God cannot be the author of sin

("the very thought of which is blasphemy" —Canons of Dort)

Because Reformed Christians believe that God foreordained everything that happens, some have accused them of teaching that God is the author of sin. The allegation is usually based on a confusion of Reformed theology with fatalism or determinism. (The Reformed contribute to this confusion when they emphasize God's absolute sovereignty without also emphasizing His absolute righteousness.)

This issue has far-reaching implications on Christian faith and practice. If God were the author of sin, then he would be guilty of sin and unworthy of worship. If there were no real freedom (moral agency) of created beings in the sense spoken of in the first Lutheran confession, then God would be solely responsible for sin and there would be no need for anyone else to seek forgiveness or to repent.

Scripture | Reformed theologians | Reformed and orthodox standards

 

Scripture on the authorship of sin

Biblical denials that God is the author of sin

The Reformed teaching that God is not the author of sin reflects the clear teaching of Scripture:

Taken in context, these passages are decisive. Reformed theologians discussed the teaching of other relevant Scripture in more depth.

Romans 9:6-24 and the authorship of sin

Romans 9 clearly teaches that God chose some sinners for eternal life, without being based on anything they would do or choose in their lives (vv. 6-16), and that He hardened the hearts of other sinners (vv. 17-18). (It is equally clear from vv. 17-18 that hardening the hearts of fallen sinners is in mind, not the origin of sin.) Based on the whole counsel of God, Reformed theology avoids the unbiblical extremes of Arminianism and hyper-Calvinism, each of which is based on illogical conclusions drawn from isolated passages.

Some have misunderstood vv. 19-24 to teach that God created certain people in order to torment them forever, and that He ordained their fall into sin in order to accomplish that purpose. They use vv. 20-21 to argue that God has a right to do whatever He wants with His creation, including the right to create certain individuals to sin so that they can be tormented. This view seems to accuse God of being the author of sin. However, according to most Reformed theologians, the passage actually teaches that God chose some fallen sinners ("clay") for mercy and forgiveness for their sins and other fallen sinners ("from the same lump") for the punishment that their sins deserve. Charles Hodge explained this interpretation with more precision. (Even Reformed theologians with other interpretations deny that God is the author of sin.) Links to some of his other teachings on this topic are given below.

 

Reformed theologians and the authorship of sin

"...the Bible plainly teaches both God's sovereign foreordination and human freedom."

—Johannes G. Vos

In The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary (P&R Publishing, 2002, Ch. 3), Vos taught that God's decrees include apparently accidental events (citing Prov 16:33; Jonah 1:7; Acts 1:24, 26; 1 Kings 22:28, 34; Mark 14:30) and even the sinful actions of men (citing Gen 45:5, 8; 50:20; 1 Sam 2:25; Acts 2:23). He balanced this by saying, "we must carefully guard against two errors: (a) God's decree does not make God the author of sin nor render him responsible for sin; (b) the fact of God's foreordination does not cancel man's responsibility for his own sins."

Although we cannot fully understand how God's foreordination is compatible with human freedom, we must believe both since both are taught by the Word of God:

The difficulty is: How can God's decree of election be harmonized with human free agency? If God has foreordained all that comes to pass, including the eternal destiny of all human beings, how can we ourselves be free agents and how can we be responsible for what we do? We cannot solve this problem, for it is a mystery. We can only affirm that the Bible teaches both God's sovereign foreordination and human freedom and responsibility. To reject either of these truths is to reject the clear teaching of the Word of God and to become involved in even greater theological difficulties. [emphasis added]

"Free acts are foreordained" —Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology

Charles Hodge taught that God foreordained everything that happens, including the smallest details and the sinful actions of people (Part I, Ch. IX). This in no way makes God the author of sin since the sinful actions are made by free agents, not by beings determined to necessarily act in a certain way, as if they were machines.

