Kutipan pendukung Doktrin Allah

 VIII) Kutipan-kutipan pendukung:

Bahwa apa yang diajarkan di atas memang adalah ajaran Calvinism / Reformed yang sejati, dan bukannya ajaran Hyper-Calvinism, saya buktikan di bawah ini dengan mengutip dari tulisan-tulisan John Calvin, dari Westminster Confession of Faith (Pengakuan Iman dari gereja-gereja Presbyterian / Reformed di Amerika), dan dari tulisan-tulisan para ahli Theologia Reformed.

Perlu saya tekankan sekali lagi bahwa tujuan saya memberikan kutipan-kutipan yang banyak di bawah ini, bukanlah untuk membuktikan kebenaran dari doktrin Providence of God ini. Bukti dan dasar Kitab Suci dari doktrin Providence of God telah saya berikan di depan. Juga saya tidak memberikan kutipan-kutipan ini secara sistimatis, karena tujuan saya memberikan kutipan-kutipan ini hanyalah untuk membuktikan bahwa doktrin Provi-dence of God yang ajarkan benar-benar merupakan ajaran Refomed yang dipercaya dan diajarkan oleh John Calvin dan ahli-ahli theologia Reformed yang lain.

John Calvin, ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion’:

"But anyone who has been taught by Christ’s lips that all the hairs of his head are numbered (Matt 10:30) will look farther afield for a cause, and will consider that all events are governed by God’s secret plan" [= Tetapi setiap orang yang telah diajar oleh bibir Kristus bahwa semua rambut kepalanya terhitung (Mat 10:30) akan melihat lebih jauh untuk suatu penyebab, dan akan menganggap bahwa semua kejadian diatur oleh rencana rahasia Allah] - Book I, Chapter XVI, no 2.

"... we make God the ruler and governor of all things, who in accordance with his wisdom has from the farthest limit of eternity decreed what he was going to do, and now by his might carries out what he has decreed. From this we declare that not only heaven and earth and the inanimate creatures, but also the plans and intentions of men, are so governed by his providence that they are borne by it straight to their appointed end" (= ... kami membuat Allah pengatur dan pemerintah segala sesuatu, yang sesuai dengan kebijaksanaanNya telah menetapkan sejak batas terjauh dari kekekalan apa yang Ia akan lakukan, dan sekarang dengan kuasaNya melaksanakan apa yang telah Ia tetapkan. Dari sini kami menyatakan bahwa bukan hanya surga dan bumi dan makhluk tak bernyawa, tetapi juga rencana dan maksud manusia begitu diperintah / diatur oleh providenceNya sehingga mereka dilahirkan olehnya langsung menuju tujuan yang ditetapkan bagi mereka) - Book I, Chapter XVI, no 8.

"Does nothing happen by chance, nothing by contingency? I reply: Basil the Great has truly said that ‘fortune’ and ‘chance’ are pagan terms, with whose significance the minds of the godly ought not to be occupied. For if every success is God’s blessing, and calamity and adversity his curse, no place now remains in human affairs for fortune or chance" (= Apakah tidak ada yang terjadi secara kebetulan? Saya menjawab: Basil yang Agung secara benar telah berkata bahwa ‘nasib baik’ dan ‘kebetulan’ adalah istilah kafir, dan pikiran orang benar tidak seharusnya diisi dengan istilah itu. Karena jika setiap sukses adalah berkat Allah, dan malapetaka dan kemalangan adalah kutukanNya, tidak ada tempat tertinggal dalam hidup manusia untuk nasib baik atau kebetulan) - Book I, Chapter XVI, no 8.

