In one of Dr. Gorden H. Clark’s books, he consented with the majority that God is not the “Author” of sin.
I disagreed with that years before I had read Dr. Clark so express, and I wrote about it extensively, in many books.* I have maintained that God is Absolute Source of everything. Some who headedly disagree, disagree because they cannot think logically or Scripturally (and they don’t even know what the word author means!); and they do not understand God’s Nature. Such individuals draw a FALSE inference that if God created sin, that doing so would make Him sinful—but they do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God. He created all that exists—He planned in sub-atomic exactitude every single particle of matter / energy and its interaction with every other, on the micro- (inner space) and macro-scopic (outer space) scales. Nothing evolves. No one writes his own script. Nothing randomly happens by chance. Nothing can force its independent (that is, absolutely beyond God’s Will and Design and Control) ideas or actions into God’s Mind that He did not originate. God does not react. God is Immutable and Omnipotent. God’s Fore-knowledge is not passive (for God is not passive), but Deterministic. God is not a mere spectator in His Own Universe—but Master of it. In his, God and Evil: The Problem Solved (1961), Dr. Clark expressed the standard notion that “God is the Cause of sin”, but not the “Author” of it (presumably, following the authors of the Westminster Confession and Calvin, both of whom, in this point, were in error).
[* Two of the earliest being my book, God and Evil (2013) and my subsequent book, Does God Repent...? Can God Change His Mind...? (2014). In the former, I defended myself against profound ignorance and disgraceful attack by one who cannot think logically and who does not understand Theology (who himself, ironically confessed that all false doctrine has its roots in a faulty conception of God), who proceedly to publicly rebuke (via the internet) and attempt to school me (himself having been schooled neither in Academics nor Grace). However, as I have long maintained: It is not that I am some uncommon genius (and God has hid the truth from many who think they are wise and prudent and revealed it unto babes), but that the truth is really that simple. Sinful man complicates truth by attempting to force-fit the Word of God to his “experience” and how he wants reality to be; and this is called, in Scripture, holding [down] “the Truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18); and such “do err, not knowing the Scriptures” — “nor the Power of God”. Many, it is true, do not blaze their own path of error, but merely follow blindly in the error of those who have misblazed the trail before them; and they produce “Cookie Cutter Theology”, that they stamp out, as if on a production line, which they do not really understand; having never blazed original thought or study by walking in the Spirit, humbling themselves before the Almighty’s Throne.
- Does God Repent...? Can God Change His Mind...? [And an Utter Demolishment of the Humanistic Myth of Man’s “Free Will” and Arminianism], 506pp., 25.00 + P&H. Lively, profound, revealing, thought provoking, convincing thought, logic, Scripture. Exposes subversion of true Christian faith in counter reformation re-introducing false theology of Origen and Pelagius; corruption of modern church by Jesuits, crypto-jews & terribly deceived humanists (Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Barth, Schweitzer, Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc.); undermining of Puritan church by Solomon Stoddard, and much more; dissects false theology from 1 chapter of 2 different books (1 by Dr. Norman Geisler and 1 by Brother Andrew).
- God and Evil: Did God Create Sin and Evil? The Facts of My Imaginary, Evanescent Heresy Trial - The Death Knell of Arminianism at the Hand of the Word of God, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H.
- Also available: God and Evil: The Problem Solved, Dr. Gordon H. Clark, 60pp., large pb., 6.00 + P&H.]
A few years later Dr. Clark amended or at least clarified his position, as I was delighted to read this morning in Dr. Clark’s comments in, The Philosophy of Dr. Gordon H. Clark: A Festschrift* (1968).
[* Also available [P&H = 10% (6.00 minimum P&H) within the U.S.
Mail to Ancient Heritage Foundation - P.O. Box 18, Mountain City, Tennessee 37683 / or see email address here: Contact and Order Information ]:
- Clark and His Critics [Vol. 7]; which combines The Philosophy of Gordon H. Clark: A Festschrift, edited by Ronald Nash (the text of the Wheaton Lectures, contributions from prominent academics on Clark’s philosophy, and Clark’s replies to his critics in which Clark masterfully defends his philosophical system); and Clark Speaks from the Grave (Clark responds to other ctitics, some replied were not published publically until after his death in 1985. 7.25 x 10.25, 415pp., pb., 20.00 (reg. 22) or Hb., 27.00 (reg. 30) + P&H. Excellent companion to, and should be read AFTER, A Christian View of Men and Things
- A Christian View of Men and Things [Vol. 1 of Works of G.H. Clark], 251pp., 10.25 x 7.25, pb., 18.00 (reg. 22); Hb., 26.00 (reg. 30) + P&H; demolishes false philosophies, including all political science has been based (Aristotle, Aquinas, Rousseau, Spengler, etc.); shows how their models are antichristian, socialist, can only fail; demolishes false doctrines passing as Christianity, promoted by liberal, defective, and incompetent theologians.]
Dr. John Warwick Montgomery quoting Dr. Clark (on page 370 of the original printing by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phila.), wrote,
“ ‘Does the view here proposed make God the Author of sin?’ Clark’s answer is simply that ‘Author of sin’ is a bad metaphor (‘Why the learned divines who formulated the various creeds so uniformly permitted such a metaphorical expression to becloud the issue is a puzzle’), and that the non-paradoxical double-predestinarian view ‘most certainly makes God the First and Ultimate Cause of everything’.”
I should point out that Dr. Clark had an aversion to analogies / analogical thought. But, is “Author” a bad metaphor / analogy...? Scripture says that Jesus is the “Author of Eternal Salvation” (Hebrews 5:9). If that is not a bad metaphor, how can the other be? However, the actual Greek word does not mean author, but “causer” (#169 ah-ee-tee-os). The authors of the Westminster Confession (1648) were clearly influenced by the Geneva Bible of 1599 (the Geneva New Testament was first printed in 1560) and the KJV of 1611; all of which did translate Hebrews 5:9 as “author”. However, Wycliffe and Tyndale used the word “cause”.
The only other time “author of” appears in the Bible is in I Corinthians 14:33, but in this verse the translators added the word (which is not in the text) for presumed clarity: “God is not the author of confusion”. In this case, however, the translators of the KJV chose a word that itself leads to confusion. Robert Young in his Literal Translation, and the New Revised Standard Version probably offer the better supplication of the words “a God”; that is, “God is not a God of confusion”. The online Bible Hub Interlinear Bible shows the literal Greek rendering into English as, “Not for He of disorder the God, but of Peace”.
Regardless, to say that God is the Cause, but not the Author, is an artificial and erroneous distinction that cannot be supported by Scripture, by the English language, or by logic. God clearly says, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7) God sends delusion. God hardens hearts and offends so that they will not believe. All are spiritually dead, blind, deaf, etc. None can believe unless God calls them from Death unto Life and grants them the faith to believe. All of Creation is God’s Drama. Whether or not one thinks of God as the Author or not depends upon an individual’s understanding of the word author. If they think that author only means “someone who writes a book”, they are wrong. If a bard never wrote things down, but recited all of his poetry or ballads from memory, would he not be the author of those unwritten works? What does the word author mean? What is its etymology? Well, you should recognize it in the word authority (and authentic); from the Latin, auctor, from auctus, past participle of augere. The word author means, “a person who invents, originates, or causes something; father, creator, one who brings something about, instigator”. How, then, can God be the Causer but not the Author...?
