Question: You say, “...Calvinists teach that God is the author of sin....” Dave, this is a ...

Question: You say, “...Calvinists teach that God is the author of sin....” Dave, this is a falsehood....That you are in error in this is so glaringly obvious I keep wondering why I have to keep pointing these things out to you....Calvinists indeed teach that God foreordains sin, that God decrees sin, that God is the cause of sin, but they also teach that this does not make God the author of sin.... That Calvinists teach that God is not the author of sin is an irrefutable statement of fact! Dave, I am not going to back off on this. You keep bringing up that Calvinists teach that God decrees everything, foreordains everything, causes everything, including sin, all of which are accurate. However, the Calvinists that teach these things also say and teach that this does not make God the author of sin. So once again I exhort you to please refrain from misrepresenting what Calvinists teach.

Response: You agree that Calvinists “indeed teach that God foreordains sin, that God decrees sin, that God is the cause of sin....” In spite of quoting Boettner (“God has foreordained the entire course of events in this world...”), you claim, “but they also teach that this does not make God the author of sin.” Could there be a clearer contradiction?

There are endless quotes to show Calvinism’s teaching that God’s “foreknowledge amounts to necessity...he has decreed that [events] are so to happen...all events take place by his sovereign appointment” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, III: xxiii, 6); “God wills all things that come to pass...God desired for man to fall into sin...God created sin.” (R.C. Sproul, Jr., Almighty Over All, p. 54); “God foreordains everything which comes to pass...initiates all things, regulates all things....” (Pink, The Sovereignty of God, p. 240); “All things that happen...come to pass because God ordained them...every evil thought, word, and deed in all of history....He has foreordained everything...the mistake of a typist —even sin....” (Palmer, the five points of calvinism, pp. 24, 25, 82, 97-100, 116); “...the counsels and wills of men...move exactly in the course which he [God] has destined...there cannot be a greater absurdity than to hold that anything is done without the ordination of God...men do nothing save at the secret instigation of God...what he has previously decreed...and brings to pass...” (Institutes, I: xvi, 6,8,9; I: xviii, 1).

In view of these and many other unequivocal declarations by Calvin and others that God is the cause of everything that occurs, including sin, how can I be charged with falsehood for saying that Calvinists say God is the author of sin? To support this allegation you offer numerous quotes (which I know only too well) in which Calvinists insist that God is not the “author” of sin. I acknowledge that Calvinists don’t directly say in so many words that God is the author of sin, but it is indisputable that they identify God as sin’s author by their teaching that “God foreordains...decrees...and is the cause of sin.” Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines “author” as “one who produces, creates, or brings into being; the beginner, creator, or first mover of anything.” By this definition, Calvinism’s God is unquestionably the author of sin! Can you explain how God can foreordain, decree and cause sin without being its author? Calvinists cannot escape the logical consequences of their teaching by simply denying it to be so.