Sunday Hymn: All My Help Comes from the Lord

All my help (all my help) comes from the Lord.
All my help (all my help) comes from the Lord.
All my needs that I’m possessing,
All my help, all my help, all my help comes from the Lord.

Father I stretch (I stretch) my hands to Thee.
I know that You (only You) remember me. 
When others forget, when others forget, and leave me alone, 
I know that Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, will hear my groan. 

When I am weak (when I am weak) he gives me strength.
When I am lonely, he comforts me.
When I am tired of the load that I’m bearing, 
He gives me courage, courage, courage, to bear my share.

—Rev. Cleophus Robinson © 1964, Lion Publishing Co

Theological Term of the Week: Compatibilism

compatibilism

The belief that God’s exhaustive sovereignty, or his meticulous providence, is compatible with human free agency. 

• As seen in scripture:

Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;

the staff in their hands is my fury!

Against a godless nation I send him,

and against the people of my wrath I command him,

to take spoil and seize plunder,

and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

But he does not so intend,

and his heart does not so think;

but it is in his heart to destroy,

and to cut off nations not a few… (Isaiah 10:5-7 ESV).

When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes (Isaiah 10:12 ESV).  

Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,

or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?

As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,

or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! (Isaiah 10:15 ESV) 

• In the The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 10:

All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, a by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds, spiritually and savingly, to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is compatibilism?
2. Matt Perman: The Consistency of Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
3. Shawn D. Wright: A Plea for Calvinistic Compatibilism
4. Monergism: What Is the Difference Between Hard Determinism and Soft Determinism?
5. James N. Anderson: Calvinism and Determinism
6. The Analytic Christian: Compatibilism and Christian Freedom with Guillaume Bignon (video)
7. John C. Winegard Jr.: Why I Am a Compatibilist about Determinism and Moral Responsibility

Related terms:

• author of sin
• decrees of God
• free agency
• libertarian free will
• open theism
• sovereignty of God

Filed under Reformed Theology

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Sunday Hymn: Come, O My Soul, Bless Thou the Lord Thy Maker

O come, my soul, bless thou the Lord thy mak­er,
And all with­in me bless His holy name;
Bless thou the Lord, for­get not all His mer­cies,
His par­don­ing grace and sav­ing love pro­claim.

Refrain

Bless Him for­ev­er, won­drous in might,
Bless Him, His ser­vants that in His will de­light.

Good is the Lord and full of kind com­pass­ion,
Most slow to an­ger, plen­te­ous in love;
Rich is His grace to all that hum­bly seek Him,
Boundless and end­less as the heav’ns above.

His love is like a fa­ther’s to his child­ren,
Tender and kind to all who fear His name;
For well He knows our weak­ness and our frail­ty,
He knows that we are dust, He knows our frame.

We fade and die like flow’rs that grow in beau­ty,
Like ten­der grass that soon will dis­ap­pear;
But ev­er­more the love of God is change­less,
Still shown to those who look to Him in fear.

High in the heav’ns His throne is fixed for­ev­er,
His king­dom rules o’er all from pole to pole;
Bless ye the Lord through all His wide do­min­ion,
Bless His most ho­ly name, O thou my soul.

—The Psalter