You take one theological term, and declare it the definition of several others. Again . . Dispensational confusion! There is power in these tactics, but they are wicked tactics.
God is the first cause of all things created.
There is distinction between being first "cause" and "author."
There is distinction between the words "cause" and "author" and "ordain."
There is distinction between the words "cause" and "foreknowledge" and "predestination."
You can play pretend like I'm stupid if it makes you feel better but it doesn't help your argument.
This is the quintiscencial, "Saying it doesn't make it so!"
I know full well that Calvinist give lip service to human beings having a will and they state immediately after stating that God predestined everything that comes to pass that the doctrine does no injury to man's agency as a secondary cause, yada yada yada.
IT'S ALL MEANINGLESS DOUBLE TALK, NANG!!!
Even you must be able to see that. There is no argument presented to substantiate the claim that people are responsible for thier actions in spite of God's unchangable predestination of those actions, it's just stated as a belief.
Well, you can believe anythign you want! David Koresh believed he was the second coming of Christ! His belief, no matter how sincere didn't make it so! And make no mistake, Calvinists just flatly make the claim. There is no argument. There is no making any sense of it. Their defese when pressed is that we mere humans are not capable of understanding it - just believe it. And they think that's what faith is. That's what you think faith is!
Do you know what these distinctions are, or do you just lump them altogether as being the same, so you can blame the Reformer as teaching God is the author of sin?
He does teach that. He denies it and even states the opposite but again, saying it doesn't make it so. The only reason he even says it at all is because he intuitively understands the implications of his core doctrine and understands that those implications cannot be true of a righteous God but he is unwilling to let go of his core doctrine and so simply and blindly believes both with no argument to explian the glaring contradiction. They even give the contradiction a different name because "contradiction" doesn't sound too good and so they find a latin term that means the same thing but sounds more intellectual.
God is not the author of sin. (Which the WCF also clearly states. V.IV.)
How? Why?
Because God created man in His image, and gave mankind secondary agency to dutifully cause and effect. Adam was given a human will, and the responsibility to exercise that will in subordination to the sovereign will of God.
Restating the doctrine doesn't do anything toward explaining how or why, Nang.
Every exercise of his will that ever Adam made was unchangably predestined by God before He every created a single atom. Adam could not have done otherwise if he had wanted to and he couldn't even have wanted to because his wants were also unchangably predestined by God - according to you and the Reformed faith.
All you're doing is giving lip service to the human will. It doesn't mean anything. You cannot escape God's unchangable preordained destiny.
Read WCF VI.I-VI
God's will did not author sin . . the will of Adam brought sin and death into the world. Romans 5:12
All of us must be careful not to blame God for what man has done.
And careful observance of language is vital to so doing.
It's just words, Nang!
Man could not have acted in defiance of God's preordained will. Everything that has happened has happened exactly as God preordained that it would.
I give you the same quote I gave in my previous post...
"Since the universe had its origin in God and depends on Him for its continued existence it must be, in all its parts and at all times, subject to His control so that nothing can come to pass contrary to what He expressly decrees or permits."
Do you deny that this is what you believe?
Resting in Him,
Clete
