Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 13, 2010 16:52:40 GMT -5
THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in His image therefore He gave them a free will (Gen. 1:26). Just as God has the power of self-determination, so did they. They were free to choose their behavior for themselves and consequently they were free to decide what their moral character would be. Created morally innocent, they were now free to choose what is good and as a result have a good character, or to choose evil and as a result have an evil character. 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.
Since God created man a moral being, capable of virtue or vice, He gave them a moral law. By giving them a moral law, He gave them the opportunity to obey it or disobey it. By forbidding the tree of knowledge, God gave them the opportunity of forming good moral character. Because of the good moral character of God, He did not place them in the Garden with the forbidden tree so that they would disobey Him, but so that they would obey Him. By granting them the freedom of doing wrong, He gave them the freedom of doing right. A person has good moral character if they could do what is wrong but choose to do what is right instead. For that reason, temptation can be considered good in this sense, which is why we should count it a joy when we are tempted (Jas. 1:2), because there is a blessing for those who overcome (Jas. 1:12). The opportunity to do what is wrong is a good thing, because every opportunity to do what is wrong is an opportunity to do what is right.
While God certainly did grant Adam and Eve the ability to sin or not by giving them a free will, and He gave them the opportunity to sin or not by placing them in the Garden with the forbidden tree, it was not God who tempted them to sin in the sense of suggesting it to their minds. God does not tempt anyone to sin (Jas. 1:13) and we are to pray for God to deliver us from temptation (Lk. 11:4). It was the serpent who actually tempted Adam and Eve to sin (Gen. 3:1-4; 3:13-14). He suggested to them that they should disobey God. It was God who had commanded them not to sin (Gen. 2:16-17; 3:11; 3:17). God was completely sincere in His command. He really did want them to obey Him and motivated them to do so by warning them of the possible consequences of sin if they were to choose that course.
But there was a war going on between God and the devil for the will of man. Man was a moral being and therefore neither God nor the devil could force him to do their will. God, motivated by love, was trying to govern man by moral law, or by presenting the truth about the sanctions of the law, giving them motivation for the right choice (Gen. 2:17). God warned them about what was true. God was trying to govern them with truth. The devil, motivated by selfishness, was trying to govern man through deception, by lying about the sanctions of the law (Gen. 3:4) and motivating them to make the wrong choice by making empty promises (Gen. 3:5). The devil was trying to tear down God’s influence over their will by lying about God’s sanction, while trying to set up his own influence over their will by making empty promises. The sanctions of moral law are a moral influence upon the will of a moral being when they are perceived and understood by their mind. That is why the devil challenged and questioned the sanction of the law when He wanted to influence the will of man to disobey God. This was the fight for the allegiance of man’s will. God is good and wanted man to do what was good. The devil is evil and wanted man to do what was evil. The devil tempted them to sin by putting forth effort to bring about their sin, while God commanded them to obey and thereby put forth effort to bring about their obedience.
After placing man in the Garden with the forbidden tree, God had warned Adam about the consequences of his possible choice ahead of time (Gen. 2:17). This is because God did not want them to sin and hoped to influence them not to by bringing to their attention the consequences of such a choice. The objective of warning is that the one who is being warned would make the right choice. Warning a person about the consequences of their choices take for granted that they have the ability of choice and assumes that they can choose between two alternatives. They were free to make the right or wrong choice and God wanted them to make the right choice. Yet despite the effort and influence of God, they sinned. God had not failed man, since He had done all of His responsibility, but man had failed God, for violating his obligation. “And when the women saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Gen. 3:6). They sought to gratify their natural desires in an unnatural and unlawful way, through means which God did not plan for them.
I can hear the pain in God’s voice and the grief of His heart as He asked, “What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen. 3:13). But as the Moral Governor of the Universe, the one who has created them moral beings and granted them moral law, who was responsible for the well-being of His creation, He had to hold them responsible and call them into account for their choices.
Is God The Author Of Sin?
We know that Adam and Eve did not have a sinful nature because when God made everything He made it “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Their nature did not necessitate their will. Their nature did not force them to do what is good or to do what is evil. Doing what was right or doing what was wrong was not determined by their nature but was determined by their will. If their good nature necessitated good choices, they never would have sinned. If their nature necessitated their choices and they sinned, God must have given them a sinful nature. The only way to explain their sin, without making God the author of sin, is to say that they sinned by free will and not by necessity of nature.
