1. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
THE
objection may be raised that if God has foreordained the entire course of
events in this world He must be the Author of Sin. To begin with, we readily
admit that the existence of sin in a universe which is under the control
of a God who is infinite in His wisdom, power, holiness, and justice, is
an inscrutable mystery which we in our present state of knowledge cannot
fully explain. As yet we only see through a glass darkly. Sin can never be
explained on the grounds of logic or reason, for it is essentially illogical
and unreasonable. The mere fact that sin exists has often been urged by atheists
and skeptics as an argument not merely against Calvinism but against theism
in general.
The Westminster Standards, in treating of the dread mystery of evil, are
very careful to guard the character of God from even the suggestion of evil.
Sin is referred to the freedom which is given to the agent, and of all sinful
acts whatever they emphatically affirm that “the sinfulness thereof
proceedeth only from the creature and not from God, who, being most holy
and righteous, neither is. nor can be the author or approver of sin.”
(V; 4.)
And while it is not ours to explain how God in His secret counsel rules and
overrules the sinful acts of men, it is ours to know that whatever God does
He never deviates from His own perfect justice. In all the manifestations
of His character He shows Himself pre-eminently the Holy One. These deep
workings of God are mysteries which are to be adored, but not to be inquired
into; and were it not for the fact that some persons persist in declaring
that the doctrine of Predestination makes God the author of sin, we could
let the matter rest here.
A partial explanation of sin is found in the fact that while man is constantly
commanded in Scripture not to commit it, he is, nevertheless, permitted to
commit it if he chooses to do so. No compulsion is laid on the person; he
is simply left to the free exercise of his own nature, and he alone is
responsible. This, however. is never a bare permission, for with full knowledge
of the nature of the person and of his tendency to sin, God allows him or
allows him to be in a certain environment, knowing perfectly well that
the particular sin will be committed. But while God permits sin, His connection
with it is purely negative and it is the abominable thing which he hates
with perfect hatred. The motive which God has in permitting it and the motive
which man has in committing it are radically different. Many persons
are deceived in these matters because they fail to consider that God wills
righteously those things which men do wickedly. Furthermore, every person’s
conscience after he has committed a sin tells him that he alone is responsible
and that he need not have committed it if he had not voluntarily chosen to
do so.
The Reformers recognized the fact that sin, both in its entrance into the
world and in all its subsequent appearances, was involved in the divine plan;
that the explanation of its existence, so far as any explanation could be
given, was to be found in the fact that sin was completely under the control
of God; and that it would be overruled for a higher manifestation of His
glory. We may rest assured that God would never have permitted sin to have
entered at all unless, through His secret and overruling providence, He was
able to exert a directing influence on the minds of wicked men so that good
is made to result from their intended evil. He works not only all the good
and holy affections which are found in the hearts of His people, but He also
perfectly controls all the depraved and impious affections of the wicked,
and turns them as He pleases, so that they have a desire to accomplish that
which He has planned to accomplish by their means. The wicked so often glory
in themselves at some accomplishment of their purposes; but as Calvin says,
“the event at length proves that they were only fulfilling all the while
that which had been ordained of God, and that too, against their own will,
while they knew nothing of it.” But while God does overrule the depraved
affections of men for the accomplishment of His own purposes, He nevertheless
punishes them for their sin and makes them to stand condemned in their own
consciences.
“A ruler may forbid treason; but his command does not oblige him to
do all in his power to prevent disobedience to it. It may promote the good
of his kingdom to suffer the treason to be committed, and the traitor to
be punished according to law. That in view of this resulting good he chooses
not to prevent the treason, does not imply any contradiction or opposition
of it in the monarch.”(Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, p 250-252)
In regard to the problem of evil, Dr. A. H. Strong advances the following
considerations: “(1) That freedom of will is necessary to virtue; (2)
that God suffers from sin more than does the sinner; (3) that, with the
permission of sin, God has provided a redemption; and, (4) that God will
eventually overrule all evil for good.” And then he adds, “It is
possible that the elect angels belong to a moral system in which sin is prevented
by constraining motives. We cannot deny that God could prevent sin in a moral
system. But it is very doubtful whether God could prevent sin in the best
moral system. The most perfect freedom is indispensable to the
attainment of the highest virtue."(Strong, Systematic Theology, p.
357) Fairbairn has given us some good thought in the following paragraph:
“But why did God create a being capable of sinning? Only so could He
create a being capable of obeying. The ability to do good implies the capability
of doing evil. The engine can neither obey nor disobey, and the creature
who was without this double capacity might be a machine, but could be no
child. Moral perfection can be attained, but cannot be created; God
can make a being capable of moral action, but not a being with all the fruits
of moral action garnered within him.”
2. INSTANCES IN WHICH SIN HAS BEEN OVERRULED FOR GOOD
Throughout the Scriptures we find numerous instances In which sinful acts
were permitted and then overruled for good. We shall first notice some Old
Testament examples. Jacob’s deception of his old, blind father, though
a sinful act in itself, was permitted and used as a link in the chain of
events through which the already revealed plan of God that the elder should
serve the younger was carried out. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were permitted
to wrong the Israelites, that by their deliverance God’s wonders might
be multiplied in the land of Egypt (Ex. 11:9), that these things might be
told to future generations (Ex. 10:1, 2), and that His glory might be declared
throughout all the earth (Ex. 9:16). The curse Balaam tried to pronounce
upon the Israelites was turned into a blessing (Nu. 24:10; Neb. 13:2). The
proud, heathen king of Assyria unconsciously became the servant of Jehovah
in executing vengeance upon an apostate people: “Howbeit he meaneth
not so, neither doth his heart think so,” Is. 10:5-15. The calamities
which befell Job, as seen from the human viewpoint appear to be mere misfortunes,
accidents, chance happenings. But with further knowledge we see God behind
it all, exercising complete control, giving the Devil permission to afflict
so far but no farther, designing the events for the development of Job’s
patience and character, and using even the seemingly meaningless waste of
the storm to fulfill His high and loving purposes.
