Can We Not Also Say That It Is God That Caused or Made the Unbeliever to Choose Not to Believe?
1) Direct Answer
No—not in the same way. God is not the author of unbelief or sin. Unbelief springs from man’s own fallen heart and love of darkness. Yet the Bible also shows that God judicially blinds and hardens those who refuse the truth, and He withholds saving revelation from those who are not His sheep.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- James 1:13: God “tempteth no man.” He does not create evil in the heart.
- John 3:19–20; John 5:40: Men “loved darkness rather than light… Ye will not come to me.” The refusal is theirs.
- Acts 13:46: “Ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.”
- John 10:26: “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.” Those not given do not believe.
- John 12:39–40 (Isaiah 6): “Therefore they could not believe… He hath blinded their eyes.” Judicial hardening after rejecting light.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12: Because they “received not the love of the truth… God shall send them strong delusion.” Judgment fits their chosen unbelief.
- Romans 1:24–28: “God gave them up” to their own desires.
- Romans 9:18: “He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”
- Acts 13:48: “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” God grants faith to His own.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- God positively grants faith to His sheep; that is grace.
- Man, left to himself, already loves darkness and will not come.
- God never forces a willing heart to reject Christ; rather, He righteously leaves some to their own choice and then seals that choice in judgment (hardening/blinding).
- So we must not say, “God made them not believe,” but rather, “God did not give them saving grace, and He judicially hardens those who reject the light.”
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, the Gospel separates: as many as are ordained to life believe, and those who spurn the light are blinded by the very light they refuse. God authors faith in His own; unbelief is man’s sin, and hardening is God’s righteous judgment.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-13
The Sabbath, as we know it from the New Testament, is NOT the keeping of a certain day. We have no command whatsoever to keep Saturday for a Sabbath, nor do we have any commandment to keep the first day of the week, which is Sunday. Here is the truth of the Sabbath, which means "rest." Hebrews 4:8, "For if Jesus had given them rest (or rest day), then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath keeping) to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he a...
Unbelief does not hinder God
62-0128M §47
You're controlled by two elements: either you believe, or you do not believe. Now let's take unbelief and see what it does. It creates a worry, and it brings oppression, and it can't help you at all. There's no value in unbelief at all. If you... Say if you were going to be shot in the morning at sunrise, it wouldn't help you any to worry about it. Not a bit. It'd only just make it worse on you. So you can't do that. It's not good to do it. "Well," you say, "what does faith do? What does the Word of God do?" It cre...
Expectation
51-0930 §67
Come, lady. How do you do? You believe as God--me as God's servant? You have two or three things bothering you. One thing you're interested in is your eyes, which you got. You had a little stomach trouble also, which is caused by a nervous condition and astigmatism and bringing you down. You want to be healed? Say, "Jesus, I accept Your atonement right now." God bless you, go and be healed in the name of the Lord Jesus. Come, lady. If you come in this way, if God will speak to me and tell me what's wrong with you,...
Perseverant
64-0305 §112
You have a little heart flutter. But also you've got arthritis. You believe God will make you well? Go on your road, rejoice, and say, "Thank You, Lord." A nervous stomach causes peptic ulcers, and things. Do you believe that God will make you well, and heal you? Go on your road and say, "Thank you, Lord," and be made well. You've got many things. A lady's trouble. One of your great things is a heart trouble---too much around your heart. Do you believe God will make you well? Go on your road rejoicing, saying, "Tha...
Thirsting for Life
57-0728 §74
So, therefore, if you will read Romans 8 and 9, you will find out that He told... He said, "I hate Esau and love Jacob," before either boy was ever born from his mother's womb. Correctly, for He's God. He knows all things. So, how can you make a believer ... an unbeliever a believer when God knew in the beginning he was an unbeliever? It wasn't meant for him. He said, "Pharaoh, I've raised him up for this very same purpose. The work he worked. It's not him that willeth, him that runneth, it's God that showeth mercy...