Just as Lucifer sinned against his nature, not because of his nature, but by his own free will (Isa. 14:13-14), so the sin of Adam and Eve was not the result of their nature but was caused by their free will. Your nature does not cause your will, that is, the state of your nature does not necessitate the choices of your will, but the will is free to choose according to or contrary to your nature. James Arminius said, “The Efficient cause of that transgression was man, determining his will to that forbidden object and applying his powers or capability to do it… Man therefore sinned by his free will…” James Arminius (The Works of James Arminius, published by Baker Book House, p. 371, 373)
Clement of Alexandria said, “In no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice… originates sins… punishments are justly inflicted.” Clement of Alexandria (A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers) Tatian said, “Nothing evil has been created by God. We ourselves have manifested wickedness. But we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.” Titian (A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Martin Luther unashamedly said that God was actually the cause of sin, so that all sin is caused by God and all sin is unavoidable. He said “God… effects, and moves and impels all things in a necessary, infallible course…” Martin Luther (Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther, translated by J. I. Packer & Johnston, published by Revell, 1957 Edition, p. 265) Martin Luther also said, "This is the highest degree of faith - to believe that He is merciful, the very One who saves so few and damns so many. To believe that He is just, the One who according to His own will, makes us necessarily damnable." Martin Luther (Martin Luther on The Bondage of the Will, by Rev. H. Cole, 1823 Edition, published by T. Bensley, p. 58) Where Martin Luther got the idea that man’s sinfulness was “according to His own will” or that God “makes us necessarily damnable” is a very good question since it is not anywhere in the Scriptures. God does not make men damnable because God does not make men sinful. Men make themselves damnable because men make themselves sinful. Sin is the result of man’s free will, not the effect of God’s predetermination.
While I was street preaching outside of a club in Ottawa Canada, a girl said to me “God wants us to be out here and have fun. God wants us to get drunk!” She thought that God wanted her to sin! She must have believed in Calvinism. John Calvin said, “Creatures are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed." (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 16, Paragraph 3).
I have often wondered if everything is caused by God, why do Calvinists get upset with me for rejecting Calvinism? My rejection would not be my own free will choice, but the secret decree of God! Or why would they be upset with me writing an entire book defending free will and refuting total inability, if this too was decreed by God! If they are upset with me rejecting Calvinism, or for my theology, they would be upset with the secret, immutable, irresistible, and eternal will of God! It shouldn’t be me that they are upset with, it should be God!
I have also wondered how could any lover of holiness be expected to accept Calvinism? Calvinism teaches that God prefers sin over holiness in every instance that sin occurs. God could have decreed righteousness in those situations, but choose to decree sin instead! It means that God preferred a sinful universe over a sinless universe, that God preferred rebellion over obedience! If a believer wants the world to be perfectly holy, are they more righteous and loving than God? Ultimately Calvinism teaches that God is the author of sin. Vincent Cheung said, “God controls everything that is and everything that happens. There is not one thing that happens that he has not actively decreed – not even a single thought in the mind of man. 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.” Vincent Cheung (The Problem of Evil) While Calvinism says that “God has decreed the existence of evil”, the God of the Bible says, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees…” (Isa. 10:1).
The God of the Bible did not secretly decree that men should sin. God’s eternal decree for sin was “thou shalt not” (Exo. 20:1-17). God said “thou shalt not” and He meant it! Calvinism makes God insincere in His commandments. God does not tell us to obey, only to decree our disobedience! God does not even tempt anyone to sin, let alone cause anyone to sin (Jas. 1:13). God is not the author of sin! We are! God never wanted sin to occur at all! God gave us a moral law and gave us the ability to obey it or disobey it. The reason that God calls sinners to repentance and punishes them for their sin is because their sin is not His will. It would make no sense to rebuke sinners for their sin and call them to repentance and obedience if they were already doing the will of God. We would be rebuking the will of God when we rebuke sin, if sin was God’s will! Why should we ever be upset with sin, if sin is God’s plan or if He secretly causes it? We would be upset with God’s plan! If sin is God’s plan, we should rejoice over sin! If God wants men to be sinful, we should want them to be sinful too! 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.
