Guest wester Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 American Christianity Part 2 - Providence Here we will compare two kinds of Providence - or God’s relationship to the world. 1. Particular Providence 2. General Providence ____________________________ 1. Particular Providence This view states that God watches everything that happens and intervenes on behalf of his favored or dis-favored subjects. If God has plans for you, God will alter the course of events in your favor or against your favor for whatever reason. Some babies live, some babies die. Fortune and Misfortune are God’s choices. Here is a definition from John Calvin on Particular Providence paraphrased: Not a leaf falls from a tree, not one blade of grass grows except by an express, particular will of God. Every particular event has been chosen by the will of God. This implies an active, interventionist deity, and an impermanent reality that is constantly subject to the forces of Primary Causation. This is the foundation and underlying philosophy of American Evangelical Fundamentalism. 2. General Providence God is revealed through the natural world and the natural order. God’s will is manifest through the laws of nature and God’s intentions are fulfilled in the natural order. The idea of General Providence developed from Enlightenment thought, and was embraced as Deism by many of the founding fathers of the United States like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. General Providence includes 3 main principals: 1. The Naturalization of Providence. 2. Rejection of Particular Providence as unworthy of God. 3. Belief in the existence and goodness of God without the Judeo-Christian tradition or the influence of any sectarian religion. General Providence believes that the Natural world is not an obscure impenetrable mystery. We can understand God by observation and rational analysis of the workings and architecture of the natural order. God’s will is revealed in the natural order and God’s intentions are fulfilled in the natural order. Why should God make himself known to mankind in obscure times at obscure places? General Providence says this is an unworthy vision of God. All of God’s creatures have been endowed with sense experience to know nature. Mankind has been endowed with reason and logic to analyze and interpret nature. God reveals himself to the universal faculties (sense experience and reason) of all his children - democratically - and does so in the universal medium of Nature upon which all mankind can gaze. The idea that God revealed himself to the Jews and then Europeans but left his will and his love hidden from the Chinese, Indians and Native Americans is blasphemous to General Providence. General Providence does not believe that God would reveal himself in a book known only in isolated times and places. General Providence holds that our sole link to knowledge of God is to be found in the architecture and general operations of nature. All else is a human addition to Natural knowledge of God. ___________________________________________ An analogy that distinguishes Particular and General Providence is that of the two clock makers. The first clockmaker builds a clock in the town square that constantly and forever breaks down. This clockmaker must rush to the center of town frequently to adjust the mechanisms, to fix the clock and intervene in its workings. The people of this town say “Look at the glory of the clockmaker. Every time we need it, the hands have been moved.” The second clockmaker devises a clock that is so perfect, so well regulated and designed that it always works in perpetual motion. It never breaks down, it never requires repair. The intention of its designer is always fulfilled by it’s continual and perfect working. The people of this town stand in awe as the clock is so perfect that every design and intention of the maker is carried out by what he himself set into motion. Which clock is preferable? ______________________________________________ Furthermore, General Providence holds that God is not to be judged or his will scrutinized based on a particular death, misfortune or misery. General providence provides a different vision of the human condition and requires a different moral code. When a person becomes very sick at an inopportune time, a believer in Particular Providence will ask “Why me? Why now? Why have you forsaken me oh Lord? Why have you chosen me for punishment?” A believer in General Providence will say that sickness is the function of the human body and of nature. We need to study medicine and physiology - and use the laws of nature to cure diseases, to extend human life and reduce human suffering. The elimination of pain, misery and suffering is of primary importance. You must find the solution…and get to the root of what causes the problem. Don’t blame your suffering on demons or supernatural intervention or write it off to God’s mysterious will. General Providence applies equally and at all times to everyone. ______________________________ General Providence rejects the presumtive authority of received traditions. In fact it rejects all sectarian religion including the Judeo-Christian tradition. Asking all humans to deny the full powers of their reason and sense experience as a mark of love of God, and asking all humans to aquiesce to the ~human~ power of those who clam to speak for God, is a separation of mankind from their own true power in order to enhance the political power of those who claim to speak for God. General Providence rejects Priests of all kinds as the keepers of the mysterious Divine secret. There are no secrets because God loves the whole creation universally and equally. He doesn’t distinguish among groups and individuals. His providence is universal. General Providence also eliminates miracles. A particular act which alters the course of nature is unnecessary because the whole of creation is “a miracle” observable and in operation every moment. General Providence rejects revelation; or the idea that God chose a time and a place to reveal his religious knowledge to only one people. General Providence ruthlessly scrutinizes and questions the Bible. If the bible doesn’t contain real knowledge of physics, astronomy, geography, why should we believe that they contain real knowledge of God and God’s ways toward mankind? We don’t know exactly when the various books were written or exactly who wrote them. The books included in the Old and New Testament were chosen by men from among a host of religious texts extant in the ancient world. The bible itself says that a praeternatural darkness covered the earth at Christ’s crucifixtion, but, coincidentally, not a single Greek or Roman appears to have noticed it. The Bible says that the earth stands still and the sun moves through the heavens. General Providence asks “Does God not understand the solar system