moral agent could be under an obligation to obey two opposing laws at the same time, which is impossible.  Thus, no law of right can be opposed to, or separate from, the law of love or benevolence.  Therefore, true unselfish love and right must always be one.  If this is true, then whatever true love demands cannot be wrong, but must be right.  But the law of love demands not only that we choose the highest good of others as an end, but also demands that we choose all the known necessary occasions, conditions, and means that we need to promote that end.  It is naturally impossible to sin when you use means designed and known to be necessary to promote the goal of unselfish love.  Therefore, it is naturally impossible to do evil, or to sin, to accomplish good.  It is naturally impossible to promote good by sinning.           

a        Let those who believe that right and pure love can be opposed to each other, and that a moral agent can sin with a benevolent intention see where their doctrine leads to, and hopefully, they will abandon their absurdity as fast as they can.  The fact is, if willing the highest good of others is always virtuous, it must always be right to will all the necessary occasions, conditions, and means to that goal.  Therefore, you contradict yourself when you say that sin can be among the necessary and intended occasions, conditions, and means; that is, that any one can sin intending to promote the highest good.  

b       Those who believe this false teaching do not believe that sin perpetuates to the highest good the same relationship that holiness does.  Holiness has a natural tendency to promote the highest good.  Yes, they believe that sin is hateful all by itself, and therefore, sin must dissatisfy and disgust all moral agents.  Yes, they believe that the natural tendency of sin is to defeat the goal of moral government, and to prevent rather than promote the highest good.  But they also believe that God foresees that, in spite of its harmful and awful nature, He can so overrule sin that He can make sin the condition, occasion, or instrument of the highest good of Himself and of His universe.  They believe that it is for this reason God is really pleased that sin should occur, and He prefers the existence of sin to holiness in every situation where it exists.  This is what they believe.  Sin is infinitely hateful and abominable to God, and to all holy moral agents.  However, sin develops and exercises such emotions and feelings in God and in holy beings, and such modifications of love; that it more than compensates for all the disgust and painful emotions that result to holy beings.  They believe that sin more than compensates for all the remorse, agony, despair, and endless suffering that result to sinners.      

c        Nobody I know thinks that sin naturally tends to promote the highest good, but only that God can, and does, so overrule and counteract sins natural tendency, that it becomes the condition of a greater good than holiness would have been in its place.  I don’t know to what extent God can, and will, overrule and counteract the naturally evil tendency of sin.  It surely is enough to say that God prohibits sin and that it is impossible for creatures to believe that sin is a necessary condition of the highest good.  If God sees sin as a necessary condition of the highest good of Himself and of the universe, then he must regard sin as of infinite importance, since it is an indispensable condition of infinite good.  According to this theory, God must regard sin, in every instance where it exists, as having infinitely greater importance than holiness would have in its place.  Therefore, God must have infinite complacency in sin. 

7   But, this leads me to draw attention to the principal arguments that some use to support this theory.

a       For example, some say that God conditions the highest good of the universe of moral agents on the revelation of the attributes and character of God to them.  They say that if it weren’t for sin, we would have never seen some of these, because without sin there would have been no occasion for some of these attributes to manifest.  They point out that neither justice, nor mercy, nor forbear­ance, nor self-denial, and perhaps not even meekness, could have found opportunities to manifest if sin never existed.

1)         To this I reply that sin has indeed provided opportunities for some glorious manifesta­tions of God’s moral perfections.  From this we see that God’s perfections enable Him to overrule sin, and to bring good out of evil: but from this we cannot suggest that God could not have revealed these attributes to His creatures without the existence of sin.  Nor can we say that these revelations would have been necessary for the highest perfection and happiness of the universe, if all moral agents perfectly and uniformly obeyed.  When we consider what the moral attributes of God are, it is easy to see that there may be countless moral attributes in God that no creature has, or ever will know about; because that knowledge not necessary for the highest perfection and happiness of the universe of creatures.  God’s moral attributes are only form of His unselfish love, existing and contemplated in its infinite relationships to the universe of beings.  Unselfish love in any being must possess, as many attributes as there are possible relationships under which we can contemplate that love; and should new occasions arise, new attributes would manifest themselves.  It is not likely, that all of the attributes of love, either in God or in man, have yet found opportunities to manifest themselves, nor, perhaps, will they ever.  As new occasions rise throughout eternity, love will develop new and striking attributes, and love will manifest itself under endless forms and varieties of loveliness.  There can be no such thing as exhausting its ability to develop and increase. 

2)         In God, love is infinite.  We will never know all of love’s attributes, nor will we come any closer to knowing all of them than we are now.  There can be no end to God’s ability to exercise new forms of beauty and loveliness.  It is true, that God has seized the opportunity to show forth the glory of His unselfish love through the existence of sin.  He has seized the opportunity, although it is sad all by itself, to manifest some of the attributes of His love.  It is also true, that we cannot know how or by what means God could have revealed these attributes if sin had never existed.  It is also true that we cannot know that such a revelation would be impossible without the existence of sin; nor that, if it weren’t for sin the revelation may not have been necessary for the highest good of the universe.                   

