concurrence
An aspect of God’s providence whereby he cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do1; God’s working in all things to accomplish his will in all events “without violating the nature of things, the ongoing causal processes, or human free agency.”2
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From scripture:
[A]ll the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35 ESV)Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exodus 4:11-12 ESV)
- From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 5, Of Providence:
I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold,direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence….
II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
III. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means….
- From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:
There is not a single moment that the creature works independently of the will and the power of God. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being, Acts 17:28. This divine activity accompanies the action of man at every point, but without robbing man in any way of his freedom. The action remains the free act of man, and act for which he is held responsible. … In a very real sense the operation is the product of both causes. Man is and remains the real subject of the action.
Learn more:
- J. I. Packer: Providence
- James Mongomery Boice: God’s Providence
- Wayne Grudem: Providence (mp3)
- Related terms: providence; compatibilism
1Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
2Concise Theology by J. I. Packer
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