Why we reject that God is the Author of Sin!

God is NOT the Author of Sin!

There are those who ask the question “Is not God the author of sin” out of curiosity. There are others who ask this question for the sake of encouraging a debate or discussion on the matter, not that they are convinced in themselves that God IS the author of sin; but there are others, not a few, who assert that God IS the author of sin! This to them is an ‘orthodox doctrine’, and if you differ they will even go so far as to call you an Antichrist! The article I have penned above is actually the outcome of such an accusation.

These who assert that God is the  author of sin are pretty set in their delusion (for delusion it is) and they will not listen to any other view on the matter. The attitude being – “My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts”!

Their only defense is – “If the Bible says that God created all things, then He created sin too”! “It stands to reason, they say” and thus bow before the ‘god of reason’! Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses who just don’t see how the Lord Jesus can be both God and man at the same time. Reason, rationality and logic are all very good and have their place. But the Mighty Jehovah and His ways cannot be discovered or understood by these!

“Canst thou by SEARCHING find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty UNTO PERFECTION? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea”. [Job 11:7-9]

“Lo, these are PARTS OF HIS WAYS: but how little a portion is heard of Him? but the thunder of His power who can understand”?  [Job 26:14]

There was a time when I used to wonder WHY God did not say things a little more plainly in the Scriptures. Why did He allow SEEMING contradictions in His Word? Like with the issue on hand, why did He not just put a verse in there somewhere that says, “I am not the author of sin”! This would have made life so easy for us who contend earnestly for the faith.

But it is only since a few years I am beginning to see more plainly that God wrote the Bible with one purpose in mind – to SAVE HIS ELECT AND TO CONFUSE AND DAMN THE REPROBATE!

When the disciples asked the Master why He spoke things in parables rather than just say things PLAINLY, He said – “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them”. [Mark 4:11,12]

But there is ANOTHER reason why God wrote the Bible the way it is written; and that is  – “there MUST BE ALSO HERESIES among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you”. [1Cor 11:19]. How can there be ‘heresies’ if everything was plain and there were no verses which SEEMINGLY contradict the truth?!

Boettner was right when he said – “The Bible is NOT a work on Systematic Theology, but only the QUARRY out of which the stone for such a temple can be obtained”. You can tell me ANY cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith and I’ll show you at least a couple of verses that seem to teach the EXACT OPPOSITE!

Do you believe in the Holy Trinity? Why, my Bible tells me that ‘But to us there is but ONE GOD, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him’ [1Cor8:6]

Do you believe that salvation is by Faith alone? My Bible tells me that ‘BY WORKS a man is justified, and NOT BY FAITH ONLY’. [Jam 2:24]

Are you contending that the ‘Pentecostals’ are wrong and that ‘tongues’ are not for today? My Bible says – “I would that ye ALL spake with tongues”! And “FORBID NOT to speak with tongues” etc. [1Cor 14:5,39]

But you see ‘Doctrine’ is not built on a stray verse here and there, but by the PREPONDERANCE OF SCRIPTURE. What is the overall, dominating teaching of the Scriptures on a given subject? And if a verse or two seem to teach the opposite, we don’t pit Scripture against Scripture but harmonize the seemingly opposing verse or wait till God gives us further light.

Many untaught minds reject the doctrine of Election, because according to them, it would be unjust for God to save only a few and pass by the others. But we who have our understanding enlightened by the grace of God know that God does not owe man anything. He would be just if He sent us all to Hell, because we are a condemned race, already tried and condemned in our head – Adam!

And we who reject the teaching that God is ‘the author of sin’, do so, not because we are blind or deluded as the Arminian; but because we are persuaded that “surely GOD WILL NOT DO WICKEDLY, neither will the Almighty PERVERT JUDGMENT”. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth DO RIGHT”? [Gen 18:25]

To take an innocent unfallen Adam, infuse sin into him and ‘make him to sin’ and then condemn him and his posterity to an unimaginable Hell Fire for all ETERNITY, is NOT THE NATURE OF THE GOD WE HAVE COME TO KNOW!

As the Apostle affirms – “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL”! [1John 1:5]

We cannot conceive of a thrice Holy God who is ‘All day long stretching forth His hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people’ to repent [Rom 10:21], while at the same time infusing sin into them and making them disobedient!

There ARE mysteries in the Bible. How God can become a man and be God at the same time is a mystery. It is called the ‘great mystery of Godliness’ [1Tim 3:16]. In like manner the origin of sin is a mystery! Scripture in one place calls it ‘the mystery of iniquity’ [2Thes 2:7]. God has deemed it best not to reveal its origin, nor has He claimed to be the Author of it! The best minds in divinity have searched this out for centuries and come to the conclusion, that GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN, though He has decreed it, permitted it in His universe and channels it to His glory!

