Many Reformed apologists try to argue that God is not the author of sin as he decreed the end, but he is not responsible for evil actions as means/instruments bring them about. However, what they omit is that, in such a theology, God also foreordained/predestined the instrumental means by which all actions, sins included, by which they would come to pass.
John Piper “bites the bullet” on this
issue in his 2020 book, Providence where he imputes the responsibility of
all things to God and does not pull the "God uses means, so he is exempt from blame" dodge. Take the example of the flood:
All That Breathes
Taken in the Flood
Next, let us remember
and be appalled at the flood that God sent to bring death to the world of
mankind. This too was a judgment because of the sinfulness of humanity.
The LORD saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he
had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I
will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and
animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I
have made them.” (Gen. 6:5-7)
The point I am making
there does not depend on the flood being global or local, through it seems to
be that the Scriptures treat the flood as global (Gen. 6:13, 17; 8:21; Heb.
11:7; 2 Pet. 2:5). The point here is simply that God took the life of
thousands, perhaps millions, of people—men, women, and children:
I will blot out man
whom I have created. (Gen. 6:7)
I have determined to
make an end of all flesh. (Gen. 6:13)
I will bring a flood
of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life
under heaven. (Gen. 6:17)
Everything on the dry
land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living
thing that as on the face of the ground, man and animals. . . . They were
blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in
the ark. (Ge. 7:22-23)
This was a judgment
on the human race (or at least a huge portion of it). It was so fierce and
through that it defies imagination. Even the greatest hurricanes and tsunamis
we have witnessed are small by comparison. Few events in the history of the
world show more clearly God’s rights over life and death. To underline the
horror of it. God promises never to do it like this again:
I will never curse
the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his
youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have
done. (Gen. 8:21)
But even in the pledge
never to repeat the flood, God takes direct accountability for its execution: “Neither
will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.” God
himself, he says, struck down “every living creature.” This is not a mere
matter of nature, nor is it an impersonal outworking of moral laws. It is God’s
judgment. From one person (the Judge) to other persons (every human). God
struck down every living creature, except for the eight he saved by grace (1
Pet. 3:20). (John Piper, Providence [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020], 361-63)
Also consider the following examples:
The Exodus and the Death of the Firstborn:
So it came. “At
midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt”
(12:29). This was remembered through all the history of Israel as the night
when “the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel” (Ex. 11:7). The
lessons were stunning. The point of the blood of a lamb was presumably to show
that there was sin in these blood-covered houses as there was in all the
Egyptian houses. But the sin of these houses is covered by the sacrifice of a
lamb. This means that the passing over of the sentence of death was not because
Israel deserved better treatment than the Egyptians, but because of God’s free
grace . . . Israel sang in its poetry about this judgment on Egypt:
He struck down all
the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their strength. (Ps. 105:36)
Whatever the LORD
pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all the deeps. . . .
He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
both of man and of beast. (Ps. 135:6, 8)
The point I am king
here is that the LORD “struck down the firstborn.” Their death was not some
natural outworking of the folly of sin (like smoking causing lung cancer or
selfishness causing loneliness). It was God’s judgment And he was not only the
Judge but also the executioner. “He struck down all the firstborn.” . . . God
is free to perform graphic, symbolic judgments like this because the life of
the firstborn belongs to him. He owns all life. The infants are not their own.
They are God’s. He brought them into being (Isa. 42:5; Acts 17:25). He holds
them freely in being (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). They have no independent or
autonomous existence. When God takes them, he does not steal or murder. He
takes back what is his own (Luke 12:20). And if there is any suffering that God
thinks should be set right with joy, it will be rectified in the resurrection
(Matt. 19:29; Luke 6:20-21; 14:14; 16:25). (Ibid., 364, 365)
The Death of 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kgs
19;32, 34-35):
Later in Israel’s
history, we are confronted with God’s taking life in defense of his people and
in the punishing of his people. For example, when Jerusalem was besieged, God
struck a blow of staggering proportions. He struck down 185,000 Assyrian
soldiers—not in battle but while they slept:
“Thus says the LORD
concerning the king of Assyria: . . . I will defend this city to save it, for
my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” And that night the angel of
the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And
when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. (2
Kings 19;32, 34-35)
I saw this was
staggering not only because the number was huge and the directness of the Lord’s
dealings were dramatic, but also because we may surmise that in this one night
God created perhaps one hundred thousand widows in Assyrian and hundreds and
thousands of fatherless children. These were not just numbers. They were real
people with real families. This calls for great trust in the wisdom and justice
and goodness of God. The same sovereignty that can kill 185,000 soldiers in one
night can work a million circumstances of widows and fatherless children for
their eternal good if they look away from the false gods of Assyria and form
themselves to the God of Israel and call on him for mercy.
If we think that
killing fathers and husbands is not the most effective way of winning the
hearts of Assyrian wives and mothers, we should be very careful not to presume
to know what justice and mercy call for in countless cases of which we are
almost totally ignorant. God has sent the world more mercy than anyone knows
(Acts 14:17; Rom. 2:4), and his severe summonses to repentance, like those
described in Revelation 9:20 and 16:9, are not foolish. Recall that Rahab was
saved by hearing about the destruction of Egypt (Josh. 2:8-10; Heb. 11:31;
James 2:25[.]) (Ibid. 367-68)
Further Reading
An
Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed
Theology
