I’ve been reading
a thick biography of one of my heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This Christian pastor from Germany
confronted the Nazi government and its attempts to usurp the church’s authority
and remake that church in its own image.
In this book, I was startled to read that Adolf Hitler had a sense that
Providence was with him when some of his evil plots were successful. How could he use this word? For Hitler, Providence was an impersonal
force, a kind of good karma that showed him he was on the right track.
Biblical
providence is never separated from the God who is the provider, not just of
good things but also hardships. The
best explanation of providence that I know comes from a 449 year old catechism
first written in Heidelberg, Germany:
Question: What do you understand by the providence of
God?
Answer: Providence is the almighty and ever present
power of God[1] by which he
upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures,[2]
and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean
years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty--[3]
all things, in fact, come to us not by chance[4]
but from his fatherly hand.[5]
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