"God wills that the false king Ahab be deceived; the devil offers his services to this end; he is sent, with a definite command, to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets (1Kings 22:20,22). If the blinding and insanity of Ahab be God’s judgment, the figment of bare permission vanishes: because it would be ridiculous for the Judge only to permit what he wills to be done, and not also to decree it and to command its execution by his ministers" [= Allah menghendaki bahwa raja Ahab yang tidak benar ditipu; setan menawarkan pelayanannya untuk tujuan ini; ia dikirim, dengan perintah yang pasti, untuk menjadi roh dusta dalam mulut semua nabi (1Raja-raja 22:20,22). Jika pembutaan dan kegilaan Ahab adalah penghakiman Allah, isapan jempol tentang ‘sekedar ijin’ hilang: karena adalah menggelikan bagi Hakim untuk hanya mengijinkan apa yang Ia kehen-daki untuk dilakukan, dan tidak juga menetapkannya dan memerintahkan pelaksanaannya oleh pelayan-pelayanNya] - Book I, Chapter XVIII, no 1.

"Those who are moderately versed in the Scriptures see that for the sake of brevity I have put forward only a few of many testimonies. Yet from these it is more than evident that they babble and talk absurdly who, in place of God’s providence, substitute bare permission - as if God sat in a watchtower awaiting chance events, and his judgments thus depended upon human will"(= Mereka yang betul-betul mengetahui Kitab Suci melihat bahwa untuk singkatnya saya hanya memberikan sedikit dari banyak kesaksian. Tetapi dari kesaksian-kesaksian ini adalah lebih dari jelas bahwa mereka mengoceh dan berbicara secara menggelikan yang, menggantikan providence Allah dengan ‘sekedar ijin’ - seakan-akan Allah duduk di menara pengawal menunggu kejadian-kejadian yang terjadi secara kebetulan, dan dengan demikian penghakimanNya tergantung pada kehendak manusia) - Book I, Chapter XVIII, no 1.

"Likewise in Isaiah, He declares that he will send the Assyrians against the deceitful nation and will command them ‘to take spoil and seize plunder’ (Isa 10:6) - not because he would teach impious and obstinate men to obey him willingly, but because he will bend them to execute his judgments, as if they bore his commandments graven upon their hearts; from this it appears that they had been impelled by God’s sure determination. I confess, indeed, that it is often by means of Satan’s intervention that God acts in the wicked, but in such a way that Satan performs his part by God’s impulsion and advances as far as he is allowed" [= Demikian juga dalam Yesaya, Ia menyatakan bahwa Ia akan mengirim orang Asyur terhadap bangsa yang dusta dan akan memerintahkan mereka ‘untuk melakukan perampasan dan penjarahan’ (Yes 10:6) - bukan karena Ia akan mengajar orang-orang jahat dan keras kepala untuk mentaatiNya secara sukarela, tetapi karena Ia akan membengkokkan mereka untuk melaksanakan penghakimanNya; seakan-akan mereka mempunyai perintahNya tertulis dalam hati mereka; dari sini terlihat bahwa mereka dipaksa oleh penentuan yang pasti dari Allah. Saya mengakui bahwa seringkali Allah bertindak dalam diri orang jahat dengan menggunakan intervensi Setan, tetapi dengan cara sedemikian rupa sehingga Setan melakukan bagiannya oleh dorongan Allah dan bergerak maju sejauh ia diijinkan] - Book I, Chapter XVIII, no 2.

"To sum up, since God’s will is said to be the cause of all things, I have made his providence the determination principle for all human plans and works, not only in order to display its force in the elect, who are ruled by the Holy Spirit, but also to compel the reprobate to obedience" (= Kesimpulannya, karena kehendak Allah dikatakan sebagai penyebab dari segala sesuatu, saya telah membuat providenceNya suatu prinsip yang menentukan untuk semua rencana dan pekerjaan manusia, bukan hanya untuk menunjukkan kekuatannya dalam diri orang pilihan, yang dipimpin oleh Roh Kudus, tetapi juga untuk memaksa orang yang bukan pilihan pada ketaatan) - Book I, Chapter XVIII, no 2.

