April 26, 2026
Most Christians do not know much, if anything, about this subject of Original Sin. And because of that, they do not understand that this doctrine determines just about every other Christian belief. If we get this one wrong, most everything else will be wrong. That is not an exaggeration. What we believe about Adam’s sin will determine, in large measure, what we think about free will, moral ability, grace, justice, and salvation. This foundational doctrine must be correct, or very little of what we believe will be biblical. If this doctrine is wrong, it will pollute almost all other truths. That is why I am spending so much time on this subject.
In other articles, I have defined what is meant by Original Sin; please refer to those. Albeit there are variations of the definition, the basics are this. Adam sinned, and we, as his children, inherit the guilt of his sin and a sinful nature that can not understand spiritual truth, and we are born sinners who can not refrain from sinning. We can’t do good, only evil.
For most Christians in our nation, the doctrine of Original Sin was taught to them as an established fact from their earliest days. They may incorrectly assume that the idea of Original Sin and all that it entails has always been a Christian truth. Did the Jews of the Second Temple believe it? Did the apostles believe it? How about the early church fathers before the 5th century? Did they believe it?
Consequently, anyone who questions the understanding embraced by most Western Christians is immediately viewed as suspicious and most likely a false teacher. Many of us, unfortunately, think that if the Christian Church has believed something for a long period of time, it must be true. But we forget that Christians, generally speaking, have believed false things for many years, even centuries. Take, for example, the almost universal belief in the Christian Church that the earth was the center of the universe. This geocentric model, which held that the sun revolved around the earth, was accepted as truth for well over 1,000 years and was largely inherited from Aristotle and Claudius Ptolemy. It wasn’t until Galileo and Copernicus proved that this long-held belief was not true. So much for their Christian scripture proof texts.
Another example. For many centuries, major Christian segments tolerated, regulated, or defended slavery. Again, so much for the Christian proof texts, which were believed to support the practice of slavery by many Christians. Today, almost no Christian believes that the Bible and the God of the Bible support slavery. The Christian church was not just wrong about science and the Bible but was morally wrong about the truth of God.
Another example is the persecution of heretics. Over many centuries, Christians believed the state should punish heresy and heretics. (See my articles on the Roman Church and the article titled, ” The Moral Failings of the Reformers”.) There are more examples throughout the history of the church. Christians can and do misunderstand things, and sometimes, tragic results happen. The point is that just because a belief is ancient and widespread, or traditionally accepted, it doesn’t prove it is true. That brings us to the common understanding of and belief in Original Sin.
Ask yourself: why do some of us, sincere Christians, reject this doctrine of Original Sin? Do we have a solid basis for that rejection, or is it a minor point (a nonessential doctrine) that should be accepted? Are you willing to consider another understanding of scripture? Or are you unteachable, like most Christians who profess to love Christ?
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” 2 John 7-11
If you do believe in the typical doctrine of Original Sin, may I kindly suggest you have been duped? Is it possible that you have been deceived, like many in the past? I believe that I was deceived until I looked into it for myself. I do not think the Doctrine of Original Sin is a Biblical teaching. Although many Christians are confident they can justify this doctrine in the pages of Scripture, the evidence is dubious, laced with conjecture, and replete with eisegesis. Are you willing to consider these objections honestly and objectively? This is an essential doctrine.
The origins of this doctrine can be traced directly to fourth and fifth-century Rome, where it was blended into Christian teaching by the Pagan philosophies of the Gnostics and Manicheans.
The problem, however, is that these ancient teachings are so removed from our present-day thinking that almost no Christian can imagine how they could affect what we believe in our churches today. But they do! The Doctrine of Original Sin absolutely negates the necessity of the Biblical mandate that Christians must bear fruit/deeds worthy of repentance, as commanded in Scripture. (Matthew 3:8, Luke 3:8, Acts 26:18-21) Therefore, it is extremely important to understand where this teaching originated, who brought it into Christianity, when, and why. That brings us to Augustine.
