George H. Warnock — Hamartology
b6 — Who Are You?
Origin of Evil
Warnock states his central thesis concisely:
“Where does Evil come from? JUST EXCLUDE GOD AND YOU HAVE IT!” — ch. 5, section “Whence then cometh EVIL?”
The argument is developed through a series of contrasts:
“Exclude Light, and you have Darkness. Exclude Good, and you have Evil. Exclude Mercy, and you have Cruelty. Exclude Truth, and you have Deception. Exclude Love, and you have Hatred. IT IS JUST AS SIMPLE AS THAT, AND JUST AS AWESOME.” — ch. 5, section “Whence then cometh EVIL?”
In chapter 7 Warnock restates this as “the secret of the origin of Evil”:
“We have already pointed out the secret of the origin of Evil: It was THE EXCLUSION OF GOD that brought it about. If God is excluded, there it is. God is LOVE and LIGHT and TRUTH. If men deny God a place in their lives, and so cut Him off… there is HATRED, and DARKNESS, and ERROR.” — ch. 7, section “The Mystery of the Cross”
Interpretation: Warnock frames evil as ontologically privative — it has no independent existence but arises as the consequence of God’s absence. This aligns with the Augustinian privatio boni tradition, articulated in relational terms: exclusion of God = evil, not a separately created principle.
God Is Not the Author of Evil
Warnock explicitly rejects the teaching that God created Satan in his present corrupt state:
“God is not the Author of evil, of confusion, of darkness. When God bids His people to come to that place of maturity where they are able to discern both good and evil, He is not asking them to understand that He is, in some sense, the Author of both.” — ch. 5, section “The Origin of Evil”
He cites Calvin (Institutes I.xvi) in support:
“Whatever evil quality he has, he has acquired by his defection and fall. […] When he says that he abode not in the truth, he certainly implies that he had once been in it; and when he calls him the father of a lie, he precludes his imputing to God the depravity of his nature, which originated wholly from himself.” — ch. 5, section “The Origin of Evil”
Warnock adds from James 1:13:
“God cannot be tempted with evil […] EVIL is foreign to His nature.” — ch. 5, section “Is God the Author of Evil?”
The argument sharpens further:
“God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Are you telling us then, O man, that God who cannot lie can nevertheless create a liar, and the father of all lies?” — ch. 5, section “Is God the Author of Evil?”
The Nature of Adam’s Transgression
Warnock draws a sharp distinction between Eve’s deception and Adam’s deliberate act:
“ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED either by the Serpent or by Eve (1 Tim. 2:14). EVE WAS DECEIVED; but in Adam’s case it was a deliberate transgression. He failed in the test of obedience.” — ch. 5, section “The Nature of Adam’s Transgression”
On Adam’s condition before the fall:
“He was on probation, and his trial consisted of a simple matter of obedience to the God who created him. He was forbidden to eat of ‘the tree of knowledge of good and evil’.” — ch. 5, section “The Nature of Adam’s Transgression”
On the deliberate choice made:
“Eve was the only companion he had in that beautiful Garden! Now she had fallen! He made a deliberate decision to disobey God, and to share the fate of his wife who had fallen.” — ch. 5, section “The Nature of Adam’s Transgression”
The Adam–Christ antithesis closes the section:
“The first Adam bringing death and condemnation to all in his race; and the Last Adam bringing righteousness and life and peace to all in His race.” — ch. 5, section “The Nature of Adam’s Transgression”
Original Sin and the Universality of Sin
“In Adam’s disobedience and fall, we are all from the same lump of fallen humanity, ‘for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23).” — ch. 5, section “God is Sovereign over all the works of Evil”
From chapter 7, on who killed Jesus:
“Who really killed Jesus! It was you and I… and all of us, that killed Jesus! […] it was your sin and mine… sins that we inherited from Adam, and the sins of Adam that we have multiplied over and over again in every generation… it was the sins of the whole world that killed Jesus.” — ch. 7, section “God’s Judgment of the World”
Apostasy as a Three-Phase Process
Warnock traces from Rom. 1:21-28 a three-stage descent into apostasy:
Step 1 — Ingratitude: “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful (Rom. 1:21). […] God who is pure Light begins to withdraw His restraining grace from their lives, and ‘gives them up’ to uncleanness.” — ch. 5, section “The Process of Apostasy”
Step 2 — Idolatry: “Man now ‘changes the truth of God into a lie’ […] and worships and serves the creature, rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). […] Forsake Him who is Truth, and you accept a LIE.” — ch. 5, section “The Process of Apostasy”
Step 3 — Reprobate Mind: “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28). […] ‘God gave them over to a reprobate mind […] IT DOES NOT KNOW OR RECOGNIZE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL.‘” — ch. 5, section “The Process of Apostasy”
Interpretation: Warnock describes sin not as an isolated act but as a dynamic process deepened by God’s permissive judgment — each step withdraws God further and renders the next step more inevitable.
Sin, Death, and Christ as Sin Offering
“He becomes THE NEGATIVE THAT CANCELS OUT THE NEGATIVE. He suffers the DEATH that cancels out the DEATH. He becomes the CURSE that cancels the CURSE. He becomes the SIN that cancels the SIN. ‘For God hath made Him to be SIN for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him’ (2 Cor. 5:21).” — ch. 7, section “The Mystery of the Cross”
On the condemnation of sin at the cross:
“It was there on the Cross that I condemned SIN in the flesh of my Son, that My people who receive Him as their sin offering, might become the righteousness of God in Him.” — ch. 7, section “God’s Judgment of the World”
On Satan’s dominion as a consequence of the fall:
“Satan has extended his dominion over the whole human race ever since the Fall. His weapons of destruction have been revealed in Fear, Hate, Torment, Strife, Pride, Conceit… all these negative traits that have harassed the whole human family from the beginning.” — ch. 7, section “The Mystery of the Cross”
Sin as Judgment: God’s Response to Persistent Rebellion
“Consistent and persistent rebellion against God causes God to withdraw His restraining hand of grace, thus adding to and multiplying the darkness that is already there. In this sense only does God ‘create evil.’ It is God’s Judgment against iniquity.” — ch. 2, section “This is a Day of Deception”
Warnock links this to 2 Thess. 2:11: God sends a strong delusion to those who have not received the love of the truth — “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved” (v. 10).