About Providence

The world created by God is supported by Him. This maintenance, this storage is usually called Providence or Providence. (This name does not accurately express the thing itself: the words - Providence, Providence - indicate more about the management of the future than the past and present. This name was given by people, perhaps because they considered the entire future to primarily depend on the will of God.) This care for the world, according to our concept, consists of two parts: 1) conservation and 2) management. 1) Conservation is such an action of God’s omnipotence, according to which the world, having received its existence from God, does not lose it, but continues to exist and act. In this preservation, two types are distinguished: a) preservation of being and b) preservation of form. For we usually distinguish in a thing its essence and its action or form. a) Is the world truly supported by God's power? Can't he himself continue the existence he once received? Reason cannot answer anything decisively to this; it has reasons to think pro and contra, and from this, in judging this subject, it falls into so-called antinomies. On the one hand, he says that the world itself can continue to exist. The reason that prompted him to think so is that the world has already received existence and, therefore, can lose it either through itself or through another being; but he cannot destroy himself, since he could not create himself, and there is no other being besides God outside the world; God once wanted the world to exist, so it will exist on its own. But on the other hand, reason sees that since the creation of the world was a manifestation of omnipotence, then the action itself must continue in order for the world to continue its existence; otherwise the action will not have an equivalent cause. This second view leads to the fact that the forces of nature are supported by the power of God. With this disagreement of mind, revelation decisively affirms that the life of the world is living in God. This thought is necessary for religion, and therefore it is expressed with force in many places in Scripture (Heb. 1:3): “Bearing... all things with the verb of His strength.” How clearly and clearly the Holy Scripture expresses deep metaphysical truths! (Heb. 11:3; Matt. 6:26; Acts 14:17; Col. 1:13). “All things will be accomplished in Him” (Col. 1:17). How does God maintain the world? The Holy Scriptures do not introduce human understanding into this mystery. However, a look at the world, at this theater of God’s actions, in some way shows how God acts in the world and supports its existence. In the world, the actions closest to us take place on earth, the earth circulates with other planets around the sun, therefore, the sun is the center of all physical forces and actions, and behind it there must be the power of God. b) Holy Scripture teaches that not only the existence of things is supported by God, but also their powers, that is, God supports things with all forms and manifestations in appearance. There are many places on this truth in the Holy Scriptures. David says (Ps. 18:6-7) that God has appointed the place for the sun to rise, its daily procession, and its setting. There are passages in Job that say that God presides over the stars, that He forms various kinds of creatures on and within the earth, in rivers, in mountains, and so on. In relation to man, the Holy Scripture depicts this idea with all the particulars. For example, David says (Ps. 139:15): “My bone is not hidden from You, what You have done in secret.” Between the preservation of peace (conservatio) and governance (gubernatio) they also put concursus. This assistance of God (concursus) was invented by the scholastics and is a term that does not contain a thought other than conservation. They invented it for one moral case, namely: among the actions of moral beings there are bad actions; in order to determine the relation of the power of God to these actions, the scholastics invented concursus and began to say: Deus concurrit ad malas actiones hominis materialiter, non formaliter. But this is a consequence of scholastic subtlety; maintaining forces is already assistance, and vice versa: assistance is maintenance. Therefore, having spoken about maintaining peace, let us leave the so-called concursus, for this is nothing more than an empty term. 2) The second action of Providence is management. It is different from conservation. The world can be maintained both in existence and in its own strengths and, meanwhile, may not achieve its goals, that is, it may not be manageable. This management, that is, God’s direction of the world towards His goals, is absolutely necessary in the moral world. For moral beings have freedom and, therefore, can achieve goals or not; can subvert it and completely move away from it. Therefore, their direction, at least towards general, main goals, is necessary. But the same control is necessary in the physical world. We can say that physical laws are absolutely necessary. In all the kingdoms of nature we find some deviations, omissions, some kind of self-will. Whether the freedom of nature is manifested in this, we cannot say; at least, it must be said that a higher, Divine power is needed, which would direct the physical world towards its goals, although it acts, apparently, constantly. What is the government of God? There is such an action of the omnipotence and wisdom of God, by which He, as it were, looks and supervises the actions of creatures, especially rational ones, and by which He directs them to goals when they deviate, corrects their errors and shortcomings and makes up for omissions. The truth of world government is set out in the Holy Scriptures with all clarity. According to his teaching, God controls everything from great to small. The government of God in the moral world is predominantly depicted: all stories are stories of Divine government, and the characteristic feature of these stories is that they extend God’s government to the miraculous in order to instill in us the truth necessary for our morality that the power of God is powerful even when physical forces resist it. There are so many places that confirm the truth of God’s world rule that it is almost impossible to count them all. Let's dwell on a few (Ps. 35:7. Prov. 16:9. Matt. 6:31. 