October 14, 2025
It is not uncommon to hear theologians and pastors state that if God is not sovereign (i.e., has complete control over whatever comes to pass), then there is no purpose to evil. In other words, the assassination of Charlie Kirk was according to the will and decree of God. God had a purpose in it, and we should take consolation in that fact. We may not understand God’s purpose; it may be a mystery to us, but we can rest assured that God had a higher purpose in this evil. Does that really satisfy anyone as an explanation?
We are left to wonder how God could decree that this young man be killed and leave his wife and his two young children alone and in such deep pain and suffering. And if all that is true, then how can we trust God? Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries made this comment in a video I watched. He stated that to believe that God didn’t direct and determine this evil event of Charlie Kirk’s assassination or any evil that occurs, then there is no purpose to the evil. However, since we know that God ordained all this tragedy, we recognize a higher purpose behind this suffering and evil.
What is the truth, and how are we to understand the problem of evil and God’s role in it?
God’s Sovereignty and the Purpose of Evil: Calvinist and Early Church Views
This article examines how Dr. James White and other Calvinists, not all of whom share this perspective, interpret God’s sovereignty and the purpose of evil. It contrasts their views with critiques from various Christian traditions. It also includes insights from the early Church Fathers.
1. James White and the Calvinist View
James White, a five-point Calvinist, affirms meticulous providence: the belief that God decrees all things, including evil, as part of His sovereign plan. In this view, evil is not purposeless but is ordained to display God’s justice, wrath, and mercy. Key biblical texts include Acts 2:23 and Genesis 50:20. More on this in a moment.
2. Standard Calvinist Position on the Purpose of Evil
According to the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), God freely and unchangeably ordains whatsoever comes to pass, yet He is not the author of sin.
By what magic can this be true? God unchangeably ordains whatsoever comes to pass, but God is not the author of sin and evil. This idea is beyond rational and reasonable. It is ridiculous because it is unreasonable and obviously untrue. It is also clearly unbiblical.
How do Calvinists explain this? Calvinists distinguish between God’s decretive will (what He ordains) and His preceptive will (what He commands).
Calvinists, most of the five-point ones, say evil exists to:
• Display God’s justice by punishing sin.
But let us not forget that God ordained and decreed this sin and evil in the first place. How in heaven’s name can this display God’s justice by punishing the “sin” that He has unchangeably determined we will do? It can’t, for it makes God out to be the perfect example of injustice. Calvinists can make it sound reasonable if you do not think about what they are actually saying. Punishing free moral agents for their own sins is justice. But if those moral agents are predetermined to sin by the decree of God, then God should not punish them but bless them for doing what He determined they would do.
• Highlight God’s mercy in saving the undeserving.
This statement is almost laughable. What are they talking about? What mercy is there when God is the source and prime moving cause of our sin? And how can humanity be undeserving when God creates and decrees them to violate His laws? This is patently ridiculous. Highlighting God’s mercy would be a good thing, and every Christian would support that if it were actually true in their theology, but it is not.
• Manifests His sovereignty by showing that nothing is outside His control.
Here is another lofty-sounding theological proposition that, at first glance, seems to be pious. But what does it actually mean? It means that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass (both good and evil) because He is sovereign over everything, and that He meticulously ordains absolutely everything with specificity. As R. C. Sproul once said, ‘There are no rogue molecules. ’ Every thought, feeling, desire, choice, behavior, and decision we make is what God foreordained. God determines everything.
If all that is truly the case, then we humans are but automatons, robots, or puppets that move when and how the puppet master (God) moves us. And who is God going to impress with this mighty show of absolute effectual control and sovereignty? Himself?
To recap: The Calvinist threefold foundation for why evil exists:
Display God’s justice by punishing sin.
Highlight God’s mercy in saving the undeserving.
Manifest His sovereignty by showing that nothing is outside His control.
None of these makes any sense at all. All three are ridiculous at best. And not one of them is sound Biblically.
The question must be asked: Why didn’t God decree that there was no evil in the universe? Why this charade?
To further explain and justify their Calvinistic presuppositions, Calvinists argue for God’s decretive and preceptive wills. We will now consider these.
His decretive will is sometimes called God’s secret will or sovereign will. This includes what God decrees or ordains to happen from eternity past. It included everything that comes to pass, including human decisions, good acts, and even sinful acts. God decrees that something will occur, even if it violates His moral standards. All this is true, according to most of the five-point Calvinists.
But what does this mean? God decrees that some things happen that go against His moral standards. Yet, according to them, God doesn’t decree sin or evil. What utter confusion and nonsense. Anything that goes against God’s moral standards is sinful, and if God decrees this, then God is the author of sin and evil. It can’t be any other way. Can it?
