And hell was not created for mankind (Matt. Since according to strict Calvinism everything that happens is God’s will, then the sin and evil that occur are His will also. The Infra or Sublapsarians declare that the Views of the Supralapsarians legitimately make God the Author of Sin, SECTION IV. That is because God’s plan was for holiness, but the devil’s plan was for sin. Likewise Christ was ordainedbefore the foundation of the world (1 Pet. At the same time, God is not guilty of sin because He is not the one who is actually committing the sin. God is pleased with men when they live holy (1 Thes. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (Jas. Is God the Author of Sin? Calvin replied to the freewill zealots of his era by pointing out two ways in which God exercises an active sovereignty over evil [Institutes 2.4.3]: In neither case—and in no other case—is God ever the effectual cause or the agent of the evil. Read More. While God created their constitution and gave them a free will, they themselves would create their character by how they would use their free will. But God’s revealed will cannot be a lie, because God cannot lie (Tit. We are to pray “Thy will be done in earth” (Matt. Now why did God give the angels freedom, and why does God give us freedom? 11:6; 14:22; 15:26; 15:34; 16:7; 16:19; 16:30; 21:20; 22:52; 2 Kin. God does not tell us to obey, only to decree our disobedience! Calvinism makes God out to be a moral monster equal to the devil himself and appeals to mystery in order to extricate God … Since this is true, it follows that God has decreed the existence of evil, he has not merely permitted it, as if anything can originate and happen apart from his will and power.”36. Sin was not the will of God but was a rebellion against His will. God made me do it.” Is God the “the mastermind” behind all the crimes of our society? He is punished by God for being what God predestined Him to be! It is Allah of the Quran of whom it is said “whom [he] pleases he causes to err, and whom he pleases he puts on the right way.”20 But when Paul asked the question, is “Christ the minister of sin?” he promptly answered the question with a stern “God forbid!” (Gal. This is contrary to the words of Tucker who stated, “Sin, or moral evil, is… a wise and holy ordination of God.”58 and “Not an impure thought, word, or act, more or less, can arise among the creatures, than God has actually determined the being and permission of. And therefore every move of Satan is part of God’s overall purpose and plan.”50 If it is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit to prescribe the works of the Holy Spirit to the devil (Matt. If He was, every crime that is prosecuted is really the work of God being prosecuted! It does not mean that God created moral evil. Calvinists will even try to use the Bible to teach that God is the Creator of sin. When a being originates sin through their own free will, they are sinning and consequently become a sinner. Adam would not be a criminal deserving of punishment since he did not make a free choice. 8:44), this references his lie in the garden. Charge: Calvinism Makes God the Author of Sin. According to the doctrine of Calvinism, God is the primary cause of everything, and John Calvin establishes God’s creation as the secondary cause of sinful actions, “Further what I said before is to be remembered, that since God manifests His power through means and inferior causes, it is not to be separated from them.” God does not tempt anyone to sin (Jas. The devil is evil and is therefore not the author of good, while God is good and therefore is not the author of evil. The doctrine is based upon stoic philosophy, logical argument, perverted Scripture and human assertions. Adam would be the victim of God’s eternal and secret bullying. It is not biblical. Jesus said, “If any man will do his will” (Jn. We were created to live right, to walk in love and live free from sin. God could have decreed righteousness in those situations, but He chose to decree sin instead! Therefore God ought to be angry and grieved with Himself if God secretly decreed the existence of sin. Truthfulness is the foundation of trustworthiness, but what confidence can one have in the character of a person who doesn’t mean what he says? (Providence speaks of His purposeful care and management of everything He created). The fall of our race did not bring any “pleasure” to God. 11:4). That means that God did not approve of what they did and He did not want them to do it. Thus, God as arch-…lord? Calvinism is false teaching. He could not charge them for what He was guilty of! God knew that they were capable of obeying His law, which is why He commanded them to do so; and the devil knew that they were capable of disobeying God’s law, which is why he tempted them to do so. The allegation is usually based on a confusion of Reformed theology with fatalism or determinism. It may be simplistic, yet it is true, that the mere fact that God commanded them not to sin and warned them about the consequences of their sin is absolute proof that He did not want them to sin. That is why the devil is called the “god of this world” (2 Cor. It does not solve the problem to say that God has a “revealed will” and a “secret will.” For if holiness was God’s revealed will, but sin was God’s secret will, then God is insincere in His commands, His revealed will is a lie, and His secret will is His actual will. You can forget about praying, “…lead us not into temptation” (Matt. But if God has a secret will, which is the opposite of His revealed will, we can never trust anything that God says! God never wanted sin to occur at all! But it is the devil, not God, which was a liar from the beginning (Jn. Calvinism makes God the author of sin and evil. It means that God preferred a sinful universe over a sinless universe, that God preferred rebellion over obedience, and that He preferred the misery of His creatures over their well-being! To suggest otherwise is to be guilty of high blasphemy. God invites men to “judge” and to “testify against” Him, knowing that none can find fault with His moral character. If sin was God’s will and God commands us to hate sin, then God commands us to hate His own will! I have also wondered how could any lover of holiness be expected to accept Calvinism? God certainly would not appear to His universe as “just” for punishing men for doing what He caused them to do. God is the final cause; not the efficient cause of evil. 1:2); and therefore, God says He doesn’t want us to sin and He means it! God grieves over man’s sin and God rejoices over man’s repentance. It is in this sense that, as John Calvin said, God cannot be said to merely permit sin but rather to … The objective of commanding and warning is that the one who is being commanded and warned would make the right choice in light of what was warned about. 