Results 1 - 2 of 2
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Clean Slate statement | Rom 5:12 | Jesusfreak345 | 150886 | ||
I have a friend that's not christian who disagrees with many aspects of the bible but mainly one inparticular. The fact that we are all born (as in coming out on the ER table) sinners. He thinks that we should all start off with a "clean slate" as he so carefully states. I wonder what the answer to this as well. However I do not wish to question Gods decisions, but asking for an answer from someone much farther along with their relationship with Jesus Christ is not questioning Gods ultimate decision to allow mankind to be sinful. I just want to know whether or not anyone can provide me with some defense in which I can use against the "clean slate" statement made by my friend? I also would like to ask if anyone can give me bible references in which I can back up my answer and if not, I still wish to be able to answer these types of questions he may inevitabley dish out, even if it means without the bible but with common sense and morality. | ||||||
2 | Clean Slate statement | Rom 5:12 | DocTrinsograce | 150887 | ||
Hi, Jesusfreak345... Your friend is expressing a very old heresy. It is called Pelagianism after a monk (Pelagius) who lived in fifth century Britain. He was a contemporary of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa -- more commonly known as Saint Augustine. Augustine, a brilliant intellect, and a man of deep spirituality had written a simple prayer: "Oh God, command what you wouldst, and grant what thou dost command." Pelagius didn't mind the first part of the prayer, it was the second part that he hated. He said something like "What? If God is just, if God is righteous and God is holy, and God commands of the creature to do something, certainly that creature must have the power within himself, the moral ability within himself, to perform it or God would never require it in the first place!" Pelagius stated very firmly, "If I ought, I can!" An extensive debate ensued. Eventually Pelagianism was condemned at the Council of Orange. It was condemned again at the Council of Florence, the Council of Carthage, and even -- oddly enough -- at the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century (in the first three "anathemas" of the Canons of the Sixth Session). Pelagius' ideas, however, still infect the world. There's even a more common heresy called Semi-Pelagianism. Pelagianism can be defined as a doctrinal system that subscribes to the human ability to moral perfection without the grace of God. Semi-Pelagianism can be defined as a doctrinal system that subscribes to the human ability to moral perfection in combination with the grace of God. Augustinianism can be defined as a doctrinal system that denies human ability to any moral perfection without the transforming grace of God alone. God decreed that Adam's sin would be imputed to all of his "seed." In regeneration, we are born again, of new seed... the seed of God (1 Peter 1:23 and 1 John 3:9). To the Pelagian, men are simply ignorant. They are in need of a teacher. To the Semi-Pelagian, men are sick. They are in need of a doctor. To the Augustinian, men are dead. They are in need of the miracle of resurrection, something only God can do! I've tried to reduce this to the basic terms. I hope it helps. In Him, Doc |
||||||