If you are looking for a definitive answer to the question "Where did Sin Come From?" please press the "close tab" button, it is usually marked with an "x" on your browser or perhaps you are on a phone and need to hit the little box first. Either way the origin of sin is not clearly presented in the Bible.

I was scrolling through Instagram Reels one day (also known by other names such as "a bad idea" and "a waste of time") and happened on a video by Frank Turek. In it he is doing a form of Q&A at what looks to be a university. And what it said really took me off guard and made me think (which rarely happens when scrolling through any short video platform). Here is the transcript of that video:

Q: "My in-laws are Calvinist. I want to know what the main out of the Five Points, what is the main thing that's, for like of a better term, wrong what's wrong about Calvinism?"

Frank Turek: "See, the ultimate problem with Calvinism, hard five point Calvinism in my view, is it makes the world a sham. Because we really don't have a free choice, but God is telling us that we ought to choose him when we can't choose him because he hasn't chosen us at all. And secondly, it makes God the author of evil. In fact, let me give you an example. In a debate that took place 40 years ago at Dallas Theological Seminary, it was between Norman Geisler, my mentor, and a guy by name of John Gerstner. At one point, Geisler turned to Gerstner and he said, 'Does man have free will?' And Gerstner said, 'Yes, man has free will to do what he desires, but God gives him the desire of his heart.' So Geisler said, 'Who gave Adam the desire to sin?' and Gerstner said, 'Mystery.' And Geisler said, 'Contradiction.'"

The debate that Turek mentions is not recorded anywhere but in Geisler's book Chosen But Free.

Many years ago when the late John Gerstner and I taught together at the same institution, I invited him into one of my classes to discuss free will. Being what I have called an extreme Calvinist, he defended Jonathan Edwards' view that the human will is moved by the strongest desire. I will never forget how he responded when I pushed the logic all the way back to Lucifer. I was stunned to hear an otherwise very rational man respond to my question "Who gave Lucifer the desire to rebel against God?" by throwing up his hands and crying, "Mystery, mystery, a great mystery!" I answered, "No, it is not a great mystery; it is a grave contradiction." And this is because, on the premises of extreme Calvinism, only God could have given Lucifer the desire to rebel against God, since there is no self-determined free choice and Lucifer had no evil nature. But if this is so, then logically it must have been God who gave him the desire to sin. In short, God caused a rebellion against God! Perish the thought!

The debate that Turek and Geisler mention is presented as a "gotcha" moment that completely and utterly destroys all arguments for Calvinism and should shut up the Cage-Stagers. Cage-Stagers is a term which here means: a person who should be locked in a cage until they can have a civil conversation about Calvinism. However, this is missing the response. And as I have yet to be able to find the response that Gerstner gives, I will write one here. The "contradiction" that Geisler suggests, is not a contradiction but an incomplete understanding of the abilities of Adam, the abilities of Adam's offspring, and the abilities of those who receive God's abundant provision of grace, who are given the responsibility to freely offer that abundant provision of grace to all those who are Adam's offspring.

Abilities is a word which, in the murky and complicated world of theological discourse, refers to a peculiar and somewhat precarious collection of potential actions, much like a rickety ladder balanced precariously over the deep and treacherous chasm of human limitation—in this case, specifically applying to Adam and Eve in their initial state, mankind after their unfortunate fall from grace, believers, and those who have already departed to be with the lord. Thomas Boston refers to these as the fourfold state of man.

1. Man Created (status integritiatis) or Primitive Integrity

Man was created in a state of innocence. "This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes." (Ecclesiastes 7:29). However, Adam also ate the apple and fell from this upright position, thus cursing all of man. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12). From these passages we can see that God created Adam with the ability to do upright actions, but with the inclusion of Romans 5:12, we can see that Adam was able to not sin, being upright, or able to sin. Augustine refers to this as posse peccare, posse non peccare.

2. Man Fallen (status corruptionis) or Entire Depravity

From Adam's sin, death came to all people (Romans 5:12). Each one of us as Adam's offspring are cursed with this death. "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins... All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh... and were by nature deserving of wrath." (Ephesians 2:1-3). We are dead in our transgressions. We are from birth children of wrath who seek only to gratify the cravings of our flesh. We are unable not to sin (non posse non peccare). Regardless of how our actions look to other men, the Bible is clear: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Rom. 3:10-12). No one does good.

3. Man Redeemed (status gratiae) or Begun Recovery

However, in God's curse to Adam and Eve, he also gave them hope for their salvation in the one who would crush the serpent's head. Noah's father Lamech was hoping for the "one who would bring relief" (Genesis 5:29). The one who would bring relief was Christ, who, through his work on Calvary, took the cup of wrath that all deserve and bought his people (1 Corinthians 7:23) into a new creation where we have the ability to not sin (posse non peccare). "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

4. Man Glorified (status gloriae) or Consummate Happiness or Misery

However, we still sin. "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:23). We will not be fully transformed until we are in Heaven: "we will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (Philippians 3:21).

So, Turek and Geisler misunderstand that Adam was not cursed in the way that we are. All of our desires are for the cravings of our flesh. Calvinism does not teach that God is the author of evil. The Bible teaches that our hearts are worthless and need the Holy Spirit to save us: "he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).

As to Turek's claim that "God is telling us that we ought to choose him when we can't choose him because he hasn't chosen us," he is missing that anyone who wants to choose God will be able to choose him. The Holy Spirit must renew us. It is not a work of our righteousness to choose God but the regeneration of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Gospel.