Augustine of Hippo: The Man in the Shadows
He was born in 354 in Thagaste in North Africa, under the Roman Empire. The Empire had embraced Christianity as an acceptable State Religion since Emperor Constantine consolidated his power base in the West in 311. This made each succeeding Emperor himself the head of the Church. Nothing could be done without him or against him. He held the power of life and death over all the inhabitants in his Empire.
Under the reign of the Emperor, the Christian Bishops often opposed one another over systems of belief and Doctrine. Into this world of controversy and schisms, Augustine was born and grew to manhood. It is very likely he was quite aware of the brutal persecutions against the Donatists by Emperor Constantine to silence their opposition to his Catholic Authority, and knew very well that these factions still existed in the church. But Augustine was not a professing Christian in his youth, although his Mother was a member of the Catholic church, his father was pagan, and had high expectations for his son in Roman Society.
Augustine’s parents used their connections to secure a University education for their son in Carthage. As a student, he engaged in much loose behavior and soon had a young son from one of his affairs. This led to a lifelong obsession with lust that would impact his doctrinal beliefs greatly. While in the city, he joined the Manicheans, a syncretistic Gnostic religion founded by a Persian medium named Mani in the third century. As a youth, Mani had received revelations from a spirit being he called his ‘Twin’. Since its foundation, Manichaeism had spread like wildfire throughout the ancient world, attracting many followers, some of whom were influential figures in Roman society. The Manicheans also spoke of Jesus as a prophet, alongside Buddha and Zoroaster, but reserved the title of ‘Last Prophet’ or ‘Seal of the Prophets’ for Mani himself.
Where Did the Concept for Original Sin Come from?
The Manichaean worldview was dualistic:
- one side (one god) was a world of light, inherently good,
- and the other (one god) was the material world, inherently evil.
Each world was presided over by a god. As everything material, the incarnate part of the human was evil by nature from the day of his conception and was drawn towards sin. Only the immaterial soul, belonging to the world of light, was pure and could not be defiled, not even by the grossest sins of the body. The worst sins in Manichean thinking were the sexual sins, because they resulted in more souls of light becoming imprisoned in evil bodies.
According to Manichaeism, mankind was divided into three groups: the Sinners, the Hearers, and the Elect. The Elect were obliged to refrain from all things that bound them to the material world: certain foods, sexual intercourse, and manual labor. They were certain they would obtain salvation upon death. The Hearers had to observe the same restrictions only on Sundays. They would have to go through more cycles of incarnations before they, too, would reach salvation. Augustine himself was a Hearer. I wonder why he never went further after nine years?
Manichaeism offered a worldview that eliminated the fear of judgment by offering hope for salvation while still living in sin. It also offered an explanation of sin, according to which no one could be singled out as a sinner, since all men were born sinners. It’s easy to see how attractive that must have been for Augustine, guilt-ridden as he was over the ongoing fornication in his life.
The Manicheans called themselves ‘Christians, which made it easier for someone raised Catholic to see himself as an adherent of something that was really Christianity. The Roman Manicheans were very well connected, so opportunities opened up for Augustine that he otherwise wouldn’t have had. In 384, at the age of 30, he became a professor of rhetoric at the imperial court in Milan. This was a very prestigious job that brought him close to the Emperor himself.
Given Augustine’s fame in the annals of Christianity, where he is considered by many the Greatest theologian of Christian Doctrine in all history, it is easy to see where he derived the basis for his teachings. His background in the Pagan Philosophies, including Platonism, of the day set the stage for his understanding of Christian justice, grace, faith, and salvation.
No one before Augustine taught that man was born a sinner or that his Free Will was in bondage to his flesh. Such teaching came from the Gnostics.
“Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” Ecclesiastes 7:29.