3)         God forbids sin.  God requires universal holiness.  He must be sincere in this.  Nevertheless, sin exists.  Shall we say that God secretly chooses that sin should exist, and truly, although secretly, He prefers its existence to holiness in the circumstances where it occurs?  Or, shall we assume that sin is an evil, that God regards it as evil, but that He cannot wisely prevent it; that is, to prevent it would introduce a still greater evil?  It is an evil, and a great evil, but still the lesser of two evils.  To allow sin to occur under the circumstances is a lesser evil than the change of circumstances that is needed to prevent that sin would be.  This is all we can justly conclude from the existence of sin.  This leaves the sincerity of God unchal­lenged, and maintains His consistency and maintains the consistency and integrity of His law.  The opposite supposition represents God and the law as infinitely deceitful.  

b       Some say, that the Bible supports the supposition that sin is a necessary means of the highest good.  I trust the passages that I quoted to you earlier disprove this nonsense.

c        Some say, that to not represent sin as a means of the highest good, and to represent God as being unable to prevent it, represents God as being unable to accomplish all His will in spite of the fact that the Bible says that God will do all His pleasure, and that nothing is too hard for Him. 
     I answer: God pleases to do only what is naturally possible, and He is well pleased to do that and nothing more.  This He is able to do.  This He will do.  This He does.  This is all He claims to be able to do; and this is all that in fact infinite wisdom and power can do.  

d       But some say, that if sin is an evil, and God can neither prevent sin nor overrule it to make it a means of greater good than He could secure without it, He must be unhappy in view of the fact that He cannot prevent sin and secure a more important good without it.     

1)         I answer: God neither desires nor wills to perform natural impossibilities.  God is a reasonable being, and does not aim at nor desire impossibilities.  He is very happy to do as well as He can in any situation, and He has no unreasonable regrets, because God is not more than infinite.  He cannot accomplish what is impossible.  His good pleasure is to secure all the good that is infinitely possible, and He is infinitely well pleased with this. 

2)         Doesn’t their view, that God must be unhappy because He cannot prevent sin, limit God’s power?  To believe that sin is a necessary means or a necessary condition of the highest good is to believe that God is unable to promote the highest good without resorting to such vile means as sin.  Sin is an abomination all by itself.  Don’t these people limit the power of God when they maintain that He is unable to promote the highest good without sin?  Don’t they limit God’s power when they also maintain that He cannot wisely interfere with the free actions of moral agents in order to prevent sin?  Sin exists.  God abhors it.  How do we account for sin’s exis­tence?  I believe sin is an evil unavoidably incidental to that system of moral government which, in spite of the evil, was the best that could be adopted.  Others believe that sin is a necessary means or condition of the greatest good; and account for its existence that way.  In other words, they believe that God admits or permits its existence as a neces­sary occasion, condition, or means of the highest good; that He is not able to secure the highest good without it.  Let’s look at how these two explanations, of the fact that sin exists, differ.

3)         One variation of this explanation declares that sin is a necessary condition, or means of the highest good; and that God actually prefers the existence of sin to holiness in every instance where it exists; because, in those circumstances, it is a condition or means of a greater good than could have been secured by holiness in its place.  This theory represents God as unable to secure His goal by any other means than sin.  The other theory says that God really prefers holiness to sin in every instance in which it occurs; that He sees sin as an evil, but that, although He sees sin as an evil, He allows it to exist as a less evil than the change in the administration of His government that would be needed to prevent it.  Both theories must admit that in some sense God cannot wisely prevent sin.  No matter how they explain the existence of sin, they all claim that, in some sense, God was not able to secure His goal by preventing sin. 

4)         If some say, that God could neither wisely prevent it, nor so overrule it as to make it the means or condition of the highest good, its existence must make Him happy, then I must respond by saying that this must be just as equally true of the other hypothesis.  Sin is hateful, and its consequences are a great evil.  These consequences will be eternal and indefinitely great.  God must disapprove of these consequences.  If sin is the necessary condition or means of the greatest good, must not God lament that He cannot secure the greatest good without resorting to such loathsome and such horrible means?  If His inability to prevent sin wisely will interfere with and diminish His happiness, must not the same be true of His inability to secure the highest good, without the means that will prove the eternal destruction of millions?             

O      Wisdom and love of the purposes of God. 
     We have seen that God is both wise and benevolent.  This is the doctrine of both reason and revelation.  Our reason naturally knows that God exists, and that God is perfect.  The Bible assumes that He exists, and declares that He is perfect.  Both wisdom and love must be attributes of the infinite and perfect God.  These attributes contribute to our idea of God.  Our reason could not recognize any being as God that does not have these attributes.  But, if infinite wisdom and love are moral attributes of God, it naturally follows that all His plans or purposes are both perfectly wise and loving.  God always chooses the best possible end, and He pursues it by using the best practical means.  His purposes embrace both the end and the means He needs to use to secure His end, together with the best practical disposal of the sin, which is the incidental result of this goal that God has chosen as well as the means He uses to accomplish that goal.  But God’s purposes do not embrace anything more than this.  Therefore, God’s purposes are all perfectly wise and good.  

