This is the last of this three part post. The entire series can be downloaded at Sovereignty of God.
One objection to the complete sovereignty of God is many people believe that the only way that man can be held responsible for his own actions and sin is to have a “free will.” They believe that man’s “free will” enables us to make moral decisions apart from the decrees of God. They hold to the view that we are in control of our own decisions and thus are responsible for them. One of those who holds to this is Finis Dake. Dake writes:
“If man had no free actions concerning moral living and God alone had the choice in man’s actions, then He would be responsible for all evil and its effects. God would be responsible for sin and could not justly judge man for his actions. He would also be responsible for death, the penalty for sin, and could not rightly execute the sentence of the broken law.”[1]
Those who believe that man has a “free will” put themselves in the sovereign place in the world. As quoted earlier James White says “…since their wills and actions are ultimate; God becomes a mere servant of the creature, reacting rather than reigning.”[2] If we truly believe that man has complete control over his own decisions we put ourselves in the driver’s seat of our lives and place God in the passenger seat. By knowing what man is going to choose of his own free will God then makes His plans for the world. This leaves God reacting and having to make His plans around the decisions and “free will” of men. Thus God is not the sovereign God of the Bible who acts and no one can reverse it (Isa 43:13). A. W. Pink describes our “free will” or “liberty” best as “True liberty is not the power to live as we please, but to live as we ought to.”[3]
As James White writes commenting on Norman Geisler’s Chosen but Free, “Here is the basic arguments as to why free will must be true: 1) Without it, men are not responsible for their actions;[4] 2) it is part of the way God created man;[5] 3) The Bible teaches free will;[6] 4) Denial of free will makes God the author of sin.[7]”[8] Norman Geisler here gives another strong objection to God’s complete sovereignty. He believes that it makes God the author of sin. The scripture says that God is not the author of sin and tempts no one (Jas 1:13). Even here we must define what we mean by “author.” As Jonathan Edwards wrote:
“If by the author of sin, be meant the sinner, the agent, or the actor of sin, or the doer of a wicked thing; so it would be a reproach and blasphemy to suppose God to be the author of sin. In this sense, I utterly deny God to be the author of sin; rejecting such an imputation on the Most High, as what is infinitely to be abhorred; and deny any such thing to be the consequence of what I have laid down. But if, by the author of sin, is meant the permitter, or not a hinderer of sin, and, at the same time, a disposer of the state of events, in such a manner, for wise, holy, and most excellent ends and purposes, that sin, if it be permitted, or not hindered, will most certainly and infallibly follow;—I say, if this be all that is meant by being the author of sin, I do not deny that God is the author of sin, (though I dislike and reject the phrase, as that which by use and custom is apt to carry another sense), it is no reproach for the Most High to be thus the author of sin. This is not to be the actor of sin, but on the contrary, of holiness.”[9]
A.W. Pink also says:
“Plainly it was God’s will that sin should enter this world, otherwise it would not have entered, for nothing happens except what God has eternally decreed. Moreover, there was more than a simple permission, for God only permits things that fulfill His purpose.”[10]
God is not the author of sin in that He is held responsible for sin. He does ordain all our actions, even the sinful ones. If this were not true then we would be back to a God that is not sovereign over our actions and having to react and adjust His plan according to our decisions as he would have had to do with Joseph (Gen 50:20). If God does not control all actions in the world, even the evil and sinful ones, what hope do we have that He can prevent them from happening? Dr. Morey states “If God were not in control of everything including evil would there be any of hope that we would escape the wrath of the devil? Could we pray deliver us from the evil one?”[11] Why would Jesus have taught His disciples to pray asking God to deliver them from the evil one (Matt 6:13) if God was not sovereign over evil? In closing I leave with a final quote from C.H. Spurgeon:
Opposition to divine sovereignty is essentially atheism. Men have no objection to a god who is really no God; I mean, by this, a god who shall be the subject of their caprice, who shall be a lackey to their will, who shall be under their control,—they have no objection to such a being as that; but a God who speaks, and it is done, who commands, and it stands fast, a God who has no respect for their persons, but doeth as he wills among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world, such a God as this they cannot endure.[12]
Bibliography
Dake, Fenis Jennings. God’s Plan for Man. Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Publishing, Inc, 1998.
Edwards, Jonathan. Freedom of the Will. Vol. 1 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957.
Frame, Dr. John. The Doctrine of God. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 2002.
Geisler, Norman. Chosen but Free. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2001.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Deffinition of Antinomy. 2008. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antinomy (accessed October 25, 2008).
Morey, Robert. Free Will and God’s Sovereignty. CD. Faith Defenders. 2008.
Nosotro, Rit. William Carey. April 15, 2008. http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b3careyw.htm (accessed November 7, 2008).
Packer, J.I. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Downers Grove, Il: Inter Varsity Press, 1961.
Pink, A. W. The Sovereignty of God. Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2008.
Spurgeon, Charles H. Spurgeon Quotes, Sovereignty of God. 1910. http://www.spurgeon.us/mind_and_heart/quotes/g.htm#sovereignty (accessed October 25, 2008).
—. Squrgeon Quotes, Human Responsibility. 1888. http://www.spurgeon.us/mind_and_heart/quotes/h2.htm (accessed October 25, 2008).
Webster, Noah. 1828 Dictionary. New Haven, CT: S. Converse, 1828.
Westminster Confession of Faith. Westminster Confession of Faith. 1647. http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/index.html (accessed October 25, 2008).
White, James R. The Potter’s Freedom. Merrick, NY: Calvary Press Publishing, 2000.