In the New Testament we find the same teaching. The death of Lazarus, as
seen from the human viewpoint of Mary and Martha and those who came to mourn
for him, was a very great misfortune; but when seen from the divine viewpoint
it was “not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God
might be glorified thereby,” John 11 :4. The manner of Peter’s
death (which apparently was by crucifixion) was to glorify God (John 21:19).
When Jesus crossed the sea of Galilee with His disciples He could have prevented
the storm and have ordered them a pleasant passage, but that would not have
been so much for His glory and the confirmation of their faith as was their
deliverance. Paul, by his stern rebukes, made the Corinthians “sorry
unto repentance,” “after a godly sort ;“ “for godly sorrow
worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret;
but the sorrow of the world worketh death,” II Cor. 7:9, 10. The Lord
often temporarily delivers a person over to Satan, that his bodily and mental
sufferings may react for his salvation, (I Cor. 5:5). Paul, in speaking of
the adversities which he had suffered, said, “Now I would have you know,
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto
the progress of the gospel,” Phil. 1:12. When he saw that his “thorn
in the flesh” was something which had been divinely sent upon him, “a
messenger of Satan to buffet him,” so that he “should not be exalted
over much,” he accepted it with the words, ‘Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me,” II Cor. 12:7-10. In that instance God made the poison of the cruelest
and most sinful monster of all time to be an antidote to cure the apostle’s
pride.
To a certain extent we can say that the reason for the permission of sin
is that, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Such
deep, unfathomable grace could not have been shown if sin had been excluded.
As a matter of fact we gain more through salvation in Christ than we lost
by the fall in Adam. When Christ became incarnate, human nature was, as it
were, taken into the very bosom of Deity, and the redeemed reach a far more
exalted position through union with Christ than Adam could have attained
had he not fallen but persevered and been admitted into heaven.
This general truth was expressed by Calvin in the following words: “But,
God, who once commanded light to shine out of darkness, can marvelously bring,
if He pleases, salvation out of hell itself, and thus turn darkness itself
to light. But what worketh Satan? In a certain sense, the work of God! That
is, God, by holding Satan fast bound in obedience to His Providence, turns
him whithersoever He will, and thus applies the great enemy’s devices
and attempts to the accomplishment of His own eternal principles.(The
Secret Providence of God, reprinted in Calvin's Calvinism, p.240)
Even the persecutions which are permitted to come upon the righteous are
designed for good purposes. Paul declares that “our light affliction,
which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal
weight of glory,” II Cor. 4:17. To suffer with Christ is to be more
closely united to Him, and great reward in heaven is prom-ised to those who
suffer in His behalf (Matt. 5:10-12). To the Philippians it was written,
“To you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ not only to believe
on Him but else to suffer in His behalf,” Phil. 1 :29; and we read that
after the apostles had been publicly abused, “They departed from the
presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer
dishonor for the Name,” Acts 5:41. The writer of the book of Hebrews
stated this same truth when he wrote, “All chastening seemeth for the
present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable
fruit to them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of
righteousness,” Heb. 12:11.
“The acts of the wicked in persecuting the early Church,” says
Dr. Charles Hodge, “were ordained of God as the means for the wider
and more speedy proclamation of the Gospel. The sufferings of the martyrs
were the means not only of extending but of purifying the Church. The apostasy
of the man of sin being predicted, was predetermined. The destruction of
the Huguenots in France, the persecution of the Puritans in England, laid
the foundation for the planting of North America with a race of godly energetic
men, who were to make this land the land of refuge for the nations, the home
of liberty, civil and religious. It would destroy the confidence of God’s
people could they be persuaded that God does not foreordain whatever comes
to pass. It is because the Lord reigns, and doeth His pleasure in heaven
and on earth, that they repose in perfect security under His guidance
and protection.”(Systematic Theology, I., p 545)
Many of the divine attributes were displayed through the creation and government
of the world, but the attribute of justice could be shown only to creatures
deserving punish-ment, and the attribute of mercy or grace could be shown
only to creatures in misery. Until man’s fall into sin, and redemption
from it, these attributes, so far as we can learn, had been unexercised and
undisplayed, and consequently were unknown to any but God Himself from all
eternity. Had not sin been admitted to the creation these attributes would
have remained buried in an eternal night. And the universe, without the knowledge
of these attributes, would be like the earth without the light of the sun.
Sin, then, is permitted in order that the mercy of God may be shown in its
forgiveness, and that His justice may be shown in its punishment. Its entrance
is the result of a settled design which God formed in eternity, and through
which He purposed to reveal Himself to His rational creatures as complete
and full-orbed in all conceivable perfections.
3. THE FALL OF ADAM WAS INCLUDED IN THE DIVINE PLAN
Even the fall of Adam, and through him the fall of the race, was not by chance
or accident, but was so ordained in the secret counsels of God. We are told
that Christ was “foreknown indeed (as a sacrifice for sin) before the
foun-dation of the world,” I Peter 1:20. Paul speaks of “the eternal
purpose” which was purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord, Eph.3:l1. The
writer of Hebrews refers to “the blood of an eternal covenant,”13:20.
