Mike,

Isn’t accountable just another word for responsible? According to the dictionary and a Google search, they both have the same meaning. Would you please explain?

Thanks,
A____

Hi A____,

Thank you for your question.

This question allows me to make the point that we cannot rely upon Noah Webster, Google, or any other secular source to define God’s Words. God’s Word is established “in the mouth of two or three [scriptural] witnesses”, not in the mouth of two or three secular or so-called Biblical scholarly witnesses. When we allow orthodox Christian men like James Strong to define words for us, we come up with definitions like this for the Greek word ‘aion:’
G165
αιων
aion
ahee- ohn’
From the same as G104; properly an age; by extension perpetuity (also past); by implication the world; specifically (Jewish) a Messianic period (present or future): – age, course, eternal, (for) ever (- more), [ n-] ever, (beginning of the, while the) world (began, without end). Compare G5550.

“By extension perpetuity???” Do you have a scripture or two for that statement, Mr. Strong?

Now all those who are so impressed with both secular and orthodox Christian ‘credentials’ coming from well known seminaries like the Dallas Theological Seminary, or Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Seminary, or any of the dozens of other orthodox Christian seminaries across this country and around the world, will be asking where someone like me, a mere remodeling contractor, gets the nerve to question such ‘qualified’ Christian men as Mr. Noah Webster and Dr. Strong.
Here is God’s answer to such queries:

Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

“This word” is not a reference to the established orthodox church of the day. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all of the Old Testament prophets, and Christ Himself, were rejected by the church establishment of their day. Here is how orthodoxy thinks of God’s faithful servants in every generation:

Act 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Peter and John were not considered illiterate. Both have books in the Bible bearing their names. But they had not graduated from the University of Jerusalem. Unlike the learned scholar ‘Saul of Tarsus’, they had not been “brought up at the feet of Gameliel.” And even ‘Saul of Tarsus’ had to be brought to realize that all of his orthodox credentials amounted to nothing more than a pile of “dung” as far as Christ was concerned:

Php 3:4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, [of] the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung , that I may win Christ,

That is the mind of Christ concerning orthodox credentials. So now, with that all in mind, let’s answer your question:

Isn’t accountable just another word for responsible? According to the dictionary and a Google search, they both have the same meaning. Would you please explain?

No, “the dictionary and a Google search” notwithstanding, ‘accountable’ is not just another word for responsible. As I have so often pointed out, the word ‘accountable’ is found numerous times in God’s Word, but the word responsible is never once found. Now here is why that is the case.

We are told in no uncertain terms that mankind has been shaped by God Himself and conceived by God Himself in iniquity and in sin:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Allowing God’s Word to interpret God’s Word, we find that Jeremiah agrees with King David concerning mankind’s estate:

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred [Hebrew: shaw-khath’ – ruined] in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Lest any confusion arise concerning this issue of responsibility versus accountability, God makes a special declaration:

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

“I the Lord do all these things… I make peace and create evil.” But aren’t evil men responsible for choosing to be evil men? Not if God’s word means more to you than orthodox Christian credentials:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Now ask yourself, who is responsible for “making evil and the wicked?” Is it me? Is it you? Here is what we are told in God’s Word:

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

If you cannot “understand your own way” because it is “of the Lord,” how can you possibly be held responsible for “your own way?” Every choice you make is according to this verse “of the Lord.” “Man’s goings are of the Lord.” If that is the case, how then can you or I be responsible for our “goings?” Is this actually speaking of our evil ways as well as our good and proper choices?

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?

Now how does this all play out in the real world? Here is what God’s Word tells us:

Rom 9:16 So then it [responsibility for our actions] is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

It is almost as if God has predestinated us all and is “working all things after the counsel of His own will,” and sure enough, that is exactly what He tells us He is doing:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

You will ask me, “How then can He possibly hold us accountable when He “causes us to err from His ways?” That is a fair question which Paul poses and answers:

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

There is much more that can be said on this subject. Joseph’s brothers are the best example in all of God’s Word where we are shown how the evil deeds of Joseph’s brothers were actually the working of God to get Joseph in the right position to take over the throne of Egypt at a time when the fate of all Egypt and Canaan was at stake. Joseph holds his brothers accountable for their actions and torments them with fear of losing their lives, but at the same time he tells them that they were not responsible for his being in Egypt, it was God who sent him there.

Read the paper After The Counsel of His Own Will for a much more comprehensive understanding of this subject.

I hope that you can now see clearly that despite what the dictionary or Google says, God’s word discriminates between the words accountability and responsibility.

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

Man cannot be held responsible for that over which he has no control, but if the Master Potter wishes, He can have man give an accounting for choices and decisions he is caused to make.

He has declared that in the end He will redeem all:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Mike