God’s Responsibility In The Fall

Continuing to look at God’s responsibility when it comes to evil, we look at God’s responsibility in the Fall of mankind. Both sides of the choice debate have to recognize the Fall as something unique and comes with their own set of questions. Which side is the most consistent AND the most biblical?

Genesis 50 offers up one of the best biblical views of divine determinism as well as the moral responsibility of man for evil alone but God’s decree of that same evil. Evil does not exist independently from God. God is not reacting to evil. God is not surprised by evil. God is not being forced to deal with evil. There is no conflict in determinism when approached fairly.

Then we look at the Fall and see that Adam and Eve seem to offer up a special case and because of the limits to the metaphysical nature of man pre-Fall, we come up with a mystery. With all that being said, we still see that God is still sovereign in the Fall. It was not an accident and it was not God being a puppet master and forcing Adam & Eve to sin.

This chapter is really preparing the way for Christensen to present his own theodicy that incorporates all the issues he’s presented so far along with the biblical narrative truth God provided.