Even though God has created our world in such a way that there are creatures that govern themselves (that’d be us) by free choices, this does not upset the certainty of God’s Providence. Okay, you say, how does He do that? How does God assure that what He desires comes to pass without violating human free will? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here is how.

Three things guarantee the certainty of God’s Providence: the infallibility of God’s foreknowledge, the effectiveness of His will, and the wisdom of God’s management of the universe. None of these three, in the way that they are operated by God, are factors that oppose contingency (free choice) in things.

When we speak of God’s infallible foreknowledge we must remember that God does not have to predict the future. He is not some sort of super-computer that can process all possible outcomes and predict what will happen. God is outside of time and, consequently, all of time is available to Him. God, therefore, beholds in His eternity all future events as actually existing. In a very real way, your future is “now” to God. Additionally, when God wills something, it will happen as He wills it to be. Not only will what God wishes happen, but it will happen in the way He wishes. It just so happens that God has decreed that some things happen necessarily and that other things should happen contingently (freely). What this means is that, in order for His will to be fulfilled, God applies necessary causes to some things and contingent causes to others. Of course, you have to be an infinite Supreme Being in order to be able to apply contingent causes in such a way that free creatures are not coerced or violently made to do things. If you are interested in a detailed description of how God does this check out my Blog-post "God can Make You Do What He Wants You to Do--Freely?" (12/9/05).

Finally, God’s Providence is fulfilled by the wisdom of His management—again, without any prejudice to the contingency of things. Even humans, by our wisdom, are able to supplement and strengthen contingent things that would otherwise fail. Doctors do this all the time. As a physician applies his/her healing arts to a patient, he/she is able to supplement and bring about the restoration of health in a situation that might otherwise end in death. Gardeners do the same thing. They increase or decrease watering and apply various measures in order to assist a struggling plant to gain vigor and bloom. In a much greater way, the wisdom of the divine economy brings about the effects that God desires. Although contingent causes left to themselves might fail to produce a specific effect, the proper effect will inevitably follow when God supplies certain supplementary measures. This, of course, does not do away with the contingency of the creatures involved. Therefore, the fact that there are free creatures does not exclude the certainty of God’s Providence.

Okay, there are scores of articles and blog posts on the net that are critical of Joel Osteen, so let me start with some of the problems. Joel does not preach a balanced theology. He rarely confronts man’s sinfulness directly (original sin, fallen human nature, etc.) and I have never heard him clearly explain the atoning work of Christ and, of course, these are basic tenets of faith. It can be argued that Joel does not preach the full counsel of God and therefore does not ground his sermons on the larger biblical narrative. Undoubtedly, a steady diet of Osteen sermons would, in my opinion, leave a regular attendee of Lakewood Church with a truncated theology. However, given all of this, I would argue that Joel’s preaching is incomplete and not grossly incorrect.

I have been watching Lakewood Church’s broadcast since the mid-90s when Joel’s dad John was at the helm. John was more in the mold of a classic Pentecostal preacher (with a Southern Baptist education) who was influenced by the “name it and claim it” (or Health and Wealth) theology propagated by Kenneth Hagin. When John suddenly died in 1999, his son Joel was selected to become the pastor of the very large congregation. Joel had only served as the behind-the-scenes TV producer of the Lakewood broadcast. In fact, I was shocked to see Joel preaching and saddened to realize that John had suddenly passed away. While I did not agree with the “name it and claim it” theology, John Osteen had a lot of practical wisdom, a pastor’s heart and could quote huge sections of Scripture from memory in his sermons. To the surprise of nearly everyone, Joel was almost an immediate success at preaching. Frankly, I think he even surprised himself. The church began to grow even more rapidly and the rest is history. Lakewood is now the largest church in North America.

What I did notice over time was a gradual change in the theological approach at Lakewood. Joel actually moved away from his father’s “name it and claim it” teaching toward a more subtle and nuanced approach. Many have contended that Osteen simply mixes pop psychology with Christianity, throws in his boyish charm and adds a dash of his drop-dead-gorgeous wife, Victoria, and creates a classic easy-believe-ism. I would say, yes, all those elements are there, but, I think many critics are overlooking some very positive things. When I watch Osteen, I see a lot of good being done. In fact I have never once watched Osteen and not been uplifted and encouraged to serve the Lord at a higher level. Joel preaches about a loving God, about personal responsibility and about a hope that each and every individual can have in the Lord. He, in my opinion, is not a Health and Wealth preacher—I’ve heard plenty of them. However, he does believe in miracles and, frankly, so do I. Anyone who has been in the ministry for very long knows that we desperately need God’s supernatural intervention. So I think those critics that oppose Osteen because he preaches miracles may want to re-read the Gospels to make sure their views are biblically grounded.