“His preceptive will is sometimes referred to as His revealed will or moral will. This is what God commands humans to do in scripture. His laws, precepts, and commands, e.g., You shall not murder and be holy for I am holy, are examples. God decreed that Jesus would be crucified, but His law still says, You shall not murder. That is what God wants humans to obey. God wants us to be holy and not to murder others. When people disobey, they are breaking His preceptive will, even if their actions fulfill his decretive will. This is what Calvinists think and believe”, according to ChatGPT and the WCF.
Does that really make any sense at all to anyone? Let us break it down. God’s preceptive will is “what God commands humans to do in scripture”. Chat gave us two examples: be holy and thou shalt not murder. Chat, speaking for five-point Calvinists, says that God wants humans to obey His preceptive will and commands, but He decrees that we will not follow His laws. Chat says the five-point Calvinist believes that, “When people disobey, they are breaking His preceptive will, even if their actions obey God’s decretive will.”
To use the words “When people disobey” is a farce. It implies that people have a choice, yet according to the Calvinists, they do not. Why this elaborate charade by the five-point Calvinist? Without this subtle distinction between the decretive and preceptive will of God, Calvinism would collapse into making God directly the author of sin. By distinguishing the two, the Calvinist hopes to convince everyone that:
- God can ordain evil as part of His sovereign plan (decretive will), and
- Yet God can command against that very evil, showing He does not morally approve of it (His preceptive will).
What utter nonsense this is. We are supposed to believe that God’s sovereign plan contains evil. However, because God has a law against doing that very evil, God remains moral and righteous, even though He decrees that very violation of His commands. I think these Calvinistic definitions and explanations are pathetic and incoherent. How can this sophistry (subtle, trickery, superficially plausible but generally fallacious method of reasoning) of the Calvinist beguile so many brilliant professing Christian men and women? If God ordains evil as part of His plan and at the same time effectually commands that very evil be done by humans, then He is a cruel tyrant and schizophrenic at the same time.
I am reminded of a video clip of R. C. Sproul in which he exclaims loudly, “What’s wrong with you people!” Indeed, what is wrong with those professing Christians who hold to such blasphemous ideas?
Presupposition black hole
In another video, Dr. James White is explaining a debate between an atheist and a Calvinist. The atheist made a few excellent comments that the Calvinist attempted to explain as best he could. Dr. White told his audience that they must think presuppositionally when talking with others. In other words, Dr. White was telling them that they must assume a Calvinistic foundation is the truth, regardless of any questions or comments they may encounter. To give a proper Calvinist answer, they must believe that their brainwashing is accurate and Biblical. Only in this way can any sense be made of their positions and responses. They must assume that all people are born totally depraved, and inherit a sinful nature from Adam, and that God is absolutely sovereign over whatever comes to pass. A good Calvinist must assume that all these lies are true. Do not entertain the idea that they might not be true; think presuppositionally. Don’t question your brainwashing, believe it, and assume it is true. This is one reason why Calvinists are often perceived as unteachable and entrenched in the complex system of beliefs known as Augustinian Calvinism.
Summary of this confusion and nonsense:
- If God decrees sin but forbids it, is He double-minded? Is he not worse than the devil?
- Moral Problem. This makes God’s moral commands meaningless if His hidden decrees override them. God has no moral integrity if Calvinism is true.
- If God decrees all evil, does this make Him the author of sin? Of course it does.
- If God decrees all sin, then humanity is innocent and God is the criminal. To talk of inbred sin is nonsense. Involuntary sin (decreed sin) is not sin.
- Biblical Problem. Scripture shows evil as contrary to God’s will (e.g., Jeremiah 19:5).
- Philosophical Problem. If evil is necessary to God’s glory, why will it be absent in eternity? And why does God in scripture sound like He is angry about all the evil that human beings do when this is His decreed will?
Before Augustine, who corrupted most of what he touched, what did the early Church Fathers believe?
Early Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Origen, generally rejected the notion that God decrees sin. God’s will is good, not evil. The early Church Fathers consistently denied that God is the author of evil, while affirming His sovereignty over creation:
• Justin Martyr (2nd century): Evil arises from human misuse of free will, not God’s decree.
• Irenaeus (Against Heresies, Book IV): God permits evil so that humans may mature through struggle, but He never causes sin.
• Tertullian (On the Resurrection of the Flesh): Evil is the result of the devil and human choice; God uses it to test and strengthen faith.
• Origen (On First Principles): Evil exists because of free will’s corruption, but God sovereignly brings good out of it.
