“No, the brake system has no will of its own, so it cannot be considered a secondary cause in the WCF sense. In your example, you would be the primary and only cause.”
Either God preordains all or He does not. If God preordains all, then any words to the contrary, are, well, contrary. If God makes me with a will to only do evil, and does not advance me the grace to change that will, then it is only God’s responsibility for me to do the evil that He made me to do.
“From a legal standpoint, this is not correct in the United States. In this country, unless there is a duty present (e.g. parent-child), no one is required to help a “victim”. Now, a few foreign countries DO have laws as you suggest, but not here.”
Aside from Massachussetts, it appears that you are correct about the United States.
“But as I said, in Apostolic theology, God somehow escapes this morality even when the victims are God’s own children. IOW, under your beliefs, God would be arrested even under U.S. law. :)”
It’s the difference between offered assistance and frogmarching the unknowingly selected elite.
Unlike the brake system in your example, the human translates will into action, if even only in thought. This is the unique contribution to sin by a willful human as a secondary cause. This is what puts the responsibility onto humans. The brake system did not decide to fail. The human does.
FK: “From a legal standpoint, this is not correct in the United States. In this country, unless there is a duty present (e.g. parent-child), no one is required to help a “victim”. Now, a few foreign countries DO have laws as you suggest, but not here.”
Aside from Massachusetts, it appears that you are correct about the United States.
Since I was curious, I looked it up. The long and the short of it is that Massachusetts has a "duty to report" law (Chapter 268, section 40), but this is not a "duty to aid" law in the physical sense. It's a small matter, but you were right to mention it.
FK: “But as I said, in Apostolic theology, God somehow escapes this morality even when the victims are God’s own children. IOW, under your beliefs, God would be arrested even under U.S. law. :)”
It’s the difference between offered assistance and frogmarching the unknowingly selected elite.
What is the correct way to deal with children who don't know what's good for them? Is it to "offer assistance" or is it to frogmarch them? Neither of my children would be alive today if all I ever did was "offer assistance". :)