Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English - Question #8

Q. 8. How does God carry out his decrees?

A. God carries out his decrees in the works of creation and providence.^[a]

[a] Psalm 148:8

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁸ Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirits of tempests; that do his word. (Fire, hail, snow, ice, and the winds of the tempests; that all follow his command.)

 

Isaiah 40:26

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

²⁶ Raise [up] your eyes on high, and see ye, who made these things of nought; which leadeth out in number the knighthood of them, and calleth all by name, for the multitude of his strength, and stalworthness, and might; neither one residue thing was. (Raise up your eyes on high, and see ye, who made these things out of nothing; who leadeth their host out in number, and calleth all of them by name, for the multitude of his strength, and stalwartness, and might, and not one of them is missing.)

 

Daniel 4:35

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

³⁵ And all the dwellers of earth be areckoned into nought at him; for by his will he doeth, both in the hosts of heaven, and in the dwellers of earth, and none is that (may) against-standeth his hand, and saith to him, Why didest thou so? (And all the inhabitants of the earth be reckoned as nothing by him; for he doeth by his will, both to the armies of heaven, and to the inhabitants of the earth, and there is no one who can stand against his power, and can say to him, Why didest thou so?)

 

Acts 4:24-28

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

²⁴ And when they heard, with one heart they raised voice to the Lord, and said, Lord, thou that madest heaven and earth, sea, and all things that be in them,

²⁵ which saidest by the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of our father David, thy child, Why heathen men gnashed with teeth together, and the peoples thought vain things? [which by the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of our father David, thy child, saidest, Why heathen men wrathed, or beat with teeth together, and peoples thought vain things?]

²⁶ Kings of the earth stood nigh, and princes came together into one, against the Lord, and against his Christ.

²⁷ For verily Herod and Pontius Pilate, with heathen men, and peoples of Israel, came together in this city against thine holy child Jesus, whom thou anointedest, [For they came together verily in this city against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou anointedest, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with heathen men, and peoples of Israel,]

²⁸ to do the things, that thine hand and thy counsel deemed to be done.

 

Revelation 4:11

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹¹ Thou, Lord our God, art worthy to take glory, and honour, and virtue; for thou madest of nought all things, and for thy will those were [and for thy will they were], and be made of nought.

 

 

Comment on Q. 8

The universe and what occurs in it is the outworking of God's plan.