The Extreme View Of Total Dependence On God

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting

God, The LORD,

The Creator of the ends

of the earth,

neither faints nor

is weary. 

His understanding is 

unsearchable.

Isaiah 20:28

     Opposite the theory of Deism where God has removed Himself from His creation leaving to their own devices and chance is the theory that God is the only cause. This theory of entire dependence does not allow for second causes, or in some theological circles, God will act in a some small way in allowing some "second causes" to occur. This absolute dependence on God, that includes that God is the only cause of events in the universe, has been widely adopted by the Church. This theory found advocates in many theists, among the Schoolmen, and by some Reformers, and by and large among many modern theologians. Many Christians are under the teaching of pastors and leaders, authors, and Christian educators who hold to this theory that God is the cause, man is not the cause, there are no second causes. Is this true? Is this a teaching we should come under in our Churches, and from invited speakers? Is God the only efficient cause? How does this theory affect my life, how I live and is it a true Doctrine of the Bible? Must we believe, just because some influential theologians from times gone past, that this Doctrine is true, that we believe it to be true? Paul gives us advice that we are to examine ourselves: "But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another" (Galatians 4:6). For some of us who have been bitten by false religion know that the first time we are as the saying goes: "The first time the dog bites me it is the dog's fault; the second time it is my fault." Become like the Bereans: "These (the Bereans vs.10) were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). Notice that this was not some off-hand, sometime (when things were in turmoil) search, this they did daily. Historically the Schoolmen otherwise known as Scholastics, among other teachings taught: Form and methodology constructed on the principles of Plato and a system of Christian philosophy. Those early Church fathers attempted to bring reason to the aid of Revelation. They were educators in the Universities and had influence upon students desiring to know God, yet instead of the Bible as the only source for truth they leaned heavily on the doctrine of the mystics, ultimately relying more on spiritual intuition that on dialectical proof for their explanation of the highest truths of philosophy. In the ninth century a Church father, John Scotus Erigena, taught: "Theophanes of all things visible and invisible creature, can rightly be called the manifestation of the divine." The wording must be carefully observed, the words visible and invisible are the manifestations of God. This teaching removes "second causes" and he had his followers. Some of those early fathers taught: That God is the essence of all being of all things and creatures. In other words, God is to be the only efficient cause.Thomas Acquinas stated: "That the fire is not to give heat, but God in the fire; and the same applies to all others." Even Zwingle was inclined to this extreme view of the dependence of the creatures of God, among other things on this subject he states: "Essence, power, and the operation of the gods, but they have not on their own. Then, are the instruments. That accompany these things, which we give the name of causes, not causes, but his hands and his right to the organs, the mind is eternal which it operates." John Calvin did not go so far: "They are nothing else than instruments, as it willeth for efficacy and for by which God his own discretion and constantly dropped in to this or that action bends and turns."
     As can be seen by these few examples of the early Church fathers, those who had much influence upon the Church there was a tendency and even a hard line approach that God was not in control of "second causes." I have not answered all the above questions, only have given the ground for such theological thought, a thought that has pervaded many Churches today and is affecting the lives and thinking of men and women who are truly seeking the truth about God. This subject must, because of its size and influence, be examined in more than one blog. Therefore this is a beginning, and more will be in the next blog. 

And he showed me
     a pure river
of water of life,
    clear as crystal,
proceeding from the
    throne of God and
of the Lamb.
                 Revelation 22:1

Remember, "it is done!"

Richard L. Crumb