Salvation Belongs to the Lord, an Introduction to Systematic Theology by John M. Frame

Author:John M. Frame
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion, Reference, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781596380189
Publisher: P&R Publishing
Published: 2006-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

The Order of the Decrees

There is one more doctrine I would like to touch on before we get to the ordo salutis. I will only touch on it because I consider it something of an unbiblical speculation. But since you are now a student of theology, you ought to know what it's about. That doctrine is called the order of the decrees. Some theologians have developed a theory that God's eternal decrees have a certain order to them. It is not a temporal order, because the decrees we're talking about are all eternal, above time. Theologians sometimes call it a logical order, but I confess I don't entirely understand what that means. What seems to be meant, in part, is that one decree serves the interests of another.

The main views in Reformed theology of the order of the decrees are supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism. The first order, the supralapsarian order, reads as follows: first, election, then creation, then the fall, then redemption. By this order, the supralapsarian wants especially to make the point that election directs everything else in God's plan. They want to say that God's fundamental purpose for creation is to have fellowship with his elect people. Everything else works toward that. So, in order to have fellowship with these people, he obviously must first create them. Then he must allow them to fall and redeem them.

The other view, infralapsarianism, puts the decrees in this order: creation, fall, election, redemption. By this order, the infralapsarian means to say that in election God chooses people who are already created and fallen.

Although some biblical arguments have been used to substantiate both these views, I don't think Scripture really addresses the issue of an order of God's decrees. The supralapsarian point, that everything God does is for the sake of his elect, has a certain amount of truth to it, though we must point out that an even higher goal of God is to glorify himself. The infralapsarian point, that when God elects people, he conceives them as fallen, is also legitimate. God elects people out of the fallen multitude. But if we grant both the supralapsar ian point in some measure and the infralapsarian point, it seems obvious that we can acknowledge those points without signing on to the concept of an order in the divine decrees.

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