Dear Harley,
Glad you brought up Blessed Saint Irenaeus.
He says this from....
“Chapter XXXIX.—Man is endowed with the faculty of distinguishing good and evil; so that, without compulsion, he has the power, by his OWN WILL and CHOICE, to perform God’s commandments, by doing which he avoids the evils prepared for the rebellious.”
“”The light does never ENSLAVE any one by necessity; nor, again, does God exercise compulsion upon any one UNWILLING to accept the exercise of His skill. Those persons, therefore, who have apostatized from the light given by the Father, and transgressed the law of liberty, have done so through their OWN fault, since they have been created FREE agents, and possessed of power over themselves.””
Blessed Irenaeus would have branded Calvin a heretic by this statement alone.
Love does not force!
You’re hanging Calvin,and rightfully so, by using the early Chuech Fathers to try and support his un Christian views on free will.
Try praying for intercession of Blessed Saint Irenaues,rather than twisting what he really says..
I wish you peace of mind and a Blessed Evening!
1 Timothy 2:
[5] For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Please explain what Irenaeus meant by this:
"...there is none other called God by the Scriptures except the Father of all, and the Son , and those who possess the adoption."
Irenaeus