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Question 3

The teacher says Calvinists, “in their zeal to give God 100% credit… inadvertently give God 100% blame as well”; what do you find compelling or unconvincing about that moral logic, and what does it imply about God’s character if He is “omnicausal” and “unconditional”?

Another way to ask: Do you agree that if God gets 100% credit for everything, He also gets 100% blame for everything? What would that mean about God’s character if everything happens because He causes it and His choices are unconditional?

Direct Answer Finny’s moral logic is that if God is the ultimate cause of “absolutely everything,” then responsibility follows causation—so giving God total credit for salvation also makes Him ultimately responsible for evil. If God is “omnicausal” and “unconditional,” Finny believes it distorts God’s character by pushing toward God as “author of sin,” even if Calvinists call it “mystery.”

Support from Transcript:

Finny: “in their zeal to give God 100% credit… they inadvertently give God 100% blame as well.”
He says Calvinists “simply cry out mystery” when faced with the charge it “seemingly makes God the author of sin,” citing Calvin’s use of “Who are you to talk back to God?”
He summarizes Calvinism as God who “foreordains and renders certain everything… Absolutely everything,” calling this “omnicausal” and “unconditional.”
He quotes Calvin rejecting “mere permission” and even saying Scripture shows God “willing, but the author of them” (evils).
He concludes: “Ultimate responsibility resides where the ultimate cause is,” so under compatibilism “God is the one who is responsible.”

Discussion Follow-ups Where do you think “mystery” is appropriate in theology, and where does Finny think it becomes an escape from moral accountability about what we’re claiming God is like?

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