ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the thesis that the universe is in every detail as God intends it to be. Two versions of this thesis are considered, the supralapsarian and the infralapsarian. The supralapsarian must hold that everything is as God intends it, because everything is subordinate to God’s single end of redemption. But, although the infralapsarian need not posit that all is done for a single end, infralapsarianism is still committed to everything’s being as God intends. The chapter then moves on to consider the objection that God’s care for the particular or for the individual is always subsumed under his concern for some greater global good.
In order to answer this objection the chapter questions an assumption common to both supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism, that the divine mind always works in a means–end manner. It is contended that God may value certain temporal things, for as long as those things last, for their own sake. Equivalently, temporal ends, as well as eternal ones, may glorify God. In sum, it is argued that God decrees everything, some things as means to an end, but other things for their own sake. It is argued that this approach is both internally consistent and consistent with divine simplicity.
