[This is what we consider a well-balanced article explaining our Old School Baptist views on the subjects of "hypercalvinism" and "antinomianism", which terms we accept proudly whn correctly defined - ed]
I am a Hyper Calvinist Antinomian Old School Baptist, and for my entire adult life I have believed in the Lord’s Eternal and Absolute Predestination of All Things. I certainly believe that God is the Author of all things including sin, however I find that the phrase “Author of Sin” has been so loosely used among some of the other Baptists that I have known as to have become very distasteful and would certainly have a disrespectful tone coming from a sinner like me. At times, I have heard it used so casually as to be licentious.
I do, however, believe that God is the Author and Cause of all things, and the brethren at Welsh Tract Church have, for as long as I have been attending and certainly for as long as I have been a member, believed in the Causative Absolute Predestination of all Things, however, they and I, do not believe or teach that God is the Author of Sin in the manner in which the enemies of the truth would accuse us of. All of God’s works are Holy, Just, and Righteous, but not because there are some things He cannot do, and certainly not because He is limited to only those acts which men deem to be Holy, Just, and Righteous. The works of the Lord are Holy, Just, and Righteous merely because He does them.
The accusation that a particular viewpoint “makes God the Author of Sin” I find to be either a cunning diversion used to dissuade believers from considering the whole truth about the Sovereignty of God and His all-encompassing Government, or it is used as a means of attempting to protect God from the accusations the He has purposed, ordained, predestinated, or caused men to sin. In 2nd Samuel 6:1-7, the ark of the covenant was being moved on a cart pulled by oxen. As the cart moved, the ark rocked as if it might tip over. Uzzah, who was driving the cart, “put forth his hand to steady the ark, and the Lord smote him, “and there he died before God.”
God does not need man to assist Him in any way or to defend His Holiness, Justice, or Glory. Many doctrines and beliefs have been contrived for this very purpose, e.g. Conditional Salvation, Non-Causative Predestination, Two-Seedism, etc. I have no intention of circumventing truths about the government of God because of what some men may think.
In a previous message you quoted 1st Corinthians 14:33 to show that God is not the Author of confusion. The inspired Word says no such thing. Please notice that the words “the Author” in this passage are italicized, meaning that they were not translated from the original text, but were added by the translator. It is only the translator’s opinion that God is not the Author of Confusion. The actual inspired word reads, “God is not of confusion but of peace”.
There are multiple places in the scriptures where God has caused confusion.
God confused the language of the men building the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9, and caused them to be unable to understand one another, and He then scattered them across the earth. “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth:” and “Therefore is the name of it called Babel: because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth”. Since the word “confound” is synonymous with the word “confuse”, I believe I would be correct in saying that God was the Author of Confusion at the Tower of Babel.
How about Gideon’s Battle against the Midianites in the 7th Chapter of Judges? When Gideon’s men blew their trumpets and shouted, “The Sword of the Lord, and of Gideon”, the Midianites were turned against each other with their swords. And who caused such a confusing circumstance among these Midianites? See Judges 7:22, “and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host”. Yes, God was the Author of Confusion among these Midianites.
You may also want to consider Balaam’s Ass. When Balaam was summoned by Balak to curse the Israelites, and he rode his donkey on the journey, God’s anger was kindled against him, and He sent an angel to block his way. The donkey saw the angel and refused to proceed which frustrated Balaam, and he beat the poor animal until God opened the donkey’s mouth and allowed it to ask Balaam why he was being beaten. As confusing as this situation was, the speaking Ass ended up keeping Balaam from being killed by the angel of the Lord. Can you tell me that a speaking ass wouldn’t be confusing to you? Yet wasn’t it the Lord who caused this confusing event?
There are many more passages that I could quote to show that God caused and causes confusion, but I think that these passages suffice to support my position that God is the Author of all things, including Confusion.
During our conversation earlier this week, you made mention that you did not believe that God was ever the cause of sin, and that men acted freely, even when God had predestinated their wicked acts. Also, in your last email, you included the outline of a sermon where under the heading of “God’s dominion does not make Him the Author of Sin” the Elder who wrote this sermon also makes the statement that “God does not violate the will of any angel or man: they freely and happily choose sin.”
There are numerous statements in the bible where we are told that God gives men their own wills. Some examples of these passages are:
Proverbs 21:1: “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.
Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Romans 9:18: “Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.”
Jeremiah 10:23: “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
Men do not choose their own wills. I agree with you that men act without coercion or compulsion when committing sin, and that they choose to sin willingly, but they never choose to sin freely. If they were free to determine their own will related to sinful acts, how would God even be able to foreknow these acts? There would be nothing absolute about man’s sinful acts for God to foreknow until man decided to commit them. This would completely undermine, not only God’s foreknowledge of all things, but it would render His Eternal Predestination of All Things irrelevant and meaningless. Man would be acting completely outside of the government of God. Not only that, if man was free, and could choose not to sin, what would stop man from avoiding sin all together? What then would God save man from? Why would Christ be the Lamb Slain from before the foundation of the world? His Salvation might not even be necessary because man (and angels according to the attached sermon) would freely decide if sin would or would not be entering the world. God’s entire scheme of Salvation would collapse.
Another statement made in the referenced sermon was that “God does not tempt any angel or man to sin, because He does not need to (James 1:13-16.)
I would ask you to consider a few examples where the scriptures detail occurrences where God caused men to sin.
Pharaoh's refusal to allow the Israelites out of Egypt to worship God in the wilderness is a very clear case in the scriptures of God causing a man to sin for His glory. In Exodus 7:3 the Lord told Moses that He would “harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt”. This was the stated reason for causing Pharoah to not let the people of Israel go. After the plague of Hail had ceased in Exodus 9:34, Pharaoh “sinned yet more and hardened his heart”. In Chapter 10, verse 1, Moses was told to, “Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants”. The Lord had already hardened Pharaoh's heart so that He could “show His signs before him”. Throughout the account of the Exodus, we are told on three occasions that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, yet we are also told ten times that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Three times God states His purpose for hardening Pharaoh's heart, and when the Israelites are finally allowed to leave, God further hardens Pharaoh's heart causing him to follow after the Israelites and the text again gives the reason for why God had caused Pharaoh to sin yet more in Exodus 14:7, “I will get me honour upon Pharoah, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord”.
In 2nd Samuel, Chapter 12, God spoke to David through Nathan and told him, because of his sin with Bathsheba, that He would “raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take they wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel”. This punishment came to fruition in 2nd Samuel Chapter 13, when Amnon raped his half-sister, and also in 2nd Samuel 16:21-22 when Absalom publicly slept with David’s concubines. God stated that He would “raise up evil” against David out of his own house. He caused these sinful acts as a punishment of David. He didn’t coax or tempt them, and nothing in the scriptures says that He did. However, they say that He raised up evil. That statement is inclusive and causative.
In Judges 9:23-25, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and Shechem and caused the men of Shechem to deal “treacherously” with Abimelech, and “set liars in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along….” The Lord, by this evil spirit, caused the men of Shechem to sin by robbing all that passed by.
This is clearly a situation where God gave a law (Exodus 20:15) then, by His evil spirit caused the men of Shechem to sin by robbing all that passed by.
Act 2:23 tells of Christ, being “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” and “by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”. There is no question that this was the most serious of all sins that we could consider for an example, and this passage is very clear. His being delivered was caused by the determinate counsel of God. But what exactly was encompassed by His being “delivered”? Was it only His death and resurrection? Were these events somehow not interconnected with every other event in His life? Was His baptism by John the Baptist a critical event on His path to being “delivered” to His death? What about His being tempted by Satan afterwards? How about His earthly lineage? Did God cause Him to be delivered by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge by way of the Royal Lineage of King David? If so, how is it that the Lord’s determinate counsel did not also cause Him to be delivered throughout His entire earthly lineage? Either God Predestinated the entire plan of Salvation, which includes providing for a Lamb to be slain and the events that provided for the actual Lamb, or He did not.
If God, through his determinate counsel and foreknowledge caused Jesus to come through the precise lineage that He did in order to be delivered to the cross, did not that lineage include the illegal connection between Boaz and Ruth? Wasn’t Ruth a Moabite, yet God commanded the Israelites not to marry foreign women? I believe He gave this commandment multiple times. Did God cause this sin so as to bring about the lineage of Jesus? And what about God’s passing the lineage of Jesus through Judah and Tamar? Was it a sin for Judah to commit whoredom with his daughter-in-law, Tamar? Shall we consider the birth of Moab, who was also in the lineage of Jesus. God, by His determinate counsel, caused the lineage of Jesus to come through the incestuous relations of Lot and his daughter leading to the birth of Moab. Or did God not actually cause this sinful event, but instead He only acted as an opportunist by taking advantage of man’s sin to bring about the lineage of Jesus?