All throughout the Bible we see God’s condemnation of sin. Is God condemning the fruit of His own activity, or the work of His own hands? Is God condemning His own plan? Shouldn’t the will of God be commended, not condemned? I have asked Calvinist, “Is God angry and grieved with sin?” They have answered, “Yes”. Then I’ve asked, “Was sin the secret Sovereign plan of God?” They have answered, “Yes”. Then I’ve asked, “So your saying that God angry and grieved with His own secret Sovereign plan?” They don’t know how to answer that. Logically, if God is angry and grieved with sin and sin is His plan, then God is angry and grieved with His own plan! But if God’s plan is good, He should rejoice over it. Therefore if sin was God’s plan, God should rejoice over sin! This of course He never does, because sin is not His plan and sin is not good.
If sin was God’s plan, and God is angry and grieved with sin, then He should also be angry and grieved with Himself because He is the one who caused it! He is the one who secretly eternally decreed it! Sin is not self-existent. To be angry and grieved with sin, but not to be angry and grieved with the one who caused the sin, would make no sense. Therefore God ought to be angry and grieved with Himself if God secretly decreed the existence of sin. But God is angry with sinners for their sin (Ps. 7:11). Therefore sinners are the cause of sin, not God.
Ben Sirach, the Jewish scribe during Old Testament times, rightly reasoned, “Say not: ‘It was God’s doing that I fell away’; for what he hates he does not do. Say not: ‘He has caused me to err’; for he has no need of wicked man. The Lord hates all abominations; and they that fear God love it not. When God, in the beginning, created man, he made him subject to his own free choice. If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has set fire and water before you, stretch forth your hand to whichever you choose. Before man is life and death, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” (Sirach 15:11-17)
John Calvin taught that Adam did not have two alternative possibilities to choose between, but that God did cause him to sin. He said, "The first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should." (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 8). He also said, "I freely acknowledge my doctrine to be this: that Adam fell, not only by the permission of God, but by His very secret council and decree…" John Calvin (Secret Providence, pg. 267.) How contrary this is to the Word of God which says, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works” (Ps. 145:17). “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…” (Jas. 1:17). “The just Lord… will not do iniquity…” (Zep. 3:5). To “do” means to “accomplish”, “advance”, “appoint”, “bring forth”, “provide”, “make”, or “procure”. We are told that, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deut. 32:4).
A sinner is someone who causes sin to exist. A “worker of iniquity” is someone who “makes” or “ordains” sin. (Strong’s Definitions, e-sword) If Adam sinned because God secretly caused him to, God is the real sinner, not Adam! Adam would not be a criminal since he had no free will. Adam would be the victim of God’s eternal and secret bullying. If God caused all the sin of men, if we are puppets of God and not free moral agents, then God is the only real sinner in the entire universe and we cannot be responsible and accountable whatsoever. God is the only one who actually has moral character since God is the only one who causes moral choices to occur. If a man uses a gun to kill another person, the courts will hold the man accountable, not the gun!
While Adam blamed God and his wife for his sin (Gen. 3:12), and Eve blamed the serpent for her sin (Gen. 3:13), God blamed each individual for their sin which shows that their sin was their own free choice. It reveals to us that they could have obeyed the law that God had given them. God said to Adam, “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” (Gen. 3:11). God was not to blame since God commanded him not to. God was sincere in His command. He didn’t want Adam to sin. God warned Adam ahead of time about the consequences he would face if he made that choice (Gen. 2:17). The objective of commanding and warning is that the one who is being commanded and warned would make the right choice. The fall of Adam occurred despite the efforts of God to avoid it. He went on and said to Adam. “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife…” (Gen. 3:17). Adam’s sin was the result or product of his own volition or choice. God said to Eve, “What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen. 3:13) and God said to the serpent, “Because thou hast done this” (Gen. 3:14). Before assigning their consequences, God said that it was their own fault. If it was not their fault, but was secretly God’s fault, then they would not have deserved any punishments whatsoever. Moral beings, with freedom of will, are rightly subject to consequences for their choices.
