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 §38
"Well," you say, "That's ... you're getting the people unbelief." No, I'm trying to get them to faith. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing the creed? That might be in the Almanac, but that's not the Bible. Hearing the Word of God, that's what brings faith. To hear the Word of God, that brings faith. (Now there's about twelve minutes more left. I ... now, I'm too slow again.) Unbelief doesn't destroy God, it doesn't destroy his plan, it doesn't destroy his works; it only destroys the unbeliever. Unbelief only destroys...
Unbelief does not hinder God
62-0128M §35
Well, that's the way the devil does. He brings us down to everything, and shows it so lovely, and will go in and agree with most of the Word of God; but he won't take all the Word of God. That's what we've got to do. He'll say, "I believe that there is such a thing as new birth. But what I think it is, is a change of mind." But it isn't a change of mind; it's a new creature. It isn't... The church doesn't need a face lifting; it needs a conversion. It needs to be a new creature. And unbelief will push you over to o...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
61-0516A §5
And there's only one unbelief. Let's keep that in our mind. There's only one sin. Now drinking, gambling, committing adultery, using profanity, that isn't sin. That's the attributes of unbelief. Jesus said, "He that believeth not is condemned already." In the days of our Lord He found many men who lived holy lives---clean, respectable gentlemen. And they were scholars, masterpieces of scholarship. And yet He said to them, "You are of your father the devil," because they did not believe Him. The message, they did no...
Unbelief does not hinder God
62-0128M §41
He said, "Let me see you ... I'll bring a little girl in here and let me cut her hand. And let me see you heal it. Then I'll believe." I said, "You are in a bad need of mental healing." Certainly. Anybody cut a child's hand! That's that same old devil said, "If Thou be the Son of God, do us a miracle here before us. Let's see these stones turn into bread," see. "If Thou be the Son of God, come off the cross. We'll believe you." He could have done it! But He didn't listen to the devil. He said, "I do nothing till th...
The Queen of Sheba
60-0401E §1
[Pastor introduces Brother Lamsa.] ... he speaks the language and can read the language and read the original documents in which the New Testament was written. So with him, it is so wonderful that he can read directly from the original script the very words that Jesus and the disciples spoke and wrote. He felt that these translations that we have are not always correct and true. And that's where the criticism comes in, because he criticizes the King James version, and some people think that St. Paul preached from t...