CHAPTER III

Our Sovereign God

INTRODUCTION

“DO PRESBYTERIANS still believe in the one-sided dogma of predestination?” So asks many an inquiring person, revealing that he understands neither Presbyterianism nor predestination.

The question, however, is natural and proper to ask even though it might not be asked in a way that pre-judges the case. For materialism has worked its subtle way into modern life through business attitudes and practices, the daily press, television, movies, radio, novels and plays to an extent where even earnest Presbyterians are hardly aware of the many impressions that come to them. And since so often the Christian churches have been slow to make their position clear, we need not be surprised that their members reflect their total impressions about life when they come to consider many theological questions.

Let us recognize at the outset that the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is a key Presbyterian doctrine. It is not, as will be shown in this chapter, either an irrelevant or a one-sided doctrine. Because of the many other points of view held by modern men, it may be helpful to distinguish the Presbyterian view of God’s sovereignty from other points of view on the same topic.

A. VIEWS OF THE UNIVERSE THAT REJECT A SOVEREIGN GOD

Let us imagine for a moment that four college or university students are talking with their minister about Presbyterian beliefs.

1. NATURALISM

One of these students, whom we will call Jim, said: “I simply cannot accept the old-fashioned view that God created the world in seven days.”

When asked by the minister what he can accept, the student replied: “I can accept the world of nature with its purpose, its relentless laws, its cruelty and its beauty. I believe that what is natural is right and should be followed in all of our relationships. I cannot fit into my view the Genesis story of creation and other stories in the Bible which describe a personal God as Lord of the universe. I live by my reason. I cannot see all of this business about faith in God as the church seems to teach.”

The minister smiled and asked the young man: “Did you not say that you believe in a world of nature? Can you prove that the world of nature is the only kind of world there is? And when you talk about the natural being right, do you think of the natural as that represented by a beast satisfying its desires, or do you mean the sacrifices of a mother for her child? Do you not have a faith just as surely as the person who believes in a creator?”

The young man was somewhat flustered. It had not occurred to him either that he had accepted a world view on faith, or that it needed any defense. He hesitated and his minister continued:

“The point of view you express, even though it is very popular today, is not new. It is almost as old as civilization itself. Philosophers call it naturalism. Its basic and unproved assumption may be stated in three words: ‘Nature is all.’ These words may be reversed to say, ‘All is nature.’ Anyone who accepts this starting point for thought will find it impossible to believe that God is sovereign or that all of life should be related to His will.

“One of the reasons why Christianity is unalterably opposed to communism is that communism starts from a naturalistic and materialistic assumption. Communists assert that we live in a naturalistic world where all of life is a struggle between those who have material possessions and those who do not have them. In such a materialistic world it becomes the duty of those who lack to join together and take away from those who have. Since they are not responsible to any moral order or to any God above the universe (of whom they rid themselves by denying His existence), they use any method — cheating, lying, or killing — which furthers their ends. Actually they obey the dictates of a few party officials, but they do not often emphasize this fact. Their view of the world and of moral responsibility falls within the basic assumption that the universe is a naturalistic universe in which this struggle for control of material possessions is the only struggle that matters.

“American materialists may be mortal enemies of communism, not because they have a different basic assumption, but because they prefer their own advantage gained in a free-enterprise rather than a state-controlled system. They may exploit either labor or capital to selfish ends without any sense of responsibility to society or to God. Corruption in private business or in public life give ample evidence that materialism, while different from communism in Russia, stems from the soil of naturalism in philosophy. This does not mean that men and women who earn a living in the workaday world are all materialists. It is one thing to deal with material things, and quite another to believe that they are all that matter in one’s world.

“Christianity differs with both communism and materialism because it holds that nature is not all and that materialism is not all there is to life. The creator keeps watch over the world He has made and works His will in it.

“Modern pragmatism in thought, in economic life and in education, which seeks to achieve a social ideal without reference to a sovereign God, is another form of naturalism. It asserts that we live in a world of change (within a naturalistic universe) in which not even God can be accepted as an absolute. By experimentation men discover what is true or right for them in a given situation. All moral principles are relative rather than absolute. That is to say, no particular attitude or habit is right or wrong within itself. One attitude or habit may prove to be better in a given situation than another. This view of life is concerned with persons in themselves, not persons as creatures of God.

