Today I read in your Blog that many persons had a hard time dealing with Piper's biblical position concerning that God decrees all things evil.  I appreciated your Blog quoted Mr. Frame's notes on the subject.  Therefore, I would like to add something that has helped me on this subject.  Below is Jonathan Edwards (a quote from the same dissertation that Piper quoted from in his sermon "Is God less Glorious because He ordain that evil be.")  Then after the Edwards quote are some of my notes concerning it. It is coming from a book I am publishing containing the whole Edwards dissertation.1  (http://www.osheadavis.com/content/view/83/31/) The book will out in a month or so published by PublishAmerica (ISBN: 1-4241-7595-X). 

Sincerely Yours in Christ the Lord: Oshea Davis (www.osheadavis.com)

  ANS.  I do not argue that God may commit evil, that good may come of it; but that he may will that evil should come to pass, and permit that it may come to pass, that good may come of it.  It is in itself absolutely evil, for any being to commit evil that good may come of it; but it would be no evil, but good, even in a creature, to will that evil should come to pass, if he had wisdom sufficient to see certainly that good would come of it, or that more good would come to pass in that way than in any other.  And the only reason why it would not be lawful for a creature to permit evil to come to pass, and that it would not be wise, or good and virtuous, in him so to do, is, that he has not perfect wisdom and sufficiency, so as to render it fit that such an affair should be trusted with him.  In so doing, he goes beyond his line; he goes out of his province; he meddles with things too high for him.  It is every one's duty to do things fit for him in his sphere, and commensurate to his power.  God never entrusted this providence in the hands of creatures of finite understandings, nor is it proper that he should.

    If a prince were of perfect and all-comprehensive wisdom and foresight, and he should see that an act of treason would be for the great advancement of the welfare of his kingdom, it might be wise and virtuous in him to will that such act of treason should come to pass; yea, it would be foolish and wrong; if he did not; and, it would be prudent and wise in him not to restrain the traitor, but to let him alone to go in the way he chose.  And yet he might hate the treason at the same time, and he might properly also give forth laws at the same time, forbidding it upon pain of death, and might hold these laws in force against this traitor...

    The Arminians themselves allow that God permits sin, and that, if he permits it, it will come to pass.  Therefore, the only difficulty about the act of the will that is in it is that God should will evil to be so that good may come of it.  Yet, it is demonstrably true that, if God sees that good will come of it, and more good than otherwise so that when the whole series of events is viewed by God, and all things balanced and that the sum total of good with the evil is more than without it, then He must will it.  Furthermore, if all being subtracted that needs be subtracted and added that is to be added; if the sum total of good thus considered is greater than the sum in any other case, then it will follow that God, if he be a wise and holy being, must will it.

     For if this sum total that has evil in it, when what the evil subtracts is subtracted, has yet the greatest good in it, then it is the best sum total, better than the other sum total that has no evil in it.  But if, all things considered, it be really the best, how can it be otherwise than that it should be chosen by an infinitely wise and good being, whose holiness and goodness consists in always choosing what is best?  Which does it argue most, wisdom or folly, a good disposition or an evil one, when two things are set before a being, the one better, and the other worse, to choose the worse, and refuse the better? 2

Part A:

          "It is misleading to say the Almighty God only allowed or used sin when it came into the universe.  In the case of an Almighty Wise God who is alone responsible for what enters into His creation, it has to be said He is more than just allowing or permitting.  It would be a contradiction to say otherwise, for in this case God is also the determiner of evil as well.  If God knows what man's choices were going to produce, He, therefore, determined to pre-permit it to happen.  This is why in either case of God (1) determining to cause or (2) determining to allow, the conclusion is the same.  God determined Evil to enter into His universe for the sake of the good it would produce!  For some it is the misconception of preserving choice (as if this was the only way to preserve it!), but for this writer it is God's passion to display His Glory most fully while granting this pleasure to be the eternal enjoyment of the creature.  If it is the later, then God's passion and love for Himself must be supreme above all things.  Therefore, God planned and then caused sin to come in the world by means of the devil and, therefore, at this point allowed and permitted Adam to stumble without strengthening His heart against the temptation.....

          To explain further, God first planned and then permitted sin to enter into His created world for a wise good He intended.  God did not first foresee sin and then second plan to use sin.  God determined to cause and then He permitted, not permitted and then determine.  God planned to display His Glory in the most full and perfect way.  Therefore, God planned to create man to see most fully this Glory of His and to be able to most fully enjoy and praise Him forever.  This is why God in His wisdom planned for Adam and Eve to sin, so that God could send His Son Jesus Christ to save sinners by grace, to give them His righteousness and cause them to experience sanctification on Earth.  In this pre-design of God, He was able to display His Glory by sending His Son and also have creatures best suited to know Him.  He did this by causing them to be clothed in Christ's righteousness by having them experience being saved by free grace and mercy.

          Therefore, God planned to cause Adam and Eve to sin to accomplish what we just discussed.  To accomplish His plan and design, God then executed it by causing it to happen by the hand of Devil and, thus, permitting Adam to sin.  God knowingly created Adam in such a way that he knew if tempted a certain way he would fall to it.  This does not mean Adam was not responsible for his choices.  Adam was without sin, without being under the dominion of sin; he was not created with evil springing up in him.  Adam was created in God's image, he knew and walked with God, was benefited personally by many gifts from God such as the garden and his wife Eve.  He had no excuse for choosing evil over obeying God.  However, God designed and planned for Adam to sin, so that the whole human race would be under sin (Romans 11:32); God then executed this plan by permitting Adam to fall.  Therefore, God caused Adam to fall because God knew how He made Adam and knew that if tempted in such a way he would fall.  This is how God was able to fulfill His desire to display His Glory by sending Christ Jesus to Earth to die, to have mankind in the best position to know, worship and enjoy God.  As a result of God's preplanned love and wisdom, we are now much more able to understand and enjoy God the Father and Jesus Christ than Adam or the highest angels....

          To suppose God willed the fall does not make God the author of evil as some suppose.  God first willed to display His Glory and then to do it through showing mercy and free grace to humanity.  This was wise on Gods part, all of it.  God does not in a positive influence from Himself influence any person to work evil.  "God is light."  This means there is no darkness in God.  Even if God wanted to shine out darkness, there is none in Him to begin with, it would be impossible.  What this boils down to is that God, from Himself, cannot shine evil in a person's heart, to cause the person to work evil.  God is pure light; He only shines out pure light.  The sun is not the author of darkness on the Earth and likewise, neither is God the author of evil.  God can, however, directly shine from Himself His light (Holy Spirit) and cause people to choose righteousness; God is light and directly shines His own light in people's hearts. 

          How then is God able to bring about the reality of evil that He willed or decreed?  All He needs to do to is remove His positive good influence (His Spirit) from a person or send the devil directly to work what He already decreed, as with God sending the lying spirit to deceive King Ahab.  In 1 Kings 22:19-23 God did not merely allow or use a lying spirit, which happened to be on its way to King Ahab.  God first made a plan and decreed for Ahab to die in battle.  Ahab was not going to go to war, for, if Ahab was, then why did God go through the trouble to send a lying spirit.  Again, God planned and decreed for Ahab to die in battle.  Therefore, God then requested for an evil spirit to be the direct evil means to persuade Ahab to go to war (which was sin on Ahab's part).  I say this to point out how many persons falsely describe God's workings as merely allowing or using things already in motion.  Here God did not allow an evil spirit or king Ahab to go through what they were already doing, but He planned then worked this plan into existence.  This example shows clear proof of how God is not the author of evil, although He decreed evil to be by orchestrating this plan and then sending an evil spirit directly to cause evil to happen in King Ahab, to cause the King to make an evil choice.  God did not force Ahab's will to choose evil, but God did decree Ahab to make this evil choice to go to war, so that God could judge and kill Ahab.  This is why man is the absolute author of evil and not God.  Man is the author of evil for he committed evil out of His own desire, reasoning and choosing.

          God only decrees and wills evil to be, while never of Himself doing evil.  If the sun were alive and willed that the Earth rotate so that day and night would occur, in order that all the Earth would receive its light and so the days would promote the cycle of life, would the sun be the author of darkness?  The sun only directly produces light!  It is the sun's right to shine its light however or to whomever it wishes.  The sun does not shine darkness or directly produce it in any way. Yet the way people talk about the issue of evil the sun would be the author of darkness.  This I say is a contradiction to say such things.  We do not attribute evil to God because God causes the rain to fall much on some lands and none in others, which causes life to be hard in those areas.  The rain belongs to God; it is His right to do with His rain as He so pleases.  He is not evil because He chooses to withhold it!  It is God's right to disperse His goodness and Holy Spirit, which is the cause and fountain of all goodness in men, wherever He so chooses, to some much and others none.  Therefore, in this light, it becomes more apparent how God is able to decree all the sins of men and yet men are choosing from their own hearts and, thus, are responsible.  It is not evil for God to choose to disperse His goodness and grace (Holy Spirit), which belong to Him, in whatever way He so chooses.  It seems in my age many are quick to loudly and proudly demand their rights, yet they are slow even angry to acknowledge our Creator's rights!  What has become of us?

          So the answer to the question I first asked is, No.  God does not get lucky. Instead, all the good produced in the world, even the evil that leads to more good being produced, is all credited to the Almighty God's preplanned wisdom.  Genesis 50:20, "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant [planned] it [the evil] for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."   The Hebrew word here for "meant" is also translated "planned."  The word for "it" in our verse is the Hebrew feminine singular and it refers to the feminine singular word "evil."  God planned for evil to be done to Joseph by the hands of his brothers so that God could bring about much good by saving many people.  This is God's right to order human history as He so wishes, for He made all things and has full owner rights over it.  This is God's Glory that all the good produced in the universe is 100% credited to His wise decrees and direct Goodness; no one else can take that from Him.  God alone is directly responsible for all good produced from the beginning to the end of it.  Ecclesiastes 7:8, "The end of a thing is better than its beginning," and that is owning to God's preplanned wisdom.

         Jesus Christ knows what He is doing!  We would all be wise to admire His wisdom, power, and love, and not question Him.  We would be wise to marvel at God's endless wisdom and not attribute blindness, lack, or deficiency to Him, for He is the First and the Last, the Alfa and the Omega.  Amen!"...

Part B:

          Ephesians 2:6-7, "[God] raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."  The phrase I wish to look at is this: "show the exceeding riches of His grace ... in Christ Jesus."  The point here is very simple.  God desired and designed in His love, before the dawn of time, (we know this because of Ephesians 1:4,5,11), to show us the "exceeding riches of His grace."  This verse also tells us how this is done, "In Christ."  God knew before He created us (even before He ordained or permitted the fall of man) that, if He was going to create children to love as much as He wanted to, that He must uniquely unite them in His Son.  Evidently, this is why God decreed the fall of our first parents, so that as all mankind was lost in disobedience, God could uniquely unite them in His Son through His death (we die with Him) and resurrection (we are raised in new life, in Him, part of His body). 

          In verse 6 it says, "[God] raised us up together ... in Christ."  This means when God raised Christ from the grave that [God] raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand" (Ephesians 1:20).  He also raised our spiritual dead bodies from the grave of sin and death.  In this raising up of our bodies, God likewise united us in Christ, so much so that we are now part of His body!  Romans 6:4, "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."  Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 12:27, "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."  I say all this to make this particular point: God out of His love and goodness flowed into creating human children.  As a result of His infinite goodness and love, God planned and executed His design to graft and unit these children of His affections into the body of His most beloved Son.