P       God’s Divine purposes are unchangeable.
  We have seen that the fact that God never changes is not only a natural, but also a moral attribute of God.  Our reason tells us that the attributes of the self‑existing and infinitely perfect God are unchangeable.  The Bible also assumes and teaches this everywhere.  God’s moral attributes do not change, not because they can’t but simply because they don’t.  Although God does not have to be benevolent, He is so unchangeably benevolent, that He appears as if He must be benevolent.  If His benevolence were necessary, it would not be virtuous for the simple reason that it would not be free.  But, since God’s love is a free love, the fact that it never changes makes it even more praiseworthy.  God’s purposes are a ground of eternal and joyful confidence.  That is, the purposes of God are a trustworthy source of eternal comfort, joy, and peace.  Selfish beings will not rejoice in them, but benevolent beings will.  If the purposes of God are infinitely wise and good, and God will accomplish His purposes, they must form a rational ground of unfailing confidence and joy.

1   God says: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’” (Isaiah 46:10) 

2   “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.”  (Psalms 33:11) 

3   “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless it is the Lord's counsel that will stand.”  (Prov. 19:21) 

4   “But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against God.”  (Acts 5:39)
  These, as well as many similar passages, are the source of perpetual confidence and joy to those who love God, and sympathize with Him.  

Q      The relationship of God’s purposes to His foreknowledge. 
     We have seen that God is omniscient, that is, that He must know and eternally knows whatever is, or can be, an object of knowledge.  His purposes must also be eternal and unchangeable.  In the order of time, therefore, His purposes and His foreknowledge must be co‑eternal.
  But in the order of nature, God’s knowledge of what He could do, and what could be done, must have come before His purposes: that is, He could not have formed His purpose and decided what to do until He had first considered what could be done, and what was the best thing to do.  Until all possible ends, and ways, and means, were weighed and understood, it was impossible for God to make a selection, and settle on the end with all the necessary means; and also settle on all the ways and means of overruling any evil, natural or moral, that might be seen to be unavoidably incidental to any system.  Thus it appears, that, in the order of nature, foreknow­ledge of what He could do, must have come before He purposed to do.  God’s purpose resulted from his foreknowledge.  He knew what He could do before He decided what He would do.  However, on the other hand, in the order of nature, the purpose to do must have come before the knowledge of what He should do, or what would happen because of His purpose.  Viewed relatively to what He could do, God’s foreknowledge must have come before His purposes.  But, viewed relatively to what He would do, and what would happen, God’s purposes must have come before His foreknowledge.  But, I say again, since foreknowledge was necessarily eternal with God, His purposes must also have been eternal, and therefore, in the order of time, neither His foreknowledge could have preceded His purposes, nor His purposes have preceded His foreknowledge.  They must have been co‑eternal.         

R       God’s purposes demand the use of means both on His part, and on our part, to accomplish them.

1   The great goal that He sets His heart on depends on the use of means, both moral and physical, to accomplish that goal.  The highest good of the whole universe is His goal.  God can secure this goal only by conforming to the physical and mental laws.  Motives influence our minds, and so moral and physical governments are naturally necessary means to secure the great goal proposed by the Divine mind. 

2   The result of all this is the need for a vast and complicated system of means and influences, such as we see spread all around us.  The history of the universe is the history of creation, and of the means that God uses to secure His goal with all their natural and incidental results.  I have already shown you that the Bible teaches that the purposes of God involve both means and ends.  I will only add that God’s purposes do not make any event, which depends on what we do as a free moral agent, necessarily certain.  All events must be certain to some degree if they happen, whether God purposes them or whether He foreknows them or not.  Yet, no event that depends on our will can be certain with any degree of certainty.  We could change our minds, or do something other than what God purposes us to do, or wills that we should do.  Remember that God’s purposes are not some fatalistic system.  God’s purposes leave every one of us completely free to choose and act freely.  God knows how every one of us will act, and He has made all His arrangements accordingly, to overrule the wicked actions of moral agents on one hand, and to produce or influence the holy actions of others on the other hand.  But, remember that neither God’s foreknowledge nor His purpose sets aside the free agency of any one of us.  We act as freely and as responsibly as if God neither knew nor purposed anything concerning our conduct or our destiny.  

God’s purposes extend to all events in some sense.  They extend to the most common events in our life as well as to rarest events.  But concerning the everyday transactions of life, we are not likely to stumble, complain, and say, “Why, if I am going to live, I will live no matter what I do to destroy my health and life; and if I am going to die, I will die no matter what I do.”  No, in our daily lives, we cannot throw off our responsibility and cast ourselves on the purposes of God; but on the other hand, we are deeply engaged to secure our goal in life, as if God neither knew nor purposed anything about it.  Why then should we do as we often do concerning the salvation of our souls?  Why should we throw off our responsibility, and settle down in listless inactivity, as if the purposes of God concerning salvation were some system of ironclad fatality from which there is no escape?  Surely, “madness is in their hearts while they live” (Eccl. 9:3)  But let us understand, that, when we do this, we sin against the Lord, and we can be sure that our sin will find us out.