Does Supralapsarianism make God the Author of Sin?

"If our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?" (Romans 3:5-7).

A common accusation against supralapsarianism, especially from Arminians, but also even from professing Calvinists, is that it makes God the author of sin. They point out, correctly, that supralapsarianism teaches that God predestined the Fall. Therefore, they say, He forced Adam and Eve to sin. However, that is a false equivalency. Predestination does not imply force, as Calvinists have always said: "Nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established" (Westminster Confession of Faith III:1). Adam and Eve chose to sin. The fact that their choice was consistent with God's decree doesn't change the fact that it represented what they wanted to do. 

Furthermore, the choice of Adam and Eve was to commit an evil act. They knew the commandment of God regarding the tree. They understood that they were disobeying that commandment. And they knew that the desire underlying that choice was to achieve Satan's promise of autonomy from the lordship of God (Genesis 3:5). In every way, what they sought was wickedness. And that was why their choice properly brought them under the judgment of God.

In His decree, however, God had a very different purpose, as Paul describes in the verses above. God's decree of the Fall was certainly not to grant autonomy to Adam and Eve. That would, indeed, have been to seek a sinful end. Rather, the decree was intended to bring about His own glory, the highest good that is possible! That is, God's decree that Adam would fall into wickedness was to the highest good that any end could be.And, therefore, the cavil of the Arminian is refuted.

The Immutability of God and The Cycle of Gods in Mormonism

One of the things that distinguishes Mormonism and Christianity as fundamentally-different religions is their respective views of God. In Mormonism, God the Father, whom they call Elohim, was a man like us on another planet. There he fulfilled the plan of salvation of the god of that planet, and was rewarded with exaltation to deity and a planet of us his own. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, said, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man... I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea... He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth" (Ensign, April 1971, p.13-14).

In fact, Mormonism teaches an infinite recursion of such exalted gods, each having been a man on the prior god's world: "But if God the Father was not always God, but came to his present exalted position by degrees of progress as indicated in the teachings of the prophet, how has there been a God from all eternity? The answer is that there has been and there now exists an endless line of Gods, stretching back into the eternities" (B. H. Roberts - Mormon Seventy and LDS church historian, New Witness for God 1:476).

In contrast, biblical Christians point to the Bible's teaching that there is and has ever been only one God, who has ever been and ever shall be as He is now. The fundamental text regarding this is Isaiah 43:10: "'You are My witnesses,' declares the LORD, 'and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after Me.'" He denies that there were any gods before Him, or that there will be any after Him, just as there are none besides Him. Compare that to the recursion of gods mentioned above.

Why is that significant? Well, Mormons admit that there have been revelations to their "prophets" which were abrogated by subsequent "prophets." The best-known such prophecy is that regarding blacks in the priesthood. One revelation forbade it and a later one allowed it. How can anyone depend on a deity who says one thing at one time and another, possibly even an opposite, at a later time? His promises can be given and then revoked. The way of salvation can be one thing at one point and a different thing later. Mormons admit this possibility, but are unbothered by it. They have told me that to expect consistency from their god is to put him in a box.

In stark contrast, the biblical God binds Himself to the very consistency which the Mormon poo-poos. "God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?" (Numbers 23:19, see also I Samuel 15:29). The God of the Bible dismisses the Mormon view of deity as depriving Him of His deity, not as a limitation. He refuses it, promising instead that we can depend on His promises exactly because He is not a changeable man. 

One thing that should be clear here is that the Christian and the Mormon are not brothers, and that the Mormon claim to being Christian is false. Not only are Christianity and Mormonism distinct religions, they are different kinds of religions. Another is that Christian should pray for the biblical God to open the eyes of Mormons to their deception. As long as they are bound in their cloud of lies, then they deny to themselves the felicity that comes only from knowing the biblical God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Repentance and Judgment

In court proceedings, we often see the perpetrator apologize to his victims as a sign of contrition. If the judge is convinced, he may lower the penalty for the crime. Parents often tell miscreant children to say, "I'm sorry," in order to mitigate punishment. My own parents did that when I was a child.

Is repentance for the sake of mitigating punishment legitimate repentance? I certainly don't think so. So why repent?

In his book, The Necessity and Nature of Christianity, Southern Presbyterian Theologian James Henley Thornwell wrote, "[In Paul's sermon at the Areopagus], the general judgement is not presented as a motive to amendment, but as proof that it is commanded. He does not say that men ought to repent because they will be judged, but that they are commanded to do it. He first collects the command from a general judgment in righteousness, and then proves, not that there will be a judgment, but that it will be in righteousness, because Jesus has been raised from the dead."

Thornwell is referring to Acts 17:30-31: "Now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead." There are three things that Paul here tells the Athenians. The first is that God commands all men to repent. It is not a plea or an offer; it is a command. The second is that a general judgment by God is coming. And third, the proof of the coming judgment is the raising of Jesus from the dead. 

Picture a car speeding toward a cliff (thanks to Star Trek for the analogy). The driver is commanded to stop, because a deadly crash is not merely possible, but is a definite, approaching consequence of the current action. Stopping is not just a nice thing to do, or to be cajoled as a favor. There is an explicit choice between stopping and dying. In the same way, repentance is commanded because judgment is coming, and Jesus has been displayed as the only qualified judge by His resurrection.

Repentance is not for the mitigation of punishment, but for the acknowledgement of the justice of our judgment. And then, by faith alone, we can plead our surety, that same Judge, Jesus, who has already taken the judgment for all that are His.

Open Theism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Omniscience of God

Part of what makes God what He is is His attributes of deity, just as what distinguishes a human from a cactus, for example, is the attributes of humanity. Those attributes of God are such things as eternality, omnipresence, and omniscience. Even the American most ignorant of true religion will have absorbed that definition, that God has always existed and always will exist, that He is everywhere, and that He knows everything.

But for the Christian, "common knowledge" is insufficient grounds for certainty, even in a culture with a biblical heritage, as in the United States. Plus, that common knowledge is being challenged by some in our day.

For example, both Jehovah's Witnesses and open theists deny His omniscience. They believe, correctly, that omniscience implies that events are not ultimately determined by the contingent decisions of men. And to admit that possibility would be to deny the hyper-Pelagianism of both groups.

To the Christian, the determiner of truth is the Word of God, the Bible, not common knowledge, because it alone is God's infallible testimony of truth. So, given that presupposition, does the Bible tell us that God knows all, past and present? Yes, it does.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me!
     You know when I sit down and when I rise up; 

You discern my thoughts from afar.   

     You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways. 

     Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. 

     You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay Your hand upon me. 

     Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

- Psalm 139:1-6 

David the Psalmist is in awe, because he is aware of God's exhaustive knowledge of his life, his surroundings, and even the thoughts of his mind. God is never ignorant of our thoughts or caught by surprise by our choices. 

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18 KJV). This is an especially-important verse because it shuts down every claim of the Arminian. God does not act in response to the choices of men; He determined all things in prehistory. This also shuts the mouth of the Jehovah's Witness or open theist, because there is nothing unplanned to God, no suprises, no new information. He knows everything, and has known it since eternity past.

Elijah and the Rise of Persecution in America

We are living in time where it is becoming more difficult to be a Christian in America. The humanists have succeeded in defining the right to free exercise of religion as a right to private exercise, such as at home or in church. But definitely not in the public square. The First Amendment has been turned on its head, from a protection of religious practice from government oppression to a means to sterilize public discourse, so that only humanism is acceptable as the basis for public policy or morality.

Christians seem to have forgotten the answer the Apostles made to such pressure in their own day: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). And that assertion was made in the face of times to come, when all of the Apostles died a violent death, except John, and even he was imprisoned for a time. We do not, yet, face that danger in America.

The problem is that this public pressure has put American Christians into a crisis of loyalty. To whom do we owe our highest loyalty? To government, especially in the face of its own lawlessness? Or to God?

The Scriptures are clear: "You shall not fall in with the many to do evil" (Exodus 23:2). In giving witness against evil, we are not allowed to consider whether the crowd agrees with us. The only consideration we are allowed is whether we agree with God. If so, then our calling is to stand for what God says, whether everyone is with us, or everyone is against us. And that can be a very difficult thing.

The Prophet Elijah faced the situation where he alone stood for the true and living God, against a culture that had turned to pagan gods: "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away" (I Kings 19:10). This is serious depression. Elijah saw himself alone against a culture given over to paganism, and he had no strength to continue the fight. But what did God answer him? "Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him" (verse 18). God had another seven thousand faithful Israelites who needed to witness Elijah's faithfulness, because they, too, thought that they were alone. Every one of those men and women believed that he was the last of the faithful.

And that is the calling of each of today's American Christians. We are to remain faithful, no matter the opposition we face. Our first concern is faithfulness to God. However, we also need to consider the other timid Christians who need to be strengthened by knowing that they are not alone, and then they may be empowered to speak, as well.

The Omniscience of God Against the Pelagian

Both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses explicitly deny the omniscience of God. And that denial is consistent with their Pelagian soteriologies. An exhaustive divine knowledge is consistent only with a Calvinist soteriology (though the average Arminian will deny it). Any form of Pelagianism logically leads to open theism, the doctrine of a learning deity, one who is unable to know anything which is supposedly dependent on the contingent choices of men.

However, it is only the Calvinist view which is consistent with the portrayal of God in the Bible.

"His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves."
- Job 34:21-22

The Bible knows only the living triune God, who has exhaustive and intuitive knowledge of all things at all times. That is what is meant by omniscience. Such exhaustive knowledge is consistent with His omnipresence, His exhaustive and simultaneous presence in all places, in heaven, on the earth, and in Hell. If He knows all things in all places at all times, then no event is contingent to Him. Everything is immediate to His awareness, and, thus, determined by Him.

The Arminian will object to that last part, claiming that His knowing all things doesn't imply His determination of all things. Really? If He knows a thing before it happens, then He passively allows it to happen, the Arminian claims, creating a distinction between knowing and determining. But, if God allows a thing, is it because of His own choice, or is it because He is forced to do so by some force outside of Himself? If it is because of His own choice, then He has determined that the thing will happen; the distinction is without significance. On the other hand, if He does so because of some force outside of Himself, then that thing is greater than God. Surely the Arminian cannot accept such a conclusion. More importantly, that force to which God yields is then the real god, and that god is the determiner, merely putting the assertion of the Arminian one step back, in an infinite recursion.

Human Pride versus the God-Centeredness of God

"He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him back? What He desires, that He does." 
- Job 23:13

Among American evangelicals, there is an unstated belief that God is a giant Santa Claus in the sky, who exists to take care of us, to make us happy, and to satisfy our whims. We see this most plainly in the Prosperity Gospel teachers, who suggest that anyone who is poor or has a physical ailment is, somehow, unfaithful. God has been turned into an indulgent but toothless grandfather, no longer the Creator and Lord. 

The problem with that is that it bears no similarity to the God of the Bible. It is a violation of both the First and Second Commandments. That God, the true living God, is pursuing, not our glory, but His own; not our desires, but His own; not our gratification, but His own. We see it in the verse at the top of this article. 

I think that atheism is preferable. The atheist honestly admits that He hates God, and, therefore, rejects Him. In contrast, the average evangelical will gush about how much he loves God, but with that one unstated proviso: I will love God as long as He makes me happy. Such a Christian is proud that he keeps God on perpetual probation.

What is God's answer? "For My own sake, for My own sake, do I act, for how should My name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another" (Isaiah 48:11). God always acts to promote His own glory. If He were to do otherwise, at any time for any mere creature, then He would be transferring His glory to that person, and that is something that He will never do.

