Did God Cause the Fall of Man? A Response to Arminian Today Part 3

Now that I have made myself clear on the issue of whether or not God predestined or decreed that the fall of man would happen I must defend my position by answering Roy’s main question, "Did God cause Adam to fall into sin?" This is not an easy question to answer but I do believe we can look to the Bible for guidance. Continuing the quote from Roy’s post:

“The Scriptures clearly teach that God does not tempt men (James 1:13). Adam fell through the act of his own free will…But if there is really no such thing as free will then Adam fell because God essentially made him sin. This is the only rational response to the problem of Adam's sin.”

Before I can even address the majority of the content previously quoted I must make some distinctions that Roy does not make in his post. He writes, “Now to be fair, there are many Calvinist who would deny that Calvinism teaches that God caused the Fall. Most Calvinist would stop short of saying that God predestined the Fall of humanity…” (emphasis added).

Roy uses several words interchangeably that should be distinguished from one another. To predestine, to cause, to make someone do something, and to tempt are all different things. The fact that God predestined the fall to happen does not negate the fact that Adam willingly sinned against God.

One thing I like about Roy’s post is that he appeals to direct statements in Scripture. Though I certainly disagree with him on many of his conclusions I want to make it clear that he is most helpful when He goes to the inspired word of God and he does that quite often. It seems to me that his “knockout” verse is James 1:13. For the sake of context we will look at 13-15:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

The seeming contradiction that Roy presents between this text and the idea that God predestined the fall can be resolved when we look at James’ definition of temptation. Look at the text again and you will see that temptation is defined as a luring and enticing which is done by a person’s own desire. This is remarkably similar to Genesis 3:6 which tells us that Eve desired the fruit. I am not arguing that God tempted Adam and Eve to sin against Him. I am arguing that His sovereign will was that the fall would happen for His plan and purpose, namely, to bring about redemption for His glory. So I reject the idea that God’s decree of the fall means He tempted anyone to sin or even forced them to sin.

Undoubtedly many of you are wondering how Adam and Even fell into sin by God’s decree apart from God being the one to somehow tempt or push them into it. My answer is simply that I don’t know what the nature of Adam’s will was in a pre-fall state. But I will say that I don’t think it is helpful to insist that he must have had the ability to go against God’s sovereign plan. I briefly demonstrated in a previous post that free will, as defined by Arminianism, is not described in the Bible. The existence of choices, wills, and responsibility does not necessitate the unrealistic view many hold of ultimate free will. So unlike some Calvinists and Arminians who have thought through these things before me I do not offer a positive explanation of what Adam’s will was like. The Bible is silent on how Adam was capable of sinning apart from being born into sin and so I am silent on the issue as well.

In conclusion, I think the question is too vague for a simple yes or no. In light of my distinctions I will answer this way: God did cause the fall in that He predestined that it would happen exactly the way it happened. It could not have happened any other way or (in the strictest sense) not have happened. He did not, however, cause the fall by being a direct agent in the execution of the temptation or the sin itself. Scripture speaks on the relation of God’s decree of sin and the murder of Christ in this way:

…for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:27-28)