By Edward O’Hara,

I’ve been accused of this almost more times than I can count. By people that believe themselves to be competent in their knowledge of what Pelagius believed, so they should know better. Just because I believe that men have a free will that is unencumbered by a sin nature.

Think about that. These “scholars” actually think it’s possible that all men are born with a sin nature they inherited from Adam. So that all their choices are governed by that nature. Making it impossible for men not to sin. While at the same time also believing that all men have free will. 2 beliefs that are mutually exclusive as I will show in this message.

Pelagius saw the problem with this and taught that men have free will and are therefore participants in salvation. With the choice belonging to each person as they hear the gospel to accept it or not. So far so good I say.

His antagonist Augustine however taught that men are creatures of necessity, or sin nature, as a consequence of Adam’s having become a sinner by nature when he sinned, and therefore have no free will. And because of this free will has no role in salvation. So that all men are completely dependent on God’s grace to be saved.

This may sound good to you on the surface. But, think about it. If our being saved solely depends on God with our choosing having no part in it. It must also follow that the reason the scripture says that most do not find salvation is because God only gives this grace to be saved to a few. And the rest must go to hell because that’s the way God intended it to be.

But, this flies in the face of John3:16; 2Peter3:9; and Joshua24:15. Which all conclude that God loves all humanity and it’s His will that none perish. And that it is our choice that determines whether we receive His gift of eternal life or not.

So many have heard the messages that I share here and come to the wrong conclusion that I am in complete agreement with Pelagius. When in reality most who say they oppose him are as much in agreement with Pelagius’ teachings as I am. So they are half right… sort of. Let me explain.

In claiming disagreement with him, what is actually going on is that they really do not know what Pelagius believed and taught. Nor do they know the real differences between what Pelagius believed and what Augustine believed.

And that is what we are going to look at today. Because knowing the real differences, as well as the similarities in their beliefs, will help people discover that both were wrong. And seeing this will set them on a path to real freedom from sin through deliverance from this false teaching. Liberty in Christ that comes from knowing the truth about God, and about Jesus, and about the atonement.

The truth is that both Pelagius and Augustine agreed that men are born with the stain of Adam’s sin. Which is the crux of the doctrine of original sin. And that to be cleansed from that stain of Adam’s original sin baptism as soon as possible, preferably as babies, is required to avoid going to hell.

Now you can see why men like John Calvin taught that there are babies in hell. Because he too believed in the doctrine of original sin as Augustine taught it.

So as I said in my opening statement, these men are in agreement in ways most of these people do not understand. So this was not the issue, that just one year after Pelagius wrote his letter seeking to pope Innocent1, in an effort to convince him that he was not a heretic, caused the RCC to deem Pelagius to be a heretic at the council at Carthage.

And to be clear the scripture differs with both Pelagius and Augustine. As well as the churches spawned by their teachings. Because there is no scripture that teaches that Adam’s original sin was passed down or imputed to anyone. Not even the man Adam who committed the original sin in the garden.

Paul says this plainly in Rom.5 after speaking in vs.12 about Adam and others who sinned before Moses. Saying that they still died even though neither theirs nor Adam’s sin was imputed to them by God.

How really smart people like Augustine and Pelagius missed this is a mystery that can only be solved when we believe the plain language of scripture. As Rom.5:12-14 attests saying in vs.13 that sin was not imputed to anyone before Moses because there was no law.

Augustine’s and Pelagius’ doctrine both depend on the imputation of Adam’s sin. Both to himself. And to the rest of mankind. and this because there was law in the garden. But, clearly here Paul says it was not imputed to anyone because before Moses there was no law.

So who are you going to believe? The apostle Paul? Or these Johnny come lately’s that disagree with the apostles?

And we also see in passages like Ez.18:20 that even under the law the son does not bear the iniquity of his father. Meaning the son is not punished for his father’s sins. Showing that the passing on of sin from father to child as is described in Augustine’s doctrine of necessity is not Biblical. Just as it is not Biblical that the son is punished for his father’s sin.

But, the centerpiece of what both of these men taught is that sin is passed from parent to child. So that those who believe Augustine, while claiming not to believe Pelagius, are actually in agreement on this with both men. And in agreeing with them they find themselves in strong disagreement with the plain teaching of the Bible.

It is the aspect of free will that they and those who adhere to their teachings are in disagreement over. One side saying men have free will just as Adam did when God made him. While the other says men do not have free will as a consequence of the imputation of Adam’s sin.

So that since Adam left the garden men are completely ruled by necessity. Or what many know today as the sin nature. Which means that because men’s choices are now governed by necessity, ie the sin nature, it is impossible for men not to sin. So that a special grace is required to be given to a man by God to circumvent his lack of free will for him to be saved.

Augustine taught that the man who receives this special grace to be saved still has no free will even as a saved person. And therefore will always be subject to his sin nature. So that he must sin continually. Even if he does not want to.

But, Pelagius said in his letter to pope Innocent1, in defense of his belief in man’s God given free will,

“And then who is so impious as to wish to exclude infants from the kingdom of heaven, by forbidding them to be baptized and to be born again in Christ? Christ quite clearly says: “Whosoever is not born again of water and the Spirit cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven”. Who indeed is so impious as to have the heart to refuse the common redemption of the human race to an infant of any age whatever? Can any one forbid a second birth to an eternal and certain life, to him who has been born to this present uncertain life?

See how this epistle will clear me before your Blessedness; for in it we clearly and simply declare, that we possess a free will which is unimpaired for sinning and for not sinning; and this free will is in all good works always assisted by divine help.