I retrieved the following from a YouTube channel and from the website HoldingFirmly.com, both by Mike DeSario, now deceased. I was pleasantly surprised to finally find someone who shared many of the same truths I do. We did not reach these conclusions by simply accepting what theologians and pastors in the evangelical community taught. We both came to our conclusions based on our own study and research into what the early church taught and what the Bible actually teaches.
The following are a few examples of what the early church fathers taught:
We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race has the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. Justin Martyr, c. 160
We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault. Our free will has destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness, but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it. Tatian, c. 160
“Woe unto them!” he says, “for they have gone in the way of Cain.” For so also we lie under Adam’s sin through the similarity of sin. Clement of Alexandria c. 195
“If thou wilt be perfect.” Consequently, he was not yet perfect. For nothing is more perfect than what is perfect. And divinely, the expression “if thou wilt” showed the self-determination of the soul holding converse with Him. For choice depended on the man as being free; but the gift on God as the Lord. And He gives to those who are willing and are exceedingly earnest, and ask, that so their salvation may become their own. For God compels not (for compulsion is repugnant to God), but supplies to those who seek, and bestows on those who ask, and opens to those who knock. Clement of Alexandria c. 195
See Appendix 1 for more quotes from the early church.
Regardless of what you have been taught and what you presently believe, the Bible says about Free Will and Original sin, you must ask yourself: why did these Disciples (Direct Descendants of the Apostles) affirm that man was born innocent with full freedom of choice if he wasn’t? Who taught them these things? It certainly appears that their understanding of Scripture was radically different from what the present-day churches teach and from what Augustine taught. The truth is that someone has it significantly wrong. Will the Real Heretics please stand up!
In 381, the reigning Emperor began putting pressure on the Manicheans to end their influence. Fearing for his life, Augustine turned to pagan Greek philosophy. He delved deep into philosophical thought, especially Neoplatonism. Neoplatonism was the most religious branch of pagan Greek philosophy. It believed in one God and theorized about the qualities of this “ineffable and transcendent One”. An example of Neoplatonist reasoning would be: God is perfect, and to someone who already has perfection, change could only be to the worse – therefore God can’t change, and is: immutable. Please see my articles on Theism.
To the Platonist and Neoplatonist, God was beyond any human likeness. The main pursuit of the Neoplatonists – and this would remain Augustine’s pursuit through his entire life – was the pursuit of happiness. In this, a higher source of happiness had always to be preferred over a lesser, the best source being one that was immutable. An augmentation to finding an immutable source of happiness was only thinkable if the receiving of that happiness was not contingent upon the potentially changing will of the recipient.
Augustine’s conversion to Catholicism came shortly after this through listening to the preaching of a man named Ambrose, who interpreted the Old Testament Scriptures in a way that Augustine found intriguing. His conversion to Christianity was especially apparent in the image of a God who CHANGED His mind, revealed in the Old Testament. Augustine’s Neoplatonist thinking could not abide with that. God was ‘immutable’ (He did not change!) Ambrose presented an alternate view that the Old Testament was allegorical, not literal. Thus, the stories of God interacting with man and changing His mind were not factual and did not truly represent the Divine Nature. Here we see the beginning of Augustine’s tampering with rewriting scripture and the teaching of the early church fathers.
Again, anyone can see that these beliefs are the bases of present-day Christian Doctrine! If God is immutable or does not change His mind, then Election and Predestination are Mandatory. Since man is born into sin, according to these Pagan teachings, and morally incapable of making a Right Choice, it’s God who decides who is saved and who is not saved. Mankind attributes nothing to the process of salvation. This is the fatalistic understanding that man is merely a pawn, and that nothing he does or doesn’t do can make any difference to the outcome of his salvation.
The philosophers and scholars of the Roman Empire held many positions of power and wielded great influence over Roman Society. When the Emperor eventually declared Christianity the only legitimate national religion, many of them quickly changed their stripes and joined the Catholic Church. However, they also brought with them a variety of pagan teachings, relics, and idols. They blended them into the church, as we have shown. Among these supposed converts, Augustine would become the leading interpreter of Scripture, dictating the future of Western Christian Doctrine to this very day.
