WHAT COMPELS CHURCHES TO TEACH ORIGINAL SIN TO THE SOMETIMES VIOLENT PROHIBITION OF ANY DISCUSSION TO THE CONTRARY

Even the discussion about what is sound doctrine.

What sacred cow is verboten to speak ill of in all the churches? Is it the rapture issue? No. Because having a difference of opinion about that is acceptable. What about baptism? No. Because differences here are also regarded as an in house debate.

There is one issue and one issue only that is defended by all the church denominations equally. That is the doctrine of original sin. A doctrine that has it's genesis not in the Bible. But, in the machinations and writings of the doctor of theology for the Roman Catholic Church, Augustine of Hippo.

In 418 AD a council was called at Carthage to condemn Pelagius who represented the view that free will plays a very important role in our access to salvation. Where Augustine rejected the notion that free will played any role at all because he believed that man lost free will when Adam sinned.

In this he read his gnostic paganism into the scriptures that would explain when and how the material world became evil as he believed it was.

This was necessary for him because in his gnosticism he understood the material world to be evil. While only the spiritual is good.

Pelagius is known for promoting a system of doctrines which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius was accused of heresy at the synod of Jerusalem in 415AD. And his doctrines were criticized by Augustine of Hippo, especially the Pelagian views about humankind's neutral nature and individual responsibility for choosing. Pelagius especially stressed the freedom of human will.

Not surprisingly, very little is known about the personal life and career of Pelagius, since Pelagius rejected the doctrine of original sin. Roman Catholicism is known for her draconian measures towards those who disagree with her. For centuries she hunted down and killed those who dared. Destroying their writings and murdering them and those who followed them. And Pelagius was not immune to her methods.

In contrast to Pelagius because of his Manechaean roots Augustine wrote, "free choice of the will was present in that man who was the first to be formed. But, after he sinned by that free will, we who have descended from his progeny have been plunged into necessity. By the greatness of the first sin we have lost the free will to love God. By subverting the rectitude in which he was created, he is followed with the punishment of not being able to do right. The freedom to abstain from sin has been lost as a punishment of sin."

Now this means that churches that teach the doctrine of original sin which denies free will are doing so based upon the foundational doctrines of Roman Catholicism. A church that so called protestants claim to have separated themselves from based on her false doctrines.

So contrary to the notion that protestant churches have separated themselves from her. They in fact are nothing more than daughters of their mother the harlot Roman Catholic Church. By way of clinging to her most fundamental dogmas. This is why they too refer to themselves as churches. And not the assembly as the Biblical word eklesia defines God's people.

Manichaeism stressed that the spirit was God-created and therefore good. While material substance was corrupt and evil. Theologian Gerald Bonner felt that part of Pelagius' analysis was an over-reaction to Manicheanism. Pelagius held that everything created by God was good. Therefore, God did not make humans fallen creatures.

Augustine's teaching on the fall of Adam was not a settled doctrine at the time the Augustinian/Pelagian dispute began.

And among those of us who believe what the Bible plainly says it will never be a settled issue. Except to say it is a false doctrine that either makes Jesus a sinner by nature because Heb.2:14 says His flesh was the same as all mankind's. Or it denies that Jesus was fully human.

The Pelagians accused Augustine of bringing Manichaean theology into the Christian church. Which Augustine himself being the liar that he was denied. A study of how Augustine arrived at his conclusions will prove conclusively that Pelagius was absolutely right in saying this.

Because Augustine's conclusions are based on the Manechaean belief that spirit is Godly and anything material is corrupt and evil. So Augustine's assumption that Adam was spirit when God made him. And lost his spirituality after he sinned. Was how he determined man's need for salvation was based upon his being evil by nature. And that this new nature Adam had was passed to his progeny through procreation.

All those who sided with Augustine are guilty of this as well. Not surprisingly many of those cited as authoritative in Biblical instruction were and are his students. Men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jerome, Orosius, and others.

This is anathema to the gnostic manechaeanism from which Augustine derived his understanding of the Bible. The same gnostic beliefs adopted by Roman Catholicism when they adopted Augustine as their doctor of theology.

According to the scholar Rebecca Weaver, "what most distinguished Pelagius was his conviction of an unrestricted freedom of choice, given by God and immune to alteration by sin or circumstance." A conclusion clearly seen in Joshua's plea for Israel to "choose this day who they will serve" in Joshua24:15.

In 1956, John Ferguson wrote:

"If a heretic is one who emphasizes one truth to the exclusion of others, it would at any rate appear that [Pelagius] was no more a heretic than Augustine. His fault was in exaggerated emphasis, but in the final form his philosophy took, after necessary and proper modifications as a result of criticism, it is not certain that any statement of his is totally irreconcilable with the Christian faith or indefensible in terms of the New Testament. It is by no means so clear that the same may be said of Augustine."

So whatever else Pelagius' beliefs may have been. His beliefs about free will were absolutely Biblical. And Augustine's, whose teachings have been adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and her daughters the evangelicals and protestants, are not. Augustine's teachings are as unBiblical as any that have ever been brought to the assembly of God's called out ones.

Interpreting the Bible through the lens of his Manechaean training. And concluding with the unBiblical belief that man has no free will. And is subject to necessity. Known today as a sin nature. So that he can not choose to do good apart from the grace of God.

The prime indictment for which comes from no less than Paul's teaching in Rom.2:14 that says, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves".

The question we must derive from this verse is how can anyone do by nature the things contained in the law if all men are controlled by a sin nature? A nature that can not do good? Answer: it can't.

Which is why we know that to believe Augustine, Roman Catholicism, and her daughters the evangelical protestants, is to reject the plain teaching of the apostles and prophets. And Jesus Himself.

And if after examining ourselves we find ourselves rejecting these teachings from the Bible we discover we are the reprobate Paul says we are in 2Cor.13:5. Reprobates who need to repent and turn to faith in the true and living God. By trusting in His word rather than man's. Thus coming to know Him and His salvation.

Repent therefore and do the first works. What works? Believe in the one whom He has sent as Jesus said in John6:29. Leaving behind the false teachings of the churches. And trust in and cling to the truth from God's word as it is proclaimed by the prophets and apostles. Of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.

Was Pelagius right about everything? No. He was wrong about man being created a spiritual being. Genesis tells us that man was made a living soul. Not a living spirit. And this mistake took Pelagius down a wrong path that leads to all sorts of distortions of the word of God.

But, he was right that all men have free will that is unencumbered by sin or circumstance. And that it is by free will that men access the gift of faith by which they receive the gift of eternal life.

So as Joshua once said, choose this day who you will serve. Will you have life or will you have death? The choice is yours. If you will confess that Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead. You will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

If you will do this then you will have eternal life. If you will do this you will be given a spirit that you never had before. Made a living spirit. A child of God and therefore an heir to His kingdom. Do this.... and I will see you there or in the air!

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