“You may have heard on your campus the words, ‘Man is the measure of all things.’ This humanistic dictum is borrowed from an ancient philosopher named Protagoras. It appeals to the ego of man. It allows men to decide matters of supreme importance without reference to any established truth or any sovereign God.

“You have doubtless detected a certain kinship between communism, materialism, pragmatism and humanism. While they differ in some respects, they all find their root in the assumption that nature is all and that there is no moral responsibility to any God above or beyond nature. This point of view might be illustrated with a closed circle in which you would find the words, ‘Nature is all.’ “

2. PANTHEISM

At this point in the minister’s discourse, Jane, another of the four students, entered the conversation: “I certainly am glad to get some of these things out into the open. I must confess, however, that while I do not agree with Jim, I am inclined to agree with Somerset Maugham’s philosophy which appeared in the picture, The Razor’s Edge, a few years ago. In this picture a young man named Larry spent several years searching for God. He went all the way to India to talk with a holy man. One day he found God in a sunrise experience. I do not believe God should be thought of as a personal being, but as a spiritual force in the universe. This force, I believe, may be discovered at times by those who make a diligent search as Larry did.”

When she had finished the minister asked, “At what point in his search did Larry turn to his Bible or go to the church around the corner?”

Jane sat with a puzzled look on her face for a moment. Then she said, “Come to think of it, I don’t believe he ever did. I had not thought of that.”

The minister continued: “The reason why Larry went neither to the Bible nor to the church is that the writer who created the character sought to avoid any reference to these sources. Why? Because his own view of the universe, as evidenced in his writings, does not recognize a God above or beyond the natural world, but a spiritual force within it. This ancient view, which has many other modern supporters, goes back at least to Buddha in the sixth century B.C. While the Buddha’s views are not entirely clear to us, they may properly be designated as a form of pantheism. The fundamental proposition of pantheism is that “Everything is God; God is everything.” When confined within the world of nature, this means that God is nature and nature is God.

“You may properly ask what difference does it make to a Christian whether or not he accepts this view of the universe? We cannot give all the answers here, but let us mention a few. Pantheism rules out a personal God as a being above and beyond the universe. Such a God cannot be known easily in personal experience, as is well illustrated in the many years of search spent by Larry in The Razor’s Edge. Such a God could not take human form in the Person of Jesus Christ. Such a God could not provide life beyond the earth. He might provide for the transmigration of one’s soul to some other kind of earthly body. While the identity of the individual is not lost on this earth, there is a tendency toward losing personality in humanity or in the “world-soul” of the universe.

“Why do some people prefer this kind of view to Christianity? We cannot know all of the reasons. We may guess that some would like to be religious without having to discipline themselves to the ethics of Christianity. They find it hard intellectually to accept the doctrines of the Christian faith. It seems more defensible to keep the intellect working in a naturalistic world and to push religion into the realm of the intuition or the emotions. They do not seem to realize that they accept a view of the world in faith while trying to avoid that necessity in Christianity.”

3. DEISM

Tom had been listening intently to all that was being said. He now contributed his pet idea to the discussion. “I think I agree with you that the points of view we have rejected are wrong. I am very much inclined to believe that there is a personal God who created the universe and put his moral laws within it. However, I cannot accept the miracles of the Bible or the idea of an incarnation of God in the flesh. For I do not believe God can invade the universe that He has created.”

The minister responded: “The point of view you express is a product of thought which received its classic statement by John Locke (1632-1704). Locke’s famous Essay Concerning Human Understanding and other writings set forth his views. A popular illustration of deism, to which Locke gave philosophic expression, is the statement that God created the world, put His moral law within it, wound it up like a clock, and left it to run henceforth for itself. At no time could God re-enter the universe that He had created.

If you were to accept this kind of world, and if you tried to take on certain Christian assumptions, you would find yourself in conflict. For instance, deism would deny the possibility of miracles, of an incarnation of God in the flesh, the meaning of prayer, the effectiveness of the atonement, and many other doctrines of our religion. If you were to start with the deistic assumptions, you might believe that Jesus followed His views to His death, but you would lack the experience of receiving and using the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Sue, the fourth student in the quartet, had listened to all of the preceding conversation with keen interest. She said: “I have tried to say some of these things to my friends, but I have not been able to state my Christian views very clearly. Could you state the Christian point of view as you have described these other points of view?”

