The Decrees of God: Reducible to one Purpose

The second point included in this doctrine is, that the decrees of God are all reducible to one purpose. By this is meant that from the indefinite number of systems, or series of possible events, present to the divine mind, God determined on the futurition or actual occurrence of the existing order of things, with all its changes, minute as well as great, from the beginning of time to all eternity. The reason, therefore, why any event occurs, or, that it passes from the category of the possible into that of the actual, is that God has so decreed. The decrees of God, therefore, are not many, but one purpose. They are not successively formed as the emergency arises, but are all parts of one all-comprehending plan. This view of the subject is rendered necessary by the nature of an infinitely perfect Being. It is inconsistent with the idea of absolute perfection, that the purposes of God are successive, or that He ever purposes what He did not originally intend; or that one part of his plan is independent of other parts. It is one scheme, and therefore one purpose. As, however, this one purpose includes an indefinite number of events, and as those events are mutually related, we therefore speak of the decrees of God as many, and as having a certain order. The Scriptures consequently speak of the judgments, counsels or purposes of God, in the plural number, and also of his determining one event because of another. When we look at an extensive building, or a complicated machine, we perceive at once the multiplicity of their parts, and their mutual relations. Our conception of the building or of the machine is one, and yet it comprehends many distinct perceptions, and the apprehension of their relations. So also in the mind of the architect or mechanist, the whole is one idea, though he intends many things, and one in reference to another. We can, therefore, in a measure, understand how the vast scheme of creation, providence, and redemption, lies in the divine mind as one simple purpose, although including an infinite multiplicity of causes and effects.

Hodge v 1 p 537

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Comments:

1. My feeble, finite, aging mind has a difficult time comprehending the decrees of God (or as my seminary theology professor (Victor Matthews) called it - the Decree (singular) of God. I still remember that class.
   
2. Hodge (to me) is so profound that it is difficult to read more than one page at a time! I love this book!
   
3. From the sacred to the profane ... I had my every 6-8 week buzz cut today (which feels soo good! Why I ever had longer hair (I guess because I could) or a mustache or a beard ... I don't know! I like the clean shaven look and feel.
   
4. I updated Bob Zemeski's website today: www.zemeski.org (with his latest letter). I checked it out with Internet Explorer 7 and it works fine
   
5. We have off today. Kathee is actually working until noon (the life of a technology manager!). We have errands this afternoon.
   
6. Tonight Kathee has a women's fellowship meeting at 4th. I suspect the women gossip about their husbands but Kathee says this is no so.
   
7. I have the Metro Womens Center board meeting tonight
   
8. Meanwhile I am catching up on reading this morning