As Dr. Clark, master logician that he was, full well knew, no analogy / metaphor—even as no parable in Scripture, is ever intended to be an exact replica in every single area. If one thing is exactly like another, it is not an analogy, but that thing itself. Analogies / metaphors / parables are ment to have solely one or a few main points of univocal comparison. Scripture is replete with analogies and parables. There is nothing wrong with analogies / metaphors, if they are understood to be intended solely to be limited in their scope and meaning. God calls His true people the sheep of His pasture; but I don’t think any Christian has ever been so confused to go outside onto his front lawn, crouch down on all fours, and eat grass. Dr. Clark, in the work quoted by Montgomery, expressed that although God is not the Author of this book that you are now reading, He indeed is the Cause. However, in reality, Author and Cause are identical in their meaning; though they may have varied usage in different contexts. God indeed is the Author of this book that I am writing—but He is not the fingers. Every word was what He determined and it could be no other way. But there are different purposes for different writings. Certainly His Purpose for this book is not that it be canonically infallible Scripture; but that does not make Him any less the Author. Similarly, every book of error, confusion, and false doctrine, God indeed is also the Author; but the purpose is for vessels of wrath to fill up the Full Measure of His Wrath; they so write because He has sent them strong delusion to believe a lie (II Thessalonians 2:11) and God chooses man’s delusions (Isaiah 66:4); and God chooses for the nonelect of His people, and all vessels of wrath to be led astray, because that is what He ordained. Every drama needs villains, victims, bystanders, and heroes. God is no more “guilty” of penning such into His Drama than any individual human novelist is for writing a murder or treason or other immorality or injustice into his play / book. The problem arises when humans think that they are the ones who determine what God is and is not allowed to do; and they think it is fine for a human to invent “fiction”, but that God is not allowed to write reality concerning His universe and a nearly limitless amount of things that only He understands. Those who think that God is sinful if He created sin have very tiny minds and do not understand God’s Nature.
[Again, see my books, God and Evil and Does God Repent...?]
Scripture itself tells us,
“For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (II Peter 1:21)
Whether spoken or written by the Prophets—or both—those prophecies, those declarations, those writings (books / scrolls) were indeed Authored by God. God was the Author; each individual prophet was the instrument, the tool, the means by which God had that of which He was the Willer, the Author, to be spoken and written. If all of history / reality is an unwritten Play being acted out over the past nearly 6,000 years, God indeed, again, is the Author, Producer, and Director; but He is not the Actor in terms of the “props” and “actors” in His Drama.
It is a paradox, as are all our attempts to fully understand the Ineffable God, who is unknowable except to the limited degree that He self-revelates, and to the limited degree that our finite minds can understand His Absolute Being. Can a mere thimble contain all the oceans of planet Earth?
As I explain it, God indeed is the Author, Producer, and Director of everything! (see Acts 4:27,28, Proverbs 21:1, and Daniel 4:35). However, He is not the Actor: each individual is the actor, following unwittingly every single thought, attitude, word, and deed that God has penned for each in His Drama, in which no creature “ad libs”. Scripture informs those with eyes to see and ears to hear, “It is in Him that we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28); that God is “All in all” (I Corinthians 12:6); and “without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5c).
[See also my,
- The Attributes of God (1930) Arthur W. Pink, “Critical Edition” with detailed Preface, Biography, and my Annotations doubling the page count, 199pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H.
- Salvation Results From God Bestowing Free Grace Upon His Elect not from the Erroneous Notion of Man Having “Free Will” To Choose To Be Saved — The Charles H. Spurgeon Election, Predestination, and Calvinism Collection, 299pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H; containing Spurgeon’s sermons: Sovereign Grace and Man’s Responsibility, The Agreement of Salvation by Grace with Walking in Good Works, All of Grace, Human Inability, Human Responsibility, Sovereignty and Salvation, Predestination and Calling, Election, Election and Holiness, Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls, A Defense of Calvinism, & Free Will — A Slave; and my extensive notes.
- The Sovereignty of God, Arthur Pink, Critical Annotated edition (200pp., of Pink’s original, the rest beint my extensive annotations) 648pp., pb., 32.50 + P&H.
- and my, The Sovereignty of God, Predestination, “Free” Will, and the Protestant Reformation; 192pp., pb., 16.00 + P&H, (which is in my trilogy along with God and Evil and Does God Repent...?)]