James White is Blaming God and Excusing Sinners

Divisive Line broadcast finally addressing his repeated failure to recognize that we don’t deny that God may determine certain evil events (like the sale of Joseph or the Crucifixion etc) without being the One who brings about the evil intentions of those who do these evil acts. 

 

Here is an outline of each of White’s simplistic arguments followed by my responses:

 

White: You grant the event (Joseph sold / sent to Egypt) was predestined, but deny the brothers’ motivations (hatred, pride, lust of flesh/eyes) were decreed. You use 1 John 2:16—“not from the Father but from the world.”

 

Reply: Genesis 50:20 itself distinguishes two intentions for the same act: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Affirming God intended the outcome does not require Him to originate the sinful motive. 1 John 2:16 is not a side note. If exhaustive determinism is true, those desires are from the Father by decree. That is the point of contention White restates instead of answering.

 

White: Motivations and actions cannot be separated. If God decreed the sale, He decreed the hatred that produced it. If the brothers had honored Joseph, how does he get to Egypt? Actions don’t happen in a vacuum.

 

Reply: That’s a false dilemma. God restrained murder (Reuben, Judah) so a sale happened instead of death. Restraint is not origination. An infinitely wise God can get Joseph to Egypt through many free paths; He does not need to program the specific sin. The brothers are guilty because the hatred was theirs. God is sovereign because He is not surprised, not thwarted, and weaves even rebellion into His purpose. White requires that God meant the hatred in the same sense He meant the salvation of many. The text never says that.

 

White: You have no coherent definition of “decree.” Provisionism has no positive theology proper on God’s knowledge and decree. It borrows Reformed language and can slide into Open Theism or Molinism.

 

Reply: Rhetoric, not rebuttal. We affirm exhaustive foreknowledge, providence, and that God works all things for good. We deny that “decree” means God is the author of the pride He forbids (James 1:13; Hab 1:13; 1 John 1:5). White defines the word so only Calvinism can use it. His own tradition already splits preceptive and decretive will. We refuse to let the decretive will swallow the preceptive will and then call it “compatibilism.”

 

White: Gen 37–50 shows God ruling the whole sequence—hatred, plot to kill, restraint, sale, then “You meant evil, God meant good.” God is not merely reacting.

 

Reply: Walking the narrative does not prove White’s extra claim. Yes, God used and overruled their evil. That is not the same as God producing the evil desire so His plan could not fail. If every time Scripture says God “meant,” “sent,” or “used” an evil act we must conclude He also meant the wicked motive in the same sense, the Bible’s own moral distinction collapses.

 

White: Eph 1:11, Ps 33, Dan 4—God works all things according to the counsel of His will. Separating motive from act leaves purposeless evil or an incoherent God.

 

Reply: Eph 1:11 is about God’s purpose in Christ, not a blank check for determining every sinful inclination. “All things” does not mean “God originated the things He calls ‘not from the Father.’” God knows, permits, limits, and governs. He is not scrambling after free creatures. That is a stronger doctrine of providence than one that makes God the remote cause of the very evil He condemns.

 

Bottom line: White treats “God intended the event for good” as identical to “God intended the evil intention.” Those are not the same claim. Genesis 50:20 distinguishes them. Until he answers that distinction, he is talking past the point of contention.

 

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