And since the plan of redemption is thus traced back into eternity, the plan
to permit man to fall into the sin from which he was thus to be redeemed
must also extend back into eternity; otherwise there would have been no occasion
for redemption. In fact the plan for the whole course of the world’s
events, including the fall, redemption, and all other events, was before
God in its completeness before He ever brought the creation into existence;
and He deliberately ordered it that this series of events, and not some other
series, should become actual.
And unless the fall was in the plan of God, what becomes of our redemption
through Christ? Was that only a makeshift arrangement which God resorted
to in order to offset the rebellion of man? To ask such a question is to
answer it. Throughout the Scriptures redemption is represented as the free,
gracious purpose of God from eternity. In the very hour of man’s first
sin, God sovereignly intervened with a gratuitous promise of deliverance.
While the glory of God is displayed in the whole realm of creation, it was
to be especially displayed in the work of redemption. The fall of man, therefore,
was only one part and a necessary part in the plan; and even Watson, though
a decided Arminian, says, “The redemption of man by Christ was certainly
not an afterthought brought in upon man's apostasy; it was a provision, and
when man fell he found justice hand in hand with mercy," (Theological
Institutes, II, ch. 18) Out of the ruins of the fall God has built
a new spiritual creation far more glorious than the first.
Consistent Arminianism, however, pictures God as an idle, inactive spectator
sitting in doubt while Adam fell, and as quite surprised and thwarted by
the creature of His hands. In contrast with this, we hold that God fore-planned
and fore-saw the fall; that it in no sense came as a surprise to Him; and
that after it had occurred He did not feel that He had made a mistake in
creating man. Had He wished He could have prevented Satan’s entrance
into the garden and could have preserved Adam in a state of holiness as He
did the holy angels. The mere fact that God fore-saw the fall is sufficient
proof that He did not expect man to glorify Him by continuing in a state
of holiness.
Yet God in no way compelled man to fall. He simply withheld that undeserved
constraining grace with which Adam would infallibly not have fallen, which
grace He was under no obligation to bestow. In respect to himself, Adam might
have stood had he so chosen; but in respect to God it was certain that he
would fall. He acted as freely as if there had been no decree, and yet as
infallibly as if there had been no liberty. The Jews, so far as their own
free agency was concerned, might have broken Christ’s bones; yet in
reality it was not possible for them to have done so, for it was written,
“A. bone of Him shall not be broken,” Ps. 34:20; John 19:36.
God’s decree does not take away man’s liberty; and in the fall
Adam freely exercised the natural emotions of his will.
The reason for the fall is assigned in that “God hath shut up all unto
disobedience, that He might have mercy on all,” Rom. 11 :32; and again,
“We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead,”II
Cor. 1 :9; and it would be difficult to find language which would assert
the Divine control and Divine initiative more explicitly than this. For wise
reasons, God was pleased to permit our first parents to be tempted and to
fall, and then to overrule their sin for His own glory. Yet this permission
and overruling of sin does not make Him the author of it. It seems that He
has permitted the fall in order to show what free will would do; and then,
by overruling it, He has shown what the blessings of His grace and the judgments
of His justice can do.
It may be well just at this point, to say something more about the nature
of the fall. Adam was given a most favorable opportunity to secure eternal
life and blessedness for himself and his posterity. He was created holy and
was placed in a world free from sin. He was surrounded by all the beauty
of paradise and was graciously given permission to eat of all the fruits
with the exception of one, which was certainly no irksome restraint. God
Himself came down into the Garden and was Adam’s companion. In unmistakably
clear language Adam was warned that if he did eat of the fruit he would certainly
die. He was thus placed under a pure test of obedience, since the eating
would not in itself have been either morally right or wrong. Obedience is
here set up as the virtue which, in the rational creature, is, as it were,
the mother and guardian of all the others.
4. THE RESULT OF ADAM’S FALL
But, in spite of all his advantages, Adam deliberately disobeyed, and the
threatened sentence of death was executed. This plainly includes more than
the dissolution of the body. The word “death” as used in the Scriptures
in reference to the effects of sin includes any and every form of evil which
is inflicted in punishment of sin. It means primarily spiritual death, or
separation from God, which is both temporal and eternal — a loss of
His favor in all ways. It meant the opposite of the reward promised, which
was blessed and eternal life in Heaven. It meant, therefore, the eternal
miseries of hell, together with the fore-tastes of those miseries which are
felt in this life. Its nature can be partly seen in the effects of sin which
have actually fallen upon the human race. And finally, the nature of the
death which fell upon Adam and his descendants can be seen by contrast with
the life which the redeemed have with Christ. It was a death which caused
sin instead of holiness to become man’s natural element, so that now
in his unregenerate nature the gospel and all holy things are repulsive to
him. He is as utterly unable to appreciate redemption through faith in Christ,
as a dead man is to hear the sounds of this world. That the death threatened
was not primarily physical death is shown by the fact that Adam lived many
years after the fall, while spiritually he was immediately alienated from
God and was cast out of Paradise. In his fallen state man is terrified by
any appearance of the supernatural. And even in regard to physical death,
that was also in a sense immediately executed; for though our first parents
lived many years, they immediately began to grow old. Since the fall, life
has become an unceasing march toward the grave. Says Charles Hodge, “In
the day in which Adam ate the forbidden fruit he did die. The penalty threatened
was not a momentary infliction but permanent subjection to all the evils
which flow from the righteous displeasure of God.”(Systematic Theology,
II, p. 120)
Furthermore, the whole Christian world has believed that in the fall, Adam,
as the natural and federal head of the race, injured not only himself but
all of his posterity, so that, as Dr. Hodge says, “in virtue of the
union, federal and natural, between Adam and his posterity, his sin, although
not their act, is so imputed to them that it is the judicial ground of the
penalty threatened against him coming also on them . . . To impute sin, in
Scriptural and theological language, is to impute the guilt of sin. And by
guilt is meant not criminality, or moral ill-desert, or demerit, much less
moral pollution, but the judicial obligation to satisfy
justice,”(Systematic Theology, II, pg. 194) His sin is
laid to their account. Even infants, who have no personal sin of their own,
suffer pain and death. Now the Scriptures uniformly represent suffering and
death as the wages of sin. It would be unjust for God to execute the penalty
on those who are not guilty. Since the penalty falls on infants, they must
be guilty; and since they have not personally committed sin, they must be
guilty of Adam’s sin. All those who have inherited human nature from
Adam were in him as the fruit in the germ, and have, as it were, grown up
one person with him. By the fall Adam was entirely and absolutely ruined.