12:2; 14:4; 15:3; 15:34; 16:2; 18:3; 22:2; 20:32; 24:2; 25:2; 26:4; 27:2; 28:1; 29:2; 34:2). Consider the consequences of what Calvinism is saying here. To credit the works of the devil to God is just as much blasphemy as it is to credit the works of God to the devil. The Bible speaks of those who “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord” (Num. To order this book: Click Here. They themselves, not God, are the source of the evil for which they are condemned. (In fact, it seems like EVERYTHING is subordinated to glory and power.) God loves righteousness but hates sin (Prov. By giving them a moral law, He gave them the opportunity to be obedient or disobedient. 21:3). Men cannot blame themselves for their sin unless they know that they are the cause of their sin. Putting everything in the service of one’s own glory, at least among humans, usually gets labeled along the lines of “sociopathic”. God the Efficient Cause of Sin, SECTION III. 20:1-17). Clearly, God did not force them to do His will but let them go their own way. 1Co 14:33 – For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. ", The Final Cause—that for the sake of which something happens, The Efficient Cause—the agent whose action produces the effect, The Material Cause—the substance that gives being to the effect, The Formal Cause—the shape, pattern, definition, or species of the effect, My friend, without my consent, robs a bank to get money to help pay my medical bills. But the blame for any evil thing lies first of all with the efficient cause. Shouldn’t the will of God be commended, not condemned? lassic Calvinism does teach, of course, that God's eternal decree is a binding verdict that set everything in motion toward a predetermined end, and God remains sovereign in the outworking of His providence. We were created for the pleasure of God (Rev. The chapter on God’s providence likewise says that when God ordains what will come to pass, “neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes [a category that includes the human … 5:4; 7:11; Prov. Consider. Just as Lucifer sinned against his nature, not because of his nature, but by his own free will, so the sin of Adam and Eve was not the result of their nature but was caused by their free will. Both God and the devil presented to the minds of Adam and Eve considerations in order to influence the decisions of their free will. They teach that God did not want Adam and Eve to obey Him, but actually wanted them to disobey Him. God places His actions before the minds of moral agents so that they can see the righteousness of His ways and the rectitude of His doings. 10:1) The God of the Bible did not secretly decree that men should sin. 12:31). Well, yes, in one sense. It's only a problem if there is a good argument from the claim that God is the Author of sin to the claim that God … 32:4). But Israel was told, “…loathe yourself in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed” (Eze. 1:2). God wants us to be holy all of the time. 13:18; Jer. But if the devil is a free moral being, who has chosen to sin contrary to the will of God, then it is God who is good and the devil that is evil! The devil put forth effort to get them to sin by tempting them to do so; while God put forth effort to get them not to sin by commanding them and warning them. 3:2; 8:18; 8:27; 13:2; 13:11; 14:24; 15:9; 15:18; 15:24; 15:28; 17:2; 17:17; 21:2; 21:16; 21:20; 23:32; 23:37; 24:9; 24:19; 1 Chron. If God decreed the existence of sin, or if God took away our free will so that sin is unavoidable, then sin must be the will and plan of God. 7:17). Is God’s activity contrary to the well-being of His universe that He needs to hide, or keep secret, His will? 2:17) It is not the God of the Bible which is the author or cause of sin. The decree is eternal, meaning it was issued before the foundation of the world. 4:1; Heb. The charges leveled against Reformed theology, of which hyper-Calvinism is actually guilty, received a definitive response at the international Synod of Dort (1618–1619), along with the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. Therefore His grief over our sin must be infinite. Doing what was right or doing what was wrong was not determined by their nature, but was determined by their free will. 5:1-4). That whole bit about the reprobate being created for the sake of dispensing wrath…Cheung, somewhere in “The Author of Sin”, said it was to make sure the elect knew EVERY aspect of God, the wrath included, so every aspect could be glorified (he couldn’t very well dispense unalloyed wrath on the elect, could he?). 45:19). If God decreed that they would worship these false gods and sacrifice their children to them, God would not be able to say “neither came it into my mind” with any honesty. But is this assessment fair to the Calvinist position or consistent with Scripture? Israel was God’s vineyard which He cultivated to bring forth good grapes. How could we worship Him at all if the existence of all sin and misery was secretly His fault? 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