Listen, I clearly realize that if Christians are getting all their biblical instruction from Osteen, they are being deprived of important input they really need to know. Having never been to Lakewood, I certainly hope that they have other venues for in-depth instruction. On the other hand, for Christians who are active in a church and are receiving a balanced biblical diet, I think little harm is done watching Osteen’s weekly broadcasts. Certainly it doesn’t hurt to hear that God loves us. Contrary to what critics say, it is my experience watching him that he does continuously inform his congregation that life and being a Christian are tough. He lets them know that we are not going to get all our “wants” this side of eternity. What he does stress is that we can, by obedience to God’s Word and faith in our loving Lord, overcome difficulties to have a positive impact in the world. Frankly, I cannot fault this.

By the way, I have also noticed that many of the people who are the biggest fans of Osteen are older folks. These are people who often have had a lifetime of solid biblical instruction.

Finally, Joel Osteen has the so-called “blue state” liberal secularists in a quandary. Osteen can go right into huge arenas in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, etc. and fill them with overflowing crowds. He doesn’t have to go to the Bible belt to fill an arena. This has been the source of many worried columns in newspapers and magazines. He appears to secularists to be a special ops soldier dropped behind enemy lines to organize dispirited insurgents and convert the marginal. Yes, I know Joel was very soft on sin when he was on Larry King; but, to his credit, like Rick Warren, Osteen does not take a salary from Lakewood do to his book sales; Lakewood never solicits donations on their television broadcasts; and the Lakewood congregation is 1/3rd Hispanic, 1/3rd African-American and 1/3rd Anglo. Maybe I’m being soft-headed, but it seems to me there may be a real possibility that he is a flawed but genuine instrument of God.

Providence

Providence is God’s intelligent plan by which he orders all things to their appointed end. God alone plans all things but he orders things by secondary causes. Just as a good architect himself designs a building and then employs a contractor and craftsmen to build his structure; so, God uses secondary causes to fulfill all that He plans. Of these secondary causes, some are necessary causes and some are contingent causes. Another way of saying this is that some things happen by necessity and other things happen by free choice. Men and angels have free choice. This may sound unusual, but God, by His providence, conceives and orders things to happen by free choice. This can only be possible because of God’s divine power and because He stands above time.

Predestination

Predestination is a sub-set of God’s providence. Created things are planned and ordered by God’s Providence to their end in one of two ways. One way is that which is right and proper for its nature. For instance the proper end of a rock is to be a rock. A rock doesn’t need anything beyond its own nature to fulfill its purpose and destiny other than to be itself—a rock. However, some things that God has created have a purpose above their nature. Man has the purpose of being united with God which exceeds anything in his nature. Therefore, in order for man to achieve his divinely appointed purpose, he needs God’s supernatural (meaning, “Above nature”) assistance. This supernatural assistance is called predestination. God must positively take action on behalf of men in order to assist them in attaining their divinely appointed (providential) end—eternal life. This positive action on God’s part is called grace.

Reprobation

God’s activity is necessary to predestine men to a salvation above their natural capacity. In other words, without God’s intervention and grace, no man could achieve his end, which is union with God. This activity of predestination is a direct act of God. However, God permits those who are resistant to His grace to not achieve their purpose (union with Him). The name for this is reprobation. Reprobation is a purely negative act on God’s part (He allows it to happen). While God’s causal activity (a positive act) is necessary so that men can be predestined to salvation above their natural capacity, reprobation is not parallel to this. A simple way of saying this is that God saves the saved and the damned damn themselves. The guilt for eternal separation from God and the desertion of God’s grace rests with the free will of the person who is reprobated.

It is my view that it is a horrible thing to imagine that God both predestines some people to heaven and some people to hell. This concept is called double predestination and those people who hold to such a doctrine often do not realize that it has been formally anathemized in the West at the Council of Orange in 529 and by the Eastern Orthodox Church since the 1600’s. The Council of Orange stated:

“We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema.”

