One of the difficult elements of Calvinism is that when you logically work through the doctrine of predestination you ultimately come to the conclusion that God caused Adam to sin or that He predestined the Fall (Genesis 3:1-7). Arminians reject this notion because Arminians hold that God is holy and does not tempt anyone into sin (James 1:13). Arminians believe that God did not predestine the fall but in His sovereignty He allowed it to happen. In other words, certain events in human history such as the Fall or the sinking of the Titanic or World War II are not events that God predestined but He allowed human beings to make free choices to come to their own condition apart from a predestined plan.
Does free will then violate the definition of sovereignty? The only logical answer is that God is indeed sovereign as the Scriptures teach (Psalm 115:3; Proverbs 16:1) and often events take place in our world that we sometimes scratch our heads over but we must yield to God’s will despite what we see (1 Peter 4:12-19). The death of Jesus is a prime example. Jesus’ death was “foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:20-21 ESV). Yet the characters who crucified our Lord, were they predestined to do so or did God through His foreknowledge allow Jesus to be put to death by their hands and by their own free will. Acts 2:23 says, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (ESV). Logically it seems that God foreknew the death of Jesus as prophesied in Scripture (Isaiah 53) but He did not predestine Pilate or Judas to kill Jesus but simply through His foreknowledge allowed them to crucify our Lord.
So back to my original question. Did God predestine the fall? This would indeed make God the author of sin since He would be the one who caused Adam to sin. But Arminians make no such claim. We believe both Scripture and logic indicate that God gave man a free will to do good or evil. Adam fell through his own choice and not by God’s causation. The determinist view of the Calvinist simply is repugnant to the Scriptures.
[Link to original post and comments on Roy Ingle’s blog Arminian Today
