The only thing you need to show is that a particular choice was necessitated (not only influenced) by something else before the choice
The Law of Causation says that all effects are caused. There is nothing that we can do that is not caused, nor can we ourselves be uncaused. So even if you say we are entirely spontaneous in our decisions, THAT is also caused since we are caused. Thus, a logical self-contradiction. Thus, we are not able to do anything uncaused.
If our choice is influenced, that influence necessarily causes, one way or another, rejection, consideration, acceptance, dismay, etc etc etc
Sorry! Would you be kind to direct me back to the post where you explain how God can decree every sinful act without being the author of sin?
God created with full knowledge of the consequences, yes? When God spoke his creation into existence, that —all of it— is his decree. We accept that he did not "author" sin, (depending on what you mean by the word, 'author'). If he caused, but did not author, then he caused that there be sin, and he caused every incidence of it to be. But the principles (delight and desire and habit and on and on) and the individuals that sin on their own, are also caused to be. All the circumstances by which we sin, are caused to be. But, as Joseph said to his brothers, "You indeed intended it for evil, but God intended it for good." God intended every evil sin for a good end; if there were no sin, there would be no redemption. But the individual that sins is the cause of his own decisions, for good or for evil, but that individual is not the only cause of his decisions.
James says, "
...each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;" There is where sin begins.
I'm not saying Sproul didn't make a good argument. I think the argument was fine, but it leads to those unbiblical implications. Sure Calvinists don't agree, but I've never heard a reasonable explanation for how God can control everything, while we are still held responsible. Saying God uses "means" doesn't answer that, because the "means" themselves are determined by God.
Yes, the means are determined. I'm just showing a degree of separation. But let me get a little severe here, or clinical. By definition God does not sin—not just because he is not evil-natured, but because by definition, sin is against God, and it is illogical to suppose that he would be against himself. What God does, then, is never against himself, and never against his purposes. All he made serves his purposes. There he is, in his own economy —his own level, so to speak— that we can't even access, nevermind dwell in. I'm not going to be stupid enough to say that he authors sin; instead, I am forced to admit that he causes that there be sin. I can see no way around it. Even if I agreed about libertarian free will, which (to my knowledge) all proponents of it —Christians, that is— say it is God's gift, (or words to that effect), then I would have to say that God caused that free will, and whatever comes of that free will (in this case, sin) is therefore caused to be.
The severe part is that God will do everything it takes to complete the product he intended from the beginning. And what is needed was more severe than any of us realize; and
he has every right to do so. We are not completed yet.
You may remember me talking about atheists sometimes asking, "If God is omnipotent, why didn't he just speak Heaven and the Bride, etc into instantaneous existence—why drag us through this mess?" And I respond, "Maybe he did speak it instantaneously into existence, and this is how it came to be. This life is not for this life."
I think there's an important distinction you are overlooking. God decreeing some sinful acts for a specific purpose is not the same as God causing existence of sin.
It at least sounds like you agree, then, that he decreed
some specific sinful acts. Good. If he can do that, and yet not be the author of sin, then he can decree any sinful act without being the author of sin.