Augustine was an avid writer in Latin (he could not read or understand Greek), and literally volumes of his works have been copied and recopied throughout history and studied at leading Bible colleges worldwide. There can be no doubt that his influence was great worldwide, but that doesn’t make it beneficial. The Westminster Confession of Faith, framed by the reformers in 1600 England, is entirely Augustinian. Nearly the entire ‘Western Christian world’, without exception, firmly embraces section VI of this Confession that affirms the existence of Original Sin. (Eastern Orthodox rejects Augustinian Calvinism’s Original Sin in favor of what they call Ancestral Sin.)
This legacy of Augustine explains why he is so revered even today. It also explains why only a few theologians are willing to vocally challenge him and his false teachings. And almost none of them are willing to call a spade a spade, for there are some things that Augustine supposedly did that were not very Christian, especially toward Pelagius. To reject Augustine’s teaching is tantamount to apostasy to many so-called Christians.
One may ask, ‘Can we not hold to the Doctrine of Original Sin and still preach the Gospel of Grace?’
By no means! The Doctrine itself renders the Gospel ineffective. By necessity, this Doctrine creates a system of lies to support it. The most devastating of them is what they’ve done to the process of salvation, destroying man’s Free Will to obey, and turning God into a tyrant by commanding us to do something we are incapable of doing. Therefore, man’s will is in vain unless God wills for him. Thus, this necessitates a re-interruption of Scripture. So, God can not render eternal life or death according to each man’s deeds, Romans 2:7-8, (and all the Prophets affirm!) but chooses whom He wills to be saved and the others damned.
Again, this is pure 100% Augustinian Calvinism hogwash. Blended into Christianity in the Fifth Century and handed down to us by the Reformers, including Luther and Calvin. Under this system, man is born as a lump of sin, morally inept and unable to choose the right way. (Yet all the early Fathers said the very opposite!) If he is to be saved according to this teaching, it’s by God’s election while still in sin. Repentance is null and void, or a mere confession, or agreement with God that you are born a sinner. No clearing, zeal, diligence, conviction, godly sorrow for sin, or vindication! 2 Corinthians 7:10-11.
God’s will and decree are then ‘Irresistible’ as His nature is ‘Immutable’. No matter what the Bible clearly reveals, it can be twisted to say otherwise. Only the Elect will be finally saved, and not according to anything they do or don’t do. Christ died for the Elect, not the entire world (as Scripture says in 2 Peter 3:9), and no one can question His wisdom or ask why, according to the Augustinian Calvinist.
Here’s a Brief Excerpt of Augustine’s teaching of Grace:
Quote:
“This, however, is certain: our will is in vain if God doesn´t have mercy on us. But I don´t know how one could say: ‘in vain God has mercy’ if we aren´t willing. Because if God has mercy, we are willing. It´s part of God´s mercy that we are willing, for it is God who works in us to will and to do according to his good will. If we ask whether goodwill is a gift of God, it would be surprising if anyone dared to deny it. But because the goodwill doesn’t precede the calling, but the calling precedes the goodwill, therefore it is right to attribute our goodwill to God who calls us, but it can´t be attributed to us that we are called. The sentence: “it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy” is not to be interpreted as meaning that without God´s help we cannot achieve what we want, but rather that without his call we don´t have the will.
If this doesn’t sound like fate or determinism to you, then the scales over your eyes must be removed. Think about what he is saying and go deep in the truth of God’s word. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Augustine’s light is darkness. Jesus said if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. See Mathew 6:23 and Luke 11:35.
Augustine’s quote continues, “All men are – because, as the Apostle says: ‘in Adam all die’, from whom, as the origin, the offense of God spread to all humanity – one lump of sin who deserves to be punished by the highest divine justice. The punishment being executed or remitted is without injustice.”
