parresia

A question for my freewill

A question for my freewill friends

Today in class studying ancient Israeli history, we came across the story of the 10 plagues that were called upon Egypt just prior to the Exodus. As some of you may know, the tenth plague (the plague that finally got Pharoh's attention), was the dreadful Passover. The Angel of the Lord passed over all of the land; those households that did not have sacrificial blood on their doorposts found their first-born son dead the next morning.

One of my students said aloud, rather intently, "God is a murderer."

I thought for a moment, started to respond, then simply chose to ignore the comment.

It wasn't until just now that a question came to my mind for my "free-will" friends: my friends who claim that the reformed doctrine of predestination makes God out to be a sinner (and therefore untennable).

Here's the question: From a "free-will" perspective, is not God, in the act of the Passover, actively (primary cause) killing persons who may or may not have had the opportunity for salvation? In other words, does not this act of God clearly entail that God, at least once, acted in a manner that could be called, and if entailed by the Calvinist position certainly would be called (by our free will friends) "God sinning"?

It seems to me that God's sovereignty over all acts in history, including acts that WE would consider "sinful" can be attributed still to none other than God acting himself. How is it the anti-predestination bunch salvages God from being a direct cause in the Passover event? It seems they would be unable to do so. If that's the case, then how is it their position "frees" God from the sining entailment that they heap onto Calvinists?

Is not the "Angel of the Lord" Jehovah himself?