The Sole Primary Cause

"...[W]ho works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will"  (Ephesians 1:11).
"...[I]n Him all things consist"  (Col. 1:17).
"For, 'In Him we live and move and have our being'..."  (Acts 17:28).
"The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the LORD" (Prov. 16:33).
"...[N]one can stay his hand or say to him, "What are you doing?"  (Dan. 4:34-35).
"...For who can resist His will?" (Rom. 9:19).
[He works in us] "...both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).


Definition of Providence per the divines of The Westminster Confession circa 1646:
"...God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least...."  [This is called the eternal decrees.]

God works through the most diabolical of events, including the crucifixion, which was according to plan and eternal decree (there is no Plan B) (cf. Acts 2:23; 4:28).  "... you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20).  "The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble" (Prov. 16:4).  God works through and directs all events but they do not impugn His holy being and He "remains pure from every stain of sin."    We are responsible (actually held accountable and culpable) and blameworthy (destined to be judged and punished--"For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment," declares Hebrews 9:27).  And again, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ"  (2 Cor. 5:10).

There are no flukes, accidents,  fate, fortune, or luck or any impersonal forces such as Mother Nature at work in a so-called "naturalistic" universe.

He is the sole primary cause of the universe who not only set things in motion, but maintains and sustains them called government, concurrence (cooperation with our wills), and preservation of them physically.  There are two other causes:  instrumental and final.  Faith is the instrumental cause of salvation, but God is the primary cause, and we are the final cause (God uses us, but we don't cooperate, because "Salvation is of the LORD" according to Jonah 2:9) in ratifying it by faith.  There are secondary causes in creation:  When Satan does some evil he has to get God's permissive will to do it--he doesn't have free reign over us but is a servant of God, or else!

Case in point:  David was incited by Satan to make a census, but it also said that God led him to do it.  God was just using Satan to do His decreed will.  Note that the preceptive, revealed will of God to us is not the same as the decreed, hidden will that is God's secret and none of our business ("The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" ( Deut. 29:29).  We don't know the hidden will until it happens and should not seek it by necromancy, tarot cards, seance, etc., but live our lives in faith trusting Him for the future.

Providence is the name given to God's personal involvement and sovereignty of His creation.  Man acts as His agent with a so-called free will, but the Bible says that God doesn't give up His sovereignty even in man's freedom of choice (cf. "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps,"  says, Jeremiah 10:23;  "A man's steps are ordered by the LORD" (Prov. 20:24);  "A man's mind plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" says Proverbs 16:9).

Think of all the evil that happened to Job and "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong"  (Job 1:22).   "Does evil befall a city, unless the LORD has done it?  (Amos 3:6).  "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil:  I, the LORD, do all these things"  (Isaiah 45:7 KJV). Note that God has a purpose for evil to exist:  "Surely the wrath of men shall praise you"  (Psalm 76:10).  God's relation to evil and sin is a mystery, not revealed in Scripture, but He remains unspoiled by it, i.e., without any taint of sin or evil, and holy or separate-- despite its existence.
Soli Deo Gloria!