Reformed/Calvinism is a deterministic version of Christianity, where God's sovereignty means He controls everything. This of course creates a problem when it comes to sin and evil. The Calvinist needs to find a way around this. We think they fail, and that is what we are discussing today.
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Sin is something in our nature as well as something we do. We sin because of our nature. We are born into death as a result of Adam's sin:
So our nature is original death, not original sin. Sin is simply the natural expression of spiritually dead people.
Here Paul was discussing the "commandment," i.e., the Law of Moses. Paul measured his spiritual death by the advent of the righteous standard of the Law. Generically speaking, the possibility of committing sin is contingent upon a law of God being broken. But first comes the revelation of that law.
This means the timing of this revelation is a pivotal factor. However, we would want to resist the idea that the existence God's law (or our spiritual death as a result of it} came at a specific point in human history. That is, the law is not something that simply arose at the moment Moses met God on the mountain. God has always been righteous, and as an eternal being His nature is not constrained by time.
Therefore, His law is also eternal:
However, if unrighteousness first appeared after He created the heavenly hosts, then that really means that God's righteousness was contingent on that event. Which means that He was neither righteous nor unrighteous until he created beings. But this is false, because his righteousness is part of His eternal nature:
The eternal God and His eternal law revealed what is righteous, which by definition means everything else is unrighteous. Thus neither the existence of created beings nor the commission of actual unrighteousness are necessary antecedents.
Most Christians would agree that Satan was the first entity in the universe to sin. We agree with Calvinists that God did not create sin. So it seems to us the first sin was created by Satan. Which demands the free will of created beings, i.e., that there exists free moral agents who have the capability of acting completely unencumbered by the will of God.
Sin is something in our nature as well as something we do. We sin because of our nature. We are born into death as a result of Adam's sin:
Ro. 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned...
So our nature is original death, not original sin. Sin is simply the natural expression of spiritually dead people.
Paul told us how sin came about as it applies to mankind:
Ro. 7:8-9 ...For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
Here Paul was discussing the "commandment," i.e., the Law of Moses. Paul measured his spiritual death by the advent of the righteous standard of the Law. Generically speaking, the possibility of committing sin is contingent upon a law of God being broken. But first comes the revelation of that law.
This means the timing of this revelation is a pivotal factor. However, we would want to resist the idea that the existence God's law (or our spiritual death as a result of it} came at a specific point in human history. That is, the law is not something that simply arose at the moment Moses met God on the mountain. God has always been righteous, and as an eternal being His nature is not constrained by time.
Therefore, His law is also eternal:
Ps. 119:160 All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.
However, if unrighteousness first appeared after He created the heavenly hosts, then that really means that God's righteousness was contingent on that event. Which means that He was neither righteous nor unrighteous until he created beings. But this is false, because his righteousness is part of His eternal nature:
Ps. 119:142 Your righteousness is everlasting and your law is true.
The eternal God and His eternal law revealed what is righteous, which by definition means everything else is unrighteous. Thus neither the existence of created beings nor the commission of actual unrighteousness are necessary antecedents.
Most Christians would agree that Satan was the first entity in the universe to sin. We agree with Calvinists that God did not create sin. So it seems to us the first sin was created by Satan. Which demands the free will of created beings, i.e., that there exists free moral agents who have the capability of acting completely unencumbered by the will of God.
However, Reformed theology teaches that God created everything and controls everything that happens. Yet they will simultaneously claim that God did not create sin. This is problematic:
...divine determinism generates a logical problem that Reformed theology has never resolved: if God decrees whatsoever comes to pass, including all human sin, then God is the author of the evil He punishes... The Westminster Confession states that God ordains all that comes to pass, yet “neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures.” How both of these can be true simultaneously has never been demonstrated by any Reformed theologian.
This is a key issue. The problem as we see it is their mis-definition of sovereignty. Reformed/Calvinism appeals to His sovereignty to assert that He controls everything. That is, because He is sovereign He must act. This makes God to be at the mercy of His own sovereignty.
However, to us His sovereignty requires both the power to do and to NOT do. His sovereignty must include the ability to not act, despite that fact He knows everything. If He must act He is not sovereign.
So, in the timeless glory of eternity God acts or not acts as He chooses. Thus the free will of creation is absolute, but does not diminish God's sovereignty. Which means God refrained from acting as Lucifer conceived evil and sinned, Adam sinned, and when all mankind sinned.
So, in the timeless glory of eternity God acts or not acts as He chooses. Thus the free will of creation is absolute, but does not diminish God's sovereignty. Which means God refrained from acting as Lucifer conceived evil and sinned, Adam sinned, and when all mankind sinned.
God decides for Himself when and how He utilizes His great power according to His foreknowledge.
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