1 Cor. 12:6). Here we mean the actions of God in the most important events of the physical world (Acts 14:17, Jer. 5:24, Job 37:2, Dan. 11:21). The fate of kings and people depends on God. That the destinies of the king and the people depend on God, this idea should primarily be implanted in oneself, not as some French historians did (for example, Milot), whose stories can lead to thoughts that are completely bleak, because there all incidents are a combination of cases - the actions of passions. Not having the idea that God rules kingdoms and kings, one can become confused when seeing that the fate of some powerful kingdom, which has influence over almost the entire world, is in the hands of some inhuman ruler (Is. 10:5). From this passage it is clear that God has some measure of patience, and this aspect can be the subject of good moral reflection. In heaven it is determined first whether or not to be known to the people than on earth (Jer. 18:7). The government depicted in this place is most visible in the people of Israel; Here you can see an extraordinary combination of everything natural with the supernatural. In addition, Holy Scripture often depicts the fate of private people under the control of God, for example, Tobit, Esther, Job, and others (Acts 17:26). Thus God appoints both the time of existence of nations and the limits of their places. This truth is confirmed now. For example, five powerful European powers formed a kind of council in London, at which they decided to take care of the welfare of smaller states. By virtue of this definition, they define the boundaries of Greece, but everything turns out to be the opposite; true, their definition does not yet agree with the definition of God (Ps. 105:10-18). It is especially necessary for people to know that God controls the fate of everyone in particular. This joyful thought is expressed in many places (Ps. 90:1-16; Phil. 2:27; Isa. 6:1-13; Am. 3:6). There are many other places. The Gospel of Matthew says that a hair of our head does not fall without the will of God (Matthew 10:29–30). The mind even doubts whether to take this as a pure metaphor. Regarding the government of the world, the most important question is the following: how to combine God’s government with human freedom? That human freedom is not violated here is proven by everyone’s own experience, their own consciousness. And since his own consciousness is better than all evidence, then, relying on his consciousness, a person will always believe that God controls him, and that through this his freedom is not violated. It is not surprising that we do not know this secret, for we do not know the whole world; Even if we knew the world, we cannot know the Being of God. We know God’s government over the most important part of the world, and, moreover, over this part we know God’s government only in relation to its present and past state, but we do not comprehend relations to the future. However, reason here too can point to traces of the possibility of combining the government of God with human freedom. Namely: a) the ratio of our forces largely depends on physical forces. Every rational being, or, let’s say more closely, a person, is surrounded on all sides by the forces of other beings so that, no matter how free, he nevertheless largely depends on others. Almost all of our knowledge comes to us from outside; why not admit that their original source is in God, and the beings surrounding us are their conductors? b) Moreover, the depth of our soul is inaccessible to us. We realize that much that happens in us is not from us; the emergence in our soul of thoughts, desires and feelings - this law of assotiatio idearum - does not depend on us. In general, our freedom is a point floating in the abyss of creatures; our independence is only semi-independence. With these and similar considerations, the mind clarifies to itself the truth of how God’s rule of the world is combined with human freedom. Don’t the imperfections of the world contradict God’s rule of the world? But what are they, or what are they? 1) Metaphysical evil: it consists in the limitations of creatures and is, on the one hand, necessary, and on the other hand, it is the main source of other shortcomings. 2) Physical evil, consisting of diseases and other disasters. 