| In a previous Article I wrote entitled THE MEANING OF ELECT - now a chapter in the book So you think you're chosen? - I made
mention that "There is no record of a teaching of 'predestination of
individuals' in the early church until Augustine came along. So for at least 300
years any such notion was not taught." The context of this remark was that
anyone 'specially picked' or 'chosen out from others' was not a concept familiar
to the first century christian. This helps to define the predestination
discussed as unconditional predestination: a choosing by God in no way initially
influenced by the chosen one, but in being prior to the existence of that
person. This is what I mention as foreign prior to Augustine (395-430). Which is
more like 400 years of the Church without such a doctrine.
In response to this Article, I received a letter from a believer of
unconditional predestination which stated: 'Until Augustine, nobody doubted the
calvinistic view he propounded, so it was not until it was questioned did he
have to write it down in detail, just as all the great creeds have been written
down in defence of the faith when various heretics have come along thinking they
know better.' I understand the strong feeling this Christian brother has in
defending what he believes. It is sad however since to me this seems more out of
a desire to believe it than out of a reading of the evidence, and the aim of
this leaflet is to share some of the clear pointers that the early church did
not have unconditional predestination as a creed.
I will be honest with you that I have not read all the early church fathers'
writings but I am here relying upon compilers of the history of their thinking
who have read them and quote liberally from them. Due to the size of this
present document I will just submit their conclusions:
In harmony with the foregoing views as to human
freedom and responsibility, conditional predestination is the doctrine
inculcated by the Greek Fathers.
HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE page
165 by George Park Fisher DD LLD. T&T Clark(1). (italics mine)
Inculcated means it was the teaching urged or impressed persistently by the
early Church Fathers. Conditional means in God's desire for you, if you work
with Him it will happen; if you don't want Him, it cannot happen. Which, of
course, is true due to His Self control (Galatians 5:23). Immediately preceding
this statement, but after his various quotes from the Early Church Fathers, Dr.
Fisher states:
...the renewal of the soul is made to be the result
of the factors, divine grace and the exertion of man's free-will. As a rule, the
exertion of free-will, human efforts in a right direction, precede the divine
aid, and render men worthy of it. It is a doctrine of synergism. God and man
cooperate.
(also page 165)(1)
Indeed reading Henry Chadwick's THE EARLY CHURCH (page 38) the index
points the first idea of unconditional predestination as appearing from the
gnostic sect, not an orthodox body of believers:
...the Gnostics [placed]...the natural order at so
vast a distance in moral value from the supreme God. The influence of fatalistic
ideas drawn from popular astrology and magic became fused with notions derived
from Pauline language about predestination to produce a rigidly deterministic
scheme. Redemption was from destiny, not from the consequences of responsible
action, and was granted to a pre-determined elect in whom alone was the divine
spark.(2)
In fact, when the teaching of Augustine on these things came into the hands
of one of his contemporaries, Vincent of Lérins, he expressed it as:
...a most disturbing innovation, quite out of line
with 'orthodoxy' which Vincent defined as that body of belief which is held
undeviatingly by the universal church.
Chadwick Page 233(2)
Another contemporary, Julian bishop of Eclanum, expressed that Augustine was
causing trouble because he 'brought his Manichee ways of
thinking into the church... and was denying St Paul's clear teaching that God
wills all men to be saved'(2) (Chadwick page 232-3 &
1 Timothy 2:4). The Manichees were a cult Augustine originally belonged to which
advocated that:
...the nature of man can be corrupt to the point that
his will is powerless to obey God's commands.
Chadwick page 228(2)
This continuing tenet of Augustine theology is an indispensible part of his
unconditional predestination thinking, but it is in open defiance to prior
teaching in the church concerning man's free-will. Roger T Forster and Paul V
Marston in GOD'S STRATEGY IN HUMAN HISTORY quote directly from the
following Early Church Fathers(3): |