he created?” and “Why does God teach science that modern people can reject?” Why does God condemn children to hell because of the sin of a father over whom the kid had no control? King David was an adulterer, a liar, a murderer, a plunderer and he was beloved by God. How can this be? General Providence holds that a universal loving and benevolent God is incompatible with the moral claims and revelations of this Judeo Christian God. __________________________________________ More questions raised by General Providence: Do we believe in a God revealed through the Supernatural? Or the God made manifest through nature and human sense and reason, equally and democratically accessible to all people of the world? Did God send Jesus at a specific place and moment in time to offer redemption? Or is redemption and the securing of human well-being at hand right now and universally with the means and knowledge of the natural world in which we find ourselves? Did God create the world in 7 days 6000 years ago ? Or is God the creator of this world of natural law which we may understand? Did God select specific humans to receive divine wisdom? Or is god in universal relations with us through nature? Do we know moral law through scripture? Or do we know God’s moral law by the desire of humans for happiness and the ease of suffering and pain? Are we to locate our sense of divinity and religious law in this creation which perfectly embodies God’s will? Or in a God who intervenes in what he created to redeem and repair it? Are we to accept a model of humanity in which the abandonment of reason and sense evidence and the quest for earthly happiness is the mark of our obedience towards God? Or are we to accept a model of the world in which the use of our natural faculties, our attempt to know the order that God has created and the search for secular happiness is the mark of our proper relationship to God. ________________________________________ In the essay his essay “What is Enlightenment,” Emmanuel Kant asks - What does it mean to be Enlightened? His answer is that we use reason to dispel darkness…the darkness of poverty, war, hate, crime, physical misery…We are of limited power to do in Nature what we would like to do in terms of transportation, communication, health, well-being and happiness. We will get the light to dispel this darkness through the use of reason. The idea of applying reason to social institutions is at the very heart of the American revolution against the British. Early Americans believed that Social Institutions are not God-given. They said that, using our own reason, we can devise a better form of government than the British imposed on us. We don’t need a king and we don’t need religious institutions or political institutions of the past. We are going to start with a clean slate and we are going to establish a form of government using reason. Thus came the revolutionary words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” General Providence is the central core of Deism which is belief in God based on reason and nature. The differing alleged revelations of the various religions are conspicuously absent from Deism. Deism is a natural religion as opposed to a revealed religion such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. The idea of Particular Providence is completely at odds with the founding principles of the United States. Ben Franklin wrote in his autobiography: “Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle’s Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.” Thomas Jefferson described the Book of Revelation as, “… merely the ravings of a maniac…” In fact, Jefferson thought the Bible to be so violent and degrading to the image of God and to the true teachings of Jesus he literally cut up the gospels, removing reference to supernatural assertions such as the virgin birth and the resurrection, and came up with what s now more commonly referred to as THE JEFFERSON BIBLE. As for George Washington, On page 82 of Washington and Religion by Paul F. Boller, Jr., Boller includes a quote from a Presbyterian minister, Arthur B. Bradford, who was an associate of Ashbel Green another Presbyterian minister who had known George Washington personally. Bradford wrote that Green, “often said in my hearing, though very sorrowfully, of course, that while Washington was very deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist.” Romans 13:1-2 reads, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” If Franklin, Washington, and Franklin had followed this prescription, there would have been no revolution and there would be no United States today. Thus is the Power of General Providence. __________________________________________ Information for this post was provided by 1. a lecture by Prof. Charles Alan Kors on Deism and General Providence. 2. a lecture by Professor Steven L. Goldman on What Scientists Know and How They Know It 3. an essay on the Deist roots of America http://www.deism.com/deistamerica.htm 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Excellent essay, wester. While reading it I was asking myself: Where did he get this info? But at the end you list your sources. Very good. Let me just add that today there are Christians who subscribe to quite a few of the ideas about God that are described here as "General Providence." These Christians tend to see the story of Jesus rather as a template or parable for life than as history. If I remember correctly, I first heard the term "Cosmic Consciousness" among such people. They do not believe in an afterlife of any sort but rather in salvation as peace in this life. I'm not too sure about the details of their beliefs; I suspect they vary from individual to individual. Look up progressive Christianity...not just a specific link but the general concept of progressive Christianity. That is where I would look for such openness of thought. Liberal Christianity would not reach that far; it would hold onto the historical Jesus as the source for salvation. Then again, some of this "General Providence" concept is mysticism as expressed throughout the ages by all religions, traditional orthodox Christianity included. BTW, sholdn't this thread be in the Theology section or Colesum? You could ask a mod to move it if you wanted to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrickG Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Wow that was th best "rant" have ever read. I was interested in what R.S. Martin got out of it. Having come out of Christainity, I still find that I have a spiritual relationship with whatever God is. I also do not have any Idea about an "after life". Spirituality is in the now. The future will take care of itself concerning an "after life" if there be one. Thanks for the post and the comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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