        Christ is the brightness of and very outshining of God's Glory.  Hebrews 1:3: "[Christ is] the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person."  God loves a person through the blood covering of Jesus Christ whom the Father infinitely loves.  The Father will never look at you un-lovingly because Christ His Son is the exact shining forth of His own Glory.  God the Father loves His Glory above all things and so will always love those who come to Him through the blood of His Son whom He perfectly loves.  To reject at any time those who come to Him sincerely through His Son, whom the Father loves, as Christ is His own Glory, is as much possible as God rejecting Himself.   The fountain of all God's love and enjoyment streams from the love and pleasure He has in Himself and particularly in the person of His Son Jesus Christ.  Adam and Eve, although greatly loved by God, were not united and grafted into Jesus Christ.  Therefore, the intimate closeness and love, which God could share with Adam and Eve before the coming of Christ, was not as great as we who are now united in Christ's body.  This means Adam and Eve at their time in History, before the Fall, were not able to receive the "exceeding riches of His Grace."  The reason is that they had not been raised up and mystically united into Jesus Christ's body.

         The design of Adam and Eve, as it were before the fall, was not the original and final design, by which God created ultimately to love His children.  The reason is that in this state they could not receive the fullness of God's love as we have by being grafted into Christ Himself.  What this means is the infinite closeness and love that God the Father has in Christ is now poured and lavished in and on us, since we are now part of Christ.  We who are now united in Christ, are to drink in God and God will not only cover us with His joy and glory but will overflow our very souls with Himself as we partake in knowing Him forever.  All these glorious realities did not happen because God got luckily and used Adam and Eve's sin, but, from the beginning of time, planned all the good and love which we now have by being united in Christ.  God accomplished this result by His direct design, decree, predestination, and wisdom...

        At this point, I must say how derogatory it is to the fame of the Almighty God's Love to say God did not preplan or decree the sin of Adam. ...

        I say it is derogatory to the fame of God's love to suggest that He did not preplan the sin of Adam, because, if God in His wisdom and love did not preplan to commit Adam and the whole human race to sin (Romans 11:32, "For God has committed them all to disobedience", literally from the Greek in my words -"God has made everyone to be prisoners to disobedience"), then God in this light did not plan to make His children "one" with Himself. ...

        Think about it, if God did not preplan to send His righteous Son to live as a human and in His perfect Godman obedience give this righteousness to us as a gift, then God is not infinite in His love toward us!  No human would have the right to be made one into the glorious communion of the Almighty God, apart from being mystically grafted into Christ body.  Adam in his pre-sin state could not be made one into God's love as we do who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ....

        Therefore, if God did not preplan the sin of Adam and the whole world, then God in this light never "planned" to give humans the glory and happiness of being made one with Him.  In other words, if God did not preplan to give us His righteousness from the very beginning, then God did not love us as deeply as he could have.  It would demonstrate God only loved us and gave us the righteousness of Christ because of an accident and not because God loved us so deeply that He planned from the very beginning to give us these wonderful things.  To say that God's love was an accident and that God only used or permitted Adam's sin, is blaspheme for it both diminishes God's wisdom and His love He has toward the church.  God's wisdom and love is easily seen because He planned from the beginning to give us the unspeakable gift of being brought so near, in the loving communion of the Trinity that we will be made one with God.  This gift of God's righteousness to His church, through Christ, is no mere accident but was decreed by the Almighty Father in His infinite wisdom and love, even before the world began. "Love never fails!"...