"... so that in a wonderful and ineffable manner nothing is done without God’s will, not even that which is against his will. For it would not be done if he did not permit it, yet he does not unwillingly permit it, but willingly; nor would he, being good, allow evil to be done, unless being also almighty he could make good even out of evil" (= ... sehingga dalam cara yang indah dan tidak terkatakan tidak ada sesuatupun yang terjadi tanpa kehendak Allah, bahkan apa yang bertentangan dengan kehendakNya. Karena itu tidak akan terjadi jika Ia tidak mengijinkannya, tetapi Ia tidak mengijinkannya dengan terpaksa, tetapi dengan sukarela; dan Ia, karena Ia adalah baik, tidak akan mengijinkan kejahatan terjadi, kecuali Ia, yang juga adalah mahakuasa, bisa membuat yang baik bahkan dari hal yang jahat) - Book I, Chapter XVIII, no 3 (bagian ini dikutip oleh Calvin dari Agustinus).

‘Westminster Confession of Faith’:

Chapter II, 1: "... God, ... working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will" (= ... Allah ... mengerjakan segala sesuatu sesuai dengan rencana dari kehendakNya sendiri yang tetap dan paling benar).

Chapter III, 1: "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" (= Allah dari sejak kekekalan, melakukan, oleh rencana kehen-dakNya sendiri yang paling bijaksana dan suci, dengan bebas, dan dengan tidak berubah menetapkan apapun yang akan terjadi; tetapi dengan demikian Allah bukan pencipta dosa, dan kekerasan tidak digunakan terhadap kehendak dari makhluk ciptaan; juga kebebasan atau ketidakpastian dari penyebab kedua tidaklah diambil, tetapi sebaliknya diteguhkan).

Chapter III, 2: "Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed any thing because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions" (= Sekalipun Allah mengetahui apapun yang bisa terjadi dalam segala kondisi yang mungkin, tetapi Ia tidak menetapkan sesuatupun karena Ia melihatnya lebih dulu sebagai masa depan, atau sebagai apa yang akan terjadi dalam kondisi seperti itu).

Chapter V, 1: "God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy" (= Allah Pencipta yang besar dari segala sesuatu menegakkan, mengarahkan, menentukan / mengatur, dan memerintah semua makhluk ciptaan, tindakan dan benda-benda, dari yang terbesar bahkan sampai kepada yang terkecil, oleh providenceNya yang paling bijaksana dan kudus, sesuai dengan pengetahuan-lebih-duluNya yang tidak bisa salah, dan rencana kehendakNya sendiri yang bebas dan tetap / kekal, untuk memuji kemuliaan dari hikmat, kuasa, keadilan, kebaikan, dan belas kasihanNya).

Chapter V, 4: "The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin" (= Kemahakuasaan, hikmat yang tak terselami, dan kebaikan yang tak terbatas dari Allah begitu jauh memanifestasikan dirinya dalam providenceNya, sehingga menjangkau bahkan kejatuhan pertama ke dalam dosa, dan semua dosa-dosa lain dari malaikat dan manusia; dan itu bukan sekedar suatu ijin, tetapi sedemikian rupa sehingga telah menggabungkan dengannya batasan yang paling bijaksana dan kuat, dan selain itu menetapkan / mengatur dan menguasai mereka, dalam berbagai-bagai pengaturan, untuk tujuanNya sendiri yang kudus; tetapi sedemikian rupa sehingga keberdosaan dari padanya keluar hanya dari makhluk ciptaan, dan bukan dari Allah, yang karena keberadaanNya yang paling kudus dan benar, bukanlah dan tidak bisa menjadi pencipta atau penyetuju dosa).

Chapter VI, 1: "Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory" (= Nenek moyang kita yang pertama, setelah digoda oleh kelicinan / kelicikan dan pencobaan Setan, berdosa dengan memakan buah terlarang. Dosa mereka ini, Allah berkenan, menurut rencanaNya yang bijaksana dan kudus, mengijinkannya, setelah menetapkan untuk menentukannya untuk kemuliaanNya sendiri).

‘The Larger Catechism’:

Question 12: "What are the decrees of God?" (= Pertanyaan 12: Apakah ketetapan-ketetapan Allah itu?).