Scripture doesn’t say that “in Adam all sinned, or that all die. It says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Romans 5:12-13. As noted in other articles, Augustine used a faulty Latin translation for this section.
Moreover, Augustine assumed that sin passed to all of Adam’s children, “one lump of sin who deserves to be punished by the highest divine justice”. Just because Augustine was blinded enough to assert such a nonsensical utterance doesn’t make it true. Have you ever noticed how proud and arrogant people assert lies with the boldness that is breathtaking? In Augustine’s theology, God is unjust in holding us guilty of Adam’s sin and allowing us to be born sinners who can do nothing but sin, deserving damnation, pretending that we deserve it as if we could have altered and changed it. Punishment is executed without injustice, proclaims Augustine with a straight face. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“But if anyone is troubled by the fact that nobody resists his will – because he helps whom he wills and he deserts whom he wills – and that the one whom he helps and the one whom he deserts belongs to the same lump of sin, and that, even though both deserve punishment, it´s executed on the one and remitted to the other – if anyone is troubled by that: “O man, who are you to talk back against God?”
Augustine asks us to believe that our holy God can and does arbitrarily call good evil and evil good. Will not the judge of the universe do what is right?
How was Augustine, one man, able to pass this off as Christian teaching in his day, when it directly contradicts the Bible and all the early Saints, some still living into the fourth century, who opposed him? Why wasn’t he exposed as a false teacher with his cohorts and banished from the church and set down in history as the greatest heretic of all time? Could it be that the powers of darkness at work in ancient Rome, as the first Beast, prevailed against the truth by casting out the opposition … most certainly this is the case. Opponents to Augustine’s teaching were excommunicated by the High Council and branded as heretics over the next 1000 or so years.
Mr. DeSario writes this, “In this was the rise of the ‘Man of Sin, 2 Thessalonians 2:2-11, mystery of lawlessness that would spread its evil influence over the establishment Church up through the 1500’s and beyond. Augustine was a vessel fit for his ‘Master’s use (the devil) to usher in the Strong Delusion that has swept through Christianity like a whirlwind. He set the stage for the introduction of every fallacy invented in the minds of men from then to now. His legacy helped greatly to produce the brutal wars, persecutions, inquisitions, and mass ignorance that led to the Dark Ages, medieval times, and finally the so-called Reformation, when the Second Beast of Protestantism appeared and took up his cause to exploit the Bible and teach that all men were born in sin, wholly depraved, and lacking free will. Augustinian Doctrine remains the bedrock of establishment Christianity in the West to this day. It has certainly been remolded and toned down by many degrees, but the core teaching remains, attacking man’s free will to seek out God in repentance and to produce ‘Deeds Worthy of Repentance’.”
The historical evidence against Augustine is overwhelming, and his doctrines are absurd when compared to Scripture, unless you’re blinded by the same lies. His teachings are the very source of the lawlessness and apostasy in our modern-day churches, and millions are destined to perish in their sins unless an all-out effort is launched to expose the Satanic excuse of human inability and a free will that is not free. Inability, as a result of the false doctrine of Original Sin, is the best excuse and justification for sin ever devised.
