In what sense is God the Author of sin?

Jerome Zanchius seems to suggest that God is the Author of all things including sin abstractly speaking. However, God is not the author of sin as one who does the sin.

"God, as the primary and efficient cause of all things, is not only the Author of those actions done by His elect as actions, but also as they are good actions, whereas, on the other hand, though He may be said to be the Author of all the actions done by the wicked, yet He is not the Author of them in a moral and compound sense as they are sinful; but physically, simply and sensu diviso as they are mere actions, abstractedly from all consideration of the goodness or badness of them." - Absolute Predestination, pg. 31 - 32

Do you desire salvation? Don't be fooled

A lordship salvation advocate asked me if I desire to obey Jesus. The problem is that if I did not he would count me a lost sinner. The problem is that his sentiments are not sound nor are they biblical. First of all the law punishes and condemns all for lack of perfect conformity to it. Even our best works are nothing short of sin and a defilement of God's glory. Second, the Bible never says if you at least desire to do x then you are hereby saved. No the Bible when it comes to salvation takes us out of the mix. Either a sinner believes the gospel of Christ alone as truth or he does not.

Jerome Zanchius, Zacharias Ursinus, Martin Luther vs. John Macarthur

John Macarthur is known to have brought in the heretical Lordship Salvation heresy into the church. When defining what it means for Christ to be Lord he says basically that it is a lifestyle change. He connects this and other doctrines with how we live or what we do. He says, "Jesus is Lord (1 Cor. 12:3). That is the single, central, foundational, and distinguishable article of Christianity. It is also the first essential confession of faith every true Christian must make: 'If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved' (Rom. 10:9). The belief that someone could be a true Christian while that person's whole lifestyle, value system, speech, and attitude are marked by a stubborn refusal to surrender to Christ as Lord is a notion that shouldn't even need to be refuted." Macarthur is an existentialist. Unless something is experienced it cannot be true. On top of this he is a dispensationalist.

However, this isnt taught by any of the Reformers. Luther never defined Christ's Lordship in conjunction to our obedience. He says in the Larger Catechism found in the book of Concord on pg. 414 "If you are asked, 'What do you believe in the Second Article, concerning Jesus Christ?' answer briefly, 'I believe that Jesus Christ, true Son of God, has become my Lord.' What is it to 'become a Lord'? It means that he has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and from all evil. Before this I had no Lord and King but was captive under the power of the devil. I was condemned to death and entangled in sin and blindness."

Luther also says on the same page, "Those tyrants and jailers now have been routed, and their place has been taken by Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and righteousness and every good and blessing. He has snatched us, poor lost creatures, from the jaws of hell, won us, made us free, and restored us to the Father's favor and grace. . . . Let this be the summary of this article, that the little word 'Lord' simply means the same as Redeemer, that is, he who has brought us back from the devil to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and now keeps us safe there."

None of these blessings have an existential truth connected to it.

Ursinus says, "When we, therefore, say that we believe in our Lord, we believe, 1. That the Son of God is the Creator of all things, and therefore has a right over all creatures. 'All things that the Father hath are mine.' 2. That he is in a peculiar manner constituted the Lord, the defender and preserver of the church, because he has redeemed it with his blood. 3. That the Son of God is also my Lord, that I am one of his subjects, that I am redeemed by his blood and continually preserved by him, so that I am bound to be grateful to him. And, further, that his dominion over me is such as is calculated to promote my good, and that I am saved by him as a most precious possession, a peculiar purchase, secured at the greatest expense." - Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, pg. 205

Jerome Zanchius says the that the term Lord means that God has absolute sovereign rights to do as He pleases.