The state of original right-eousness or holiness in which he was created
was lost and its place was taken by an overwhelming state of sin, which was
brought about as effectively as one puncture of the eye involves the person
in perpetual darkness. The wrath and curse of God rested upon him and he
was possessed with a sense of guilt, shame, pollution, degradation, a dread
of punishment, and a desire to escape from the presence of God.
In fact, there is a strict parallel between the way in which the guilt of
Adam is imputed to us and that in which the righteousness of Christ is imputed
to us, so that the one illustrates the other, We were cursed through Adam
and were redeemed through Christ, although we were of course no more personally
guilty of Adam’s sin than we are per-sonally meritorious because of
Christ’s righteousness. It is utterly absurd to hold to salvation through
Christ unless we also hold to damnation through Adam, for Christianity is
based on this representative principle. Unless the race had been cursed through
Adam, there would have been no occasion for Christ to have redeemed it. The
history of the fall, recorded in a manner at once profound and childlike
in the third chapter of Genesis, has, therefore, universal significance.
And Calvinism alone does justice to the idea of the organic unity of the
human race, and to the profound parallel which Paul draws between the first
and the second Adam.
5. THE FORCES OF EVIL ARE UNDER GOD’S PERFECT CONTROL
We believe that God actually rules in the affairs of men, that His decrees
are absolute, and that they include all events. Consequently we believe that
nations and individuals are predestined to all of every kind of good and
evil which befalls them. When we get the larger view we see that even the
sinful acts of men have their place in the divine plan, and that it is only
because of our finite and imperfect nature, which does not comprehend all
the relations and connections, that these acts appear to be contrary to that
plan. To illustrate this, when we see the sheet music running through the
player piano we readily understand how it is used; but if we were to find
the same paper apart from the piano and had never seen it used, we might
readily conclude that it was only wrapping paper, and poor wrapping paper
at that, for it would be full of holes. Yet when it is put in its proper
place it produces the most beautiful music. Unless we do believe that God
has ordained the whole course of events, and that the courses he has outlined
for our individual lives are good ones, we are certain to become discouraged
in times of adversity. Like Jacob of old who in the face of the apparent
misfortunes immediately before meeting his favorite son, Joseph, concluded,
“All these things are against me,” we may become discouraged when
perhaps at that very time the Lord is preparing great things for us.
The Scripture doctrine, as stated before, is that God restrains sin within
certain limits, that He brings good out of intended evil, and overrules the
evil for His own glory. Since God is infinite in power and wisdom, sin could
have no existence except by His permission. God was free to create, or not
to create; to create this particular world-order, or one entirely different.
All evil forces are under His absolute con-trol and could be blotted out
of existence in an instant if He so willed. The murderer is kept in life
and is indebted to God for the strength to kill his victim, and also for
the oppor-tunity. When Jesus said, “Get thee hence, Satan,” Satan
im-mediately went; and when Jesus commanded the evil spirits to hold their
peace and come out of the possessed persons, they immediately obeyed. The
psalmist expressed his confidence in God’s power to overrule sinners
when contemplating their works, he wrote, “He that sitteth in the heavens
will laugh; the Lord ‘will have them in derision,” 2:4. Job said,
“The deceived and the deceiver are His,” 12:16; by which he meant
that both good and evil men are under God’s providential control
Unless sin occurs according to the divine purpose and permission of God,
it occurs by chance. Evil then becomes an independent and uncontrollable
principle and the pagan idea of dualism is introduced into the theory of
the universe. The doctrine that there are powers of sin, rebellion, and darkness
in the very nature of free agency, which may prove an over-match for divine
omnipotence, imperils even the eternal safety and happiness of the saints
in glory.
Luther expressed his belief concerning this question in the following words:
“What I assert and contend for is this: — that God, where He operates
without the grace of His Spirit, works all in all, even in the ungodly; and
He alone moves, acts on, and carries along by the motion of His omnipotence,
all those things ‘which He alone has created, which motion those things
can neither avoid nor change, but of necessity follow and obey, each one
according to the measure of power given of God: —thus all things, even
the ungodly co-operate with God.” (Bondage of the Will, p. 301)
And Zanchius wrote, “We should, therefore, be careful not to give up
the omnipotence of God under a pretense of exalting His holiness; He is infinite
in both, and therefore neither should be set aside or obscured. To say that
God absolutely nills the being and commission of sin, while experience convinces
us that sin is acted every day, is to represent the Deity as a weak, impotent
being who would fain have things go otherwise than they do, but cannot accomplish
His desire.”( Predestination, p. 55)
One of the best of more recent comments is that of E. W. Smith in his admirable
little book, “The Creed of Presbyterians.” “Did we believe
that so potent and fearful a thing as sin had broken into the original holy
order of the universe in defiance of God’s purpose, and is rioting in
defiance of His power, we might well surrender ourselves to terror and despair.
