All things happen by God’s will and power, and according to his knowledge. By this I mean that an event occurs only because he wills it and causes it. There is no power that is independent of him or that is in competition with him. This is necessarily true if for no other reason than that God reveals himself as one who possesses total and active control over all things, so that the very possibility of a second power is excluded. His knowledge is complete, so that he knows every event, even man’s every thought and action. Since God decides and causes all things, his knowledge is necessarily connected with his will and power. That is, he knows all events because he decides and causes all events, and he knows his own plans and purposes.

The fall of man was not an accident. If a sparrow cannot die apart from God’s will, and if a man cannot turn his own hair black or white, then like all events, the fall of man happened because God decreed it and caused it. This does not mean that God himself performed evil, but that he sovereignly and righteously caused man to perform evil. All attempts to refute this position must reduce God to something less than what he is, who is sovereign by right and by power, and whose decrees and actions establish the very definition of goodness and righteousness. There is no standard higher than or apart from God by which to judge him. We do not assume a standard to judge whether God is good, or to restrict what he is permitted to do; rather, we derive the standard of what is good by learning what he thinks and what he does.

Thus the fall of man was one step in God’s plan. Scripture teaches that his ultimate purpose is to glorify himself, and he has decided to do this through his Son, Jesus Christ, who would rescue a chosen people, subdue all things, and deliver to his Father a kingdom of priests, of true worshipers. On the way to fulfil this purpose, it was necessary to plunge all of humanity into sin, spiritual death, and judgment, so that God may save some by Jesus Christ.

This plan of salvation was revealed, albeit in a broad form, immediately after the fall of man. Adam was the head of the human race, and when he sinned, all his descendants fell with him. From that time forward, every man and woman would be conceived with a sinful nature and with the guilt that incurs condemnation. It was at this point that God carried out the next step in his plan, and declared a division in humanity. He said that not all men would follow after Satan, but there would be another line of men who would oppose the devil and his children. This hostility would come to a head when it would receive ultimate fulfillment in a man. In due time, he would be born to a woman. He would become the champion of the line of the righteous. He would save his people and demolish the devil’s power.

God would add to and develop this promise by his revelation, spoken and recorded by his prophets, but the basic idea had been announced, and those who looked to it and believed on it were manifested as members of the righteous line of humanity. It remained the same promise through the centuries. The difference was in the amount of information about this promise that was available. Each generation was required to affirm what God had revealed up to that point in time. As the details concerning this champion unfolded, it became obvious that he would be both fully divine and fully human, and this would be possible because he would be an incarnation of God. The fullness of revelation was manifested in Jesus Christ, and was expounded by his apostles.

Much had been built upon the initial declaration, but the promise was unaltered. From the very beginning, the promise referred to the coming of Jesus Christ to save his chosen people. It is not an anachronism, but rather an aid to unity in our understanding, to state that all who would believe on the promise throughout human history, including those who believed before the coming of Christ, are to be called Christians. Thus Hebrews 11 says that Moses preferred to suffer reproach for the sake of Christ than to indulge in the treasures of Egypt. And Peter wrote that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, and revealed to them even the times and circumstances surrounding the Savior’s incarnation and ministry. Therefore, from the perspective of a complete revelation, we now realize that humanity was divided into the line of Christ and the line of Satan, or into Christians and non-Christians.

These are the two families that opposed each other throughout history, and the conflict would continue until the consummation of all things. The hostility was not alleviated but was accentuated by the coming of Jesus Christ. He said that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He would be the cause for increased strife between nations, cultures, and family members. The preaching of the gospel compels men to choose a side, or rather, it uncovers which side they are on. As we proclaim the Lord Jesus, the family of Satan arises in opposition, but the family of Christ awakes to faith and righteousness, to take up spiritual weapons, and to join the fight for the glory of God.