Answer: "God’s decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of His will, whereby, from all eternity, he hath, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time, especially concerning angels and men" (= Jawab: Ketetapan-ketetapan Allah adalah tindakan-tindakan dari rencana kehendakNya yang bijaksana, bebas dan kudus, dengan mana dari sejak kekekalan, Ia telah, untuk kemuliaanNya sendiri, menentukan secara tidak bisa berubah segala sesuatu yang akan terjadi dalam waktu, khususnya berhubungan dengan malaikat dan manusia).

John Owen, ‘The works of John Owen’, vol 10:

"Whatsoever God hath determined, according to the counsel of his wisdom and good pleasure of his will, to be accomplished, to the praise of his glory, standeth sure and immutable" - hal 20.

"If God’s determination concerning any thing should have a temporal original, it must needs be either because he then perceived some goodness in it of which before he was ignorant, or else because some accident did affix a real goodness to some state of things which it had not from him; neither of which, without abominable blasphemy, can be affirmed, seeing he knoweth the end from the beginning" - hal 20.

"Out of this large and boundless territory of things possible, God by his decree freely determineth what shall come to pass, and makes them future which before were but possible. After this decree, as they commonly speak, followeth, or together with it, as others more exactly, taketh place, that prescience of God which they call ‘visionis,’ ‘of vision,’ whereby he infallibly seeth all things in their proper causes, and how and when they shall some to pass" - hal 23.

Louis Berkhof, ‘Systematic Theology’:

"Reformed Theology stresses the sovereignty of God in virtue of which He has sovereignly determined from all eternity whatsoever will come to pass, and works His sovereign will in His entire creation, both natural and spiritual, according to His predetermined plan. It is in full agreement with Paul when he says that God ‘worketh all things after the counsel of His will’ (Eph 1:11)" - hal 100.

"In the case of some things God decided, not merely that they would come to pass, but that He himself would bring them to pass, either immediately, as in the work of creation, or through the mediation of secondary causes, which are continually energized by His power. He himself assumes the responsibility for their coming to pass. There are other things, however, which God included in His decree and thereby rendered certain, but which He did not decide to effectuate Himself, as the sinful acts of His rational creatures" - hal 103.

"It is customary to speak of the decree of God respecting moral evil as permissive. By His decree God rendered the sinful actions of man infallibly certain without deciding to effectuate them by acting immediately upon and in the finite will. This means that God does not positively work in man 'both to will and to do', when man goes contrary to His revealed will. It should be carefully noted, however, that this permissive decree does not imply a passive permission of something which is not under the control of the divine will. It is a decree which renders the future sinful acts absolutely certain, but in which God determines (a)not to hinder the sinful self-determination of the finite will; and (b)to regulate and control the result of this sinful self-determination" - hal 105.

Robert L. Dabney, ‘Lectures in Systematic Theology’:

"The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass" - hal 121.

"God’s decree ‘foreordained whatsoever comes to pass’; there was no event in the womb of the future, the futurition of which was not made certain to God by it" - hal 213.

"By calling it permissive, we do not mean that their futurition is not certain to God; or that He has not made it certain; we mean that they are such acts as He efficiently brings about by simply leaving the spontaneity of other free agents, as upheld by His providence, to work of itself, under incitements, occasions, bounds and limitations, which His wisdom and power throw around. To this class may be attributed all the acts of rational free agents, except such are evoked by God’s own grace, and especially, all their sinful acts" - hal 214.

B. B. Warfield, ‘Biblical and Theological Studies’:

"the minutest occurrences are as directly controlled by Him as the greatest (Matt. 10:29-30, Luke 12:7)" - hal 296.

"Throughout the Old Testament, behind the processes of nature, the march of history and the fortunes of each individual life alike, there is steadily kept in view the governing hand of God working out His preconceived plan - a plan broad enough to embrace the whole universe of things, minute enough to concern itself with the smallest details, and actualizing itself with inevitable certainty in every event that comes to pass" - hal 276.

"an all-inclusive plan embracing all that is to come to pass; in accordance with which plan He now governs His universe, down to the least particular, so as to subserve His perfect and unchanging purpose" - hal 278.