Jerome Zanchius says, "As Lord or Sovereign of all, He does as He will (and has a most unquestionable right to do so) with His own, and in particular fixes and determines the everlasting state of every individual person, as He sees fit. It is essential to absolute sovereignty that the sovereign have it in his power to dispose of those over whom his jurisdiction extends, just as he pleases, without being accountable to any; and God, whose authority is unbounded, none being exempt from it, may, with the strictest holiness and justice, love or hate, elect or reprobate, save or destroy any of His creatures, whether human or angelic, according to His own free pleasure and sovereign purpose." - Absolute Predestination, Pg. 38

John Gill a Supralapsarian

Of course we have other passages of Gill that could be used but this one is very clear:

In the election of men, "They were considered as on an equal foot with others not elected, as men are; as men are considered, when chosen, as in the pure mass, having done neither good nor evil, so were angels; this must be out of all question, with respect to them, since the elect angels never fell, never were in any corrupt state, and could not be so considered: besides, their preservation from apostasy, and their confirmation, by grace, in the state in which they were created are in consequence of their election; and therefore must be previous to the fall of the rest, who, with them, must be considered in the pure mass of creatureship; wherefore the choice of the one, and the leaving of the other, must be entirely owing to the sovereign will of God." - Body of Divinity, Pg. 176

God's goodness means that He is unchangeable

When it comes to what is God one aspect of divinity is the goodness of God. What do we mean by goodness? Of course, by it we do not mean to say God is good according to some standard outside of Himself otherwise He wouldn't be good. What we simply mean by the goodness of God is the perfection in which there is no shadow of turning, He does not change. God simply is a spirit and in Him he is not made of parts as the compound or complexity of humans.

John Gill speaks of the goodness of God in his Body of Divinity. He says, "The goodness of God is not distinct from his essence; for then he must be compounded of that, and his essence; which is contrary to his simplicity: he is good in and of himself, and by his own essence; and not by participation of another; for if he was not good of himself, and by his own essence, but of and by another; then there would be some being, both better than him, and prior to him; and so he would not be the eternal God, nor an independent Being, since he must depend on that from whence he receives his goodness; nor would he be the most perfect being, since what communicates goodness to him must be more perfect than he: all which, to say of God, is very unbecoming. It remains, then, that he is essentially good; is so in and of himself, by his own nature and essence." Pg. 92

With this we confess along with Jerome Zanchius,

"God is essentially unchangeable in Himself. Were He otherwise, He would be confessedly imperfect, since whoever changes must change either for better or for the worse; whatever alteration any being undergoes, that being must, ipso facto, either become more excellent than it was or lose some of the excellency which it had. But neither of these can be the case with the Deity: He cannot change for the better, for that would necessarily imply that He was not perfectly good before; He cannot change for the worse, for then He could not be perfectly good after that change. Ergo, God is unchangeable." pg. 25-26, Absolute Predestination

The belief of the Truth alone is the cause of all true holiness; while our good works simply help our neighbor

"The simple belief of the truth, is the only spring of all true holiness, of all love and obedience to God. He who, perceiving the Divine love to sinners of all sorts, without distinction, manifested in the atonement, is thereby led to love the atonement, and the Divine character appearing there, and so to enjoy the promised comfort resulting thence to the obedient, comes at the same time to know his particular interest in the atonement. And thus by happily experiencing the truth of the gospel, he is greatly encouraged to go forward in that course into which he was at first introduced by the evidence of truth appearing to him in the report of the gospel. So he labours neither first nor last to acquire any requisite to justification; but all his labour proceeds on the persuasion, that the atonement itself is the sole and all-sufficient requisite to justification. He is likewise sensible, that the atonement is the sole spring of all his self-denied love, and of all the present comfort, as well as future reward connected with it; so he knows that all his holiness, as well as all his happiness, comes entirely of that grace which provided the atonement, and thus he understands how grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life." - Robert Sandeman, Letters on Theron and Aspasio

"In the sight of God it is really faith that makes a person holy; faith alone serves him, while our works serve the people." - Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, in The Book of Concords, pg. 385

"Some then may object, if it be so, we ought to refrain from doing righteousness, as from dung.
I answer, It follows not; but that we must refrain from glorying in, or stroaking ourselves for our righteous doings, and rather take shame to ourselves when we have done, and so glory only in the Lord. Though good works done by us are but dung in themselves, and in God's eye; yet must we be careful to maintain them, since they are profitable to men, Tit. iii. 8. David (Psal. xvi. 2, 3,) confesseth, that his goodness extendeth not to God; yet for all this he refrains not, because it could extend to the Saints upon earth, and to the excellent in whom was his delight; it is no good plea, that because a man cannot be wholly clean, therefore, he will be more filthy than needs. . . ." - Tobias Crisp, Christ Alone Exalted, Second Volume, Pg. 42