“I will try”, answered the minister. “Let us call it the Biblical point of view. Without putting it in quotes, I will tell you some of the things that Presbyterians believe about God and the universe. I will also try to help you understand predestination and human freedom in this universe as these doctrines are set forth in the Presbyterian Standards.”

B. THE BIBLICAL POINT OF VIEW

Presbyterians start with the Biblical point of view that God is sovereign. This is in a real sense the key to all Presbyterian thought about God. They get this point of view from the Bible, which says, “In the beginning God. . .” in the very first book and “I am the alpha and the omega,” (the beginning and the end) in the last book in our present arrangement.

The sovereignty of God may be presented under two basic Presbyterian doctrines. The first of these is that God is the creator of all things. The second is that God is the preserver of the universe, the One who is constantly acting to continue His creative activity and to hold all things in their proper order.

1. THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE

Presbyterians believe in a created universe. The Hebrew text of Gen 1:1 indicates that God created out of nothing the heavens and the earth. In the remainder of this epic story, it is indicated that He took this original matter and fashioned the universe as we know it in successive periods of time. Even though the sun and moon were not created until the fourth such period of time, these periods are called days. This does not necessarily mean that they were all equal or that they were all twenty-four hours in length. It does mean that at every stage of the creative process God was at work. This is to say that God could have created the world in six days of twenty-four hours each. But it is not to say that any facts about the length of the creative process which comes from other sources than the Bible would nullify the Genesis account of creation. Whether or not God is the creator is a matter of faith. Whether the days referred to in Genesis 1 are twenty- four hours each (especially with no sun or moon until the fourth period of time) becomes a matter of fact for reverent students of the Bible to discover. Some Presbyterians may believe in six days of twenty-four hours each as the period of creation. Some others may believe in six days of much longer duration, running into centuries. They agree in accepting the Theistic account of the origin of the world as this is given in the book of Genesis. And they agree that the crowning act of God’s creation is man, who was made in the moral and spiritual image of God.

Because we know that God created all things for His own glory, we also recognize the fact that the creative activity of God continues through the ages. Every child who is born is looked upon by reverent parents as a sacred gift and trust from God. Every bird or animal or fish comes into existence through the creative activity of God as He works in the wonderful powers of nature which He has ordained. The researches of microscopes and telescopes magnify the glory seen with the naked eye to make us join the psalmist in exclaiming: “When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?” [Ps 8:3, 4. Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version^TM Copyright © 2001, 2003 by Crossway Bibles.] Because God is the creator and because He is acting constantly through the natural world that He has created, we are moved to recognize His sovereignty and His redemptive purpose in our lives.

2. THE ACTOR IN THE UNIVERSE

Presbyterians believe that God acts also in preserving the universe that He has created. The answer to Question 18 of the Larger Catechism states this doctrine in these words:

“God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving, and governing all his creatures; ordering them, and all their actions, to his own glory.”

Thus God acts according to His own character to uphold both His moral law and His eternal purpose in the experience of men and nations. While He ordinarily uses means to this end, He is not limited by natural means. God is Lord of history. God is Lord of nature. God is Lord of men whether or not they obey in faith, for He overrules their disobedience just as He honors their obedience.

This view of God as the creator and actor in the universe may be represented by a broken line drawn in a circle, above which is written, “God as Creator and Preserver of the Universe” and within which is written the words indicated below.

It should be noted that the Biblical view of creation, of miracles, of God’s redemptive acts among men, of the incarnation, of the atonement, of future life all fit into this Theistic view of the universe. When seen from this point of view the great doctrines of our religion make sense.

Does not this view have its problems? Yes, it does. But it gives more satisfactory answers to life than does any other view. If one of you should ask, for instance, “Why is my friend crippled?”, or “Why do we have floods and tornadoes that destroy innocent people?”, we might give several partial answers to your questions.