Now this power of free will we declare to reside generally in all alike–in Christians, in Jews, and in Gentiles. In all men free will exists equally by nature, but in Christians alone is it assisted by grace. In the one, the good of their created condition is naked and defenceless; in these, however, who belong to Christ, there is defence afforded by Christ’s help.”

See the similarities in their views in this letter? How that each believed in a special grace given by God that is needed for men to be cleansed from the stain of Adam’s sin for salvation. But, that to Pelagius free will accessed this grace that he believed is given to every man. While to Augustine it was God’s predestination that accomplished this.

Even saying that babies go to hell that are not baptized to remove the stain of Adam’s sin. A more egregious statement can not be made against the fact that God is love. And the love God has for all humanity that brought Jesus to join with us in our mortality.

So we see the problem Augustine had with Pelagius’ doctrine. Augustine believed that necessity, ie sin nature, governed men’s choices so that it is impossible for men not to sin. Being wholly impaired by nature so that he could do nothing but sin.

While Pelagius said men are not impaired by a sin nature as Augustine believed, so that a sin nature does not govern his choices. But, that men possess the free will to choose to sin or not to sin. And with God’s grace made available to him by the preaching of the gospel is able also to freely choose to believe or not to believe.

So on which side of this argument do you stand? Are we to believe Pelagius? Or Augustine? The majority that I have conversed with who after hearing my beliefs make the claim that I am a Pelagian. And others I have heard preach, say that men have both free will and a sin nature. The latter I refer to as having a soup sandwich theology.

But, now that you have seen the meaning of sin nature, or necessity, as it was presented by Augustine, do you still think that it is possible for our choices to be governed by a sin nature so that it is impossible not to sin? And to have the free will not to sin, at the same time? This is the conundrum in which people find themselves who believe in both free will and sin nature.

Can you see how these are mutually exclusive one to the other? And how Calvinism’s claim of man’s total depravity that comes from his adherence to Augustine’s teaching on necessity creates the problem that God only has love for the few? While hating the many? Having predestinated the few for heaven and the many for hell.

When to the contrary the Bible says it is not God’s will that any should perish. Because God is love. And has shown His love for the whole of mankind by sending Jesus.

The fact that free will and necessity, or sin nature, can not coexist in our thinking because one cancels out the other. Because one can not both be free to choose unencumbered by necessity, and not free to choose being encumbered by necessity, at the same time. Presents us with an imperative that we make a choice to believe one or the other.

And if you believe in free will as Pelagius taught then to be consistent with him the choice to believe in original sin must be made as well. Because even with free will to choose to believe or not to believe the gospel. If one believes in original sin we are still faced with babies going to hell without ever making a choice to believe or not believe. Again, a most egregious attack on God’s character which is love.

This is the problem with Pelagius’ argument. Because he must now face the problem of how a loving God who gave all men free will so we could actively participate in our salvation. Can also send babies to hell without any participation by their free will in their eternal destiny. And what would be the point of creating them if this were to be their predetermined end.

Such is the corner the man paints himself in that believes in both free will and original sin. At once having the belief in a God who loves His creation so much that He gave them free will to respond with love for His love.

And at the same time a God who hates His creation so much that it would end up in hell without ever having the opportunity to use his God given free will to participate in such a decision.

This is why believing as either Augustine or Pelagius did places us in a different gospel. And is why we need to take a fresh look at the gospel message presented by the apostles. By believing what they plainly said. Without the encumbrance of either Augustine’s or Pelagius’ wrong conclusions.

Seeing that our need for a savior did not begin when Adam ate the fruit. But, that this need was there since the day man was created because he was made natural and not spiritual from the beginning.

This done so that through the process of God’s use of different dispensations. Where the only time sin was imputed by God was when Israel was under the law. The opportunity for men to become spiritual beings would culminate in the New Covenant that God Himself would make possible.

A covenant wherein it has now become incumbent upon all men that they turn from their idols to serve the living and true God. Because as Paul said in Acts17:29,30- “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent”.

Because by Jesus joining with man in his mortality. And joining with man in our death by going to the cross. And then conquering that mortality by a resurrection that God alone was able to accomplish. Repentance in turning to Christ Jesus is the only way to be saved.

Making the matter of going to heaven to be based solely upon man’s choice to trust in Jesus when he hears the gospel. And having nothing to do with the lies about works and imputed and inherent sin of them propagated by original sin and the sin nature doctrine Augustine and Pelagius falsely taught.

So to answer the question am I a Pelagian I hope I have shown conclusively that I am not. Because to agree with Pelagius I must not only believe men have free will unencumbered by necessity. Which I most certainly do. I must also believe the false doctrine of original sin. That all men are born with the stain from Adam’s sin that can only be cleansed by baptism. Which I most certainly do not.

Now knowing from whence these false belief systems come. And that you do indeed have the free will to choose to believe God or not. Unencumbered by a necessity or a sin nature that keeps you from being able to choose. And that there is no stain of Adam’s sin from which you need to be cleansed in baptism. What will you do with Jesus?

It’s on you now. Because on account of His love for you, God has done all that was needed for you to be saved. He loved you first. He loved you before you knew anything about Him. Will you receive His love? Will you choose of your own free will to say yes to this gospel message? A response to God’s love that will join you to Him for eternity.

One that will make you His child by Him creating a spirit in you that was never there before. This is what happens when you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And when you believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead. When you do this you are saved.

Do this and you will have eternal life now. Do this and you will be made immortal at the resurrection. Do this and heaven will be your eternal home. A place where we are immersed in God’s love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!