The doctrine of God's eternal decree is the foundation of all Reformed theology — the assertion that God, from all eternity, freely and unchangeably ordains whatsoever comes to pass. The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 3, Section 1, states this with unsurpassed precision:
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.
The key phrase is "whatsoever comes to pass." The Divines deliberately refused to qualify or limit this. The decree covers:
The Confession describes the decree with five modifiers:
Scripture's great testimony is Ephesians 1:11: God "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." ^[raw/en/wcf-ch03-s01.md]
The Confession immediately answers three objections:
"Neither is God the author of sin" — God ordains the existence of sinful acts but is not the cause of their sinfulness. The material act falls under the decree; the formal sinfulness arises from the creature's own corruption. ^[raw/en/wcf-ch03-s01.md]
"Nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures" — The decree does not override or violate human willing. When a man sins, he sins because he wants to sin, not because God compels him against his will.
"Nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established" — Second causes (natural processes, human choices) are real causes. God's decree does not make them illusions; it establishes their reality and efficacy.
WCF 3.2 clarifies that God's decree is not based on His foreknowledge:
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.
This is the crucial anti-Arminian safeguard. God does not decree to save someone because He foresees that person will believe. Rather, He foreknows because He has decreed. The decree is the cause of the future, not its effect. ^[raw/en/wcf-ch03-s02.md]
Scripture grounds election in God's "own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim 1:9), not in any foreseen condition in the creature.
Objection: If God has decreed all things, why pray? Answer: Prayer is the means God has ordained by which He accomplishes what He has decreed. The decree ordains both the end and the means. As Thomas Watson wrote, "He who has decreed the end has decreed the means leading to the end."
The doctrine of the decree is not fatalism. A. A. Hodge insisted that fatalism conceives of an impersonal, irrational force; the decree is the purpose of an infinitely wise, holy, and benevolent Person. Fatalism empties human agency; the decree establishes it. The decree gives prayer its power, means their efficacy, and human effort its significance.
The decree is not given to satisfy theological curiosity. It exists to steady the hearts of God's people in suffering. Nothing befalls the believer by accident; every trial is part of an eternal, wise, and loving purpose. As B. B. Warfield wrote, "The man who has never felt the crushing weight of the divine decree has never learned the alphabet of true religion."