The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 1890, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 1890, Vol. 1

Secondly, by the permissive decree, the preterition Of some sinners and thereby their foreordination to everlasting death is shown to be rational as well as Scriptural, because God, while decreeing the destiny Of the non-elect, is not the author Of his sin or Of his perdi tion. Preterition is a branch Of the permissive decree, and stands or falls with it. Whoever would strike the doctrine of preterition from the Standards, to be consistent must strike out the general doctrine that sin is decreed. If God could permissively decree the fall Of Adam and his posterity without being the cause and author of it, He can also permissively decree the eternal death Of an indi vidual sinner without being the cause and author of it. In preteri tion, God repeats, in respect to an individual, the act which He per formed in respect to the race. He permitted the whole human species to fall in Adam in such a manner that they were responsi ble and guilty for the fall, and He permits an individual Of the species to remain a sinner and to be lost by sin, in such a manner that the sinner is responsible and guilty for this.

The Westminster Standards, in common with the Calvinistic creeds generally, begin with affirming the universal sovereignty of God over His entire universe; over heaven, earth and hell; and comprehend all beings and all events under His dominion. Nothing comes to pass contrary to His decree. Nothing happens by chance. Even moral evil, which He abhors and forbids, occurs by the de terminate counsel and foreknowledge of God and yet occurs through the agency of the unforced and self-determining will Of man as the efficient.

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