To deny that mankind has genuinely rebelled against the will of God is to actually deny the fall or rebellion of man. If sin was the will of God, mankind was not rebelling against God’s will by choosing to sin, but was rather acting according to it! Man would be a puppet of God, rather than a rebel against God. 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, than God is insincere in His commands, His revealed will is a lie, and His secret will is His actual will. If God publicly favors righteousness, for appearance or reputation sake, but secretly favors sin, what kind of being is He? A person’s character is what he is in secret! If God secretly decrees sin, God would be secretly sinful! God said, “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth… I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.” (Isa. 45:19). If God has a secret will, which is contrary to His revealed will, than that secret will would be “wrong” because His revealed will is “right”. If God has a secret will, which is the opposite of His revealed will, we can never trust anything that God says! All the public threatening and promises in the Bible would be questionable and untrustworthy! And if sinners have acted according to the actual will of God, they are not really rebels at all. Our world would not be fallen; mankind would not be a race of rebels, but would be obedient servants of God who always do the will of God in every instance.
After one young convert heard a Calvinist describing Calvinism, he said to him, “Your god is my devil.” There is a lot of truth in that statement. That is because God’s plan was for holiness but the devil’s plan was for sin. The world chose to do the devil’s will instead of God’s will. That is why the devil is called the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) and the “prince of this world” (Jn. 12:31). There is a real war going on between God and the devil for the allegiance of man’s free will. It was God who commanded obedience from Adam but it was the devil that tempted Adam to sin. To say that God wanted Adam and Eve to sin is to confuse God with the devil!
Theodore Beza, the successor of John Calvin, said that “The fall of man was both necessary and wonderful”. Theodore Beza (The Christian Faith). Calvinists have taught that God secretly predestined the fall of Adam, and consequently the damnation of our race, so that the atonement of Christ would be necessary and He can get the glory of our salvation. This would be like a fireman who secretly started fires throughout the community so that their rescue work would be necessary and they can get the glory of putting these fires out. While it is good to put out fires, it is not good to start them! The end does not justify the means in this scenario. If their secret activity is revealed, their rescue work doesn’t seem so wonderful anymore. They would not be viewed as heroes but as heinous monsters! Their actions would not be praiseworthy but punishable! Calvinism says that God caused the damnation of all, so that He could predestine the salvation of the few. They say that many are on the broad road, and few are on the narrow road, because God wants it to be that way. This would be like a Doctor who infected a community with a deadly disease, resulting in the death of masses, so that He could give the cure to those few whom He wanted to. Nobody would ever call such a man benevolent or good. Insecure mothers will cause their children to be sick so that they can appear to others to be good mothers and so that they themselves will feel needed. Is that really what God is like? How awful it is to view God as causing the wickedness of our race, just so he can cause the salvation of “the elect”!
Calvinists ask, “But wasn’t the atonement planned before the fall of Adam?” Yes and no. God was prepared in the same way that an airplane would have a parachute on it before it crashes. It is a precautionary measure knowing the possible danger. Christ was ordained before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20), because God prepared for the possible fall, knowing that man had free will. But Christ was not actually slain until the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), because that is when the fall actually occurred and therefore an atonement became necessary for our salvation. We must remember that God does not desire sacrifice but desires a holy people (Ps. 51:16-17; Hos. 6:7; Mic. 6:7-8). God said that “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22). With that in mind, it would seem that God would have preferred a sinless universe that needed no atonement at all than a sinful one that did. God prefers holiness over sinfulness. God created everything “good” and He wanted it to stay that way. The fall of Adam and Eve was not the result of God pushing them down. Their sin was their own free choice which God was deeply grieved with.
Calvinists will even try to use the Bible to teach that God is the Creator of sin. They misuse Isa. 25:7 which says, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” The evil, in the Greek, is calamity which is physical evil. It does not mean that God created moral evil. God talks about bringing evil or calamity to a city to punish their sins (Neh. 13:18; Jer. 21:10; 25:29; Amos 3:6). God did not say “I make righteousness and create evil”. Evil is contrasted with “peace” because the evil referred to is calamity. God gives peace to the righteous but God destroys the wicked. That is because God never wanted sin to occur but wants men to be righteous. God told His people to “put away evil” from among them (Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21; 22:22, 24; 24:7; Jdg. 20:13; Ecc. 11:10; Isa. 1:16). This command shows that evil was not God’s will for them. God is not the author of sin.