First, we would recognize the fact that we sometimes contract diseases and experience illness of body because we fail to understand fully the laws of physical health. Our lack of understanding challenges doctors to attempt to discover what causes certain diseases, and to find ways that drugs and treatment may speed up physical recovery. God permits this process of nature to go on for the greatest good of the largest number of people. Suppose, for instance, that immoral relations between the sexes had no unwholesome consequences. This would encourage rather than discourage such relations. For the sake of husbands and wives, for the sake of unborn children, nature brings consequences that teach the importance of social self-discipline.

Again, we reply concerning tornadoes and floods that God ordinarily works through the laws of nature. When men destroy their forests, they may invite the winds to sweep across the plains. When they build their houses beside the river bed, they risk the dangers of a flood. Yet we know that without the wind, the flowers and trees could not pollinate properly. And without the water from the river, people would not have sufficient water for themselves, their stock or their crops. By the laws of nature an apple drops to the ground where it may be picked up and used. By the law of gravity a person falls from a building. But by the same law he is able to walk, to ride in a car, to do the dozens of things on which his life depends. It is therefore not surprising that our Confession of Faith, recognizing God as the first Cause of all things, also adds: “Yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.” (Chapter V, Article II).

In similar fashion the moral choices of men [orig: man] have consequences that drive them away from God or draw them closer to God. While God is free to work “without, above, and against” the means He has set up, He ordinarily works with men who make free choices in a moral world. Such a world, where evil choices are possible, is the best world for the largest number. If spiritual blessedness flowed directly from evil choices and habits, there would be little possibility of encouraging anyone to seek the will of God. Even though believers sometimes suffer, this suffering may well become a means of spiritual growth.

No better illustration of the wisdom and the providence of God can be cited than that of Jesus who suffered, died, and was raised by the power of God. While He was suffering, it seemed that God had permitted a terrible mistake to occur. Yet because of who He was, and because of what He did, the consequences of the crucifixion of Jesus have come across many centuries to us. The release of God’s redemptive power through the crucified and risen Lord did not seem very apparent during the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Yet because God is Lord of history and because God’s purpose will ultimately be accomplished either through the opposition of men or through the consecrated obedience of men, Jesus’ death and resurrection have had and still have tremendous redemptive power. In the sphere of history and in the sphere of human experience, the final ordering is the Lord’s.

C. PREDESTINATION AND HUMAN FREEDOM IN GOD’S UNIVERSE

We cannot give adequate treatment to either of these ideas, but we may point in the direction which leads to truth. Further statement will be found in the Confession of Faith under the topics of the decrees of God and of free will. Let us begin by stating that Presbyterians believe in predestination. Let us state what predestination is not, so that we may better understand what it is.

1. PREDESTINATION

First, predestination is not fatalism. Fatalism has classic expression in two historic forms. One is that represented by Mohammedans who accept good and ill, wickedness and righteousness as the will of God. While they do not completely deny human responsibility, they are taught to say repeatedly, “It is the will of Allah; praised be Allah.” The extreme minimizing of human responsibility produces at best a very limited moral growth. This point of view is not predestination, but fatalism.

Another form of fatalism is the modern philosophic form called determinism. Determinism has many forms, but tends to be related to a naturalistic rather than a Theistic universe. While giving more or less emphasis to secondary causes, determinism points to a succession of events and reactions which predetermine the result. What is to be will be in determinism. Therefore to pray to a God above the universe or to feel responsible to such a God is to miss the determinism of the world in which one lives. Again we suggest that this is fatalism and not predestination.

Then what is predestination? The three basic articles on which elaboration is made in the Confession are as follows:

I   “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

II   “Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass, upon all supposed conditions; yet hath he not decreed anything because he foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass, upon such conditions.

III   “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death.” (Chapter III, Articles I, II, III.)

Let us recognize the fact that the starting point for predestination is the eternal purpose of a sovereign God. This God is a God of love and righteousness. He is a God of holiness and wisdom. The character of God is important, for it determines the nature of His decrees. And these decrees are both for God’s glory and man’s greatest good. They initiate whatever comes to pass either directly or indirectly.

