Why God Is Ultimately Responsible for Sin's Occurrence
Under classical theism, divine upstream actualization, exhaustive foreknowledge, and sovereign creation establish ultimate responsibility for the occurrence and conditions of sin.
Why God Is Ultimately Responsible for Sin's Occurrence -
Divine Responsibility for the Occurrence of Sin
By “God” throughout this argument, I am referring to the God of classical theism: a necessarily existent, omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect creator and sustainer of reality who possesses the power to intentionally actualize or permit states of affairs and who exercises providential control over creation. Accordingly, this argument assumes the traditional attributes commonly affirmed within classical Christian, Islamic, and related theistic frameworks.
D1: “God intentionally allows-or-actualizes X” = God either intentionally actualizes X, or intentionally permits X by actualizing and sustaining the conditions under which X occurs.
D2: “A is the originator of X’s occurrence” = “X can occur only if A intentionally allows-or-actualizes X.”
D3: “Ultimately responsible” means morally blameworthy for and the ultimate explanatory source for X’s occurrence.
Dictionary Used: | Cambridge Dictionary | Merriam-Webster | Collins English Dictionary |
Origin Meaning: | origin: “the beginning or cause of something” | origin: “the point at which something begins or rises or from which it derives” | origin: “a primary source; derivation” |
Originator Meaning: | originator: “the person who first thinks of something and causes it to happen” | originator: “someone or something that originates or gives rise to something” | originator: “The originator of something such as an idea or scheme is the person who first thought of it or began it.” |
P1: For anything other than God that occurs in created reality, God intentionally allows-or-actualizes it.
P1a: P1 is not merely true of the actual world, but necessarily true (true in all possible worlds where God exists).
P2: Sin occurs in created reality and sin is not God.
C1: Therefore God intentionally allows-or-actualizes sin.
P3: God is not bound by necessity to intentionally allow-or-actualize sin.
P4: If God is not bound by necessity to intentionally allow-or-actualize sin, then it is possible God could have refrained from doing so.
C2: God intentionally allows-or-actualizes sin and could have refrained from doing so.
P5: In any possible reality where God exists, God intentionally allowing-or-actualizing sin is the only way sin could occur.
P6: if x can occur only if God intentionally allows-or-actualizes x, then God is the originator of x’s occurrence.(D2)
C3: God is the originator of sin’s occurrence where it occurs.
P7: If God could have refrained from intentionally allowing-or-actualizing sin, then a reality is possible where sin does not exist.
P8: A possible reality without sin can support free will so far as human beings can determine their own actions, independent of coercion.
P8a: The existence of restrictions on what actions are available to an agent does not, by itself, eliminate free will.
P8b: Human beings already exercise free will within a reality containing numerous restrictions, including but not limited to:
the inability to fly through unaided volition,
the inability to teleport,
the inability to reverse time,
the inability to instantly alter physical laws,
the inability to directly control the thoughts and wills of others,
the inability to occupy multiple locations simultaneously,
biological limitations imposed by the human body,
cognitive limitations imposed by finite knowledge and understanding.
P8c: Despite these restrictions, human beings are ordinarily regarded as possessing free will because they retain the ability to determine their actions from among the options available to them without coercion.
P8d: Therefore, free will does not require the availability of every conceivable action, but only the ability to determine one's actions within the range of available possibilities without coercion.
P8e: Consequently, a reality in which sin is unavailable could still preserve free will, provided agents retain the ability to determine their actions from among the remaining available possibilities without coercion.
P9: If a reality without sin is possible and can preserve free will, then God could have created a reality without sin while preserving free will.
P10: Humans (at least at the point of first sin) are morally underdeveloped relative to the moral state intrinsic to God’s being.
P11: If God intentionally allows-or-actualizes sin in a reality containing morally underdeveloped humans, then God allows those humans to be exposed to sin.
P12: If an agent intentionally allows-or-actualizes such that X occurs, could have refrained from allowing-or-actualizing X, has the power to remove or block X without violating free will, and allows a morally underdeveloped agent to be exposed to X, then that agent is morally blameworthy for and the ultimate explanatory source of X’s occurrence.
C5: God is ultimately responsible for sin’s occurrence where it occurs.
P1 Justification
Colossians 1:16–17: For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
C: All things created through him; in him all things hold together.