The cause of all things is the will of God

"The will of God is so the cause of all things, as to be itself without cause, for nothing can be the cause of that which is the cause of everything. So that the Divine will is the ne plus ultra of all our inquiries; when we ascend to that, we can go no farther. Hence we find every matter resolved ultimately into the mere sovereign pleasure of God, as the spring and occasion of whatsoever is done in heaven and earth." - Jerome Zanchius, Absolute Predestination, pg. 16 - 17

We are embassadors of the gospel of Christ not of the law

"What the great and main business of us that profess ourselves to be the ministers of Christ, ought to be in the world with men. It is to be lamented, I confess, and I would to God there were no occasion to speak of it, whilst we profess ourselves to be the ambassadors of Christ, to dispatch this great business, to beseech men in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God; we are too much the ministers of Moses, pressing and thundering the wrath of God from heaven; publishing unto men the working out their own salvation by their own works, according to the law; putting on them the performance of duties in every particular, that they may have peace and joy of spirit from it; telling them, that they must make their peace with God, by fasting, and prayer, and mourning: is this to beseech men in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God by Christ alone? This is the embassage of the ministers of the gospel; and whoever he be that forsake this message, he goes, and is not sent; he takes upon him to manage a business out of his commission; for the commission is, that we in Christ's stead should beseech men to be reconciled unto God, and by the blood of Christ alone." Tobias Crisp, Christ Alone Exalted v. 2, pg. 5 - 6

Justification by Faith alone

"Nay, justification is made by this onely motion, wherby the mind through faith is so moved unto God, that it taketh hold of his good will, reconciled by Christs satisfaction to all that beleeve in him" - Johannes Piscator, A learned and profitable Treatise of Mans justification Two Books, pg. 68

Sanctification is a work of God alone

"Men do not make themselves holy; neither their regeneration nor their growth in grace is due to their own diligence or obedience, but to God alone. The fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control - are just that, the fruit of the Spirit, not of ourselves, for it is Christ who lives in us, and it is Christ who works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. We are commanded to 'work out' what God has already 'worked in' us. We cannot work out unless God works in us, for without Christ we can do nothing. We are Christ's workmanship, not our own." - John W. Robbins, Foreword to the First Ediction of What is the Christian Life?, Pg. 15

Apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ our works are simply dung

"For except justice be imputed to a man by faith, no worke of his can please God and be approved as just." - Johannes Piscator, "A learned and profitable Treatise of Mans justification Two Bookes", pg. 57

Jesuits Theology or Counter-Reformation

There are some who are positing that Molinism would not be against what Gordon H. Clark taught. These men teach that Gordon H. Clark and Molinism both taught that the free will of man and God's sovereignty are both compatible.

First of all, what Clark taught was not compatiblism. But rather what Clark taught was hard determinism. Clark did not hold to the irrational view that man has free will and yet God is sovereign at the same time. Second,  Molinism teaches that God's knowledge is so vast that he really doesn't know anything. It is satanism at its worst. Compatibilism is nothing but irratiinalism. Third, Molinism is nothing short of the Jesuits counter reformation. Clark attacks and repudiates this heretical error in his book "Predestination".


Gordon H. Clark says, "The Bible contradicts the notion of free will that is acceptance by professing Christians can be explained only by the continuing ravages of sin blinding the minds of men. To some this sounds like an extreme statement. But the appeal is to the Bible, and the Bible says that the heart of man is deceitful above measure. It will use all possible devices to avoid acknowledging that it is a worm, a lump of clay, a creature, and not an independent, autonomous being." - Predestination, Pg. 81

God chooses a king by inclining the people for one above another

"I think royalists cannot deny but a people ruled by aristocratic magistrates may elect a king, and a king so elected is formally made a lawful king by the people's election; for of six willing and gifted to reign, what maketh one a king and not the other five? Certianly by God's disposing the people to choose this man, and not another man. It cannot be said but God giveth the kingly power immediately; and by him kings reign, that is true. The office is immediately from God, but the question now is, What is that which formally applieth the office and royal power to this person rather than to the other five as meet? Nothing can here be dreamed of but God's inclining the hearts of the states to choose this man and not that man." - Samuel Rutherford, Lex, Rex, or The Law and The Prince, pg. 9