Appendix 1
The following quotes and some of the comments above come from Mike DeSario, via his YouTube channel Holding Firmly and his website. The following quotes from Early Disciples, many who followed the Apostles:
“But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both the opposites, nor of so many transitions. But not even would some be good and others bad, since we thus make fate the cause of evil, and exhibit her as acting in opposition to herself; or that which has been already stated would seem to be true, that neither virtue nor vice is anything, but that things are only reckoned good or evil by opinion; which, as the true word shows, is the greatest impiety and wickedness. But this we assert is inevitable fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of himself choose the good, but were created for this end; nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made.” Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr of the Early Church said, “Every created being is so constituted as to be capable of vice and virtue. For he can do nothing praiseworthy, if he had not the power of turning either way.” And “unless we suppose man has the power to choose the good and refuse the evil, no one can be accountable for any action whatever.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 61, published by Truth in Heart)
Tertullian of the same century said, “No reward can be justly bestowed, no punishment can be justly inflicted, upon him who is good or bad by necessity, and not by his own choice.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 61, published by Truth in Heart)
Origen said, “The soul does not incline to either part out of necessity, for then neither vice nor virtue could be ascribed to it; nor would its choice of virtue deserve reward; nor its declination to vice punishment.” Again, “How could God require that of man which he [man] had not power to offer Him?” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 62, published by Truth in Heart)
Clement of Alexandria said, “Neither promises nor apprehensions, rewards, nor punishments are just if the soul has not the power of choosing and abstaining; if evil is involuntary.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 63, published by Truth in Heart)
Jerome said, “God has bestowed us with free will. We are not necessarily drawn either to virtue or vice. For when necessity rules, there is no room left either for damnation or the crown.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 62, published by Truth in Heart)
Tertullian said, “In pursuance of that aspect of the association of body and soul that we now have to consider, we maintain that the puberty of the soul coincides with that of the body. Generally speaking, they both attain together this full growth at about the (14 years old) fourteenth year of life. The soul attains it by the suggestion of the senses, and the body attains it by the growth of the bodily members. I do not mention [the age of fourteen] because reflection begins at that age (as Asclepiades supposes). Nor do I choose it because the civil laws date the commencement of the real business of life from this age. Rather, I chose it because this was the appointed order from the very first. After obtaining knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve felt that they must cover their nakedness. Likewise, we profess to have the same discernment of good and evil from the time that we experience the same sensation of shame. Now, beginning with the aforementioned age, sex is suffused and clothed with a special sensibility. This eye gives way to lust and communicates its pleasure to another. It understands the natural relations between male and female, and it wears the fig-leaf apron to cover the shame that it still excites.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 7, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Justin Martyr said, “The human race…from Adam had fallen under the power of death and the guile of the serpent. Each one had committed personal transgression.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 271, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Justin Martyr said, “The whole human race will be found to be under a curse. For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the Law and do them.’ And no one has accurately done them all.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 271, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Irenaeus said, “By means of our first parents, we were all brought into bondage by being made subject to death.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 271, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Justin Martyr said, “In the beginning, He made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 271, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Justin Martyr said, “Let some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever occurs happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, chastisements, and good rewards are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Now, if this is not so, but all things happen by fate, then neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it is predetermined that this man will be good, and this other man will be evil, neither is the first one meritorious nor the latter man to be blamed. And again, unless the human race has the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 271, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Justin Martyr said, “I have proved in what has been said that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God’s fault. Rather, each man is what he will appear to be through his own fault.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Tatian said, “We were not created to die. Rather, we die by our own fault. Our free will has destroyed us. We who were free have become slaves. We have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God. We ourselves have manifested wickedness. But we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Melito said, “There is, therefore, nothing to hinder you from changing your evil manner to life, because you are a free man.” (c.170, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Theophilus said, “If, on the other hand, he would turn to the things of death, disobeying God, he would himself be the cause of death to himself. For God made man free, and with power of himself.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Irenaeus said, “But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect similar to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself his own cause that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Irenaeus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds…And ‘Why call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?’…All such passages demonstrate the independent will of man…For it is in man’s power to disobey God and to forfeit what is good.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Clement of Alexandria said, “We…have believed and are saved by voluntary choice.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Clement of Alexandria said, “Each one of us who sins with his own free will, chooses punishment. So, the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Clement of Alexandria said, “To obey or not is in our own power, provided we do not have the excuse of ignorance.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Tertullian said, “I find, then, that man was constituted free by God. He was master of his own will and power…For a law would not be imposed upon one who did not have it in his power to render that obedience which is due to law. Nor again, would the penalty of death be threatened against sin, if a contempt of the law were impossible to man in the liberty of his will…Man is free, with a will either for obedience or resistance. (c.207, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 288, published by Hendrickson Publishers
“being Justified without charge by His Favor, THROUGH THE RELEASE BY RANSOM, of the one by Christ Jesus” Romans 3:24, Septuagint
Justin Martyr said, “In the beginning, He made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 271, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“Every created being is so constituted as to be capable of vice and virtue. For he can do nothing praiseworthy, if he had not the power of turning either way.” And “unless we suppose man has the power to choose the good and refuse the evil, no one can be accountable for any action whatever.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 61, published by Truth in Heart.)
