Page 115 - Through New Eyes

Angels 109
The theological doctrine that God works along with all
things is known as the doctrine of Divine Concurrence. It means,
according to Louis Berkhof,

(1) That the powers of nature do not work by themselves, that
is, simply by their own inherent power, but that God is imme-
diately operative in every act of the creature. This must be
maintained in opposition to the deistic position. (2) That sec-
ond causes are real, and not to be regarded simply as the oper-
ative power of God. It is only on condition that second causes
are real, that we can properly speak of a concurrence or co-
operation of the First Cause with secondary causes. This
should be stressed over against the pantheistic idea that God is
the only agent working in the worlds

Thus, it is God who makes it rain and snow (Psalm 104:13;
147:8, 16); God who causes grass to grow (Psalm 104:14; 147:8).
God usually does things the same way, and this enables us to
go about our business in the world with confidence that the grav-
itational constant, for instance, will not change. The gravita-
tional constant and coriolis force and other “forces” that are de-
scribed by natural science are actually regularities that God has
imposed upon Himself and His angelic agents. The covenant
regularities of our present world were set up after the Flood, ac-
cording to God’s promise in Genesis 8:22, “While the earth re-
mains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night shall not cease .“6 This poetic
statement sums up the natural world, and says that as regards
nature God will not change the fundamental way He does
things until the end of the world. From a Christian standpoint,
the study of the “laws of nature” is a study of the terms of the
Noahic covenant.
Let me give an illustration that has been helpful to me in
thinking about this. According to Joshua 5:12, God gave manna
to Israel for forty years in the wilderness. This manna was found
on the ground every morning except the Sabbath. There was
twice as much on Friday morning. It rotted if it was kept over-
night, except Friday night (see Exodus 16). Also, Deuteronomy
‘29:5 says that during the forty years in the wilderness their
clothes and shoes did not wear out.