God the Father, Mentor's Guide, MG06

/ 5 5

G O D T H E F A T H E R

• God will restore his creation from its exposure to evil at Christ’s glorious return. • Accurately teaching on the providence of God resolves some of the modern errors of philosophy and theology, namely, pantheism, deism, fatalism, and chance.

I. God’s Special Work of Providence Is Revealed in His Preservation of All Things.

Video Segment 2 Outline

The Nicene Creed regarding the person of God the Father: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.”

A. Definition of God’s preservation of all things in the universe

2

1. Preservation = all things exist and hold together by virtue of God’s sovereign care and provision. Nothing could or will survive without God’s personal provision for its life and sustenance.

2. Nothing and no one has life in and of themselves, Ps. 104.27-32.

3. All things function purely on the basis of God’s permissive will alone.

a. Nothing could survive without God’s ongoing care, Job 34.14-15.

b. Human life is not self-sustaining, Ps. 146.4.

c. When death occurs for beings upon the earth, their substance returns to the earth, and the life of the thing returns to God, Eccles. 12.7.