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Pelagianism: The Religion of Natural Man
Modern Reformation ^ | 1994 | Michael Horton

Posted on 09/30/2005 2:39:10 AM PDT by Gamecock

Cicero observed of his own civilization that people thank the gods for their material prosperity, but never for their virtue, for this is their own doing. Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield considered Pelagianism "the rehabilitation of that heathen view of the world," and concluded with characteristic clarity, "There are fundamentally only two doctrines of salvation: that salvation is from God, and that salvation is from ourselves. The former is the doctrine of common Christianity; the latter is the doctrine of universal heathenism." /cut/

In his Commentary on Romans, Pelagius thought of grace as God's revelation in the Old and New Testaments, which enlightens us and serves to promote our holiness by providing explicit instruction in godliness and many worthy examples to imitate. So human nature is not conceived in sin. After all, the will is not bound by the sinful condition and its affections; choices determine whether one will obey God, and thus be saved. /cut/

According to Finney, Christ could not have fulfilled the obedience we owed to God, since it would not be rational that one man could atone for the sins of anyone besides himself. Furthermore, "If he obeyed the law as our substitute, then why should our own return to personal obedience be insisted upon as the sine qua non of our salvation?" /cut/

The fact that recent polls indicate that 77% of the evangelicals today believe that human beings are basically good and 84% of these conservative Protestants believe that in salvation "God helps those who help themselves" demonstrates incontrovertibly that contemporary Christianity is in a serious crisis. No longer can conservative, "Bible-believing" evangelicals smugly hurl insults at mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics for doctrinal treason.

(Excerpt) Read more at modernreformation.org ...


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: finney; pelagianism
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To: P-Marlowe

Come on P-M, you know that site is only valid for non-Calvinist critiques. Any Calvinist critique was probably caused by a hacker or tongue-in-cheek humor.


21 posted on 09/30/2005 7:49:30 AM PDT by blue-duncan
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To: sheltonmac; Gamecock
I don't know which is scarier: Finney's doctrine or his picture.

Gamecock, thanks for posting the picture! Months ago, I was looking for "the one where laser beams shot out of his eyes." This is the picture I was trying to find.

And sheltonmac, I've read Finney's Revivals of Religion. You don't know the half of it.

22 posted on 09/30/2005 9:41:52 AM PDT by Alex Murphy (Psalm 73)
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To: xzins
To spend that much space defending a heretic is pathetic.

It's like you think you've found something to like about the guy that 1,600 years of scholars have over-looked.

AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS

"Humanism, in all its subtle forms, recapitulates the unvarnished Pelagianism against which Augustine struggled. Though Pelagius was condemned as a heretic by Rome, and its modified form, Semi-Pelagianism was likewise condemned by the Council of Orange in 529, the basic assumptions of this view persisted throughout church history to reappear in Medieval Catholicism, Renaissance Humanism, Socinianism, Arminianism, and modern Liberalism. The seminal thought of Pelagius survives today not as a trace or tangential influence but is pervasive in the modern church. Indeed, the modern church is held captive by it..."

I think you underestimate the desire of men to rule themselves. To deny original sin and its profound effects on the human race denies the very words of Scripture and makes into a quaint fable the actions of Adam and Eve, not to mention the predestining will of a sovereign Creator.

Pelagius got a bad rap for a very good reason. And to try to rehabilitate him is disingenuous. But you'll be the darling of the unitarians who idolize him.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; and a heretic is just a heretic.

23 posted on 09/30/2005 10:24:20 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray)
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To: Kolokotronis; Gamecock; HarleyD; Alex Murphy; rdb3; sheltonmac

Bump to 23. The effort to rehabilitate a heretic like Pelagius is sad.

Same as it ever was. It's all about me and I'm as good as a wanna be.


24 posted on 09/30/2005 10:31:11 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray)
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To: HarleyD

Thanks for the ping. It is clear that I will have to do more reading on this subject. I know just enough to be dangerous! It is a fine line, when I read about some of the distinctions.

Brother in Christ


25 posted on 09/30/2005 10:32:29 AM PDT by jo kus
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

I read a statement from Augustine the other day to the effect that Mary was the Spouse of God.

What do you make of that?


26 posted on 09/30/2005 10:33:09 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: Kolokotronis
Pelagianism, let alone Semi-Pelagianism, was never much of an issue in Eastern Christianity, perhaps because we have a rather non-Augustinian view of the Fall and its consequences.

Could you explain the Eastern Orthodox view on this subject, just a sentence or two, on the concept of the Fall/original sin. I realize they are different, but never researched the difference. I promise I will just listen and not irritate!