Unspeakably comforting and strengthening is the Scriptural assurance of our
Standards (V:4) that beneath all this wild tossing and lashing of evil purposes
and agencies there lies, in mighty and controlling embrace, a Divine purpose
that governs them all. Over sin as over all else, God reigns supreme. His
sovereign Provi-dence ‘extendeth to the first fall and all other sins
of angels and men,’ so that these are as truly parts and developments
of His Providence as are the movements of the stars or the activities of
unfallen spirits in heaven itself. Having chosen, for reasons most wise and
holy though unrevealed to us, to admit sin, He hath joined to this bare
permission a ‘most wise and powerful bounding’ of all sin, so that
it can never overleap the lines which He has prescribed for its imprisonment,
and such an ‘ordering and governing’ of it, as will secure ‘His
own holy ends,’ and manifest in the final consummation not only His
‘almighty Power,’ but His ‘unsearchable Wisdom” and His
‘infinite Goodness’” (p. 177).
And Floyd E. Hamilton has written: “God created the human being with
the possibility of sinning, and He has the power to interfere at any time
to prevent the evil act. Even though He has no purpose to work out in the
permission of the act the very permission of the act when He has the power
to interfere, places the ultimate responsibility for the act squarely upon
God. Moreover, if He has no purpose to work out, then He is certainly
reprehensible in not preventing the act! It is attempted to avoid this conclusion
by saying that God does not interfere because to do so would be to take away
manes freedom. In that case man’s freedom is regarded as of more value
than his eternal salvation! But even that does not remove the ultimate
responsibility for the permission of the evil act from God; God has the power
to prevent the evil act, has no purpose to work out in permitting it, but
nevertheless, in order to protect man’s freedom, allows man to bring
eternal punishment upon himself! Assuredly that would be a poor kind of a
god!” (Article, The Reformed Faith in the Modern World)
Hence God Himself is ultimately responsible for sin in that He has power
to prevent it but does not do so, although the immediate responsibility rests
on man alone God is, of course, never the efficient cause in the production
of sin. Augustine, Luther and Calvin often stressed this truth of God’s
full and sovereign control when proving that the present course of the world
is the one which from eternity God planned that it should follow.
6. SINFUL ACTS OCCUR ONLY BY DIVINE PERMISSION
The good acts of men then are rendered certain by the positive decree of
God, and the sinful acts occur only by His permission. Yet it is more than
a bare permission by which the sinful acts occur, for that would leave it
uncertain whether or not they would be done. Concerning this subject David
S. Clark says: “The most reasonable explanation is that the sinful nature
will go to the boundary set by the permission of God; hence God’s bounding
of sin renders certain what and how much will come to pass. Satan could go
no farther with Job than God permitted; but it is certain that he would go
as far as God allowed.”(A Syllabus of Systematic Theology, p
103) And in accordance with this is the statement of W. D. Smith: “When
it is known, certainly, that it will be done unless prevented, and there
is a determination not to prevent it, it is rendered as certain as if it
were decreed to be done by positive agency. In the one case, the event is
rendered certain by agency put forth; and, in the other case, it is rendered
equally certain by agency withheld. It is an unchangeable decree in both
cases. The sins of Judas, and the crucifixion of the Saviour, were as
unchangeably decreed, permissively, as the coming of the Saviour into the
world was decreed positively. Prom this you can perceive the consistency
of the Confession of Faith with common sense, when it says, that ‘God
from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will,
freely and unchangeably foreordain whatsoever comes to pass,’ etc. You
perceive, also, that this is clearly reconcilable with the following sentiment,
‘He is not the author of sin,’ etc.”(What Is Calvinism,
p 32)
Augustine expressed a similar thought when he said: “Wherefore
those mighty works of God, exquisitely perfect. according to every bent of
His will, are such that, in a won-derful and ineffable way, that is not done
without the will of God which is even done contrary to His will, because
it could not be done at all, unless He permitted it to be done; and yet,
He does not permit unwillingly, but willingly. Nor, as the God of goodness,
would He permit a thing to be done evilly, unless, as the God of omnipotence,
He could work good even out of the evil done.”(Quoted in Calvin's
Calvinism, p 290)
Even the works of Satan are so controlled and limited that they serve God’s
purposes. While Satan eagerly desires the destruction of the wicked and
diligently works to bring it about, yet the destruction proceeds from God.
It is, in the first place, God who decrees that the wicked shall suffer,
and Satan is merely permitted to lay the punishment upon them. The motives
which underlie God’s purposes and those which underlie Satan’s
are, of course, infinitely different. God willed the destruction of Jerusalem;
Satan also desired the same, yet for different reasons. As Augustine tells
us, God wills with a good will that which Satan wills with an evil will,
— as was the case in the crucifixion of Christ, which was over-ruled
for the redemption of the world. Sometimes God uses the wicked wills and
passions of men, rather than the good wills of His own servants, to accomplish
His purposes. This truth has been very clearly expressed by Dr. Warfield
in the following words: “All things find their unity in His eternal
plan; and not their unity merely, but their justification as well; even the
evil, though retaining its quality as evil and hateful to the holy God, and
certain to be dealt with as hateful, yet does not occur apart from His provision
or against His will, but appears in the world which He has made only as the
instrument by means of which He works the higher good.”(Biblical
Doctrines, article, Predestination, p. 21)
7. SCRIPTURE PROOF
That this is the doctrine of the Scriptures is abundantly plain. The sale
of Joseph into Egypt by his brothers was a very wicked act; yet we see that
it was overruled not only for Joseph’s good but also for the good of
the brothers themselves. When it is traced to its source we see that God
was the author. it had its exact place in the divine plan. Joseph later said
to his brothers, “And now be not grieved nor angry with yourselves,
that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life .
