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
4 comments:
This is clearly mistaken. Here Zanchius clearly denies that God is the author, i.e. the (efficient) cause, of the sinfulness of human sins. He is said to be the Author of sinful human actions merely as actions--not as sinful. He considers this a meaningful distinction.
KSF,
I dont think it is a mistake. God is Primary cause of all things. Of course sinful man is accountable for those actions that sinful man does because God holds him accountable. God is the primary cause, man is the secondary cause.
I should bring to your attention a very important, 3-page document of the Westminster Assembly, which was re-published at Reformed Books Online in 2020, on the causation of sin:
https://reformedbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Westminster-God-is-Not-the-Author-of-Sin.pdf
This statement merits serious study and careful digestion of the crucial points that it makes.
Note that it is a *unanimous* statement of the over 100 theologians who made up the Assembly!
Thank you for your reply, first of all the Westminster Confession is not Scripture. Second, just because a bunch of people say God is not the Author of sin does not mean that those people are right. God is the Author of sin in the sense that he is the primary cause of all things. Outside of God's sovereign control nothing is or does happen.
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