"According to the Old Testament conception, God foreknows only because He has pre-determined, and it is therefore also that He brings it to pass; His foreknowledge, in other words, is at bottom a knowledge of His own will, and His works of providence are merely the execution of His all-embracing plan" - hal 281.

"We are never permitted to imagine, to be sure, that God is the author of sin, either in the world at large or in any individual soul ... But neither is God’s relation to the sinful acts of His creatures ever represented as purely passive ... Nevertheless, it remains true that even the evil acts of the creature are so far carried back to God that they too are affirmed to be included in His all-embracing decree, and to be brought about, bounded and utilized in His providential government. It is He that hardens the heart of the sinner that persists in his sin (Ex. 4:21, 7:3, 10:1,27, 14:4,8, Deut 2:30, Jos 11:20, Isa 63:17); it is from Him that the evil spirits proceed that trouble sinners (1Sam. 16:14, Judg. 9:23, 1Kings 22, Job 1); it is of Him that the evil impulses that rise in sinners’ hearts take this or that specific form (2Sam. 24:1)" - hal 284.

"this God is e Person who acts purposefully; there is nothing that is, and nothing that comes to pass, thatHe has not first decreed and then brought to pass by His creation or providence" - hal 284.

"But, in the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His eternal plan; nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its peculiar fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise" - hal 285.

Charles Hodge, ‘Systematic Theology’, vol I:

"By this is meant that from the indefinite number of systems, or series of possible events, present to the divine mind, God determined on the futurition or actual occurrence of the existing order of things, with all its changes, minute as well as great, from the beginning of time to all eternity. The reason, therefore, why any event occurs, or, that it passes from the category of the possible into that of the actual, is that God has so decreed" - hal 537.

"Change of purpose arises either from the want of wisdom or from the want of power. As God is infinite in wisdom and power, there can be with Him no unforeseen emergency and no inadequacy of means, and nothing can resist the execution of his original intention" - hal 538-539.

"The decrees of God are certainly efficacious, that is, they render certain the occurrence of what He decrees. Whatever God foreordains, must certainly come to pass. ... All events embraced in the purpose of God are equally certain, whether He has determined to bring them to pass by his own power, or simply to permit their occurrence through the agency of his creatures. ... Some things He purposes to do, others He decrees to permit to be done. He effects good, He permits evil. He is the author of the one, but not of the other" - hal 540-541.

"... the unity of God’s plan. If that plan comprehends all events, all events stand in mutual relation and dependence. If one part fails, the whole may fail or be thrown into confusion" - hal 541.

"The doctrine of the Bible is, that all events, whether necessary or contingent, good or sinful, are included in the purpose of God, and that their futurition or actual occurrence is rendered absolutely certain" - hal 542.

"With regard to the sinful acts of men, the Scriptures teach, (1)That they are so under the control of God that they can occur only by His permission and in execution of His purposes. He so guides them in the exercise of their wickedness that the particular forms of its manifestation are determined by His will" - hal 589.

Charles Hodge, ‘Systematic Theology’, vol II:

"As God works on a definite plan in the external world, it is fair to infer that the same is true in reference to the moral and spiritual world. To the eye of an uneducated man the heavens are a chaos of stars. The astronomer sees order and system in this confusion; all those bright and distant luminaries have their appointed places and fixed orbits; all are so arranged that no one interferes with any other, but each is directed according to one comprehensive and magnificent conception" - hal 313.

"And as God is absolutely sovereign and independent, all his purposes must be determined from within or according to the counsel of his own will. They cannot be supposed to be contingent or suspended on the action of his creatures, or upon anything out of Himself" - hal 320.

"If He foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, then events correspond to his purposes; and it is against reason and Scripture to suppose that there is any contradiction or want of correspondence between what He intended and what actually occurs" - hal 323.

William G. T. Shedd, ‘Calvinism: Pure & Mixed’:

"When God executes his decree that Saul of Tarsus shall be ‘a vessel of mercy’, he works efficiently within him by his Holy Spirit ‘to will and to do’. When God executes his decree that Judas Iscariot shall be ‘a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction’, he does not work efficiently within him ‘to will and to do’, but permissively in the way of allowing him to have his own wicked will. He decides not to restrain him or to regenerate him, but to leave him to his own obstinate and rebellious inclination and purpose; and accordingly ‘the Son of man goeth, as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed’ (Luke 22:22; Acts 2:23). The two Divine methods in the two cases are plainly different, but the perdition of Judas was as much foreordained and free from chance, as the conversion of Saul" - hal 31.