You may find this hard to believe, but the modern mind is much more “authoritarian” than the ancient or medieval Christian mind. We like to think of ourselves as free from the oppressive restrictions of authoritarian beliefs and religious infallibility. However, the reality is that the ancient and medieval minds thought of human authority as fallible and weak and, therefore, the weakest of all bases for an argument. As Thomas Aquinas said, “…the argument from authority based on human reason is the weakest…” On the other hand, the modern mind bases its beliefs typically on human authorities like contemporary intellectual fashions (i.e. deconstructionism, multiculturalism, etc.), media propaganda, peer pressure, focus groups, etc. The modern mind is truly “authoritarian.” Even ancient and medieval theology was much more objective and less subjective than contemporary theology. The unintended consequence of accentuating the individual’s personal response by faith to the gospel is that the subjective emotional experience has nearly pushed the human mind completely out of Christianity. For instance, even I am surprised how many Christians get “nervous” on TFD when I mention that human reason has an important part to play in Christian teaching and doctrine. It is as if I am suggesting that Christianity should be secularized. However, from my steeped-in-medieval-theology perspective, it is the modern sentimentalized and subjective-ized Christianity that is secular. In a very famous passage from Aquinas’ Summa, he writes:

“But sacred doctrine makes use even of human reason, not, indeed, to prove faith (for thereby the merit of faith would come to an end), but to make clear other things that are put forward in this doctrine. Since therefore grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it, natural reason should minister to faith as the natural bent of the will ministers to charity.” (Summa I, 1, 8)

The key thought here is that “grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.” In other words, divine revelation both helps human reason by completing, clarifying, and instructing it by God’s grace and also assisting it as a tool of communicating divine truth. While sacred doctrine does not depend on human reason, it uses it as an instrument of expression. For instance, in the book of Acts the word reasoned (Gk. Dialegomai: “to converse, discourse with one, argue, discuss”) is used ten times. In all ten usages, it is the Apostle Paul that is spoken of as reasoning. Of the ten, eight of them are when Paul “reasoned” with non-believers about the gospel with the intention of evangelizing them. A classic example of Paul reasoning in order to evangelize is found in Acts 19:

Acts 19:8-10 And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Can you imagine saying to a group of modern Christians, “Hey, let’s head down to the mall to lead people to Christ by reasoning with them.” Most Christians would think you’re either a) gone mad; or b) suggesting something irreligious. Too bad.

Paris Hilton is an interesting personality for the 21st century. It has been said that she is the classic new type of celebrity that is famous simply for being famous. In other words, she has done absolutely nothing to deserve all of the media attention and adulation that she receives. This, of course, says volumes about the state of contemporary society and the dumbing down of deviancy (or common decency). There was actually a time in American history where it was believed wrong to strive for the honor and adulation of men. To do so, would have been considered a vice of character (which it still is). I think of George Washington who after the Revolutionary War and his term as president could have literally been crowned king, but stepped away from public life to live a modest lifestyle at Mount Vernon. Even though those days are long gone, even today most true Christians recognize that the Paris Hilton lifestyle of excess, vulgar consumption, superficial beauty and virtue-less importance is not something to be emulated.

On the other hand, as we look back on previous eras of history, most true Christians realize that those souls who forsook all worldly possessions and abused themselves as did the ascetic monks who sat for years atop high poles or in caves amidst high mountains went too far in depriving themselves for the purpose of trying to live a virtuous life. Most would say that this type of lifestyle doesn’t capture the essence of what Paul was meaning when he wrote:

1 Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Paul had no problem doing two things at once. For one thing, he instructed Timothy to command wealthy Christians to use their resources to do good deeds in the world. At the same time he, without blushing, notes that God provides us “richly” with “everything for our enjoyment.” Wow, what a statement! What is going on here? I think the answer is that external goods are obviously necessary for life, otherwise we will literally die; but, they are also necessary as “instruments” for true happiness in this life which consists in living virtuously.

In this life, humans need the necessities of the body in order to live. My mom used to say you have to have food, water, clothing and the like, “To keep body and soul together.” However, beyond this basic level of sustenance, physical goods serve as instruments for the virtue of contemplation and for the operation of active virtue. Let me explain. If one does not have the basic necessities of life, it becomes nearly impossible to give time to the contemplation of God’s goodness and the highest things in life. If you have ever had to life from one meal to the next you know what I mean. Additionally, active virtue is doing good in the world. In order to do good in the world I must use the things that God “provides” in a good way. I must use my time, talent and treasure in a way that not only brings me enjoyment but also blesses other people. This, of course, takes self-restraint (temperance); courage (fortitude); practical wisdom (prudence); and social responsibility (justice). The external goods of my life are the “means” that allow me to work toward the “end” of true happiness.