. . So now it was not you that sent me hither but God . . . . And as for
you, ye meant evil against me, but God meant it for good,’ Gen. 45:5,
8; 50:20. It is said that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, Ex. 4:21; 9:12;
and the very words which God addressed to Pharaoh were, “But in every
deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee my power, and
that my name might be declared throughout all the earth,” Ex. 9:16.
And to Moses God said, “And I, behold I will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians and they shall go (into the Red Sea) after them; and I will get
me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his host, and upon his chariots, and upon
his horsemen,” Ex. 14:17.
Shimei cursed David, because Jehovah had said, “Curse David”; and
when David knew this, he said, “Let him alone, and let him curse; for
Jehovah hath bidden him,” II Sam. 16:10, 11. And after David had suffered
the unjust violence of his enemies he recognized that “God hath done
all this.” Of the Canaanites it was said, “And it was of Jehovah
to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly
destroy them, that they might have no favor, and that He might destroy them,
as Jehovah commanded Moses,” Joshua 11:20. Hophni and Phinehas, the
two evil sons of Eli, “hearkened not unto the voice of their father,
because Jehovah was minded to slay them,” I Sam. 2:25.
Even Satan and the evil spirits are made to carry out the divine purpose.
As an instrument of divine vengeance in the punishment of the wicked an evil
spirit was openly given the command to go and deceive the prophets of King
Ahab: “And Jehovah said, Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and
fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner; and another on that manner.
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jehovah, and said, I will
entice him. And Jehovah said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go
forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets. And He said,
Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail; Go forth and do so. Now therefore
(said Micaiah), behold, Jehovah hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all
these thy prophets; and Jehovah hath spoken evil concerning thee,” I
Kings 22:20-23. Concerning Saul it is written, “an evil spirit from
Jehovah troubled him,” I Sam. 16:14. “And God sent an evil spirit
between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt
treacherously with Abimelech,” Judges 9:23. Hence it is from Jehovah
that evil spirits proceed to trouble sinners. And it is from him that the
evil impulses which arise in the hearts of sinners take this or that specific
form, II Sam. 24:1.
In one place we are told that God , in order to punish a rebellious people.
moved the heart of David to number them (II Sam. 24:1, 10); but in another
place where this same act is referred to, we are told that it was Satan who
instigated David’s pride and caused him to number them (I Chr. 21:1).
In this we see that Satan was made the rod of God’s wrath, and that
God impels even the hearts of sinful men and demons whithersoever He will.
While all adulterous and incestuous intercourse is abominable to God, He
sometimes uses even such sins as these to punish other sins, as was the case
when He used such acts in Absalom to punish the adultery of David. Before
Absalom had committed his sin it was announced to David that this was the
form which his punishment was to take: “Thus saith Jehovah, Behold I
will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house; and I will take thy
wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie
with thy wives in the sight of the sun,” II Sam. 12:1.1. Hence these
acts were not in every way contrary to the will of God.
In I Chr. 10:4 we read that “Saul took a sword and fell upon it.”
This was his own deliberate, sinful act. Yet it executed Divine justice and
fulfilled a divine purpose which was revealed years before concerning David;
for a little later we read, “So Saul died for his transgressions which
he committed against Jehovah . . . . He inquired not of Jehovah; therefore
He slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse,” I Chr.
10:14. There is a sense in which God is said to do what he permits or impels
His creatures to do.
The evil which was threatened against Jerusalem for her apostasy is described
as directly sent of God, II Kings 22:20. The psalmist recognized that even
the hate of their enemies was stirred up by Jehovah to punish a rebellious
people, Ps.105:25. Isaiah recognized that even the apostasy and disobedience
of Israel was in the divine plan: “0 Jehovah, why dost thou make us
to err from thy ‘ways, and hardenest our hearts from thy fear?”
Is. 63:17. In I Chr. 5:22 we read, “There fell many slain, because the
war was of Jehovah.” Rehoboam’s foolish course which caused the
disruption of the kingdom was “a thing brought about by Jehovah,”
I Kings 12:15. All of these things are summed up in that passage of Isaiah,
“I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil:
I am Jehovah that doeth all these things,” 45:7 and again in Amos,
“Shall evil befall a city and Jehovah hath not done it?” Amos 3:6.
When we come to the New Testament we find the same doctrine set forth. We
have already shown that the crucifixion of Christ was a part of the divine
plan. Though slain by the hands of lawless men who did not understand the
importance of the event which they were carrying out, “The things which
God foreshowed by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer,
He thus fulfilled,” Acts 3:18. The crucifixion was the cup which the
Father had given Him to drink, John 18:11. It was written, “I will smite
the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad,”
Matt. 26 :31. When Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration, they spoke of “His decease which He was about to accomplish
at Jerusalem,” Luke 9:31. Concerning His own death Jesus said, “The
son of man indeed goeth, as it bath been determined; but woe unto that man
through whom He is betrayed,” Luke 22:22; again, “Did ye never
read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was
made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous
in our eyes?” Matt. 21 :42; and never did He teach more plainly that
the cross was in the divine plan than when in the garden of Gethsemane He
said, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt,” Matt. 26:39. Jesus
deliberately surrendered Himself to be crucified when He might have called
to his defence “more than twelve legions of angels,” had He chosen
to have done so, Matt. 26:53. Pilate thought that he had power to crucify
Jesus or to release Him as he pleased; but Jesus told him he could have no
power against Him at all except it were given him from above, John 19:10,
11.