A second point is that God is not the author of sin. He created a world in which sin was possible through the wrong choices of moral agents. He permitted man’s freedom to choose, as we shall see more fully in a few moments. But it is both short-sighted and irreverent to blame God for the sins that we think up for ourselves.

A third point is that man’s freedom is not taken away. While it is fully recognized that, through the fall, man has lost his fellowship with God and his desire to do the will of God, man is yet free to choose whether or not he will respond to God’s revelation and God’s grace in the Gospel.

A fourth point is that second causes are not taken away by God’s decrees. The consequences of choices, of actions and of habits do come to men. David sinned against Uriah and took his wife. The child born to David and Bathsheba died. Absalom almost usurped David’s kingdom. Solomon magnified the weakness of David and developed a harem. Rehoboam, desiring to inherit the harem, decided to keep high taxes and thus split the kingdom. David was forgiven after he sought pardon from God. He was sustained and strengthened in his suffering, but the consequences of his sin followed in the lives of his descendants [orig: descendents]. This is an illustration of the fact that God does not take away, but rather establishes [orig: establish] the secondary causes which have their effects in the lives of men.

A fifth point is that predestination does not depend on foreknowledge. God has foreknowledge, to be sure. But His purpose is primary. That comes first. If His purpose depended on foreknowledge of what any given person or group of persons would do, it would leave the final word in the universe to man and not to God. Man rather than God would be sovereign. While therefore God foreknows what men will do, and while He does not destroy their freedom to choose, God ultimately rules and overrules to accomplish His purpose. The case of the Hebrews who refused to go into Canaan and of the new generation which finally did illustrates how God accomplished His purpose to lead the Hebrews into the Land of Promise. If the purpose had been left to the Hebrews, it is very doubtful whether they would ever have gone into Canaan. Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and a host of other Christians have rendered their service, not because of their own will, but because they responded to God’s will for them from eternity. This is therefore a challenging and important aspect of predestination.

A sixth point is that predestination extends to both the saved and the damned for eternity. As will be seen in a later chapter, the sin of man since the fall leaves him utterly incapable of desiring or achieving salvation for himself. Some by the decree of God and by their own will are left to suffer the consequences of their own sin. Others, by the mercy of God, are elected unto salvation. No one who responds to the Gospel is denied salvation. It is recognized that man has neither the mind nor the ability to understand how God thus works in redemptive love. The believer is therefore urged (See Chapter III, Article VIII), to handle this high mystery of predestination with special prudence and care. In the doctrine concerning the Gospel it is stated:

“In the gospel God declares his love for the world and his desire that all men should be saved; reveals fully and clearly the only way of salvation; promises eternal life to all who truly repent and believe in Christ; invites and commands all to embrace the offered mercy; and by His Spirit accompanying the word pleads with men to accept his gracious invitation.” (Chapter X, Article II).

Let it be made unmistakably clear that no person who desires the experience of a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is denied such an experience. God does not act out of His own character, which is a character of holiness, righteousness and love. The appended statement at the end of this chapter occurs in the Confession of Faith used by the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., and is an effort to clarify the present understanding of certain inferences that have been drawn from the Confession. It is given as information for members of that branch of Presbyterianism and not as a part of the Confession of Faith as used by the Presbyterian Church, U.S.

2. HUMAN FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

It would be most unfair to present God’s sovereignty in human affairs without also recognizing man’s freedom and responsibility. For this is the other side of the coin, as it were, which helps us to image the whole. Let us state briefly a few of the things Presbyterians believe about human freedom.

First, the freedom of man’s will is created by God. Chapter XI, Article I of the Confession of Faith states the position in this fashion:

“God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.”

This is to say that one chooses freely to do one thing or another. One chooses to cross a street or not to cross it. One may choose to obey the law of gravity or to disobey it. One may choose to attend the church service or to stay at home. One may choose in his personal or social habits to be Christian or less than Christian. All of this we know by experience and by the teachings of scripture.

