The Author of Sin
QUESTION
The "author of sin" charge leveled by Primitive Baptists against those who believe in the absolute predestination of all things is confusing. The phrase is not found in the Bible. The Bible does say Satan is the Father of Lies, but “authors” write books.
"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" (Isaiah 46:10)
Paul addresses the usual objection to predestination by saying,
"Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:19-20)
Given these scriptural statements, is the Primitive Baptist objection to absolute predestination biblical? Is the Primitive Baptist conclusion warranted?
ANSWER
The matter of God’s eternal decrees is an area that requires precise language to avoid stepping into a rhetorical or logical pitfall. As a result we should proceed with caution with reverential respect for the difficulty of properly addressing the matter, being mindful that, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” That said, you make a number of observations in your brief comment that I would like to address:
The "author of sin" charge leveled by Primitive Baptists against those who believe in the absolute predestination of all things (APOAT) is confusing.
Let me define it more explicitly. When we say that absolute predestination makes God the author of sin we mean that if God has absolutely predestined all things through a positive decree (wherein every single act of rebellion against God was as directly and actively preordained in precisely the same sense as the work of Christ which procured our salvation) then God is indisputably the author of sin as a matter of unavoidable logical consequence, since he is said to be the author of salvation which was the result of the same mechanism (Hebrews 5:9).
The phrase is not found in the Bible.
True enough. The word “bible” is likewise not found in the bible either. I will not belabor that this objection is irrelevant in almost any argument, even as any Trinitarian must feely admit. I don’t intend to be terse, just very clear that this is an utterly unprofitable line of reasoning that warrants no further consideration. Simply put, there is no inherent prohibition on employing extra biblical terms to describe attributes of bible doctrine, provided they are clearly defined and logically consistent.
The Bible does say Satan is the Father of Lies…
Given that fact, the following questions seem helpful:
If Satan is said to be the Father of lies do you believe that he is also the author (creator) of lies?
If he is the author of lies, is he not also the author of sin?
Furthermore, is the authoring of sin sinful? (I John 3:8)
Is it an expression of harmony or rebellion? Peace or discord? Darkness or light? (I John 1:5)
I think the answers to those questions are fairly obvious. Satan is the father of lies and the author thereof, not God. The entrance of sin into the world is the result of God longsuffering (or permitting) the rebellion of his Creation against his revealed will. Sin is the produce of a rebellious creation acting with both the freedom of will and accompanying accountability for the exercise thereof.
…but “authors” write books.
Even a cursory examination of any dictionary reveals that term “author” has a greater breadth of meaning than just writing books. Indeed, the bible uses the term “author” on more than one occasion and never does it design the writing of books. Christ himself is described as the “author of eternal salvation” and “author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 5:9, 12:2). It follows that any objection made upon the basis of an unnecessarily narrow and unbiblical definition of the term “author” is without merit.
It might be helpful to restate the question using “author” in precisely the same way that the bible uses it: Do you believe that God is the “author of sin” in precisely the same way that he is the "author of eternal salvation” or in precisely the same way that he is the "author and finisher of our faith”? To assert that the decretive relationship between God and salvation is PRECISELY THE SAME as the decretive relationship between God and sin is to destroy the distinction between good and evil and to confound the notions of light and darkness in the process (I John 1:5).
"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" (Isaiah 46:10)
I would ask – is it God’s pleasure to positively, actively, and unalterably decree every single heinous act of sin that has ever transpired in the same way that he positively, actively, and unalterably decreed the eternal salvation of his people? If there is no distinction made in the relationship between God and good and the relationship between God and evil, then God is undeniably the author of sin, because he is undeniably “the author of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:9).
This observation requires that you either admit that God is indeed the author of sin or admit that the God’s decretive relationship to sin is in some sense different than his decretive relationship to salvation. To me, that is a no brainer. No one should accuse God of being the author of sin (I John 1:5). What remains then, is the matter of how one describes (rightly divides) the distinction in God’s decretive relationship to good and evil respectively.
Paul addresses to the usual objection to predestination saying, "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:19-20)
The context of this statement in Romans is predestination with respect to the eternal salvation of God’s people, not with respect to all things that ever come to pass. I’m sure that we agree that God can do as he pleases with the world that he created, that the entrance of evil into the world is clearly manifest, and that God is Holy. What remains is to establish the proper biblical mechanism that accounts for the existence of evil without doing violence to the holiness of God.
Given these scriptural statements, is the Primitive Baptist objection to absolute predestination biblical?
For the aforementioned reasons, I believe that it is biblical to object the absolute predestination of all things as a matter of positive, active, decree. We should rather recognize that sin is not the direct, immediate, decretive creation of God, but the direct, immediate, invention of a rebellious creature who had been given accountability and granted liberty sufficient to oppose his creator.
Is the Primitive Baptist conclusion warranted?
I believe it is not only warranted but absolutely necessary to avoid the conclusion that the absolute predestination of all things posits a God who is likewise the author of sin.
- Elder Daniel Samons