Last week I talked about how Augustine and those who follow his teachings just made things up when their theology didn’t match with scripture. How that Calvinist’s and those who follow Augustine’s teachings just made up the idea that Mary was somehow made sinlessly pure by a special grace from God to explain why Jesus was not also a sinner by nature. And even things like Satan being the fallen Lucifer when there is no Biblical support for this teaching.
Now I want to share what I believe motivates these people to do this. And in Augustine’s own words why he would once again reject the plain teaching of the Bible. After “trying to believe in free will” as he put it.
I can’t help but think that his own personal sins, and the fact that free will left him terrified by finding no excuse for them therein, caused him to reject the plain teaching of the Bible.
And as the proverb that says a dog returns to his vomit, he also returned to his. After finding the idea if free will repugnant he chose to go back to his former belief. Finding comfort in the depravity of man he had formerly come to believe as a Manechean gnostic.
Rejecting the plain teaching of Joshua24:14,15 where speaking for God Joshua told Israel, “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
And Rom.10:9,10 where Paul calls on you to “confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Now when Augustine was to become a bishop in the Roman Catholic church he was confronted with the truth that man has free will. And for a time he says he tried to believe it, as this was the predominate teaching in Roman Catholicism at the time. So even Roman Catholicism taught free will way back when. But, because of Augustine’s influence they no longer do. Agreeing with the gnostic that men have “limited free will” as the result of Adam’s sin.
So after a period of time dealing with the idea that he indeed had free will. And unable to justify his personal sins by free will because it made him responsible for his choices before God in every way. It so terrified him that he could be making these choices of his own free will that like the Jew Paul speaks of in Rom.6 whose old man needed to die, Augustine instead gave new life to his. He reverted back to what he believed before he was made aware of free will.
On a personal level regarding Augustine it was the knowledge that he could be a slave to his sexual appetites by his own choosing that frightened him. In his Confessions he wrote of this saying, “My will was the enemy master of, and thence had made a chain for me and bound me. Because of a perverse will was lust made; and lust indulged in became custom; and custom not resisted became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence I term it a chain), did a hard bondage hold me enthralled.”
So rather than realizing the desires he had were given to him by God to use for good. By keeping them in check by his own free will. And that their perversion was a choice he was freely making. He allowed his old man to excuse his free will.
Because it mortified him that it could be his own choosing, his own will he falsely came to believe was perverted by the fall so that it could do nothing but sin, that put him in his sexual prison. And there was no one and nothing else to blame for it.
So in this state of terror from which he discovered he could find no refuge in free will. He escaped back into his old man thinking he learned as a Manechean Gnostic. And it was from the old man he discovered a place of peace from the terror of free will.
What Augustine did here was not crucify his old man. Instead he gave him new life. This is what Paul was describing for the Jews in Rom.6. Saying to those who asked “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom.6:1,2. Adding that because of what water baptism symbolized for them they were now free from that old man saying, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Rom.6:6,7
By returning to his old man, whose death Paul said was symbolized by baptism, Augustine found that he could now explain his slavery to sin. And at the same time defer responsibility for it. By the fact that it was what was inherent in his flesh that was causing the problem. Because his old man, his old way of thinking, believed that the sin he could not stop doing was by inheritance and not by imitation by free will.
Then to try to give it some semblance of Biblical authority he began to search the scriptures for something, for anything, that would prove his choices were the by-product of something inherent. And not by choice, or imitation as he put it.
This is why he perverted Rom.5:12 saying, “By one man’s sin, says Paul, sin entered into the world, and death through sin. This indicates propagation, not imitation; for if imitation were meant, he would have said, “by the devil.” But as no one doubts, he refers to that first man who is called Adam.”
So here we see that his old man belief that the flesh is in and of itself evil, and that evil starts with the will, it was impossible to him that man has free will. But, only a will that is perverted by sin.
