How Can Calvinists Say "God Causes ALL Things, But He's Not The Cause Of Sin"?

This is taken from the post "Do Calvinists Really Believe God Causes Sin?  Let Them Speak For Themselves!" (revised slightly for clarity):


 Calvinists believe that in order for God to be a "sovereign" God (their idea of "sovereign," that is) then He has to be the cause of all things.  All things!  This would include evil and sin.  

 But most Calvinists know not to accuse God of evil and sin.  And so they have to then find ways to deal with the contradiction of "God causes all things, but He doesn't really cause sin and evil."

 However, being the cause of ALL THINGS necessarily means that God causes all the evil and sins that happen.  Because if (according to their theology) there was one tiny thing that God doesn't cause/control, then He ceases to be God.  In Calvinism, an "in-control God" has to be an "all-controlling-everything-all-the-time God."  

 (Whereas I believe God can still be in-control and sovereign over all, without being totally all-controlling.  He can manage everything we and Satan and the world throws at Him and work it all into His plans and into good, without having to be the active cause of it all.  Basically, He can allow us to make real decisions on our own, He chooses what to cause and what to simply allow and what to block, and then He works it all into His plans.  That's my idea of an in-control, sovereign God, based on what I read in the Bible.  Not a god who has to cause everything that happens, even sin, rebellion, unbelief, evil, etc.)
Anyway, to get around the whole "God causes sin" thing (which is essentially what they believe but won't usually say), Calvinism came up with the idea of "ultimate cause" and "secondary cause" (they go by other names, too).  

 God is the "ultimate cause" of everything that happens, meaning that He predetermined everything that happens and ultimately brings it all about through secondary causes, such as bringing about sin through man's wicked desires and actions, in fact by causing man to desire to sin (making him unable to choose anything else but sin).  But then they say that man chose to sin because he "wanted" to sin, and therefore he is accountable for his sin, even though God is the "ultimate cause" - the planner and orchestrator - of that sin (and the sinful desires).  

 It's like saying that God planned for a murder to happen, and so He caused a person to desire to kill, and then that person "chose" to kill.  And since that person wanted and "chose" to kill, they are responsible for the murder, not God.  Even though God caused the man to desire to kill.

 Do you see how twisted and deceptive this is!?!

 Listen closely to what I'm about to tell you, because this is the hidden belief (one of the hidden beliefs) behind all the times Calvinists deceptively say "Of course man has free-will" and "Of course we get to make choices, and so we can be held accountable for our choices":

 Ultimately, what they believe is that God alone has determined - from the beginning of time - whom He will give the repentant "saved" nature to (given only to the "elect," those He's predestined for heaven) and whom He will leave as an unrepentant "unsaved" sinner.  And if God has chosen to leave you as an unrepentant sinner (based only on His "sovereign" decision, through no fault or decision of your own), you have been left as a depraved sinner who can do no good and who will only always want to sin.  Therefore, when you sin, it's that you "chose" to sin ... because you "wanted" to sin ... because you could only desire to sin and to choose sin, according to the unrepentant nature God predetermined you would have.

 And they say this can be called "freely making choices you can be held accountable for."  That you are the cause of your sin, not God.

 What the ...!?!

 Basically, God gave you the nature you have, which determined the desires you would have, which led to the actions you would do.  You "freely" make the choices that go with the desires of the nature God predetermined you would have (and you are unable to choose anything else).  You "choose" to do the things God preplanned you would do (and you can't do anything but that).  But because you "wanted" to do those things, according to the desires that come with the nature God gave you, you are the cause of your sin, not God.  And so you can "justly" be held accountable for it.

 This is what is behind all their contradictory "God is totally in control, but we really do make choices" nonsense!  Behind their "God causes all things but isn't the cause of sin" hogwash!

 Does this sound like free-will to you!?!  That you are ultimately the cause of your sins!?!  That if God predetermined you'd be an unrepentant sinner, you had any ability to not sin!?!

 And this is how they hide their view that "God causes sin."  In layers and layers of reeking garbage!

