Did God Cause the Fall of Man? A Response to Arminian Today Part 2

This is part 2 of a series of posts in response to the post on the blog Arminian Today entitled "Did God Cause the Fall of Man?" I suggest you begin by reading Roy's post and my introduction to the series.

Because of the issue we are dealing with I think it would be helpful to begin with a couple of questions that can guide us.

Did God have a purpose in creating man?
If so, what was that purpose?
Did God intend for Christ to come into the world?

If God is a God worthy of our worship (and He most certainly is) He doesn’t just create haphazardly. The Bible clearly indicates that God is a God of purpose. He doesn’t only have purpose in the world now but He had purpose in the world when He created it. In short, God’s purpose in creation was (and is) His glory (Isaiah 43:7). God is most glorified through the work of His Son, Christ Jesus, who is the “radiance of the glory of God” (Hebrews 1:3), for whom and through whom He created everything (Colossians 1:16-18). The glory of God in Jesus Christ shines most brightly in the work that he has done for us in redeeming such vile sinners (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14, 2 Cor. 4:6).

In the post to which I am responding Roy states,

“God did foreknow that Adam would fall but he did not force the Fall (1 Peter 1:20). God foreknew that Adam would transgress but he did not predestine the Fall.”

Sandwiched between two statements is his reference to 1 Peter 1:20,

“He [Christ] was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1:20-21).

In no way does this text give the impression that God did not predestine the fall. One cannot separate what God foreknows from what he decrees, especially in the case of Christ. If Christ was foreknown in the same way that Roy says the fall of man was foreknown then God must not have even planned the incarnation. But I suggest to you that Christ was foreknown as the one who would come to save us from our sins. I suggest to you that God not only knew the fall would happen but that this fallen world is leading to the best of all possible worlds that will glorify God because of what He has done through the God-man Jesus Christ.

My confidence in this belief that God's purpose in creation was the same before and after the fall is not merely derived from logic or what I believe about God. What seals this belief for me is the continuity of the existence of the gospel before and after the fall. If this is true we can confidently say that the fall did not alter God's original intention in creation in any way. Here are a couple of examples:

Genesis 2:24 gives us a pre-fall institution of marriage. Certainly marriage was affected by the fall because Adam and Eve and all of their descendants would be marred by sin. However, the purpose of marriage was not changed by sin. Rather, the purpose of marriage was fulfilled because of the existence of sin. In Ephesians Paul tells us exactly what God's purpose has always been for marriage. After quoting Genesis 2:24 in Ephesians 5:31 Paul gives this new understanding to an old institution, "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." The word "mystery" can be interpreted in the light of Ephesians 3:5 as something that was hidden to previous generations but now revealed.

In order for the argument that God "foreknew but did not predestine" something to make sense it should be demonstrated that God was not actively "predestining" something that was directly affected by the event in question. Revelation 13:8 tells us that the Book of Life was written before the foundation of the world. Not only that but it is the Book of Life of the Lamb who was Slain. For what purpose was the Lamb slain?

God's foreknowledge is not a passive taking in of the future. In fact, every instance of the word imply God activity and contradict the thought that He was passive.

Next week, in part 3, I will deal with the difference between God's decree of the fall and the charge that this would mean He "caused" the fall. In part 4 I will defend the Biblical concept of God's love in view of the fact that He predestined the fall of man.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen