Providence in the Story of Scripture: The Work of God through Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation

by Adamson Co

The doctrine of providence is often too abstract, complex, or detached from real-life situations for introductory students. Drawing on years of experience in the classroom and the church, Adam Co offers an introductory guide that uses the creation motif of the Bible to highlight the importance of providence for the Christian life.

Co begins with a brief introduction to providence to give students the "state of the question." He then explores the classical theme of the seventh and eighth days of creation as a helpful way to understand providence. He sets providence and human existence within the metanarrative of the Bible while explicating the doctrine in an overview fashion. Co demonstrates how the seventh and eighth days of creation bring clarity to traditional issues raised in systematic theology, such as preservation, governance, and concurrence; the problem of evil; and divine sovereignty and human free will.

This book challenges readers to live out a life of partnership with God in his providence and shows how the blessed hope of the Christian faith is God's life-transforming providence for today.

Genres: Theology

208 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 2025

Reviews

[Levi Moberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Providence in the Story of Scripture: The Work of God through Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation by Adamson Co is an exciting new book that brings a lot to the table, but ultimately attempts to do too much in too short of a space and ultimately leaves a disjointed and disappointing product. Co in this short book begins with the simple thesis that modern Protestantism has largely abandoned the doctrine of God’s providence and live their lives absent from the realities of God’s control. However, after he spends the first two chapters critiquing both classic Arminian and Calvinist views on Providence, he sets forth his new model, a narrative theological approach to God’s providence. Co utilizes the long-neglected theological motif of the “seventh and eighth day of creation,” originally set forth and used by Augustine, but largely ignored in modern theological conversations. His use of this seventh and eighth day of creation motif that utilizes the proleptic backings of “the Day of the Lord” and what may be called the “here-but-not-yet kingdom”, is helpful but lacking.
His basic thrust is that we must learn to view Providence not as a series of set doctrinal statements, but instead as a lived reality of God’s sustaining and guiding power that reaches its fulfillment at the “eighth day of creation” in which God will “create again”.
The general thrust of Co’s work is fair and well-reasoned, but disjointed. His discussions on Arminianism and Calvinism are thoughtful (even if Co is highly suspicious and uncharitable towards the extremes of Arminianism). Co reutilizes a largely ignored theological motif that provides a narrative explanation of God’s proleptic work. He even provides a fair desire to see Providence come back into prominence in theological discussion. What he does not do is tie these themes up nicely into a coherent package that is easy to follow and logically proceeds. There is a lot of good in this book, but it would have needed several hundred more pages to fully flesh his ideas. His attempts to create an accessible textbook fall flat in his insistence of technical jargon, and attempts to pack too much into a small book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, but all views and opinions expressed are my own.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Providence in the Story of Scripture, Adamson Co walks through the work of God in Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. While Co describes his book as an introductory guide to providence, I found it to be a fresh and insightful study, particularly in how he uses the motif of creation to make God’s providence meaningful in the Christian life.



God Takes Care of His Creation

Co defines providence as the actions God takes in the care of His creation. He uses Genesis 22 as the locus classicus—the most well-known and authoritative passage—for the doctrine of providence. Through God‘s providence, we see three divine attributes at work: (1) God as all-loving, (2) God as all-wise, and (3) God as all-powerful. The purpose of God revealing His providence is to bring comfort and reassurance. Co goes on to give a fair representation of both Calvinism and Arminianism. He examines God’s sovereignty, human free will, and divine governance through these frameworks. Because the center of providence is not on the human side of the equation but on the divine, I was left with the conclusion that Calvin presents the more biblical position on providence.


One of Co’s greatest strengths is his use of helpful illustrations. For instance, he uses the illustration of a car accident to show that the driver is the proximate cause of the event. This helps demonstrate that while God is always the ultimate cause, there are proximate causes—human agents—who are still morally responsible for their actions.


The book really takes off when examining God‘s providence before the fall and then in the post-fall seventh day of creation. Providence is presented through the idea of partnership. In Jesus, we see the embodiment of pre-fall, seventh-day human existence. He lived freely and actively for God and in partnership with his heavenly father.



Partner Together with God

Co identifies self-determination as the sin that stems from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This act breaks the partnership that God had envisioned with humanity. Trust is broken, and the relationship is breached. The book beautifully portrays divine provision as the means of restoring this broken partnership and creation. These include divine forbearance, the continued provision of life, God’s sustaining of human conscience, the ordination of human society and governance, nature’s aesthetic draw toward God, and God’s ongoing involvement and intervention. Reading this made me deeply grateful for God’s providence as we can find a measure of rest in this world through common grace


I was particularly intrigued by the concept of “prolepsis”—drawing upon God’s completed future and bringing aspects of it into the present. Co illustrates this, although he says it is imperfect, with Disneyland’s Tomorrowland as a way to understand how we can maintain a hopeful outlook on the future and live with that same hope now. I learned that Christians can synchronize with God’s time by living under the reality of Christ’s imminent return. I was challenged to perceive God’s timing even in suffering. We can experience a foretaste of new creation and God’s providence in what Co calls the “eighth day of creation.”


This book wonderfully and expertly frames the doctrine of providence through the theological lenses of the seventh and eighth days of creation. Before reading this book, I viewed myself as passive in response to God’s providence. I now see that I can actively partake in it. Unlike the frame of a painting, this book is like the frame of a window—revealing God’s work of providence as something that can be stepped into and experienced.



I received a media copy of Providence in the Story of Scripture and this is my honest review.

[Jeremy Fritz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I appreciate what Co is trying to do, and he’s got a good framework, but chose to ignore the more difficult parts of the doctrine of providence in the name of drawing boundaries for how much we should say. Good point, but could have spent more time showing how the seventh and eighth day framework speaks into the issues of evil, concurrence, and reprobation.

Also, tried to play neutral and lay out different positions, I can appreciate that, but ends up being a minimalist account of the doctrine. Would rather disagree but have a fuller account of his understanding of the doctrine.

[Tucker Woodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning and end are great, but drags in the middle.

3.5 if we were allowed to give half points.