 It's frickin' nonsense!  A desperate attempt to absolve God of responsibility for evil when their theology essentially and necessarily makes God the cause of all evil!  

 Do not buy into this garbage!  Do not listen to it!  If you do - if you entertain this nonsense, trying to make Calvinism fit with the Bible - then you are allowing yourself to be led astray into a wicked theology!  What you should do instead is find out how the Bible presents God's sovereignty and how He interacts with man and what He expects from us.  Do not start with Calvinism and then try to make the Bible fit.  Start with the Bible, and you'll see how wrong - wickedly wrong - Calvinism is!

Most Popular Posts Of The Month:

List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist" posts).  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.]    And so here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinists," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify as a Calvinist, I tried to figure it out based on the statements of faith of the groups/churches they belong to, the books they write, the t...
Read more

Is The ESV (English Standard Version) a Calvinist Bible?

Just in case anyone missed this post (the longer title made it easy to miss the "ESV" part) ... "A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?") In that post, I write about a bunch of verses that I believe were intentionally translated to be more Calvinistic or based on manuscripts that were too corrupt to be trusted (click on it to see the verses).   And why would I think that the translators of this Bible version would do that? (From that post...) The ESV and ESV Study Bible are majorly preferred by Calvinists.  In fact, it's often considered "The Calvinist Bible."   Why?  And why would translators of a Bible make these kinds of Calvinist tweaks to Scripture? Wayne Grudem and J.I. Packer were editors on the  ESV Study Bible   (this is for the ESV Global Study Bible).  Grudem and Packer are both popular, strong, dogmatic Calvinists.  Very Big Names in the world of Calvinism.  Grudem in the General E...
Read more

Why Is Calvinism So Dangerous? (re-updated)

Image
Because it  appears  to teach biblical truth while actually teaching  the opposite  - while using  manipulation and cult-like tactics to suck you in!  And it's spreading.  Stealthily, fast, aggressively. (We watched it happen firsthand in our church, which is why I wrote this blog.  See  "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?"    Sadly, we ended up  leaving that church , a place we attended almost 20 years.) [ I updated this November 2022 to try to shorten it.  I failed.  But I hope it's more readable and streamlined at least.   If you only read one anti-Calvinism post of mine, I think it should be this one.  But I'm warning you, this post is long.  Very long.  So pack a lunch and bring a sleeping bag.  But it has to be long because Calvinism is so deceptively convoluted that it takes time to peel off the layers so that you can see it for what it really is.  ...
Read more

When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (shorter, basic version)

Image
[Finally, the much-shorter version - I said shorter, not short😉 - of my "But predestination!" series.  The longer version - full of many more Calvinist comments, my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons, and my replies to them - can be found by  starting here .  But in this simplified version, I'm simply sharing the basics.  And I'll do a tiny version soon too, cutting out almost all quotes and memes.  But, oh, they add so much that it's hard to cut them out. ] At the heart of Calvinism is predestination and God's sovereignty (among other things, like "total depravity"), which according to Calvinism essentially amounts to: "God preplans and controls everything, even sin and evil and all our decisions, and so He pre-picks who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  He causes the 'elect' to believe in Him and be saved, but He made sure the 'non-elect' have no chance or ability to believe and be saved because He predetermined they'd ...
Read more

"But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!"

Image
If you point out to Calvinists that Calvinism's view of sovereignty - that God fore-ordains and orchestrates everything that happens and we had no ability to do anything differently - makes God the cause (and truly the only  voluntary cause) of all sin and evil, they'll probably respond with something like "That's not what we're saying.  You're putting words in our mouths.  And you don't understand Calvinism."   When they do that, show them a few of these quotes -  Ca lvinists' own words about their beliefs of God's sovereignty and how He preplans, will, ordains, orchestrates, directs (code words for "causes")  everything  that happens.  And then ask them if they still think you're really misunderstanding them.  (Bold emphasis added) [And before reading the quotes, here's a great, satirical 4-minute video that I think everyone should see:  Hitler and Calvinism .  Awesome!] 1. R.C. Sproul Jr.  ( Almighty Over All) :  ...
Read more

A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?")