It was in the plan of God that Christ should come into the world, that He
should suffer, that He should die a violent death, and thus make atonement
for His people. Hence God simply permitted sinful men to sinfully lay that
burden upon Him, and overruled their acts for His own glory in the redemption
of the world. Those who crucified Christ acted in perfect harmony with
the freedom of their own sinful natures, and were alone responsible for their
sin. On this occasion, as on many others, God has made the wrath of
man to praise Him. It would be hard to frame language which would more
explicitly set forth the idea that God’s plan extends to all things
than is here used by the Scripture writers. Hence the crucifixion on Calvary
was not a defeat, but a victory; and the cry, “It is finished,”
announced the successful achievement of the work of redemption which had
been committed to the Son. That which “stands written of Jesus
in the Old Testament Scriptures has its certain fulfillment in Him; and that
enough stands written of Him there to assure His followers that in
the course of His life, and in its, to them, strange and unexpected ending,
He was not the prey of chance or the victim of the hatred of men,
to the marring of His work or perhaps even the defeat of His mission,
but was following step by step, straight to its goal, the predestined pathway
marked out for Him in the counsels of eternity, and sufficiently revealed
from of old in the Scriptures to enable all who were not ‘foolish and
slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken,’
to perceive that the Christ must needs have lived just this life and
fulfilled just this destiny.”(Warfield, Biblical Doctrines,
article, The Foresight of Jesus, p. 73)
Other events recorded in the New Testament also teach the same lesson. When
God cast off the Jews as a people it was not a purposeless destruction, nor
in order merely that “they might fall”; “but that by their
fall salvation might come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy,”
so that they in turn shall also embrace Christianity, Rom. 11:11. The blindness
of one man is said to have been, not because of his own or his parent’s
sin, but in order to give Jesus a chance to display His power and glory in
restoring the sight, or, as the writer puts it, “that the works of God
should be made manifest in him,” John 9:3. The Old Testament statement
that the very purpose which God had in raising up Pharaoh was to show His
power and to publish abroad his name is repeated in Rom. 9:17. This general
teaching is climaxed with Paul’s declaration that “To them that
love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called
according to His purpose.” Rom. 8:28. No one can rationally deny that
God foreordained sin if, as the Scriptures assert, He foreordained the
crucifixion of Christ, and these other events to which we have referred.
That sinful acts do have their place in the divine plan is repeatedly taught.
And if any persons are inclined to take offence at this, let them consider
how many times the Scriptures declare the judgments of God to be a “great
deep.” Hence those who hastily charge that our doctrine makes God the
author of sin, bring that charge not only against us, but against God Himself;
for our doctrine is the clearly revealed doctrine of the Scriptures.
8. COMMENTS BY SMITH AND HODGE
God’s relation to sin is admirably illustrated in the following paragraph
which we shall take the liberty of quoting from W. D. Smith’s little
book, What Is Calvinism? “Suppose to yourself a neighbor who keeps a
distillery or dram shop, which is a nuisance to all around — neighbors
collecting, drinking, and fighting on the Sabbath, with consequent misery
and distress in families, etc. Suppose, further, that I am endowed with a
certain foreknowledge, and can see, with absolute certainty, a chain of events,
in connection with a plan of operations which I have in view, for the good
of that neighborhood. I see that by preaching there, I will be made the
instrument of the conversion, and consequent reformation, of the owner of
the distillery, and I therefore determine to go. Now, in so doing, I positively
decree the reformation of the man; that is I determine to do what renders
his reformation certain and I fulfill my decree by positive agency. But,
in looking a little further in the chain of events, I discover, with the
same absolute certainty, that his drunken customers will be filled with wrath,
and much sin will be committed, in venting their malice upon him and me.
They will not only curse and blaspheme God and religion, but they will even
burn his house, and attempt to burn mine. Now, you perceive that this evil,
which enters into my plan, is not chargeable upon me at all, though I am
the author of the plan which, in its operations, I know will produce it.
Hence, it is plain, that any intelligent being may set on foot a plan, and
carry it out, in which he knows, with absolute certainty, that evil will
enter, and yet he is not the author of the evil, or chargeable with it in
any way....In looking a little further in the chain of events, I discover,
that if they be permitted they will take his life; and, I see, moreover,
that if his life be spared, he will now be as notorious for good as he was
for evil, and will prove a rich blessing to the neighborhood and to
society....Therefore, upon the whole plan, I determine to act; and, in so
doing, I positively decree the reformation of that man, and the consequent
good; and I permissively decree the wicked actions of the others; yet, it
is very plain, that 1 am not in any way, chargeable for their sins. Now,
in one or the other of these ways, God ‘has foreordained whatsoever
comes to pass’” (P. 33-35).
And Charles Hodge says in this connection: “A righteous judge, in
pronouncing sentence on a criminal, may be sure that he will cause wicked
and bitter feelings in the criminal’s mind, or in the hearts of his
friends, and yet the judge be guiltless. A father, in excluding a reprobate
son from his family, may see that the inevitable consequences of such exclusion
will be his greater wickedness, and yet the father may do right. It is the
certain consequence of God’s leaving the fallen angels and the finally
impenitent to themselves, that they will continue in sin, and yet the holiness
of God remain untarnished. The Bible clearly teaches that God judicially
abandons men to their sins, giving them up to a reprobate mind, and He therein
is most just and holy. It is not true, therefore, that an agent is responsible
for all the certain consequences of his acts, It may be, and doubtless is,
infinitely wise and just in God to permit the occurrence of sin, and to adopt
a plan of which sin is a certain consequence or element; yet, as He neither
causes sin, nor tempts men to its commission, He is neither its author nor
approver.”(Systematic Theology, I., p. 547)
9. GOD’S GRACE IS MORE DEEPLY APPRECIATED AFTER THE PERSON HAS BEEN
THE VICTIM OF SIN
We are often permitted to fall into sin, that, after being delivered from
it, we shall appreciate our salvation all the more. In the parable of the
two debtors the one owed five hundred shillings and the other fifty. When
they had nothing with which to pay the lender forgave them both. Which of
them, therefore, would love him most? Naturally the one to whom he forgave
most. As Jesus spoke this parable they were seated at meat and the application
was made to Simon the Pharisee and to the penitent woman who had anointed
His feet. The latter had been forgiven much and was profoundly grateful,
but the former had received no such favor and felt no gratitude. “To
whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little,” Luke 7:41-50.
