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.
God's preparation
54-0401 §94
Come. Perhaps we're strangers, sir, to one another. Only God does know these things. If our blessed heavenly Father will, between us now, reveal what you're after, what you're wanting, will you accept it? And if He will just tell me, knowing that I don't know you, know nothing of you, friend... I'm getting awfully weak. If He'll just let me know what's wrong with you, you'll accept your healing? [The man says, "Sugar diabetes and hard of hearing."] It's both gone from you. Now, that you might know that your sugar d...
Unbelief does not hinder God
62-0128M §57
All right. To stop, I say this: unbelief does not stop God, does not stop his program, does not stop his move, does not stop nothing but the unbeliever. It stops him in his sin, and there he is, standing looking at himself. Today they say there is no such a thing as the Holy Ghost, but that don't stop it. The people go right on getting it just the same. They say there's no divine healing; but they go right on getting healed just the same. They say there's no joy; people go right on shouting just the same. "There's...
Presuming
62-0117 §39
People say, "Well, He's too good. He's too good to do it. God is so good." I believe that. I believe God is good. A teenage boy said not long ago in our town, our city, he said, "You know what?" He said, "God is so good, Brother Branham." He said, "You know, God is so good He just let's me do anything." He said, "He don't care. He don't mind, 'cause He's just so good to me." Nonsense! God is a good God! We hear so much about Him being a good God, and I believe He is a good God. That's right, He is a good God. But i...
The unity of one God in the one Church
58-1221E §1
[Brother Neville read John the 17th chapter]: These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Fat...
Confirmation and Evidence
62-0621E §26
Man looks for that. It's the nature of man. God made man that way. That's the way God made up a man. Now, so therefore, making up a man with that kind of a make-up, God does something to answer to that man's desire. God is a good God, as Oral Roberts has often remarked. He's a good God, but don't take that too far now. He's a just God, too. He sure is. Don't take Him too good. Like someone ... the teenage boy said not long ago, "God's so good He don't care what I do." Oh, yes, He does. If disbelieving his Word, jus...