The belief that God effectively directs all things for His own purposes, and for the ultimate good of His people, can be a hard doctrine, but I believe it to be the truth. The government of God is a Divine Tyranny.
On a final note, I want to point out that it is an amazing thing that people can disagree about many things, and many times choose to agree to disagree so to speak. But if a person is found to believe that God truly governs all events in this world, both good and evil, he cannot be tolerated. It seems like other believers do not just dislike the doctrine of Absolute Predestination of All Things, but they hate the person who believes it. This can be seen even in the sermon by Elder Jon Crosby that you forwarded on The Dominion of God. Apparently, we do not just disagree on the extent of God’s Predestination, we are “very wicked men with profane hearts who use God’s Sovereignty to charge Him with sin.” I have heard such accusations many times, and it is somewhat ironic. These same types of Elders would probably never think of personally denigrating a Roman Catholic, a Southern Baptist, or a Conditionalist Primitive Baptist. But when it comes to true Absoluters, they are irrevocably hell bound already.
The vitriol that some have for believers of a truly Sovereign God show to be caused by a truly negative spiritual element.
Feel free to write back anytime.
Act 2:23 tells of Christ, being “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” and “by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”. There is no question that this was the most serious of all sins that we could consider for an example, and this passage is very clear. His being delivered was caused by the determinate counsel of God. But what exactly was encompassed by His being “delivered”? Was it only His death and resurrection? Were these events somehow not interconnected with every other event in His life? Was His baptism by John the Baptist a critical event on His path to being “delivered” to His death? What about His being tempted by Satan afterwards? How about His earthly lineage? Did God cause Him to be delivered by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge by way of the Royal Lineage of King David? If so, how is it that the Lord’s determinate counsel did not also cause Him to be delivered throughout His entire earthly lineage? Either God Predestinated the entire plan of Salvation, which includes providing for a Lamb to be slain and the events that provided for the actual Lamb, or He did not.
If God, through his determinate counsel and foreknowledge caused Jesus to come through the precise lineage that He did in order to be delivered to the cross, did not that lineage include the illegal connection between Boaz and Ruth? Wasn’t Ruth a Moabite, yet God commanded the Israelites not to marry foreign women? I believe He gave this commandment multiple times. Did God cause this sin so as to bring about the lineage of Jesus? And what about God’s passing the lineage of Jesus through Judah and Tamar? Was it a sin for Judah to commit whoredom with his daughter-in-law, Tamar? Shall we consider the birth of Moab, who was also in the lineage of Jesus. God, by His determinate counsel, caused the lineage of Jesus to come through the incestuous relations of Lot and his daughter leading to the birth of Moab. Or did God not actually cause this sinful event, but instead He only acted as an opportunist by taking advantage of man’s sin to bring about the lineage of Jesus?
The belief that God effectively directs all things for His own purposes, and for the ultimate good of His people, can be a hard doctrine, but I believe it to be the truth. The government of God is a Divine Tyranny.
On a final note, I want to point out that it is an amazing thing that people can disagree about many things, and many times choose to agree to disagree so to speak. But if a person is found to believe that God truly governs all events in this world, both good and evil, he cannot be tolerated. It seems like other believers do not just dislike the doctrine of Absolute Predestination of All Things, but they hate the person who believes it. This can be seen even in the sermon by Elder Jon Crosby that you forwarded on The Dominion of God. Apparently, we do not just disagree on the extent of God’s Predestination, we are “very wicked men with profane hearts who use God’s Sovereignty to charge Him with sin.” I have heard such accusations many times, and it is somewhat ironic. These same types of Elders would probably never think of personally denigrating a Roman Catholic, a Southern Baptist, or a Conditionalist Primitive Baptist. But when it comes to true Absoluters, they are irrevocably hell bound already.
The vitriol that some have for believers of a truly Sovereign God show to be caused by a truly negative spiritual element.
Feel free to write back anytime.
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