Charles Hodge illustrated the fact that human freedom is compatible with God's eternal decrees (Part I, Ch. IX). He defined the decree of God as rendering future events certain and defined a free act as an act of rational self-determination by an intelligent person. God renders free acts certain, according to His plan. A father who justly disowns a rebellious son might be certain that his doing so will cause his son to become bitter and even more rebellious. In a sense, the father is hardening his son's heart, but the son freely chooses to respond the way he does. If people can do things, knowing that others will freely respond in certain ways, then there is no reason to think that God cannot. Hodge pointed out that an important difference between fatalism and Reformed theology is that the former denies human freedom. Hodge discussed fatalism in more detail in his chapter on the free agency of man (Part II, Ch. IX).

Like the vast majority of other Reformed theologians, Charles Hodge was infralapsarian. That is, he believed that God decreed salvation or punishment for particular sinners because He decreed to permit the Fall. This position is self-consistent, is the teaching of Scripture (Part III, Ch. I), and is clearly contrary to the idea that God is the author of sin. A small minority of Reformed theologians are supralapsarian, believing instead that God decreed the Fall for the purpose of giving particular created beings eternal life or eternal torment. However, even supralapsarians deny that God is the author of sin. Loraine Boettner gave a brief introduction to infralapsarianism versus supralapsarianism, with a quote from B. B. Warfield in support of the former. Romans 9 often comes up in discussions of this issue.

"...impiety thinks it has sufficient defense, if it is able to claim that whatever defects it possesses have in some way proceeded from God" - John Calvin, Institutes

Although Calvin is often accused of determinism or fatalism, he taught that man was created upright, and that "his will was free to choose the good" (Institutes, Book I, Ch. 15). Thus, God is not the author of sin (Institutes, Book II, Ch. 1). [Direct quotations are from the translation by F. L. Battles, Westminster Press, Philadelphia (1960).]

In his Commentaries, Calvin repeatedly denied that God is the author of sin, for example: James 1:12-15; Daniel 4:35; Exodus 7:1-7. Lutherans have seen this as an apparent inconsistency in his system of theology:

When one traces the salvation of believers back solely to God's will, does it not follow logically that in the case of those who are lost this will was simply lacking and that in the final analysis their rejection also goes back solely to divine causation? ...if sin were based on the human interrelation of cause and effect... the divine decree of rejection would still not be absolute; it would be conditional, because it would be dependent on the decision of man. But not even Calvin and Beza dared make God the originator of sin. Therefore at this point, which is most important for them, their system — allegedly so strictly logical — is not a bit more logical than that of the Formula of Concord. But the Formula of Concord by no means claims to be rationally consistent; it claims only that it safeguards what faith knows to be certain. (Elert, W., The Structure of Lutheranism: The Theology and Philosophy of Life of Lutheranism Especially in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries; Concordia Publishing House: St. Louis, Missouri, 1962, p. 137)

Exceptions

Unfortunately, some Calvinists redefine the phrase God is not the author of sin to mean God is the first cause of sin in such a way that he is not thereby guilty of sin (McCann, H.J., Faith and Philosophy, 2005, 22, 144-159). Although this might seem to follow logically from the Reformed position, most Calvinists avoid drawing such a conclusion.

Reformed standards on the authorship of sin

Reformed theology is not defined primarily by the teachings of individual theologians, but by the standards of churches in the Reformed tradition. Of course, Reformed Christians do not deny that God is the author of sin just because it is in their church standards. Rather, they denied it in their standards because it is denied in the Scripture, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Canons of Dort (Continental/Dutch Reformed)

In 1618, the Canons of Dort condemned the errors of Arminianism and upheld what are known as the Five Points of Calvinism (TULIP). The Synod of Dort also condemned the opposite error, that God is the author of sin: "And this is the decree of reprobation, which by no means makes God the Author of sin (the very thought of which is blasphemy), but declares Him to be an awful, irreprehensible, and righteous Judge and Avenger thereof." [emphasis added] Consequently, man can be held responsible for his sins: "The cause or guilt of this unbelief as well as of all other sins is no wise in God, but in man himself."

