Tuesday, August 31, 2021

John Piper on God "Planning" and "Permitting" the Fall

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