This comes from Girardeau’s Calvinism and Evangelical Arminianism:
“The apostle Peter in his great sermon on the day of Pentecost enounced [sic] this fact when he said: ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.’ The apostles, said in a prayer: ‘For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.’ Assuredly the death of Christ and the form in which it was inflicted were pre-determined. Consequently, the means and agencies involved must likewise have been foreordained. The sinful principle of which the atrocious act of the crucifixion was the expression was not produced by the divine efficiency. God is not the author of sin. The sinner is himself the author of it. The Scribes and Pharisees, the priests and rulers, and the contemporary generation of their countrymen were not made the malicious and incorrigible sinners they were by the divine causality; but being what they were by virtue of their own election, God determined to shut them up to the specific expression of wickedness which resulted in the crucifixion of Christ. They were not, by the divine decree, obliged to be sinners or to sin, but they were, by it, obliged to vent their own wickedness in such a way as to fulfil the eternal counsel of God touching that event which is the pivot upon which the whole scheme of redemption turns. In a word they with wicked hands crucified and slew the Saviour, but God decretively willed that they should crucify and slay him” (Girardeau, Calvinism & Evangelical Arminianism, pp. 345-346; bold underlining mine–CD).
The atrocious sin expressed in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ WAS “produced by the divine efficiency.” Certain people WERE “made the malicious and incorrigible sinners they were by the divine causality.” You will then say to me, Why does He yet find fault, for who resists His will?
As for this “efficiency” making God the “author of sin.” For God to “efficiently” and actively CAUSE a person to write a book does not mean that God Himself is the one who put pen to paper. Girardeau bandies about the ambiguous phrase “author of sin” as a bugaboo to frighten people from acknowledging the Biblical fact that God IS God and they are NOT.
Ironically, Girardeau is NOT the least bit frightened to deny (like Assyria did before him) that God is the One controlling him (cf. Isaiah 10). Girardeau and Assyria effervesce with extreme arrogance and pride. But Girardeau would probably object and lament with the following gurgle of discontent:
Paul, in effect, says this arrogance and pride that is ebulliently expressed by me, is due to the Divine efficiency! That God has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens! I will then say to Him, Why doth You yet find fault? Perhaps it is You who needs the pardon. I mean, this is an extremely unjust deal if I cannot resist His will. I will emote from my throat. I will reply. I will insist. I say to Him who formed me, why did you make me like this?!
In brief (and in case it was missed), Giradeau’s objection is that of Paul’s unbelieving critic: Why does He yet find fault, for who can resist His will? (Romans 9:19-20). As we’ve seen over and over and over again — the history and theology of Calvinism is one long line of tumultuous teapots, short and stout, shaking their handles, and emitting seditious steam from their spouts.
Agrammatos 