<font face="Comic Sans MS">Dear Pilgrim,
I appreciate your response. I still cannot find any scripture that states that "Adam was responsible." But I do appreciate your thoughts on the matter. There are, however scriptures which state that due to what Adam did, all mankind were made sinners and due to what Adam did death passed through into all mankind. It seems to me that in Paul's treatise in Romans 5:12-19 that mankind in their relationship to both Adam and Christ are neutral recipients.

Let us look at king David. God wanted to do something to Israel. So what did He do? He made David number Israel. He made David sin so that God could judge Israel.

2 Samuel 24:1 "And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah"

But in 2Sam.24: we see this: "And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly."

Then God sent a prophet to David. It **seems** from the story that David is fully responsible for the death of the 70,000 men but actually the buck stops with God. God wanted those 70,000 men killed and He made David number Israel and thus sin so He could do just that. Yet God did not sin in so doing as He is righteous. David didn't know that God was making him sin in numbering Israel. He thought he was responsible but he was wrong. He was just a vessel used by God to get to those 70,000. In 1Chronicles 21:1 it says that Satan caused David to number Israel. So, like in the days of Job where God let Satan wreck Job's estate thus God used Satan to get to David and also God used Satan to get to the woman to get to Adam.

David's heart smote him when he thought he was responsible for number Israel. But Satan made David number them but God made David number them so the buck stops with God and it stops with God with Adam too. If God is not in control He is out of control.

The same thing happened with Adam. God needed a Saviour to come. God needed all mankind to be made sinners. He needed all mankind to be condemned. The only way to achieve that was to have Adam break His law in the garden. The end justifies the means. God will be seen to be fully righteous in all His dealing with humanity.

Sure, we plan. We want to do this and to do that. We want to go here and go there. But are we really free to do that which our minds and hearts determine we want to do? Not really for James deals rather beautifully with this whole matter here:
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, <font size="4">If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.</font>
We may say, I am going to the grocery store to get some milk. But the reality of the situation is "if the Lord will, and we shall live, then and only then will we succeed in going to the store and getting that milk. Otherwise "all such boasting is evil".

What I dislike about the hyper-Calvinist is that they don't think that there is any need for evangelism. And some H-C people think that "God made me do it," and so illogically they think they can do anything they want. This reminds me of a very bright boy of 4 years old that I knew. His dad believes strongly in God's sovereignty. His son did something wrong one day that required discipline. The son said to his dad "but dad, I had to do it since it had to happen." The father replied, that is very true, and it is just as true that I have to discipline you because that must happen as well." Today the boy is grown up and has a Ph.d. in Math and teaches at Chicago university.

Oh, let us be thankful to God today for all the blessings He has given us. Every gift received is the exact gift He wants us to have and every gift given is the exact gift He wants them to receive. So in effect the gifts come from God and we are to be thankful for all things. God is so very good! He is the perfect Father!</font>