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.
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...
Looking for Jesus
54-0228E §78
All right, tell her to accept Jesus. [The interpreter speaks.] Tell her her heart trouble's gone. [The interpreter speaks.] God bless you. Let us say, "Praise be to God." Bow your heads real quick, there's a deaf spirit coming around me now. Bow your head. O Lord, Creator of heavens and earth, Author of everlasting life, Giver of every good gift, send Thy blessings upon this man. And make this evil to leave him. O Thou eternal God, who was before the day spring from on high, You was God then, You'll be God when the...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
63-0627 §33
Now we all know that sin is unbelief. "He that believeth not is condemned already." Now, sin is the attribute of unbelief. Smoking cigarettes is not a sin. Stealing is not a sin. Lying is not a sin. Committing adultery is not a sin. "What is it then, you'd say?" It's the attributes of unbelief. If you were a believer you would not do those things. The reason you do it proves that you're a unbeliever. There's only two factions. That's either you are a believer, or not a believer. And how, always puzzled me, that a m...