"Whatever undecreed must be by hap-hazard and accident. If sin does not occur by the Divine purpose and permission, it occurs by chance. And if sin occurs by chance, the deity, as in the ancient pagan theologies, is limited and hampered by it. He is not ‘God over all’. Dualism is introduced into the theory of the universe. Evil is an independent and uncontrollable principle. God governs only in part. Sin with all its effects is beyond his sway. This dualism God condemns as error, in his words to Cyrus by Isaiah, ‘I make peace and create evil’; and in the words of Proverbs 16:4, ‘The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil’" - hal 36.

"Nothing comes to pass contrary to his decree. Nothing happens by chance. Even moral evil, which he abhors and forbids, occurs by ‘the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God’; and yet occurs through the agency of the unforced and self-determining will of man as the efficient" - hal 37.

Loraine Boettner, ‘The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination’:

"Since the universe had its origin in God and depends on Him for its continued existence it must be, in all its parts and at all times, subject to His control so that nothing can come to pass contrary to what He expressly decrees or permits. Thus the eternal purpose is represented as an act of sovereign predestination or foreordination, and unconditioned by any subsequent fact or change in time. Hence it is represented as being the basis of the divine foreknowledge of all future events, and not conditioned by that foreknowledge or by anything originated by the events themselves" - hal 14.

"The Pelagian denies that God has a plan; the Arminian says that God has a general plan but not a specific plan; but the Calvinist says that God has a specific plan which embraces all events in all ages" - hal 23.

"His choice of the plan, or His making certain that the creation should be on this order, we call His foreordination or His predestination. Even the sinful acts of men are included in this plan. They are foreseen, permitted, and have their exact place. They are controlled and overruled for the divine glory" - hal 24.

"Even the sinful acts of men are included in the plan and are overruled for good" - hal 29.

"All that we need to know is that God does govern His creatures and that His control over them is such that no violence is done to their natures. Perhaps the relationship between divine sovereignty and human freedom can best be summed up in these words: God so presents the outside inducements that man acts in accordance with his own nature, yet does exactly what God has planned for him to do" - hal 38.

"The Arminian objection against foreordination bears with equal force against the foreknowledge of God. What God foreknows must, in the very nature of the case, be as fixed and certain as what is foreordained; and if one is inconsistent with the free agency of man, the other is also. Foreordination renders the events certain, while foreknowledge presupposes that they are certain" - hal 42.

"Common sense tells us that no events can be foreknown unless by some means, either physical or mental, it has been predetermined. Our choice as to what determines the certainty of future events narrows down to two alternatives - the foreordination of the wise and merciful heavenly Father, or the working of blind, physical fate" - hal 42.

Herman Hoeksema, ‘Reformed Dogmatics’:

"For this same reason the Bible always emphasizes the fact that God ordained all things and knew them from before the foundation of the world" - hal 157.

"Nor must we, in regard to the sinful deeds of men and devils, speak only of God’s permission in distinction from His determination. Holy Scripture speaks a far more positive language. We realize, of course, that the motive for speaking God’s permission rather than of His predetermined will in regard to sin and the evil deeds of men is that God may never be presented as the author of sin. But this purpose is not reached by speaking of God’s permission or His permissive will: for is the Almighty permits what He could just as well have prevented, it is from an ethical viewpoint the same as if He had committed it Himself. But in this way we lose God and His sovereignty: for permission presupposes the idea that there is a power without God that can produce and do something apart from Him, but which is simply permitted by God to act and operate. This is dualism, and it annihilates the complete and absolute sovereignty of God. And therefore we must maintain that also sin and all the wicked deeds of men and angels have a place in the counsel of God, in the counsel of His will. Thus it is taught by the Word of God. For it is certainly according to the determinate counsel of God that Christ is nailed to the cross, and that Pilate and Herod, with the Gentiles and Israel, are gathered together against the holy child Jesus. It is therefore much better to say that the Lord also in His counsel hates sin and determined that that which He hates should come to pass in order to reveal His hatred and to serve the cause of God’s covenant" - hal 158.