“But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both opposites, nor of so many transitions. (Justin Martyr A.D. 155-157, First Apology, ch. 42, p. 177)
“But this we assert is inevitable fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of himself choose the good, but were created for this end; nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made. (First Apology, ch. 43, p. 177)
“But neither do we affirm that it is by fate that men do what they do, or suffer what they suffer, but that each man by free choice acts rightly or sins; and that it is by the influence of the wicked demons that earnest men, such as Socrates and the like, suffer persecution and are in bonds, while Sardanapalus, Epicurus, and the like, seem to be blessed in abundance and glory. The Stoics, not observing this, maintained that all things take place according to the necessity of fate. But since God in the beginning made the race of angels and men with free will, they will justly suffer in eternal fire the punishment of whatever sins they have committed. And this is the nature of all that is made, to be capable of vice and virtue. For neither would any of them be praiseworthy unless there were power to turn to both [virtue and vice]. (Second Apology, ch. 7, p. 190)
“Furthermore, I have proved in what has preceded, that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God’s fault, but each man by his own fault is what he will appear to be.“ (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 139, p. 269)
“But that you may not have a pretext for saying that Christ must have been crucified, and that those who transgressed must have been among your nation, and that the matter could not have been otherwise, I said briefly by anticipation, that God, wishing men and angels to follow His will, resolved to create them free to do righteousness; possessing reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not existing formerly, do now exist; and with a law that they should be judged by Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason: and of ourselves we, men and angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent beforehand. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably [wicked], but not because God had created them so. (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 141, p. 269-270)
“Here, then, is a proof of virtue, and of a mind loving prudence, to recur to the communion of the unity, and to attach oneself to prudence for salvation, and make choice of the better things according to the free will placed in man; (Melito of Sardis, a 2nd century bishop and writer, On the Sole Government of God, ch. 6, p. 293)
Tertullian of the same century said, “No reward can be justly bestowed, no punishment can be justly inflicted, upon him who is good or bad by necessity, and not by his own choice.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 61, published by Truth in Heart)
“I find, then, that man was constituted free by God. He was master of his own will and power…For a law would not be imposed upon one who did not have it in his power to render that obedience which is due to law. Nor again, would the penalty of death be threatened against sin, if a contempt of the law were impossible to man in the liberty of his will…Man is free, with a will either for obedience or resistance.“(c.207, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 288, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Origen said, “The soul does not incline to either part out of necessity, for then neither vice nor virtue could be ascribed to it; nor would its choice of virtue deserve reward; nor its declination to vice punishment.” Again, “How could God require that of man which he [man] had not power to offer Him?” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 62, published by Truth in Heart)
Ignatius said, “Seeing, then, all things have an end, and there is set before us life upon our observance [of God’s precepts], but death as the result of disobedience, and every one, according to the choice he makes, shall go to his own place, let us flee from death, and make choice of life. For I remark that two different characters are found among men — the one true coin, the other spurious. The truly devout man is the right kind of coin, stamped by God Himself. The ungodly man, again, is false coin, unlawful, spurious, counterfeit, wrought not by God, but by the devil. I do not mean to say that there are two different human natures, but that there is one humanity, sometimes belonging to God, and sometimes to the devil. If anyone is truly religious, he is a man of God; but if he is irreligious, he is a man of the devil, made such, not by nature, but by his own choice. The unbelieving bear the image of the prince of wickedness. The believing possess the image of their Prince, God the Father, and Jesus Christ, through whom, if we are not in readiness to die for the truth into His passion, His life is not in us.” (Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, V)
