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.
Unbelief does not hinder God
62-0128M §28
Now, we are knowing that in this last days ... and looking for it, have been, we brethren and ministers who are ... try to live as close to God as we can---because we have a sacred duty to watch over the flock of God, which the Holy Spirit has made us overseers. We watch the flock to keep them in order, to feed them sheep's food. And sheep eats from the Bible, the lambs of God. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," right on the Word.
Questions and Answers, part 2
54-0103E §91
Listen here. You talk about the falling of children. Just a minute, let me show you something here in the Scriptures, what the Bible says about these things here. Let's get over here and just listen to this just a minute and see what God said. Now, I'm reading from Ezekiel the ninth chapter, if you want to put it down. Listen close: And ... He cried also in my ears with a loud voice, and saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, ... every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. [Now, this...
The Trial
64-0419 §17
Then again, the prosecutor wants to turn, call your attention to something else. He that is God, promised that all things were possible to them that believed. He promised that. The prosecutor wants you to know that. And these so-called believers has tried to keep this word, and He failed to keep it, therefore He's sued for breach of promise. Yet again, the prosecutor wants to call your attention to another Word of God. He claims to be alive after His death. Jesus claims to be alive after His death. And the prosecut...
Three kinds of believers
63-1124E §52
And today, the very God that spoke of this age is on the scene doing exactly what He said He would do, and they're too blind to see it! That's unbelievers. They walk out and say, "Oh, I can't believe stuff like that! I never heard of that in my life!" It don't make any difference what you heard. The Bible said it would be here. It's His Word. They never heard of that either, but it was there just the same, see. That's right. They were unbelievers, just like Eve was. She was very religious, of course so, but she did...
Possessing the enemy's gates
59-1108 §16
Was it not Jesus who made the promise, "If you even bring offense to one of these little ones, it was better for you that a millstone was hanged at your neck and you were drowned in the depths of the sea. Don't even bring an offense to these little ones that believe in me. And these signs shall follow them that believe in me." He made a difference. He made a showing of what did believe and what did not believe. There are always the three crowds of people, that is, the unbeliever, the make-believer, and the believer...