Deutero Q

The Westminster Confession of Faith, in its chapter on the providence of God, speaks of God’s purposes in terms of primary and secondary causes:

"Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly, yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently."

In other words, God is the primary cause of happenings in His creation. Secondary causes include the laws of nature (gravity, for instance), which are not independent of God; nature’s laws are God’s laws. Let the reader decide whether or not such distinctions are helpful. As for me, I have made peace with God’s sovereignty over all things, great and small, and am convinced that even those things we call “chance” or “chaos” are somehow related to God’s providential plan.* All things are under His control; not even one little sparrow falls to the ground apart from God’s will (Matt. 10:29).

*In a fascinating article titled “Theological Reflections on Chaos Theory,” John Jefferson Davis makes this perceptive observation about the relationship between secondary causes and chaos theory: “God is the primary and ultimate cause of all that happens, whether the fall of a sparrow, the fall of an empire, the rising of the sun, or the crucifixion of the Messiah. God’s primary causation is usually mediated, however, through the agency of secondary causes, either through human choices or through the operation of natural laws. These secondary causes can act ‘necessarily,’ as in the falling of a stone to the ground; ‘contingently,’ as in the casting of a lot; or ‘freely,’ as in King David’s decision to commit adultery with Bathsheba. Though the seventeenth century worldview of the Westminster divines understood the term ‘contingently’ in terms of what we would now call ‘classical uncertainty’ (i.e., a ‘coin toss’) rather than ‘quantum’ or ‘chaotic’ uncertainty, which were unknown at the time, it is nevertheless the case that their basic standpoint can be extended to encompass the new phenomena of chaos theory. ‘Secondary causes’ can be expanded to include the phenomena described by quantum mechanics and chaos theory as well as those described by Newtonian (or Aristotelian) physics. All events of history and nature are embedded within a lawful, coherent structure ultimately ordered by the providence of God.” John Jefferson Davis, “Theological Reflections on Chaos Theory,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 49 (1997): 75-84.