Second, the power of man’s choice is not absolute. We do not think with our minds alone or decide with our wills alone. As human beings we are made so that we are one whole. At any given moment we think with both the conscious and the subconscious layers (sometimes perhaps the unconscious layers) of our minds. Previous emotional and psychological experiences create favorable or unfavorable responses to ideas so that no one of us thinks objectively or independently. The reason why it is harder for older persons to become Christians than for younger persons is that older persons have already formed attitudes and habits which tend to prevent good choices. Both original weakness and actual sins make it impossible to think and act freely. More will be said about the effects of sin in human personality in a later chapter. Suffice it to say here that our power of choice is influenced greatly by previous experiences, and is never absolute.

Third, God provides His grace to free man from his bondage so that he may will to do what is spiritually good. Thus man is enabled to respond to God’s revelation in the scriptures and in Jesus Christ. So Jesus’ said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” (John 6:37).

Fourth, the choices that men make with their freedom have moral and spiritual consequences. God ordinarily works through our choices, not apart from them. When the Pharaoh of Egypt repeatedly hardened his heart, or when God hardened his heart by offering him choices (See Exodus 5-11), he acted freely. But each wrong choice made a right choice harder to make. And the final result was the loss of the Hebrew slaves which was the Pharaoh’s purpose to prevent.

Likewise Jesus said concerning Judas: “For the Son of man goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” (Luke 22:22). How God would have worked out the arrest of Jesus without Judas’ betrayal is something we do not know. But we do know that Judas was held responsible for his act and that he committed suicide.

We are free to choose, therefore; [orig: therefore,] to reject Christ or to commit ourselves to Him day by day. The consequences of rejection will be a life without God, and of commitment will be a rich life with God. Neither the scriptures nor Presbyterian doctrine deny to man human freedom or responsibility for his choices.

Since we have given a brief summary of these two points of view, you doubtless ask how divine predestination and human freedom can be harmonized with one another. They have never been completely harmonized in systematic theology. Yet in Christian experience we know at least partially how they overlap and interfuse. When we pray as though everything depends on God and work as though everything depends on us we learn something of how God and man work together. A paraphrase of Phil 2:12b, 13, which brings out its meaning, would be: “Keep on working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is constantly at work within you, both to guide and enable your will, and to accomplish His will in your life.” Oftentimes we are not aware of God’s working until occasionally we look back on our experience to see how a series of choices has led us to a larger and richer understanding of the will of God.

We therefore conclude that predestination does not destroy human freedom. It is not fatalism in thought. It does not lead to moral weakness in conduct. It rather provides a challenge to commit ourselves wholly to God; to recognize that we live and move and have our being in the purpose of God; that we have a divinely appointed mission in the world, that we are free to choose God’s will for ourselves; and that, by God’s grace and power, we are enabled to achieve that will in His name. It is a high mystery. But it is a strong doctrine which produces prophets and apostles, ministers and lay persons who live with a sense of deep stewardship and high partnership with God. Presbyterians are not ashamed to say that they believe in the sovereignty of God, in divine predestination and human freedom.

DECLARATORY STATEMENT

While the ordination vow of ministers, ruling elders, and deacons, as set forth in the Form of Government, requires the reception and adoption of the Confession of Faith only as containing the System of Doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures, nevertheless, seeing that the desire has been formally expressed for a disavowal by the Church of certain inferences drawn from statements in the Confession of Faith, and also for a declaration of certain aspects of revealed truth which appear at the present time to call for more explicit statement, therefore the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America does authoritatively declare as follows:

FIRST, with reference to Chapter III of the Confession of Faith: that concerning those who are saved in Christ, the doctrine of God’s eternal decree is held in harmony with the doctrine of his love to all mankind, his gift of his Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the world, and his readiness to bestow his saving grace to all who seek it. That concerning those who perish, the doctrine of God’s eternal decree is held in harmony with the doctrine that God desires not the death of any sinner, but has provided in Christ a salvation sufficient for all, adapted to all, and freely offered in the gospel to all; that men are fully responsible for their treatment of God’s gracious offer; that his decree hinders no man from accepting that offer; and that no man is condemned except on the ground of his sin.

SECOND, With reference to Chapter X, Section III, of the Confession of Faith, that is not to be regarded as teaching that any who die in infancy are lost. We believe that all dying in infancy are included in the election of grace, and are regenerated and saved by the Christ through the Spirit, who works when and where and how he pleases.

(Quoted from Standards of U.P.-U.S.A. Church.)