Herman Bavinck, ‘The Doctrine of God’:

"All events are included in that counsel, even the sinful deeds of man" - hal 342.

"God’s decree is his eternal purpose whereby he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Scripture everywhere affirms that whatsoever is and comes to pass is the realization of God’s thought and will, and has its origin and idea in God’s eternal counsel or decree, ..." - hal 369.

"Furthermore, God’s thought, embodied in creation, cannot be conceived of as an uncertain idea, doubtful of realization; it is not a ‘bare knowledge’ that receives its contents from creation; it is not a plan, a project, or purpose whose execution can be frustrated" - hal 370.

"God’s counsel is no more an act that pertains to the past than is the generation of the Son; it is eternal, divine act, eternally finished, yet continuing forevermore, apart from and raised above time. Scaliger correctly observed that God’s decree was not preceded by a long period of reflection and deliberation, so that for a long time God would have been without purpose and without a will; neither is it a plan once for all completed and finished and simply awaiting execution. But God’s decree is the eternally active will of God: it is the willing and purposing God himself; it is not something accidental to God, but being God’s will in action, it is one with his essence. It is impossible to conceive of God as a being without a purpose and without an active and operative will. Nevertheless, all this does not conceal the fact that God’s decree is an ‘immanent work’ determined by nothing else than by God himself, and distinct in character from God’s works in time, Acts 15:18; Eph 1:4" - hal 370.

John Murray, ‘Collected Writings of John Murray’, vol II:

"It is true that all our choices and acts are foreordained, and only foreordained acts come to pass" - hal 64.

"The foreknowledge of God presupposes certainty of occurrence; hid foreordination renders all occurrence certain; by his providence what is foreordained is unalterably put into effect" - hal 65-66.

"The question here is that of the divine causality in connection with sin. ... There is divine predetermination or foreordination in connection with sin. The fall was foreordained by God and its certainty was therefore guaranteed. ... The first sin, like all other sins, was committed within the realm of God’s all-sustaining, directing and governing power. Outside the sphere of his foreordination and providence the fall could not have occurred. The arch-crime of history - the crucifixion of our Lord - was perpetrated in accordance with the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). So, too, was the fall" - hal 72-73.

Gresham Machen, ‘The Christian View of Man’:

"How much is embraced in that eternal counsel of God? The true answer to that question is very simple. The true answer is ‘Everything’. Everything that happens is embraced in the eternal purpose of God; nothing at all happens outside of His eternal plan" (= Berapa banyak yang dicakup dalam rencana kekal Allah itu? Jawaban yang benar terhadap pertanyaan itu sangat sederhana. Jawaban yang benar adalah ‘segala sesuatu’. Segala sesuatu yang terjadi tercakup dalam ren-cana kekal Allah; tidak ada sedikitpun yang terjadi di luar rencana kekalNya) - hal 35.

Arthur Pink, ‘The Sovereignty of God’:

"To declare that the Creator’s original plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God. To suggest that God was taken by surprise in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen calamity, is to degrade the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal" - hal 21-22.

Arthur Pink, ‘The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross":

