There are two aspects to humanity’s fall: whether it is God’s fault or the sinner’s, and whether it is the tempter’s fault or the sinners. The first question must be answered before the second can be attempted.
If God is omniscient, then he knows if his creature will fall. If God creates a creature that he knows will fall, it seems that it is God’s fault when his creature falls, because he knew and still created the creature. There is a flaw with this reasoning, however, as can be seen in the example of Satan. God made Satan. He gave him only good, and all that he asked in return was gratitude. That is perfectly reasonable. There is something very wrong with someone who will spit in the face of the one who has given them everything. In giving Satan only good, God did everything possible short of taking away Satan’s free will to prevent Satan’s fall. Since God gave Satan every reason not to rebel, Satan is culpable for his fall, not God.
Satan agrees with this reasoning. He dwells in depth on who is to blame as he watches the earth. As he thinks on his past, he vacillates between blaming God and blaming himself for his fall. He reasons, “Whom hast thou then or what to accuse, / But heaven’s free love dealt equally to all? / Be then his love accursed, since love or hate, / To me alike, it deals eternal woe.”[1] In the next line he goes on to say “Nay cursed be thou; since against his thy will / Chose freely what it now so justly rues.”[2] Satan is sorely tempted to blame God for his fall, but then admits that is his own fault. While Satan’s logic is not to be trusted implicitly, he is inclined to clear himself of blame when stretching the truth. The fact that he came to the conclusion that he himself is to blame shows that even Satan has to admit that it is the sinner who is to be blamed, not God.
In the case of Adam and Eve, the question of who is to blame is a bit more complex, because not only are there sinners and God, there is also Satan, the tempter. In the case involving only the sinner and God, it is clearly the sinners fault, as seen above. In a case involving a tempter, however, it is not as obvious.
If God is omnipotent, it seems that he should step in and stop the tempter. This, however, is a faulty idea. God is not responsible for the choices his creatures make, tempted or not. If he is responsible at all, he is responsible to warn his creatures. Nothing more is necessary, and this still seems like a mercy. God does step in and warn Adam and Eve through Raphael[3], so completely absolving himself of guilt in that quarter.
Even if God isn’t culpable for humanities sin, Satan might be to blame for the fall. After all, he deceived and manipulated Eve.
Man, with strength entire, and free will armed, [was]
Complete to have discovered and repulsed
Whatever wiles of foe or deeming friend.
For still they knew and ought to have still remembered
The high injunction not to taste that fruit,
Whoever tempted; which they not obeying,
Incurred, what could they less, the penalty,
And manifold in sin, deserved to fall.[4]
Adam and Eve knew what they were doing was wrong. They did it anyway. According to
This may seem harsh at first glance, but God gave them everything they could have wanted or needed. He was so good to them, and asked only one thing of them. One thing forbidden in the mist of immense bounty. No matter what anyone said to them, they had no right to even think about disobeying God. They had what God had commanded. They had the minds that God had given them, and they should have used them. They didn’t. They were ‘absent minded’, and conveniently forgot everything that they owed him. As
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