While denying that man is saved on the grounds of an exercise of his free will, the Synod affirmed that God can restore the freedom of the human will without doing violence to it:

Man was originally formed after the image of God. His understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart and will were upright, all his affections pure, and the whole man was holy. But, revolting from God by the instigation of the devil and by his own free will, he forfeited these excellent gifts; and an in the place thereof became involved in blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity, and perverseness of judgment; became wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affections... But as man by the fall did not cease to be a creature endowed with understanding and will, nor did sin which pervaded the whole race of mankind deprive him of the human nature, but brought upon him depravity and spiritual death; so also this grace of regeneration does not treat men as senseless stocks and blocks, nor take away their will and it properties, or do violence thereto; but is spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it, that where carnal rebellion and resistance formerly prevailed, a ready and sincere spiritual obedience begins to reign; in which the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our will consist. Wherefore, unless the admirable Author of every good work so deal with us, man can have no hope of being able to rise from his fall by his own free will, by which, in a state of innocence, he plunged himself into ruin. [emphasis added]

Second Helvetic Confession (Swiss Reformed)

To show that God is not the author of sin, the Second Helvetic Confession (Ch. 8) cited John 8:44, implying that Satan is the author of sin. It also has a simple discussion on free will (Ch. 9):

WHAT MAN WAS BEFORE THE FALL. There is the state in which man was in the beginning before the fall, namely, upright and free, so that he could both continue in goodness and decline to evil. However, he declined to evil, and has involved himself and the whole human race in sin and death, as has been said already.

WHAT MAN WAS AFTER THE FALL. Then we are to consider what man was after the fall. To be sure, his reason was not taken from him, nor was he deprived of will, and he was not entirely changed into a stone or a tree. But they were so altered and weakened that they no longer can do what they could before the fall. For the understanding is darkened, and the will which was free has become an enslaved will. Now it serves sin, not unwillingly but willingly. And indeed, it is called a will, not an unwill (ing). [sic] [Etenim voluntas, non noluntas dicitur.]

MAN DOES EVIL BY HIS OWN FREE WILL. Therefore, in regard to evil or sin, man is not forced by God or by the devil but does evil by his own free will, and in this respect he has a most free will. But when we frequently see that the worst crimes and designs of men are prevented by God from reaching their purpose, this does not take away man's freedom in doing evil, but God by his own power prevents what man freely planned otherwise. Thus Joseph's brothers freely determined to get rid of him, but they were unable to do it because something else seemed good to the counsel of God.

Westminster Confession of Faith (Presbyterian)

The Westminster Confession of Faith (Ch. III) teaches that God's absolute sovereignty established the freedom of second causes and that it does not do any violence to the human will, nor does it make God the author of sin:

GOD from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass;a yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, b nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. c

a Eph. 1:11; Rom. 11:33; Heb. 6:17; Rom. 9:15, 18.
b James 1:13, 17; I John 1:5.
c Acts 2:23; Matt. 17:12; Acts 4:27-28; John 19:11; Prov. 16:33.

The teaching of God's decree is clarified by this end note added by the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church:

(b)Relating to Chapter III-'Concerning those who are saved in Christ, the doctrine of God's eternal decree is held in harmony with the doctrine of his love to all mankind, his gift of his Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and his readiness to bestow his saving grace on all who seek it. Concerning those who perish, the doctrine of God's eternal decree is held in harmony with the doctrine that God desires not the death of any sinner, but has provided in Christ a salvation sufficient for all, adapted to all, and freely offered in the gospel to all; that men are fully responsible for their treatment of God's gracious offer; that his decree hinders no man from accepting that offer; and that no man is condemned except on the ground of his sin.' [emphasis added]

Canons of the Council of Orange (early Roman Catholic)

The basic anthropology and soteriology of the Reformation were not new, but had been expressed centuries before in the Canons of the Council of Orange. The council not only condemned semi-Pelagianism, the forerunner of both Arminianism and later Roman Catholic soteriology, but also condemned the idea that God is the author of sin:

We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema.


Copyright © 2002, 2005, 2007 David R. Bickel. Last modified 5/7/05 except for minor stylistic changes and the removal of broken links on 12/2/07.

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