We know that God does not take pleasure in sin, but is grieved and angry with sin (Gen. 6:5-6; Ps. 7:11)! God loves righteousness but hates sin (Prov. 6:16; Isa. 61:8; Zec. 8:17; Heb. 1:9)! We also know that all things were created for the pleasure of God (Rev. 4:11). Therefore we can conclude that God did not create sin, neither did God create us for sin! God did not create what He hates; neither did He create us to do what He hates! God takes pleasure in righteousness, God created us for His pleasure, therefore God created us for righteousness. We were created us to live right, to walk in love and live free from sin. God regretted the creation of our race when He saw how we became sinful (Gen. 6:5-6). Hell was not created for mankind (Matt. 25:41). Man was created for God’s pleasure, therefore nobody was created to live in sin and to die in sin, since God takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Eze. 33:11), but that “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps. 116:15). Sin was an interruption in the plan of God, a rebellion against His will.
John Calvin said, “Whatever things are done wrongly and unjustly by man, these very things are the right and just works of God.” John Calvin (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p. 169) James White is a modern apologist for the Reformed or Calvinist faith and he gave us an example of the “right and just works of God”. He was asked, "When a child is raped, is God responsible and did He decree that rape?" James White answered "Yes". (James White’s Debate with Hank Hannegraaf and George Bryson) All sinful actions, according to Calvinism, are the just and right works of God. In my mind, both the child and the rapist are victims of God fatalistic will! Consider the consequences of what Calvinism is saying here. If Calvinism were true, when we pray “thy will be done” (Matt. 6:10; 26:42) we would be praying for children to be raped! In fact, Jesus taught us to pray for children to be raped, because Jesus taught us to pray “thy will be done”. If Calvinism is true, Jesus taught us to pray for the occurrence of all the sin of the entire world!
The best criminal defense a person could have in court would be, “It’s not my fault. God made me do it.” Is God the “the mastermind” behind all crime? If he was, every crime that is prosecuted is really the work of God being prosecuted! Every sin that is condemned is the condemnation of the work of God! You can forget about praying, “lead us not into temptation” (Matt. 6:13), God straight out forces you to sin by His irresistible will! Martin Luther said, “Since, therefore, God moves and does all in all, He necessarily moves and does all in Satan and the wicked man” Martin Luther (The Bondage of the Will, Sovereign Grace Publishers, p. 87) Are we to blame God for all the acts of Satan and wicked men? Think of all the awful stories you have ever heard on the news. Are we to credit to God’s “Sovereignty” or “the good pleasure of His will” all of the tragedies of our world? Is God to blame for all the kidnappings each year? Or for how many girls are sold into the sex trade? Or for how many people die by drunk drivers? Is God the cause of all the suicides in the world? This was not the wonderful picture that God had envisioned and planned for His creation! These events were not secretly decreed by God, as if God were such a heinous monster! These events are caused by man’s own free will, because our race has become a heinous monster! If God decreed, sin, sinners go to hell for doing the will of God. In the Scriptures, we don’t see God sending sinners to hell for doing His will, but for rebelling against it.
We are to pray “thy will be done in earth” (Matt. 6:10). This prayer presupposes that God’s will is not always being done. The Bible says that men reject the counsel of God against themselves (Lk. 7:30). Contrary to John Calvin’s blasphemous charge “that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity; but also at his own pleasure arranged it" John Calvin (Institutes of the Christian Religion" Book III, Chapter 23, Paragraph 7), the Bible explicitly and plainly describes God’s great heartache and disappointment with mankind because of their sin. What a great tragedy to read “…it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth (Gen. 6:5-6). The fall of our race did not bring any “pleasure” to God. It was not arranged for “his own pleasure”. God was deeply upset with mankind’s sin because that is not what He had planned for us! That is not what He created and designed us for! God did not publicly grieve over man’s sin, when secretly He had caused them to do it! Mankind sin was not the result of God’s secret decrees or the result of God removing mankind’s free will. God is not to be blamed at all.
Gordon Olson said, “Beloved, when God had made such glorious and blessed plans for His creature man, and man had forsaken the great heart of God for sinful pleasure, and further, grew worse and worse, can we form any conception of the sorrow and grief that came upon the blessed Trinity when they "saw" such wickedness? And further, when God contemplated man's glorious endowments, created so that man might fellowship with and understand his Creator, now being used to devise means of sinful gratification, who shall measure God's sorrow…?” Gordon Olson (Explanation of Ephesians 1:3-14)