(For just the "Is the ESV a Calvinist Bible" part of this post, click here .) In my normal Bible reading today, I came across a verse about "singleness vs. marriage" that destroys Calvinism in a few short words: "But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but who has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin - this man also does the right thing."   ( 1 Corinthians 7:37, NIV ) When you get past all the layers Calvinism wraps itself in to disguise the bad parts, it ultimately teaches - at the heart of it all - that God causes/controls  everything , even controlling our wills and causing our sins.  (But He then punishes  us  for the things He caused us to do, which would make Him unjust, no matter how much Calvinists try to deny it and cover it up.  See  this post  for some links about that.)  Calvinism ultimately teaches that everything we do is because God p...
Read more

How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist (simplified version)

(For the extended version of this post, which I recommend, click here .  It is loaded with lots more information.  This simplified one is just the highlights.  And feel free to copy this and share it with others, to help them learn to identify Calvinism when they see it.  Just make sure to share the link to this blog so that they can find the original post.  Thank you.  New : For the super-short version, click here .  And FYI: I found a couple times when the Calvinist author of an article I linked to changed their article after I linked to it.  So if their article doesn't seem to match what I said about it, it may be because they altered it. ) We just left our church of almost 20 years because of the dogmatic Calvinist pastor who recently came on board.  ( Read my "Letter to Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing in Our Church" here.)   And I was thinking about what precautions I might take to make sure we didn't end up in another...
Read more

When Calvinism Infiltrates Your Church

A note I recently added to my posts on "How to tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist" : On a personal note : After having seen firsthand how Calvinism stealthily infiltrates and takes over a church, I want to share with you something that Kevin from Beyond the Fundamentals said in the video   "Stealth Calvinism in Oklahoma"  (my paraphrase): "By the time you realize what's going on and start looking up information about Calvinism online, it's too late."   Calvinist pastors who set out to take over non-Calvinist churches are banking on the fact that most people don't know what Calvinism is, giving the pastors plenty of time to weave in Calvinism in sneaky, subtle, tricksy ways before people catch on to (and research) the red flags.  (*See note at bottom about deceptive pastors.)  By that time, too many people in the church have been suckered into Calvinism (without realizing it's called Calvinism), believing that they're just...
Read more

Leaving Calvinism: Comments from Ex-Calvinists #11

Here is the last of the ex-Calvinist testimonies.  The first one is from this post:  X-Calvinist Corner .   (It's an Arminian website, but I am not Arminian.)  I am going to highlight some of the comments that stood out to me the most.  If you want to read everything that everyone said, click on the link above: Dana Steele writes: I grew up in a Calvinistic Baptist church from age 11.  The 5-points of Calvinism (TULIP) were taught regularly with great enthusiasm ... But it wasn’t until college that I began to understand and embrace the “Doctrines of Grace” and TULIP more fully....  I also learned to love the doctrine of election because it meant that God loved me personally and specifically in a unique way.  Though it made me a little embarrassed to think that God did not love everyone this way, I was content to leave this as a mystery.  Who am I to question God?  I was just glad I was one of the lucky (I mean chosen) ones. ... [As ...
Read more

The Cult of Calvinism

Here are links to a few posts that reveal the cult-like side of Calvinism: "Why Calvinism is a Cult" "Calvinism is a Counterfeit Christian Cult" "Calvinism, Cults, and Control" I left a comment at Hoppers Crossing Christian Church about their post "Calvinism, Cults, and Control."  I will also print my comment here for your information: I was reading your post "Calvinism, Cults, and Control" (2/02/20) and so much of what you said fits the Calvinist church we recently left.  Here are some of the cult-like things that happened after a Calvinist pastor took over our non-Calvinist church: 1.   From the beginning, he started laying the groundwork that disagreement with him (about his Calvinist view of predestination and God's sovereignty, in particular) was not allowed and that anyone who did disagree with him was unhumble and disagreeing with God.   Things like (paraphrases): "Humble people have no problem with God's sovereignty...
Read more