Hebrews 1:3: The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
C: God sustains all things.
Ephesians 1:11: 11 In him we were also chosen,[a] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
C: God works all things according to his will
Acts 17:28: 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[b]
C: In God we live and move and have our being
NOTE: P1 DOES NOT IMPLY GOD IS THE MORAL AUTHOR OF SIN.
James 1:13–15 (God doesn’t tempt or sin arises from desire)
1 John 1:5 (no darkness in God)
P2 & C4 Justification
Revelation 4:11:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
C: Things exist because God willed them.
Psalm 115:3:
“Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.”
Daniel 4:35:
“All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: “What have you done?””
C: God does whatever pleases Him, and no one can restrain or question His actions.
P8 & P9 Justification
EX: Jesus was truly human yet sinless (agency without sin).
Hebrews 4:15: 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
C: Jesus was tempted just as we are yet did not chose to engage in sin.
EX: The eschatological state: redeemed humans acting willingly without sin.
EX: Mary (depending on which doctrine you hold) is inferred to be sinless yet has agency and free will.
P10 & P11 Justification
1 Corinthians 8:9-13
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
C: Humans have a underdeveloped moral system so far as humans constantly chose what is wrong despite some moral guidance being present.
P12 Justification
Romans 3:8
8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!
C: Doing evil so that good may result is condemned and not justified.
EXAMPLES OF P12 APPLIED
Scenario 1:
If you have authority/control over a vulnerable person and you knowingly place them in a hazardous environment you could have avoided, you bear responsibility for the harms that predictably arise.
Matthew 18:6:
“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me,
it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,
and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Luke 17:1–2:
“Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come:
but woe unto him, through whom they come!
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,
and he cast into the sea,
than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
Romans 14:13:
“Let us not therefore judge one another any more:
but judge this rather,
that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall
in his brother’s way.”
1 Corinthians 8:9–13:
“But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.
For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple,
shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;
And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend,
I will eat no flesh while the world standeth,
lest I make my brother to offend.”
C: These passages establish that exposing the vulnerable/weak to avoidable stumbling carries moral guilt, even when you didn’t “force” them to fall.
C: In 1 Corinthians 8, the weak person is “emboldened” or not forced, yet Paul still calls it “sin against” them. So “they chose” does not remove guilt from the one who set the occasion.
Scenario 2:
If you know a harm is impending and you can prevent it without violating a duty/right, then failing to prevent it can be blameworthy.
James 4:17:
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Proverbs 24:11–12:
“If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death,
and those that are ready to be slain;
If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not;
doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?
and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?
and shall not he render to every man according to his works?”
Ezekiel 33:6:
“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned;
if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”
C: These passages ground explicit omission-guilt: knowing the good and not doing it is sin (James 4:17), failing to rescue when you could is morally accountable (Prov. 24:11–12), and failing to warn/intervene when responsible incurs guilt (Ezek. 33:6).
C: when an authority can prevent harm without violating any duty, failure to prevent can itself be sin.
Scenario 3:
If the authority figure can prevent a hazard without coercing anyone, then “they chose” doesn’t fully absolve the authority figure who knowingly maintained the hazard for the vulnerable.
S1 Verses: (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:1-2, Romans 14:13, 1 Corinthians 8:9–13)
1 Kings 14:16:
“And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”
1 Kings 15:30:
“This happened because of the sins Jeroboam had committed and had caused Israel to commit, and because he aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel.”
2 Kings 17:21–22:
“When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin.
The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them”
C: These verses attribute real moral/causal significance to leadership: Jeroboam is blamed for sin he “caused” Israel to commit, even while Israel is also described as persisting in those sins.
Ezekiel 34:2–10:
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves!
Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals,
but you do not take care of the flock.
You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured.
You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.
You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
So they were scattered because there was no shepherd,
and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.
My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.
They were scattered over the whole earth,
and no one searched or looked for them.
“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord,
because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals,
and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock,
therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.
I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves.
I will rescue my flock from their mouths,
and it will no longer be food for them.’”
Jeremiah 23:1–2:
23 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord.
C: God condemns the shepherds (leaders) for omission and abuse: they did not strengthen, heal, restore, or search for the sheep, so the flock was scattered and harmed; therefore God says He is against them and will hold them accountable, punishing them for failing to care for His people.