"It was no accident that the Lord of Glory was crucified between two thieves. There are no accidents in a world that is governed by God. Much less could there have been any accident on that Day of all days, or in connection with that Event of all events - a Day and an Event which lie at the very centre of the world’s history. No; God was presiding over that scene. From all eternity He had decreed when and where and how and with whom His Son should die. Nothing was left to chance or the caprice of man. All that God had decreed came to pass exactly as He had ordained, and nothing happened save as He had eternally purposed. Whatsoever man did was simply that which God’s hand and counsel ‘determined to be done’ (Acts 4:28). When Pilate gave orders that the Lord Jesus should be crucified between the two malefactors, all unknown to himself, he was but putting into execution the eternal decree of God and fulfilling His prophetic word. Seven hundred years before this Roman officer gave command, God had declared through Isaiah that His Son should be ‘numbered with the transgressors’ (Isa 53:12). ...Not a single word of God can fall to the ground. ‘Forever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven’ (Ps 119:89). Just as God had ordained, and just as He had announced, so it came to pass" [= bukanlah suatu kebetulan bahwa Tuhan Kemuliaan disalibkan di antara 2 pencuri. Tidak ada kebetulan dalam dunia yang diperintah oleh Allah. Lebih-lebih lagi tidak ada kebetulan pada Hari segala hari, atau dalam hubungannya dengan Peristiwa di antara segala peristiwa - suatu Hari dan Peristiwa yang terletak di pusat sejarah dunia. Tidak; Allah mengontrol adegan / peristiwa itu. Dari kekekalan Allah telah menentukan kapan dan dimana dan bagaimana dan dengan siapa AnakNya harus mati. Tidak ada yang terjadi karena kebetulan atau karena perubahan pikiran manusia. Semua yang telah Allah tentukan terjadi persis seperti yang Ia tentukan, dan tidak ada sesuatupun yang terjadi kecuali yang sudah Ia rencanakan secara kekal. Apapun yang manusia lakukan hanyalah apa yang kuasa / tangan dan rencana / kehendak Allah ‘tentukan untuk terjadi’ (Kis 4:28). Ketika Pilatus memberikan perintah supaya Tuhan Yesus disalibkan di antara 2 kriminil, tanpa ia sendiri sadari, ia sedang melaksanakan ketetapan kekal dari Allah dan menggenapi firman nubuatanNya. Tujuh ratus tahun sebelum pejabat Romawi ini memberikan perintah, Allah telah menyatakan melalui nabi Yesaya bahwa AnakNya harus ‘diperhitungkan sebagai pemberon-tak / pelanggar’ (Yes 53:12). ... Tidak satupun dari firman Allah bisa jatuh ke tanah / gagal. ‘Untuk selama-lamanya, ya TUHAN, firmanMu ditetapkan di surga’ (Maz 119:89 - diterjemahkan dari KJV). Persis seperti yang Allah telah tentukan, dan persis seperti yang Ia beritakan, begitulah hal itu terjadi] - hal 24-25.

Jerome Zanchius, ‘The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination’:

"We assert that God did from eternity decree to make man in His own image, and also decreed to suffer him to fall from that image in which he should be created, and thereby to forfeit the happiness with which he was invested, which decree and consequences of it were not limited to Adam only, but included and extended to all his natural posterity" - hal 87-88.

"That he fell in consequence of the Divine decree we prove thus: God was either willing that Adam should fall, or unwilling, or indifferent about it. If God was unwilling that Adam should transgress, how came it to pass that he did? ... Surely, If God had not willed the fall, He could, and no doubt would, have prevented it; but He did not prevent it: ergo, He willed it. And if he willed it, He certainly decreed it, for the decree of God is nothing else but the seal and ratification of His will. He does nothing but what He decreed, and He decreed nothing which He did not will, and both will and decree are absolutely eternal, though the execution of both be in time. The only way to evade the force of this reasoning is to say that ‘God was indifferent and unconcerned whether man stood or fell’. But in what a shameful, unworthy light does this represent the Deity! Is it possible for us to imagine that God could be an idle, careless spectator of one of the most important events that ever came to pass? Are not ‘the very hairs of our head are numbered’? Or does ‘a sparrow fall to the ground without our heavenly Father’? If, then, things the most trivial and worthless are subject to the appointment of His decree and the control of His providence, how much more is man, the masterpiece of this lower creation?" - hal 88-89.

Catatan: Jerome Zanchius sebetulnya tidak bisa disebut sebagai seorang Calvinist / Reformed, karena ia hidup sejaman dengan Calvin, yaitu tahun 1516-1590. Tetapi pandangannya dalam hal ini jelas merupakan pandangan Reformed.