Yesterday I read John Piper's book, Providence. The following struck me as unusual as Piper, who is a committed Five-Point Calvinist, seems to teach that God "considered" (even in a qualified sense) that would be part of his decree ("He considered everything (trillions of things) he would do with it and made it part of his ultimate plan") which is more at home at other non-Reformed traditions about the Fall and God's eternal plan, etc.
God’s Planned
Permission of the Fall
God foresaw that Adam
and Eve would sin and bring ruin on his creation. He took this reality into “the
counsel of his will,” considered all its consequences and all his purposes, and
choose to permit their fall into sin. He did this in accord with his perfect
wisdom, justice, and goodness. Since he could have chosen not to permit this
first sin, just as he chose not to permit Abimelech’s sin (“It was I who kept
you from sinning against me,” Gen. 20:6), we know that God had wise and just
and good purposes in permitting it.
If God had wise and
just and good purposes in permitting the fall of Adam and Eve, we may speak of
Gid’s plan in permitting it. That is, we may speak of God planning or
ordaining the fall in this sense. By planning and ordaining,
I simply mean that God could have chosen not to permit the fall, but, in
choosing to permit it for wise purposes, he thus planned and ordained it. He
considered everything (trillions of things) he would do with it and made it part
of his ultimate plan.
This means that God
plans and ordains that some things come to pass that he hates. God hates sin
)Prov. 6:16-19). It dishonors him (Rom. 3:23) and destroys people (Rom. 6:23). Yet
he planned to permit sin to come into his perfect creation. Therefore, in God’s
infinite wisdom and holiness, it is not sinful for him to plan that sin come to
pass. There are, no doubt, countless wise and holy reasons God plans to permit
sin. But we have been drawn into these reflections by only one: namely, that
God’s ultimate aim in creation and providence is to display the glory of his
grace, especially in the suffering of Christ, echoing forever in the
all-satisfying praises of the redeemed. That is the ultimate wise, just,
and good purpose of God in planning to permit the fall. (John Piper, Providence
[Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020], 176-77)
Further Reading
An
Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed
Theology
