Pelagianism

Pelagianism – your heresy of the week.

What were people thinking about in 350 A.D.?

About 1700 years ago, people everywhere were finally getting used to the fact that only a few pastors were still debating the Trinity. Unfortunately, so much thought had been put into figuring out how to illustrate God’s triune nature without always falling back on the egg cliché that the significant doctrines of soteriology and christology were getting kind of fuzzy.

Meanwhile, the Doctor of Grace (a.k.a St. Augustine of Hippo) was basically doing some serious work in Northern Africa. The Doctor was rediscovering the majesty of the doctrine of grace and taking a fresh approach to the interpretation of the scripture. All was well in the world of the post-Nicene fathers. All was well that is, until Pelagius showed up.

Pelagius was a bad dude, but ironically he thought he was good (huh?). This “Brit” was an ascetic monk. He believed that with enough self discipline and restraint he would someday be able to be perfect and earn favor with God. Although that lifestyle is weird and quite honestly unproductive, it alone would probably not have been enough to smear his name through the dirt for 17 centuries. The reason his name has been thoroughly smeared was the theological system that he invented.

Theology

Pelagianism mainly pertains to original sin and denies a few essentials to our faith….

·        Pelagianism denies original sin

·        Pelagianism claims that man’s will is capable of doing good because…

·        Pelagianism teaches that there is good and evil in man

Orthodoxy on the other hand states…

·        All men inherit Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12)

·        No man is able to do good in and of himself (Rom 8:8)

·        Every person since Adam has been born with a sin nature (Rom 3:10)

Thankfully in a few short years this theological theory was branded heresy. In 418 AD “ETS” was held in Carthage (the Council of Carthage *Check Canon 108 and following). At this council, the pastors branded Pelagianism a heresy, and branded Pelagian a heretic. The day was saved and everyone lived happily ever after... or do we?

Pelagius: We know this guy was bad...check out that stache!

Great…so why should I care?

People don’t really claim to be pelagians today, but messing with the doctrine of Total Depravity is a current and dangerous problem. Any attempt to say that a person can earn favor apart from grace is heresy! Pelagianism is really just an extreme form of legalism which is really just a religious form of humanism.

I have to admit that there have been times when I have asked for forgiveness for a sin purely because I was afraid that if I didn’t then my team would lose tomorrow’s football game on my account (don’t pretend like that thought hasn’t crossed your mind before). Don’t fall into the pelagian trap of trying to earn salvation and perfection through perfectly obeying a cosmic list of do’s and don’ts. It won’t work!

So what is the solution to this problem? Well, Augustine suggested that the answer to the pelagian problem would be to get back to the Bible. The Bible says that salvation, eventual perfection, and ultimately all good things come from Christ. (Eph 1)