Monergistic Evil? Does God Cause Evil?

About this sermon

Dr. Leighton Flowers, Director of Apologetics for Texas Baptists, explains why John Piper's teaching necessarily entails that God is acting monergistically in regard to evil. John Piper on Causality 1. Piper teaches that God decisively causes whether or not you will trust in Christ or not. This is like the call of Lazarus out of the grave. Jesus called with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43). And the dead man came out. This kind of call creates what it calls for. If it says, “Live!” it creates life. If it says, “Repent!” it creates repentance. If it says “Believe!” it creates faith. If it says “Follow me!” it creates obedience… He really did call us — like Lazarus — from death to life… grace was decisive in bringing us to Christ. (i.e. Monergistic regeneration) (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-we-believe-about-the-five-points-of-calvinism) 2. Piper teaches that God decisively causes whether or not you walk in obedience God assisted with some conviction of sin and some enlightenment, but he did not transgress the sovereign territory of human self-determination. Therefore, this is his role in sanctification as well. He can assist with nudges and reminders and the like, but the final and decisive cause of progressive holiness is the self-determining power of the human will. In the one theology God decisively causes me to walk in his statutes. And in the other theology he suggests that I walk in his statutes but I provide the decisive urge from my self-determining power. (i.e. Mongeristic Sanctification/Obedience) (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/those-whom-he-justified-he-also-glorified) 3. Piper teaches that God decisively causes all evil preferences and choice. The more technical definition of free will that some people use is this: We have free will if we are ultimately or decisively self-determining, and the only preferences and choices that we can be held accountable for are ones that are ultimately or decisively self-determined. The key word here is ultimate, or decisive. The point is not just that choices are self-determined, but that the self is the ultimate or decisive determiner. The opposite of this definition would be that God is the only being who is ultimately self-determining, and is himself ultimately the disposer of all things, including all choices — however many or diverse other intervening causes are. On this definition, no human being has free will, at any time. Neither before or after the fall, or in heaven, are creatures ultimately self-determining. There are great measures of self-determination, as the Bible often shows, but never is man the ultimate or decisive cause of his preferences and choices. When man’s agency and God’s agency are compared, both are real, but God’s is decisive. Yet — and here’s the mystery that causes so many to stumble — God is always decisive in such a way that man’s agency is real, and his responsibility remains. (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/a-beginner-s-guide-to-free-will) For more please visit www.soteriology101.com