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"neither is God the author of sin" WCF III.1

"The devil and wicked men are so held in on every side with the hand of God, that they cannot conceive, or contrive, or execute any mischief, any farther than God himself doth not permit only, but command. Nor are they only held in fetters, but compelled also, as with a bridle, to perform obedience to those commands." (Calv. Inst., b. 1, c. 17, S. 11.)

"God not only foresaw that Adam would fall, but also ordained that he should." (Calvin's Inst., b. 3, c. 23, sec. 7.)

"...he fell not only by the permission, but also by the appointment, of God." (Calvin Responsio ad Calumnias Nebulonis cujusdam ad Articulum primum.)

"He sinned because God so ordained, because the Lord saw good." (Calvin's Inst., b. 3, c. 24, sec. 8.)

"God made Adam and Eve to this very purpose, that they might be tempted and led into sin. And by force of his decree, it could not otherwise be but they must sin." (Piscatoris Dispute. Praedest., Praef., p. 6.)

A person or a system of theology that says that God compelled Adam and Eve to sin as a man compels a horse by its bridle to go the way he wants cannot then turn around and say, "Hey, but God isn't the author of sin" and have anyone believe that he's not tailoring words to mean whatever he wants them to mean whenever it's convenient.

God does not "compel" anyone to sin. Men do that all on their own. We are all our first father's children and like him, disobedience comes naturally.

And yes, the Fall was by "the appointment of God." It certainly didn't take God by surprise. He could have prevented it if He had chosen to. Did He plant the tree in the garden and allow the serpent to entice Eve, knowing full well what she would do? If He did not want history to occur as it did, could he not have done things a whole lot differently?

Was Christ not the lamb slain from the foundation of the world to atone for the sins of those whom God chose to be among His family?

"For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" -- 1 Corinthians 4:17

Of course another over-riding reason for Scripture and the WCF to be true is that if the world is not ordained by God to be unfolding according to His will, then something else is at work in the universe that is mightier, more powerful God. Satan? Evil? Men's will? Now THAT is a frightening thought. Thank God Scripture tells us otherwise...

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things" -- Isaiah 45:7

And thank you for those verses from Calvin and the WCF. They are all true. Just try believing the opposite of each statement and see how absurd they make God out to be.