Those who charge God with this folly only REPROACH AND BLASHEME GOD, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God! And the Day is coming when He shall ask of them – “WHO hath required this at your hand”?! And He will charge them with the same charge as he did Job’s ‘friends’ – ‘Ye have not spoken of Me THE THING THAT IS RIGHT”! [Job 42:7]

#Sin #GodisNOTtheAuthorofSin

Is the gospel of God’s grace in Christ to be offered to all men?”

 Is the gospel of God’s grace in Christ to be offered to all men?”

If one would be willing to change the word offer in the question into preaching then I can readily answer in the affirmative. The word offer does not fit in that context, for grace is not offered, but given. Apart from that I would have no objection to the proposition that the preaching must be a proclamation of God’s grace in Christ. (Herman Hoeksema, "A Power of God Unto Salvation," p. 76)

This controversy is not about whether the gospel should be preached to all men and that all should be called to repentance and faith and that the promise of the gospel should be made known to all. All agree to the above, but debate is over the will and desire of God in the call of the gospel. (Lau Chin Kwee, “Protestant Reformed Theological Journal,” vol. 36, no. 1 [Nov. 2002], p. 29)

Other questions and answers 

#Gospel 

The High Calling

 The High Calling

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

            Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

            Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

            Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day to day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

            The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

            God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing.  Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this is to teach you the message of the Cross, humility and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature. The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time which other Christians never seem distress ed over.

            So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. God will take you at your word; if you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever: you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways in which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.

 

Author known only to God.

A DISCIPLINED CHRISTIAN HOME: (A W Pinks Life)

A DISCIPLINED CHRISTIAN HOME: (A W Pinks Life)

The Pinks home, besides being Christian, was very strict and disciplined, and the children were

expected to honor God in all their ways. The Sabbath was reverently observed, a practice Pink continued through out his life following his conversion. He later wrote of his early training in Sabbath observance:

“And today the writer is unfeignedly thankful to God that he was brought up in a home where the holy Sabbath was so “strictly”—scripturally—kept. The day began by our father reading to us God’s Word. In the morning the family attended preaching service. In the afternoon father and mother read to us out of spiritual books. Quite a liitle of the time was spent in the singing of the hymns…And our father was not a preacher.”

Pink says further in this comment that no business letters were ever opened in his home as a child on the Sabbath, and neither were Sunday newspapers ever allowed. Besides that, all toys were put away on Saturday night, and pictorial editions of Bunyans pilgrim progress and other spiritual books replaced them.

Pink never expressed sorrow over this early strict life and training. Rather he often spoke of this early parental and family influence with praise to God. In one instance he listed all he had to praise God for, and he included his godly parents who cared for him in infancy and trained him in the way he should go spiritually. When speaking of the story of Joseph, he said that the story was “indelibly impressed” on his memory from his mother’s knee and from the lips of his Sunday school teacher. He refers elsewhere to some lines of poetry taught to him by his mother, lines that search the heart deeply and stayed with him down through the years.

Those lines were:

I often say my prayers

But do I every pray?

And do the wishes of my heart

Go with the words I say?

I may as well kneel down 

And worship gods of stone

As offer to the living God

A prayer of words alone.

Quite obviously the Pinks took being Christians very seriously. Bible teaching in the home, strict Sabbath observance, searching honestly before God in prayer, and no doubt, full respect for the demands of Gods word in lifestyle and holiness of life. The children were expected to behave to respect their elders and to be disciplined in their lives. Failure at these points brought punishment mixed with words of admonition and rebuke. The Pinks did reared spoiled brats, as can be seen from comments made by Pink some years later as he traveled in the ministry.

“One of the saddest and most tragic features of our twentieth-century "Civilization" is the awful prevalence of disobedience on the part of children to their parents during the days of childhood, and their lack of reverence and respect when they grow up. This is evidenced in many ways, and is general, alas, even in the families of professing Christians. In his extensive travels during the past thirty years the writer has sojourned in a great many homes. The piety and beauty of some of them remain as sacred and fragrant memories, but others of them have left the most painful impressions. Children who are self-willed or spoiled, not only bring themselves into perpetual unhappiness but also inflict discomfort upon all who come into contact with them, and auger, by their conduct, evil things for the days to come.”

Though Pink and his wife never had any children, his convictions concerning the rearing of children were strong and unquestionably in line with his childhood and early training.