Sunday, 21 May 2017

10. The purpose of this knowledge of God


When Calvin sees the “pious laden with afflictions” and how the “wicked flourish” he believes that these point to God’s judgment on all future sin.  He seems to believe that these situations arise because “God’s powers are represented as a painting”.  Do you look at the minutiae of creation rather than seeking the purpose of the whole?  Scholars have viewed the account in Genesis as a whole with its chiastic structure and symmetry yet so readily critics malign the account thinking that it is a manual of how creation took place.  So it seems that Calvin is encouraging us to look at the whole created order and then to recall the ways in which we see God working in our lives.  He cites David in Psalm 92:5-6 in saying that unbelievers often do not see “the designs of God in the governance of mankind” nor in the work of creation.  How easy or difficult do you find it to see God at work in human institutions?

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