There was a concept brought up to me just a couple of weeks ago. A concept that I had not heard before, and the thought of which had never entered my mind. It turns out that his concept is a concept held by some of the “great” theologians who’s teachings we follow with fervour. This is the reason that God has told us very strongly to scrutinise the teachings of our teachers against the word of God. If they are wrong we must confront them as they will do damage to the body of Christ.

The concept is that God created sin. The basis for the argument that God created sin is that He is Sovereign over all things. That God created all things that exists, therefore He has to have created sin.

It is interesting that one attribute of God can be taken to such an extreme by our foolish minds that we make God what He is not. There is no scripture that they can point to that declares that God is the Author of Sin, but they have taken scripture that speaks to the Sovereignty of God and applied their own extra Scriptural understanding to it.

In fact there are a few things that the bible teaches very clearly that God can’t do. Yes even though He is sovereign, He has limitations.

1. God cannot lie. Tit 1:2 Heb 6:18
2. God cannot tempt with evil. James. In fact He can only do good. It is not within His ability to do evil, or cause anyone else to do evil.

Another interesting thing about our Sovereign God is His ability to forget. Yes, Forget. Heb 8:12 Isa 43:25

So we see that His limitations are toward sin. The only thing that the Sovereign God can’t do is anything involving sin. He can’t cause a person to sin, He can’t make sin, and He can’t do sin. His memory toward sin can also be wiped out. Scripture says He will not remember sin of the redeemed.

James 1 is the most direct scripture written to this subject. It tells me that this argument has been going on since the beginning of the church. Fallen man is always in danger of misunderstanding God when he thinks too highly of himself.

James 1:13 is pretty clear that no one can blame God when he sins. Because it say God can’t be tempted with evil and neither does God tempt anyone. So if God in fact did create evil then this passage would be a direct contradiction.

The passage then goes on to describe from God’s perspective how a man is tempted with evil. Vs. 14 states that a man is tempted when his own lust (NIV uses the words strong desire) draws him away and entices him. That means that the evil, or sin, starts from man’s own person. There is no need for outside influence. There are many people out there who claim things like “the devil made me do it.” Well to say that you’d have to throw the book of James  out of the scriptures.

Vs. 16 goes on to say that everything good comes from God. That is all God is capable of doing, good! God is not in the business of causing, making sin. Sin is a consequence of peoples own lust. This verse also makes a statement that there is no “variableness” in Him. That is to say that He is always the same, since He is always good, there is no potential for sin, or no potential for Him to tempt anyone to sin.