The Order of God's Decree's

I chose to discuss this before we get into the attribute of God’s will. The reason is decreeing reflects God’s will, and there has been a long-running discussion about the order of God’s decrees. To discuss this, we need a couple definitions.

 Definition of supralapsarianism.: the doctrine that God decreed both election and reprobation prior to creation and then allowed the fall of man as a means of carrying out his divine purposes — compare infralapsarianism.

Definition of infralapsarianism.: the doctrine that God foresaw and permitted the fall of man and that after the fall he then decreed election as a means of saving some of the human race — compare supralapsarianism.

These are arguments that theological minds have argued and since it is impossible to know with 100% assuredness, I will not tell you with confidence that I am right about what I believe on this subject. Much holier minds than mine have differed about this discussion.

I am not going to expound on the differences in these two definitions. If you desire to know more about them, you’re going to need to look them up. Instead, I am going to tell you from my limited knowledge of who God is how I justify the fall of man and of angels.

God being God new when He created that his creatures could not be like God and would never be God. Therefore, the creature by nature would fall because the creature cannot keep himself like God keeps Himself. Thus, the fall of men and angels were a forgone conclusion because only God alone can be God. The reason the fall is a foregone conclusion is that pre-fall man and angels had free will. Acting on this free will put the creature at risk of transgressing against God. Having a free will also makes you desire autonomy; therefore, we start to desire equality with or sovereignty over God. It was a foregone conclusion that the creature would fall because it was in our nature from the beginning. All one needs do is read about the rebellion against God in the old testament, you can’t miss it.

What God did decree was how and who He would redeem. If we go back to God’s attribute of omniscience and knowledge, we find that God knows everything all at once. God sees everything and knows everything all at the same time. God did not get surprised at the fall of man or the fall of angels, which would be infralapsarianism. God did not decree the fall of man or angels, which would be supralapsarianism, because their fall was by nature going to happen. These are the arguments of the opposing sides. How God redeemed man and angels is what He decreed.

Elect angels were kept by God, so in God’s decree for the angels, who were each created separately, it was decreed that some would be allowed to fall, and some would be elect. It is an essential distinction between the creation of man and angels, that angels were created individually, and mankind was created through one-man Adam. Because one angel falls all do not fall, given the opportunity, all would have fallen, but God kept some.

All mankind fell when Adam fell because all were in Adams loins at the time of the fall. The sin that caused the angels and man to fall was desiring to be over God. Satan desired to put his own throne above the throne of God in heaven. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit because they desired the knowledge of good and evil, which would, in their minds, makes them equal to God. Two sides of the same sin. No one has ever been born that would have made a different decision then Adam and Eve made. So, put that thought out of your head. We all fell in Adam and rightly so.

If supralapsarianism means that God decreed the fall, then I disagree with this notion. Decreeing and allowing the inevitable is to different things, in my humble opinion. If supralapsarianism means God chose His elect before the foundations of the earth were formed then I am a Supralapsarian. Having said all this, I believe God is in sovereign control of all things. God, being all-knowing and sovereign, would have decreed the circumstances around the fall of both the angels and man. And God, being sovereign, would have decreed the path of salvation and who the elect would be.

Therefore, God is not the author or creator of sin, the natural desire to be like God is, is generated from the creature’s heart completely without the help of God. God did not cause the fall, the creature did, but that does not mean that God was not in control of all the circumstances around the fall.

Now, God willing, we will tackle the will of God. For this, I ask your prayers for me, the will of God and how it works itself out are not to be taken lightly. I will continue to pray for the lost and God willing this blog has an effect on the hearts of the lost.