But, if he had believed Paul’s teaching in this verse he would have realized that it was death, and not sin, that Paul said passed to all men. And that it was because of this death that those men who sin do sin. Later confirming that many, and not all sin, in vs.17,19 saying, “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ… For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
So we see from this that it was from the Genesis account he found a way to blame his sins on inheritance rather than free will. So that it was because of Adam he had this “propensity to sin”.
Using this first as the excuse he needed to explain his slavery to his own sexual desires. Saying it is man’s inherent nature that caused his own personal slavery to sin. And then by extension every man’s propensity to sin.
And since this nature was by inheritance he could now reject the free will his Catholic mentors had taught him. So that from this time until the end of his life he would say, “I have tried hard to maintain the free choice of the human will, but the grace of God prevailed. Free choice of the will was present in that man who was first to be formed… But after he sinned by that free will, we who have descended from his progeny have been plunged into necessity.”
Sadly this became the foundation for all of his writings. Caused by his perverted view the scriptures. “Wresting them to his own destruction” as Peter says of those who pervert Paul’s teaching to support his belief in necessity. Rather than agreeing with them in support of free will.
Which is why he and his disciples would begin to butcher scriptures like Rom.7, Psalm51, Jeremiah17:9, and Isaiah53 and many others. Using them as proof of the notion that because man is a sinner by the nature inherent in his flesh it is impossible for him not to sin.
We see that Augustine used the scriptures to create the means by which he could make sense of his own personal sin. Rather than believing what the scriptures plainly say about sin generally and what its cause really is. That is, the same free will employed by Adam and Eve when they chose to sin. A free will free to choose right or wrong without any encumbrances.
Like Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police said, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” Augustine too made every man a criminal by inheritance. By having been conceived with a body that he believed was evil by nature.
And since every man is an inherently criminal Augustine started with his so called “proof” he had attained as a Manechean gnostic. And then proceeded with it to twist the evidence, the scriptures, to make it conform to those pre conceived beliefs. Rather than discovering the evidence that comes from the scriptures. And allowing it to form those beliefs.
This is what is known as eisegesis. Interpreting the scriptures by reading into them what one already believes is true. When if we are going to learn the truth we must choose to allow the Bible to inform us about its meaning. This is known as exegesis. So as good Bereans we want to exegete, not eisegete, the scriptures.
To Augustine then it became his truth that free will was only believed by those who are heretics like Pelagius, his greatest and most vocal detractor. Who in my last message I showed was in agreement with Augustine about original sin. But, because he disagreed with Augustine’s gnostic inherent sin nature heresy would become the target of Augustine’s wrath.
When in fact the scripture teaches us that it is just the opposite. Paul telling the Jew in Rom.6:14 that sin no longer has dominion over him because in Christ he is not under the law, but under grace.
Making heresy and delusion of Augustine’s necessity. And Calvin’s total depravity. And their belief in continued slavery to sin for the believer in Jesus.
Because the scriptures say plainly that men are only slaves to sin when they are under the law. Rom.7:1-6, 1Cor.15:56. So that slavery to sin has nothing to do with the nature of man’s flesh. But, only with man’s relationship with the law.
If Augustine had taken the time to find this truth in the writings of the apostle Paul he would never have needed to flee in terror from free will. And neither do we need to fear free will.
We would find that because God has given us free will we have the blessing of being able to approach His throne with boldness. As Paul says in Heb.4:16. Because we would know that His grace is His love in action. Rather than the sin nature perversion that defines grace as “unmerited favor”. Born of necessity’s incessant focus upon works.
God’s love in action that is the grace that sent Jesus to join with us in our mortality and death. So that we can choose of our own free will to receive the gift of faith by which the gift of God’s love to have eternal life and immortality is received according to Eph.2:8,9.
To receive this gift Paul said in Rom.10:9,10 that we must confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead.
If you will do this then you will be made a child of God and heir to His kingdom. If you will do this then you will have eternal life now. And immortality at they resurrection. If you will do this… then I will see you there or in the air!