3) Moral evil. What is the original source of all evil? The first and main source of the world's shortcomings is the law of diversity in unity and unity in diversity; diversity cannot exist without a collision, and, moreover, one from which even opposition arises in things. But this diversity is necessary in a world that consists of many beings; it could not exist if the world were only one being related to one God. since the world consists of many beings or creatures, then all creatures do not have what is in God, and each creature does not have what is in all other creatures. The second source of shortcomings is the opposition between two component parts of the world - the spiritual and physical worlds. This opposition is necessary, because for the spiritual we need the physical and, conversely, for the physical we need the spiritual. But since a collision is necessarily born from this opposition, then again what is in some beings is not in others, that is, imperfections or shortcomings occur. The third source of evil is the freedom of moral beings. The impossibility of sinning in freedom is possible only for an all-perfect, all-knowing mind. But for an imperfect, limited mind, there is always an area of ​​darkness; for a limited will there is always an area of ​​evil. Thus, even if we had not sinned, there would be the possibility of falling. The mind does not rebel against metaphysical evil; what does he say about physical evil? He says it is the result of abuse. Indeed, many diseases and troubles would not exist if there were no sin. However, it must be said that all human theodicies do not calm or satisfy the mind. The view of the world is more disconcerting than reassuring in philosophical theodicies. The true theodicy is one Christian religion: its short, simple and deepest teaching that these evils are the most temporary, that they did not exist before and therefore will not exist in eternity - saves the honor of Providence. Holy Scripture tells us that damage exists not only in free creatures, as people thought, but in all creatures, and that its source was first in evil spirits, and then in man. How does God look at these shortcomings? Reason says that He uses natural means to destroy evil, such as: raising up special men, and so on. But religion recognizes these means as insufficient; it says that God sent His Son to restore the world, and that He delivered all creation. With this view of the world, all objections become petty. The Christian religion acts impartially; it is not afraid, like philosophy, to recognize the world in all parts as damaged; is not afraid that the abyss of evil is great, because it presents sufficient means. From this point one must always look at the message of the Son of God into the world, that is, one must remember, in the words of Paul, that Christ came to lead “all things,” that He reconciled the heavenly, earthly and underworld worlds, in a word, all nature. Voltaire’s fable about a mouse that found itself in a luxurious house and, in its cramped corner, began to talk about the perfection of the entire house can serve as a countermeasure to petty objections to the imperfections of the world. We also occupy a small corner of a big house - the world, and from it we dare to judge the whole world; our temporary stay on earth is still infancy, and therefore one writer well noted that perfect spirits look at us the way we look at animals, plants or amphibians; We have grown little from the earth, we are far from the sky. Basil the Great says about evil that it could not come from God. If so, then where did evil come from when there was no evil at first? Does this mean it came from something contrary to him? No! It did not come from a good that was contrary to it, but from something in between, “a quodam indifferenti,” for it came from a person at a time when he was still completely neither good nor evil—“erat indifferens.” Physical troubles, one might say, are not real evil, for many do not come from us (“no one has sinned”: John 9:3), and therefore will pass over time. This is probably why God, especially in the Old Testament, is not ashamed to express himself humanly, calling himself the source of evil. For example, in the book of Deuteronomy, prohibiting laughing at people with physical disabilities, He says: “Didn’t I make the fool...,” and so on. In the prophets He often says: “I will bring evil” (2 Kings 21:12), and the like. What service has the Christian religion provided with the doctrine of creation and Providence? The fact that she overthrew the wrong concepts about the world, dangerous for morality, and presented the world, in its being and actions, completely subordinate to God. This truth was instilled in us from infancy, and therefore we got used to it; but from the first time it was difficult for the human mind to reach it. It seemed that the law of unity could lead philosophers to this, but it did not protect Plato himself from dualism. Reading the work of Blessed Theodoret on Providence, it seems that everything he said is too simple, but the human mind itself and the party of philosophers, who perverted the teaching about Providence, did not reach this simplicity. Cicero himself in his “Academic Notes” is very strong, wanting to prove divinam providentiam. In addition, Christian teaching has overthrown the fate on which the entire ancient world is obsessed; no one understood her, but everyone turned to her. In the 7th century, Mohammed placed this destiny at the throne of God, and now some German philosophers have begun to teach something similar. Are our people familiar with this teaching? That everything is from God, and that everything is controlled by Him, the people are very familiar with this; but the teachings of Moses are little known to him. That everything in the world is controlled by God is known to the common people to excess; he does not know natural control, but expects everything from supernatural forces. This is because he does not know nature, and that he has few natural means. Therefore, in illnesses, due to the lack of natural healing, he immediately turns to God - to a supernatural method of treatment. You might be interested in: