Why Cant We Call God the "Author of Sin"?

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carlosstjohn

Puritan Board Freshman
My question is a question we've all come across before. Can we call God the author of sin?

I want to clarify this: I honestly don't see why calling him the author means that he is a sinner. In other words, calling God the author of sin and him being stained by sin because of his authorship are mutually exclusive. One can exist and not the other. Anytime this topic is come up, there's always this hesitancy because they don't want to call God a sinner. And while I understand that hesitancy and wouldn't want to make that grave mistake either, does it really have to be this way?

I see through the scriptures God's willfulness of ordaining sin and I also see his holiness and perfection always immutable.
Is it possible to, just as we can say Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent man or that God is 3 complete persons but One God, say that God is the author of sin but yet not a sinner?

Why is this one topic a topic where a "mystery" cannot be used. We don't fully understand the trinity but we still say 3 persons in 1. We don't understand how a person can have 2 complete natures, but we still affirm it. But when it comes to God and ordaining sin, it seems as if we don't allow the same logic to apply.

So, in summary, I'm not asking if God ordains sin or if he sovereignly plans it. I'm asking why is it such a big deal to call him the author as long as we also affirm that he, himself, is not a sinner in the process.
 
Carlos, just for clarification, do you agree with the following statement from the LBC?

Chapter 5; Paragraph 4. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in His providence, that His determinate counsel extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sinful actions both of angels and men;11 and that not by a bare permission, which also He most wisely and powerfully binds, and otherwise orders and governs,12 in a manifold dispensation to His most holy ends;13 yet so, as the sinfulness of their acts proceeds only from the creatures, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.14
 
I affirm everything except that last part (because thats what Im asking if we can do - call Him the author of sin). I believe, referencing to the part you bolded, that sin is only committed by His creatures.
 
My question is a question we've all come across before. Can we call God the author of sin?

I want to clarify this: I honestly don't see why calling him the author means that he is a sinner. In other words, calling God the author of sin and him being stained by sin because of his authorship are mutually exclusive. One can exist and not the other. Anytime this topic is come up, there's always this hesitancy because they don't want to call God a sinner. And while I understand that hesitancy and wouldn't want to make that grave mistake either, does it really have to be this way?

I see through the scriptures God's willfulness of ordaining sin and I also see his holiness and perfection always immutable.
Is it possible to, just as we can say Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent man or that God is 3 complete persons but One God, say that God is the author of sin but yet not a sinner?

Why is this one topic a topic where a "mystery" cannot be used. We don't fully understand the trinity but we still say 3 persons in 1. We don't understand how a person can have 2 complete natures, but we still affirm it. But when it comes to God and ordaining sin, it seems as if we don't allow the same logic to apply.

So, in summary, I'm not asking if God ordains sin or if he sovereignly plans it. I'm asking why is it such a big deal to call him the author as long as we also affirm that he, himself, is not a sinner in the process.

What does "author of sin" mean? Does it mean "proceed from his character"?

God hardened Pharaoh's heart and God made a plan that people would crucify Jesus, but sin does not proceed from God's character. It proceeds from the character of the sinner.
 
It cannot be a mystery such as the Trinity and incarnation because these two are not moral in nature, but merely essential/physical. Sin, however, is moral in nature and therefore cannot be compared to the Trinity or the incarnation. It would be a contradiction to say that God is the author of sin and yet not a sinner. An author of sin is one from whom it ultimately proceeds. Sin does not proceed from God, thus He is not a sinner. He allows and ordains for it to proceed from vile rebels, but that's all. The fountain of sin is within themselves.
 
The proof texts seem clear enough to me:

JAM 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 1JO 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
 
I think that Henry made an important distinction.

By "author" do you mean creator? Does sin proceed from God? If the creation, man particularly, was created good, how can God be the author of man's willful disobedience and rebellion? If sin is not committed by God, does not proceed from God and He does not tempt anyone to sin, "author" loses any and all meaning. If there were no second causes, God could possibly be the author because He would also be the only cause of sin, but our confessions null such a position because of second causes.

There is an element of mystery, but wouldn't we expect looking into God's purposes to be mysterious (Deut. 29:29)?
 
Why Can't We Call God the "Author of Sin"?

Sin is contrary to God. To call God the author of sin is to say that God is contrary to Himself. It goes against the grain of the biblical doctrines of "God" and "sin."
 
So, in summary, I'm not asking if God ordains sin or if he sovereignly plans it. I'm asking why is it such a big deal to call him the author as long as we also affirm that he, himself, is not a sinner in the process.

It is a 'big deal' because when the Reformers used the word 'author' they meant 'a person who invents or causes something'. God did neither.
 
I see through the scriptures God's willfulness of ordaining sin and I also see his holiness and perfection always immutable.

If a judge ordained the execution of a criminal and the executioner carried it out with malice in his heart, no one would say the judge ordained sin. It "proceeded only" from the executioner.
 
If a judge ordained the execution of a criminal and the executioner carried it out with malice in his heart, no one would say the judge ordained sin. It "proceeded only" from the executioner.

So folks aren't supposed to enjoy their work?
 
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