And that attitude drives the professing, but false, believer absolutely crazy. Try telling it to people, and watch the moral umbrage come steaming out of their nostrils and flashing from their eyes. "Who does God think He is? GOD or something?" And the answer, of course, is yes, He does think that. 

God Kicks Away Every Competing Support

In the book known by his name, the Patriarch Job tells a very sad tale.

Starting with verse 6, he first tells us how God has opposed Himself to Job:
"Now then that God has put me in the wrong
     and closed His net about me.
Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
     I call for help, but there is no justice.
He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
     and He has set darkness upon my paths.
He has stripped from me my glory
     and taken the crown from my head.
He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
     and my hope has He pulled up like a tree.
He has kindled His wrath against me
     and counts me as His adversary.
His troops come on together;
     they have cast up their siege ramp against me 
and encamp around my tent."
- Job 19:6-12 

Then, in the next section, God isolates Job from even his family: 
"He has put my brothers far from me,
     and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
My relatives have failed me,
     my close friends have forgotten me.
The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
     I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but He gives me no answer;
     I must plead with Him with my mouth for mercy.
My breath is strange to my wife,
     and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
Even young children despise me;
     when I rise they talk against me.
All my intimate friends abhor me, 
     and those whom I loved have turned against me."
- Job 19:13-19 

This is part of the process of effectual calling, the events God uses to break down our unbelief, and to eliminate whatever competing source of support we maintain. In Job's case, he depended on his relatives for sustaining strength in life, so God separated those relationships. The same with his friends. This is an application of the First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). Someone might object that Job never worshiped other deities. Nor do most modern Americans pray to other gods. Yet, to God, another god doesn't just mean Thor or Ganesha. Rather, to Him another god is any support we have in life for not depending on Him as our only God, whether that deity is self-confidence or supportive family. In His eyes, they are competitors, and He removes them from the lives of His elect, until we throw ourselves on Him alone: "I am the LORD; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols" (Isaiah 42:8).

And in the case of Job, this work was successful: 
"I know that my Redeemer lives,
     and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
     yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
     and my eyes shall behold, and not another. 
My heart faints within me!"
-Job 19:25-27 

Now that Job has been deprived of his crutches, he is able to see the glory of God. And, where he had been experiencing such unmitigated sorrow, now he experiences hope, the sure hope that he has been given new life, and will thus have his place in the resurrection, where he will see Jesus his Redeemer, with the same eyes with which he now sees only the sky. 

This is the question that every unbeliever faces: when you experience things like this, and feel the tug on your heart to turn from your unbelief (the meaning of repentance), how long will you resist? How long will you watch what you value in your life get pulled away? Surrender now, before the price goes up.

Jesus experienced this separation, but in the opposite order. He had perfect fellowship with His divine Father for unknown ages before He was born: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that you have given Me because you loved Me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24). But He also experienced the loss of His companions (Matthew 26:31, Mark 14:50). And, just before He died, He experienced separation, for the fist time ever, even from His own Father: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46; compare Isaiah 59:2). He experienced that separation on behalf of everyone who believes in Him. He was separated so that we can be reunited with His God, who is our God.

Sovereignty and the Monotheism of God

"See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand" (Deuteronomy 32:39).

The Bible is a thoroughly monotheistic book. This verse is just one of many such explicit statements by God that He alone is God. An even more-explicit example is Isaiah 43:10: "'You are My witnesses, declares the LORD, 'and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after Me.'"

The reason that I chose to emphasize the verse from Deuteronomy is that it doesn't merely assert monotheism, but also establishes one of the implications of the truth: "There is none that can deliver out of My hand." God not only declares Himself of singular status, but then warns men that, therefore, there is no opposing force that can rescue us from His judgment. He was addressing pagan deities then, but His declaration applies equally to the deities of our own age, such as science or "progress." Yet, we see even explicit pagan blasphemy, as in the picture above. Yet, God's hand of judgment cannot be restrained by any power outside Himself. That woman, appealing even to Satan, will be judged together with Satan, unless she repent.