Brother in Christ

27 posted on 09/30/2005 10:36:30 AM PDT by jo kus
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To: Kolokotronis; xzins; Gamecock; HarleyD; Alex Murphy; rdb3; sheltonmac
From the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fairbanks...

GOD IS ONE - SERMON

"Unitarian history differs from that of most denominations. If you want to know the history of Methodism you begin with John Wesley. George Fox founded the Quakers, John Calvin the Presbyterians, Joseph Smith the Mormons. The Unitarians, though, do not begin with any one person. The movement goes back to the earliest days of Christianity. Unitarian ideas can be traced back to Jesus or Socrates, Arius and Pelagius. In Europe all through the middle ages we find groups struggling toward Unitarianism. The movement became organized in the middle 1500's and such names as Michael Servetus, Sebastian Castellio, Faustus and Laelius Socinus, Francis David, and King John Sigismund are prominent..."

28 posted on 09/30/2005 10:44:13 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray)
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To: xzins
LOL. That's probably good fodder for another thread. This one is about the heresy of the denial of Original Sin.

Do you deny Original Sin like Pelagius did and follow the humanistic, liberal path he encouraged?

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." -- Eph. 2:1

29 posted on 09/30/2005 10:49:40 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

The issue is not about Pelagianism; the issue is whether Pelagius is wrongly accused of the doctrines attributed to his name.

But, that's OK. It's only a historical question.


30 posted on 09/30/2005 10:54:53 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: P-Marlowe; Gamecock

And I see where Sproul has endorsed some of Horton's books. Doesn't surprise me since both are clearly hyper-Calvinists.


31 posted on 09/30/2005 11:49:35 AM PDT by connectthedots
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To: P-Marlowe

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6


32 posted on 09/30/2005 12:12:41 PM PDT by Gamecock ("My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6)
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To: jo kus

How is this from +Maximos the Confessor:

"Man failed in achieving the purpose of his creation; he failed to achieve his destiny, his theosis. He tried to become a 'god without God.' This is his sin; this is the cause of his fall."

In some more detail, this from His Eminence Met. Maximos of Pittsburg:

"Unlike St. Augustine's doctrine of "original justice," which attributes to the first man several excessive perfections, perfect knowledge of God and God's creation, for example, that make the fall impossible, the doctrine of the Greek Fathers of the image of God in man as a potential to be actualized, allows the possibility of a deterioration, as well. St. Irenaeos speaks of the first man (Adam) as an infant (nepios), who had to grow up to adulthood. Instead, man failed himself, by not "passing the test" of maturity given to him by God.

In spite of God's prohibition, man chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis). Being "good by nature" man had to also become "good by choice." Unfortunately, it did not happen that way. Following the "snake's" advice (the devil's, that is), man also tried to do what the fallen angels did: to "become a god without God." Man's imperfection and innocence, or, better, naiveté, and his relative pride, cultivated by the "accuser," became the cause of man's fall from God's communion, due to his disobedience and rejection of God. Man put his purpose in himself, instead of putting it in God. Man's free will is responsible for his own decline.

The consequences of this revolt against God, which the West calls "original" and the East "ancestral" (propatorikon) sin, are that man lost his original innocence; the image of God in him was tarnished, and even became distorted; man's reason was obscured, his will weakened, the desires and passions of the flesh grew wild; man suffered separation from God, the author and source of life. He put himself in an inauthentic kind of existence, close to death. The Fathers speak of "spiritual death" which is the cause of the physical one, and which may lead to the "eschatological," eternal death: for "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6: 23).


33 posted on 09/30/2005 2:46:04 PM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Kolokotronis

The West teaches much of what you said.

Your quote from Maximos of Pittsburg probably is one case in point where the West, at least some, disagree. I believe Augustine and Aquinas taught (but it is not De fide) that Adam, before he sinned, was in a state of elevated nature, possessing sanctifying grace. Of course, it probably is somewhat speculative to determine what that meant, but I think the purpose was to show what WE will return to and what Christ sacrificed Himself for - a return of man to his original 'state'. There certainly seems to be some reasonable statements in his quote on "excess", but whose to say? Satan himself also rejected God, and we must admit that he was a graced being before his fall.

On original sin, I know this is De fide "Adam's sin is transmitted to his posterity, not by imitation, but by descent". He didn't lose sanctifying grace for himself alone. Does the East also believe this, although not De fide?

Thanks for the info regarding the Eastern faith.

