Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 2
WHY DID GOD ALLOW SIN AND THE FALL?
‘What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid’ (Romans 9.14).
H
OW COULD it be that God allowed the Fall, and all the evil, disobedience and hor-
ror that was brought into the world, when our first parents fell? How was it that sin was ever per- mitted in the first place? Our limited, human way of reasoning soon calls into question the righteousness of God. Many unbelievers put this question up as a barricade against be- lieving the Gospel, and seekers and young Christians are frequently trou- bled by it. Even mature, convinced Christians may worry about it in times of severe assaults of Satan. God, according to Scripture, is not the author of sin. He created all things and yet he is not the founder of sin. He is presented to us as light and perfection. Why did God permit the thing that he hated and loathed? ‘Permitted’ is actually too weak as a word, because God is absolutely sovereign. He was not a helpless bystander, even though not the direct author of the Fall. God anticipated and foresaw it, and determined his response to it. The church fathers (Ambrose and
Augustine in particular) employed the felix culpa*
* Incorporated from early times into the Catholic liturgy for Easter.
explanation, meaning – by the Editor –
‘blessed or fortunate fault or fall’, because it led to the greater good of God’s glory being shown in mercy and redemption. Before considering such explanations, we acknowledge that they do not fully tell us why God ‘permitted’ the entry of sin in the first place, giving just some insights. These we will consider, but without losing sight of the anchoring principle of Romans 9.14 – ‘What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.’ God is never the author of sin.
The five ‘I wills’ We begin by taking note of what
lay behind rebellion against God. Isaiah 14.12-14 speaks about the king of Babylon, but it undoubtedly re- flects the very fall of Satan. ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer [shining one]…how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart…’ and here follow the five evil ‘I wills’ which are appallingly applicable to the evil one. ‘For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven [I will be like God], I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.’
page 30 Why Did God Allow Sin and the Fall?
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