Why freewill theism makes God the cause of sin

Theological libertarians (e.g. Molinists, Arminians, open theists) accuse Calvinism of making God the cause of sin. I’ve often responded to this charge, so I’ll ignore this for now. Instead, I want to address the question of whether freewill theism makes God the cause of sin.

To answer this question, we need to begin with a theory of causation. Let’s try a counterfactual theory of causation.

A libertarian theist should hardly object to a counterfactual theory of causation. After all, the freedom to do otherwise (or choosing between alternative possibilities) is, itself, a counterfactual concept.

Here’s a simply statement of counterfactual causation:

“If A had not occurred, C would not have occurred.”

And here’s a more nuanced statement of the same:

“Where c and e are two distinct actual events, e causally depends on c if and only if, if c were not to occur e would not occur.”

On this definition, God causes sin and evil–regardless of whether you espouse Molinism, Arminianism, or open theism.

If the divine creation of man had not occurred, then the moral evils of human history would not have occurred.

The antecedent is true for Molinism, Arminianism, and open theism alike. Therefore, the consequent holds good for all three libertarian alternatives.