Is God the Author of Sin?

I had a question from a friend over the weekends: "I've always wondered & do not understand if God is in control of everything & basically is what we call sovereign how can he not be the author of sin?"

This post will mainly be based on articles I have read and put together, because I feel that they expressed the point better than I would have done. For a start, this article Is God the Author of Sin? provides a sort of “running list” of theologians who have commented and written about the relationship between the Scriptural account of God and the existence of evil.

1. God does not author sin

To quote from The Westminster Confession of Faith, a 'book' which I studied before my reaffirmation of faith (aka 'adult' baptism) back in 2007:

Chapter V Of Providence, Point IV:
The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.

I understand from some sources that the KJV version of Isaiah 45:7 says that: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." However, a little bit of history, the Bible was translated mainly from Hebrew. If you look at another version of the same verse,

ESV:
I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.
NIV 2011:
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.

In other words, God devises calamity as a judgment for the wicked. But in no sense is He the author of evil. Just to quote from Grace to You:

It is helpful, I think, to understand that sin is not itself a thing created. Sin is neither substance, being, spirit, nor matter. So it is technically not proper to think of sin as something that was created. Sin is simply alack of moral perfection in a fallen creature. Fallen creatures themselves bear full responsibility for their sin. And all evil in the universe emanates from the sins of fallen creatures.

2. God does not commit sin in willing that there be sin

To quote from an article I just read (Is God the Author of Sin? Jonathan Edwards’ Answer):

He uses the analogy of the way the sun brings about light and warmth by its essential nature, but brings about dark and cold by dropping below the horizon. “If the sun were the proper cause of cold and darkness,” he says, “it would be the fountain of these things, as it is the fountain of light and heat: and then something might be argued from the nature of cold and darkness, to a likeness of nature in the sun.” In other words, “sin is not the fruit of any positive agency or influence of the most High, but on the contrary, arises from the withholding of his action and energy, and under certain circumstances, necessarily follows on the want of his influence.”

God wills that there is sin though he hates it. God wills that what he hate shall come to pass. To continue quoting: 

God may hate a thing as it is in itself, and considered simply as evil, and yet . . . it may be his will it should come to pass, considering all consequences. . . . God doesn’t will sin as sin or for the sake of anything evil; though it be his pleasure so to order things, that he permitting, sin will come to pass; for the sake of the great good that by his disposal shall be the consequence. His willing to order things so that evil should come to pass, for the sake of the contrary good, is no argument that he doesn’t hate evil, as evil: and if so, then it is no reason why he may not reasonably forbid evil as evil, and punish it as such.

(Click on the article to read about some examples on perplexing issues in the Bible in which God expresses his will to be in one way but acts in another.)


3. God does everything for a purpose

Finally, like I've mentioned in my blog post two weeks ago titled An encouragement to Christians in suffering, God does everything for a purpose, even though we may not know what is his purpose. He may allow certain things to happen, even though we might be suffering in the midst of it. So all we can do is to trust God that things will turn out as he planned (which will be the case).


God bless!