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.
The same Jesus tonight
55-0826 §5
Let me tell you; she must believe for the impossible now. That's what you've got to do. You've got to believe the impossible in order to have new life. Let me also say this as God's servant, 'cause I know from what I speak: the impossibles are made real, when God is taken at His Word. When any person will take that same Word, it'll bring the same results every time, every time you ask it.
The unwelcomed Christ
55-0911 §17
I said, "Well, if you want to believe, you're a believer. If you don't, then you're not a believer; that's all." And I said, "I can't explain it. There's no need of me trying it. For, if I'd try to, I would try to explain God. And who can explain God? And God has made it so that none of us can explain God. We believe God by faith, not by sight, not by knowledge; but by faith, we believe God. God has to be accepted by faith, unexplainable. You have to receive it. If it's explainable, then you don't no more have to u...
The true vine and the false vine
55-0607 §92
The little boy, you believe that God will heal you? Then go eat your supper. Your stomach trouble's gone. Yours too, mother. Just go right along with him and praise God and believe with all your heart. Do you believe with all your heart? Do you believe God can heal that kidney trouble and make you well? He has. Just keep walking on, saying, "Praise be to God who gives us the victory." You're nervous for one thing, been always upset. And you have a stomach trouble, also. Now, go on your road rejoicing, saying, "Than...
Unbelief does not hinder God
62-0128M §44
Now, faith. Faith is ridiculous to everybody but God and the one that has it. Now it's not ridiculous to God, because He's the author of faith. And it's not ridiculous to the man that has the faith, because he's a believer in God, so it isn't ridiculous to him. God is the author of it. He created it. And the man who received it from God... 'Course it isn't ridiculous to God. Because He created it He knows what it is.
Abraham and his Seed after him
61-0423 §19
And now there's three classes of people. Always is, in every congregation, made up everywhere, wherever you find them. That's believers, make-believers, and unbelievers. You find those three classes of people in probably every church there is in the world---is make-believers, and unbelievers, and believers. Now Abraham ... called by grace. Now, God didn't say... And notice, God, when He called Abraham, He didn't say, "Abraham, if you will do a certain thing, I will do a certain thing." He said, "Abraham, I have alr...