Sometimes the person, like the prodigal son, will not appreciate the
Father’s home nor respect His authority until he has experienced the
ravaging effects of sin and the pangs of hunger, sorrow and disgrace. It
seems that man with his freedom must, to a certain extent, learn by experience
before he is fully able to appreciate the ways of right-eousness and to render
unquestioned obedience and honor to God. We have quoted Paul’s statement
to the effect that “God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that He
might have mercy on all,” Rom. 11 :32, and that the sentence of death
was passed within us that we should not trust in ourselves but only in God,
11 Cor. 1:9. The creature cannot adequately appreciate God’s mercy until
he has been rescued from a state of misery. After the lame beggar had been
healed by Peter and John at the door of the temple, he appreciated his health
as never before, and “entered with them into the temple, walking, and
leaping, and praising God.” And after being delivered from the power
and guilt of sin, we appreciate God’s grace as we never could have
otherwise. We read that even our Lord Jesus Christ in His human nature was
made “perfect through sufferings,” although He was, of course,
totally separate from all sin.
10. CALVINISM OFFERS A MORE SATISFACTORY SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
THAN DOES ANY OTHER SYSTEM
The real difficulty which we face here, is to explain why a God of infinite
holiness, power, and wisdom, would have brought into existence a creation
in which moral evil was to prevail so extensively; and especially to explain
why it should have been permitted to issue in the everlasting misery of so
many of His creatures. This difficulty, however, bears not only against
Calvinism, but against theism in general; and while other systems are found
to be wholly inadequate in their explanation of sin, Calvinism can give a
fairly adequate explanation in that it recognizes that God is ultimately
responsible since He could have prevented it; and Calvinism further asserts
that God has a definite purpose in the permission of every individual
sin having ordained it “for His own glory." As Hamilton says, “If
we are to accept theism at all, the only respectable kind is Calvinism.”
“Calvinism teaches that God not only knew what He was doing when He
created man, but that He had a purpose even in permitting sin.” And
what better explanation than this can be advanced by any one else who believes
that God is the Creator and Ruler of this universe?
In regard to the first fall of man, we assert that the proximate cause was
the instigation of the Devil and the impulse of his own heart; and when we
have established this, we, have removed all blame from God. Paul tells us
that God “dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto.”
Our mental vision can no more comprehend His deep mysteries than our unaided
physical eyes can endure the light of the sun. When the Apostle contemplated
these things he broke forth, ‘0 the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past tracing out!” And since our human intellects cannot soar to such
stupendous heights, it is ours to adore with reverence, fear, and trembling,
but not to explain, that mystery which is too high and too deep for even
the angels themselves to penetrate. Let us remember also that along with
this sin, God has provided a redemption graciously wrought out by Himself;
and no doubt it is due to our limitations that we do not see this to be the
all-sufficient explanation. The decree of redemption is as old as the decree
of apostasy; and He who ordained sin has also ordained a way of escape from
it.
Since the Scriptures tell us that God is perfectly righteous, and since in
all of His acts upon which we are capable of passing judgment we find that
He is perfectly righteous, we trust Him in those realms which have not yet
been revealed to us, believing that He has solutions for those problems which
we are not able to solve. We can rest assured that the Judge of all the earth
will do right, and as His plan is more fully revealed to us we learn to thank
Him for that which is past and to trust him for that which is future.
It avails nothing, of course, to say that God foresaw the evil but did not
include it in His plan,— for if He foresaw it and in spite of it brought
the world into existence, the evil acts were certainly a part of the plan,
although an undesirable part. To deny this foresight makes God blind; and
He would then be conceived of as working something like the school boy who
mixes chemicals in the laboratory not knowing what may happen. In fact, we
could not even respect a God who worked in that manner. And furthermore,
that view still leaves the ultimate responsibility for sin resting upon God,
for at least he could have refrained from creating.
That the sinful acts of men have their place and a necessary place in the
plan is plainly seen in the course of history. For instance, the assassination
of President McKinley was a sinful act,— yet upon that act depended
the role which Theodore Roosevelt was to play as President of the United
States; and if that one link in the chain of events had been otherwise, the
entire course of history from that time to the end of the world would have
been radically different. The same is true in the case of Lincoln. If God
intended that the world should reach this state in which we find ourselves
today, those events were indispensable. A moment’s consideration will
convince us that all of even the apparently insig-nificant events have their
exact place, that they start rapidly growing influences which soon extend
to the ends of the earth, and that if one of them had been omitted, say fifty
years ago, the world today would have been far different.
A further important proof that Paul taught the doctrine which Calvinists
have understood him to teach is found in the objections which he put in the
mouths of his opponents,— that it represented God as unrighteous: "Is
there unrighteousness with God?” Rom. 9:14; and, that it destroyed
man’s responsibility: “Thou wilt then say unto me, Why doth He
still find fault? For who withistandeth His will?” Rom. 9:19. These
are the very objections which today, on first thought, spring into men’s
minds, in opposition to the Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination; but they
have not even the least plausibility when directed against the Arminian doctrine
A doctrine which does not afford the least grounds for these objections cannot
have been the one that the Apostle taught.
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