Bob: Sam, you believe in predestination, right?
Sam: Yep
Bob: So you believe that God has predestined everything that will come to pass?
Sam: Yep. He is God, isn't He? All sovereign, all omniscient, the Beginning and the End, Alpha & Omega..........
Bob: So you believe He predestined us to sin then, right?
Sam: No, I never said that nor would I insinuate that. James 1:13 says that God tempts no one. Sin is in complete opposition to God. He cannot look at sin, nor can He forgive it without Just Satisfaction.
Bob: Yeah, but you seem to be contradicting yourself. How can God predestine everything, yet not predestine us to sin or to be evil? Your viewpoint would make God the author of sin.
Sam: No, no contradiction at all actually.
What is evil? It's the absence of good. It's the absence of God, right? We know that God is completely good. In fact, He is what makes good good. He is the standard. An absence of Him cannot be good, right? (Thanks Stan!) That is why man without God is in fact evil. Man cannot possess God unless He changes their hearts. God cannot live in the heart of a sinner, can He? The "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9).
EX: A good example of this is the sun. The sun is the positive cause of light, the sun makes light. However, it is also the ultimate cause of darkness. When the earth rotates and is no longer facing the sun, it no longer receives the suns lights. Therefore, the sun is the ultimate cause of darkness, though it is not the positive cause, rather it is the negative cause. The absence of the sun is what creates the darkness, but it would not be right to say that the sun is the morally guilty cause of darkness. (from http://www.geocities.com/mattperman/evil.html)
Conclusion: God is not the author of sin or evil. The absence of God is the cause of evil.
All right. Now onto why God does not "predestine" us to sin: God knows all things. It's not that He foresaw our decisions, He allowed them to come to pass. And by allowing these various sins that we commit, He works them out for the counsel of His will. While we mean evil while we sin, God turns it for our good (in the lives of His elect that is). For example: Job. God allowed satan to hurt Job. Satan can only do what God allows Him to do. A quote I read by Sproul said, "God Himself tempts no one (James 1: 13) but He employs created means under His sovereign control."
I know I probably made a pretty confusing argument on the subject. I must admit that this subject is one I do not completely understand. So Bob, that is the best I can answer your questions on this topic.
Bob: Yeah, you made me more confused.
Sam: Oopsie.
Conclusion: The bible seems to have no problem with God's Sovereignty. Man does. And I see it more and more with each new doctrine and belief. God is King. He is God. He created all things, is completely Good and Just. It cannot be that He is unaware of what we will do or surprised by any thing or any one. If there was an ounce of question in the LORD's mind about anything, then He wouldn't be God. He would be human. And associating God with a lack of knowledge is an uneducated belief of His character and completely unbiblical. For His Name and His Glory, He saved us from our deserved damnation. It is not unfair for God to elect to save some, nor is it unjust to leave some men in their unregenerate state. To display His mercy and His wrath at sin, God predestined before the foundation of the world whom He would love.
Romans 9:14-24
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
**Bob is not real