[Glossary] Supralapsarianism

1. (Clark 1965, 49):

"God always acts for a purpose. He always has an end in view. There is no blind chance in God's doings. Therefore the means he uses to accomplish his plans can be understood only as they are seen to aim at the end. If you see a friend hurrying in a certain direction, doesn't your understanding of his action depend on a knowledge of where he is going?"


2. (Clark 1965, 53-54):

"Supralapsarianism, for all its insistence on a certain logical order among the divine decrees, is essentially, so it seems to us, the unobjectionable view that God controls the universe purposefully. God acts with a purpose. He has an end in view and sees the end from the beginning. Every verse in Scripture that in one way or another refers to God's manifold wisdom, every statement indicating that a prior event is for the purpose of causing a subsequent event, every mention of an eternal, all-embracing plan contributes to a teleological and therefore supralapsarian view of God's control of history. In this light Ephesians 3:10 clearly does not stand alone."

"The connection between supralapsarianism and the fact that God always acts purposefully depends on the observation that the logical order of any plan is the exact reverse of its temporal execution. The first step in any planning is the end to be achieved; then the means are decided upon, until last of all the first thing to be done is discovered. The execution in time reverses the order of planning. Thus creation, since it is first in history, must be logically last in the divine decrees. Every Biblical passage therefore that refers to God's wisdom also supports Ephesians 3:10."


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

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