Brother in Christ


34 posted on 09/30/2005 5:56:39 PM PDT by jo kus
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To: Gamecock
This is a great article. Thank you for posting it. I believe it was RC Sproul who referred to the "Pelagian captivity of the church" (in parallel to the Babylonian captivity of Israel) as a description of the present state of evangelicalism. I would have to say I agree with him on that point because I encounter Christians all of the time who do not believe man is really so corrupt as to need the Grace of God to believe.

Again, thank you for posting this. I do like to read articles from Horton.

35 posted on 09/30/2005 6:47:09 PM PDT by solafiducia (Take my heart and conform it to Thine, O Lord)
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To: jo kus
"I believe Augustine and Aquinas taught (but it is not De fide) that Adam, before he sinned, was in a state of elevated nature, possessing sanctifying grace. Of course, it probably is somewhat speculative to determine what that meant, but I think the purpose was to show what WE will return to and what Christ sacrificed Himself for - a return of man to his original 'state'."

+John of Damascus said that man was indeed created with sanctifying grace, but even at that he was not created "in" union with God, that is to say in a state of theosis, but rather "for" union with God and thus in a state of potential theosis, The Eastern Fathers taught that by rejecting God through disobedience, or perhaps better put, to become divinized but without God, Adam corrupted our natures such that we no longer possessed that potential for theosis which was our pre-Fall state. The Incarnation restored that potential to us. Interestingly, the Fathers also wrote and taught that man, while created a little less than the angels, had the potential to become, from creation, greater than the angels and in so doing, in attaining theosis, man would also divinize the created world around him. Since the perfection of the created world depended on the theosis of man, the Fall also distorted the created world around him, the divinization potential of which was likewise restored by the Incarnation. St. Symeon the New Theologian states explicitly that not only Paradise was incorrupt before the Fall: everything, the whole creation, was without death and corruption. Because he possessed both body and soul, man was the link between this incorrupt material world and the noetic world of the angels. As such, he was to unite the material world with the noetic world through his own ascent to God. St. Macarius the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Sinai, St Gregory Palamas and St. Maximos the Confessor all taught essentially the same thing, with +Gregory Palamas and +Symeon the New Theologian being, for me, the stand outs here.

"On original sin, I know this is De fide "Adam's sin is transmitted to his posterity, not by imitation, but by descent". He didn't lose sanctifying grace for himself alone. Does the East also believe this, although not De fide?"

No, but human nature, so to speak, became distorted by his sin. In other words, its rather like we have an inherited, spiritually defective DNA, but we inherit neither his sin nor the guilt for it.
36 posted on 09/30/2005 7:39:47 PM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: solafiducia
You are welcome. The first time I ever heard of Horton was two years ago when my pastor gave me the assignment to read the book Putting the Amazing Back Into Grace.

It was fabulous. A year ago I started subscribing to Modern Reformation and listening to the White Horse Inn.

I really like Horton and Company. They do a great job of putting forth the "So What" of the Calvinist world view. After listening and reading Sproul for years (which I still do) the Modern Reformation crowd helps with the practical matters.

Two months ago Horton had Sproul on his show. I made the mistake of listening while driving 90mph on the Autobahn. I laughed so hard I almost ran off the road. They were both hysterical.

37 posted on 09/30/2005 11:11:09 PM PDT by Gamecock ("My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6)
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To: Gamecock
"Two months ago Horton had Sproul on his show. I made the mistake of listening while driving 90mph on the Autobahn. I laughed so hard I almost ran off the road. They were both hysterical."

I have always wanted to drive on the Autobahn. Are you still in Germany now? I am assuming you were listening on satellite radio? I heard a 'prank call' by White Horse Inn once on the Internet. They called Billy Graham and he misheard and thought it was the 'White House Inn' and when they said no it was the White HORSE Inn he said he was sorry and he had to leave. I think it was probably an impersonation, but it was still very funny.

38 posted on 10/01/2005 5:51:04 AM PDT by solafiducia (Take my heart and conform it to Thine, O Lord)
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To: blue-duncan; P-Marlowe
If you don't believe in baptismal regeneration you have to be a filthy dispensational baptist.
39 posted on 10/01/2005 8:24:08 AM PDT by Ringthembells
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To: solafiducia
I'm currently assigned to an Army unit in Germany. The Autobahn is quite cool. I cruise in the family truckster (a 2004 Chrysler Minivan) at 80-85, in my BMW I will creep up on 110 at times. I got a great deal on a '94 BMW 730i with only 120,000KM. Got it for less than $4,000. Just couldn't pass that up.

Anyway, I listen to the WHI on CD. I need to listen to them an Sproul just to keep my sanity.
40 posted on 10/01/2005 11:56:53 AM PDT by Gamecock ("My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6)
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