-        Copywrite, Oshea Davis (http://www.osheadavis.com/)

-        (To know more read "The Divine Decrees", by Oshea Davis)

Part: C

          A last thought I would ask my readers to consider is this.  In the story of Ahab's death that I discussed earlier, God claims sole responsibility for the cause for why the lying spirit was useful! 1 Kings 22:23 "Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets."   This is amazing because just before this verse it is clearly stated that, although God initiated this incident by asking an evil spirit to volunteer to deceive Ahab, and although God did say to the spirit to "go out and do so", yet, God Himself takes the responsibility for the act, "The LORD has put a lying spirit." Ahab going to war was wrong, since God's prophet told Ahab that it was a losing effort to go. God goes out His way to find a lying spirit to deceive Ahab in going to war.  But although the act of Ahab being deceived was by another secondary direct means, yet still God claims responsibility.

          Therefore, it seems odd to me that people try to get God of the hook, by trying to show how God was not responsible for and evil action of a human being, when God Himself has no problem ascribing it to Himself.  God never "does" or "commits" evil Himself with His positive direct Spirit, but God does decree, start, and orchestrate into reality evil by other means, such as lying spirits whom He sends by His command. Both the story of David taking a census and of Job, God in both places is ascribed with the responsibility for why the event actually took place. Although the Devil was the direct means for why both David sinned and why the evil happened to Job, yet God claims responsibility for the events. 2 Samuel 24:1, "Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah."" (Also Chronicles 21:1) Job 42:11, "Then all his brothers, all his sisters... comforted [Job] for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him.." God claims responsibility for this reason.  Although the evil was produced by other direct secondary means, Yet it was God who initiated and designed the event.

           This can in some measure be illustrated when a person hires a hit man to take some one out, or hires a prostitute to seduces another person. The hiring person must take responsibility for the action since, with out their initiative or designing the evil act would have never taking place.  But with the Devil He did the actual event from purely evil reason from purely evil desires in his heart.  But God, as I said before, only temporally decrees or initiated evil for the future benefit that because of this evil more Good and display Glory would be shown than if the evil would never been.  God is actually looking at His church's eternal future best happiness to come about.

          Conclusion:  First, God does not commit evil or do evil from His own positive spirit or power at any time. This would be evil for any being.  But God does will, decree and bring evil about by secondary means, according to His already decrees plans. Because of this God in this sense of His decrees does claim responsibly for why evil is in the world and every particular action on earth. "God decrees all things, and even all sins"- (see footnote 2)   Second, how we are to completely reconcile this doctrine to God's other moral attributes  such as His love and kindness, this I dare say we will not be able to as the Apostle makes clear in Romans chapter 9. 

         " Romans, chapter 9, plainly speaks that there are some things we humans on earth will not completely reconcile to God's moral attributes... In the truest sense there are no paradoxes in the bible.  Any paradoxes or contradictions that appear to be in the revealed Scriptures are owing to our limited minds.  We are never to attribute to the Word of God a true paradox.  If we do not see the clarity of the revealed Scriptures it is our fault and not God's.  Everything that God has revealed is meant to be understood, obeyed and admired by us.  It is not loving or reverent toward God to sound contradictive and then drag God into it.  We are to be humble by admitting we are the ones lacking and repent to God that we do not understand His revealed word as well as we ought.  Also there is much that God has not revealed (Romans 11:33-36, 1 Corinthians 2:9), both because He chose not to and because we are too limited to comprehend it.  Let us then be humbled by the sheer greatness and authority by which God rules the worlds.  May we continuingly and willingly live face down in the dust before our Good God, whose glorious ways and Majesty are unsearchable." - Oshea Davis,  "The Divine Decrees"

          Job 38:1-3, 39:16-7, "Then the LORD answered... Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question... Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding... [The Ostrich] treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; Her labor is in vain, without concern. [why] Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding."

          Isaiah 40:14, "With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?"

1 "Concerning the Divine Decrees in General and Election in Particular" 

2 Jonathan Edwards, "Concerning the Divine Decrees in General and Election in Particular", found in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume Two, 1995, Pages 525-543, Banner of Truth Trust -emphasis added.