• Athanasius (On the Incarnation): Christ came to destroy evil and death, demonstrating God’s sovereignty over sin.
What are the other alternatives to the errors of Calvinism? The following outline is from ChatGPT.
• Arminian/Wesleyan. God permits evil through free will. Evil has no positive purpose, but God can redeem and overrule it (Romans 8:28).
• Eastern Orthodox. Evil is a privation of good, not decreed by God. God allows it for the sake of human freedom and transformation.
• Roman Catholic. God permits evil only to bring about a greater good (cf. Aquinas).
• Moral Influence Theories. Evil provides a backdrop for holiness, but God never needs evil.
Conclusion
It is biblical to say God brings purpose and good out of evil, but not that evil itself is His purpose. The early Church, before Augustine in the 5th century, emphasized that God permits but does not cause or decree evil. Evil’s purpose lies not in itself, but in God’s redemptive response to it. We can readily agree with that assessment.
But all this misses the main point. God created a universe with free moral beings in it, where love might exist. God created humans to love Him, and He loves them in return. To love God, we must have the freedom of choice, for love is a deliberate decision to advance the best interests and goodwill of another. Love is a choice. Without it, we become robots in a drama of fate, as in the Augustinian Calvinist system. God created beings capable of returning His love or refusing to reciprocate. He made us so that He could love us and have a relationship with us. God made us to have fellowship with Him forever.
God could have created a universe in which everything and everyone did God’s will like robots, and there was no such thing as free will. But he did not because love would not exist in such a universe. How much love and pleasure can God get by creating robots?
That is why God permits sin and evil, because virtuous love can’t exist without choice. He has given us the freedom of choice. In Calvinism, there is no love, grace, or liberty, and the only one who is sinful and evil is the God of Augustinian Calvinism.
God could end all the evil caused by humanity in the universe in a moment by making us all robots who do precisely as we are programmed. But there is no love in that kind of world, only preprogrammed compliance. God chose to create a universe where love and truth prevail, even if the cost is the evil inflicted by those moral beings who refuse to love anyone but themselves.
All of us have questions about why God does and doesn’t do certain things, or answer our questions. Occasionally, we may receive an answer from God, but often we do not. We can trust Him because He is worthy of trust, or we can doubt Him and put unbelief in our hearts. Trust and confidence will bring peace; doubt will bring bitterness. In situations like these, we must remember all of the times God has blessed us and our loved ones and not focus solely on our present disappointment and unanswered questions. God’s ways are not our ways, and He sees it all, but we see just a little. Let God be God. What a great, good, and gracious God He is.
God’s Sovereignty and the Purpose of Evil: Calvinist and Early Church Views (Expanded) ChatGPT.
This document explores how James White and other Calvinists understand God’s sovereignty and the purpose of evil, contrasts this with critiques from other Christian traditions, and includes insights from the early Church Fathers. An expanded section on the Calvinist distinction between decretive and preceptive will is also added.
Summary of Views
Calvinists affirm that God decrees all things (His decretive will), including events that involve sin, while at the same time commanding holiness (His preceptive will). Critics argue this creates moral tension, as God appears to will two contradictory things. The early Church Fathers, however, consistently denied that God is the author of evil and instead emphasized human and angelic free will.
Decretive Will vs. Preceptive Will
Within Calvinist theology, the distinction between decretive will and preceptive will seeks to explain how God can ordain all that comes to pass while still commanding righteousness and opposing sin.
• Decretive Will (Secret/Sovereign Will):
– What God ordains from eternity past.
– Encompasses all events, including sins committed by free agents.
– Example: The crucifixion of Christ was decreed by God (Acts 2:23), though carried out by sinful men.
• Preceptive Will (Revealed/Moral Will):
– God’s commands and laws, revealing what He desires.
– Calls humanity to holiness, obedience, and love.
– Example: God commands ‘You shall not murder,’ yet permitted Christ’s death within His sovereign plan.
Calvinists use this distinction to avoid charging God with sin: He ordains that sin will occur, but still forbids it. Critics argue this introduces a contradiction—God both wills and forbids the same act.
Early Church Fathers on God’s Will and Evil
The early Fathers did not articulate a decretive vs. preceptive will distinction. Instead, they saw God’s will as consistently holy, and evil as arising from free will rebellion:
• Justin Martyr – Evil is the misuse of human freedom, not God’s decree.
• Irenaeus – God permits evil for the sake of human maturity and growth but never authors it.
• Origen – God allows freedom, and while evil results from misuse, He brings good from it.
Thus, the Fathers leaned toward what Calvinists would call the preceptive will: God’s will is always good, and He does not decree evil.