Clement of Rome said, “On account of his hospitality and godliness, Lot was saved out of Sodom when all the country round was punished by means of fire and brimstone, the Lord thus making it manifest that He does not forsake those that hope in Him, but gives up such as depart from Him to punishment and torture. For Lot’s wife, who went forth with him, being of a different mind from himself and not continuing in agreement with him [as to the command which had been given them], was made an example of, so as to be a pillar of salt unto this day. This was done that all might know that those who are of a double mind, and who distrust the power of God, bring down judgment on themselves. and become a sign to all succeeding generations.” (Clement, Epistle to the Corinthians, XI)
Barnabas said, “The Lord will judge the world without respect of persons. Each will receive as he has done: if he is righteous, his righteousness will precede him; if he is wicked, the reward of wickedness is before him. Take heed, lest resting at our ease, as those who are the called [of God], we should fall asleep in our sins, and the wicked prince, acquiring power over us, should thrust us away from the kingdom of the Lord. And all the more attend to this, my brethren, when ye reflect and behold, that after so great signs and wonders were wrought in Israel, they were thus [at length] abandoned. Let us beware lest we be found [fulfilling that saying], as it is written, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Epistle of Barnabas, IV)
Clement of Alexandria said, “Neither promises nor apprehensions, rewards, nor punishments are just if the soul has not the power of choosing and abstaining; if evil is involuntary.” (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 63, published by Truth in Heart)
“We…have believed and are saved by voluntary choice.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“Each one of us who sins with his own free will chooses punishment. So the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“To obey or not is in our own power, provided we do not have the excuse of ignorance.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“The Lord clearly shows sins and transgressions to be in our own power.” (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 288, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“Woe unto them!” he says, “for they have gone in the way of Cain.” For so also we lie under Adam’s sin through the similarity of sin. (Clement of Alexandria c. 195)
“If thou wilt be perfect.” Consequently, he was not yet perfect. For nothing is more perfect than what is perfect. And divinely, the expression “if thou wilt” showed the self-determination of the soul holding converse with Him. For choice depended on the man as being free; but the gift on God as the Lord. And He gives to those who are willing and are exceedingly earnest, and ask, that so their salvation may become their own. For God compels not (for compulsion is repugnant to God), but supplies to those who seek, and bestows on those who ask, and opens to those who knock. (Clement of Alexandria c. 195)
“Nor shall he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not inanimate; but he will, above all, voluntarily and of free choice speed to salvation. Wherefore also man received the commandments in order that he might be self-impelled, to whatever he wished of things to be chosen and to be avoided. Wherefore God does not do good by necessity, but from His free choice benefits those who spontaneously turn.” (Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) Stromata, Bk vii ch.7)
Alexander of Alexandria said, “Natural will is the free faculty of every intelligent nature, as having nothing involuntary pertaining to its essence”. (c.195, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 293, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Tatian said, “We were not created to die. Rather, we die by our own fault. Our free will has destroyed us. We who were free have become slaves. We have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God. We ourselves have manifested wickedness. But we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.” (c.160, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Melito said, “There is, therefore, nothing to hinder you from changing your evil manner to life, because you are a free man.” (c.170, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Theophilus said, “If, on the other hand, he would turn to the things of death, disobeying God, he would himself be the cause of death to himself. For God made man free, and with power of himself.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Methodius said, “Man was made with a free will …[with the] capacity of obeying or disobeying God. For this was the meaning of the gift of free will.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 292, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“Those [pagans] who decide that man does not have free will, but say that he is governed by the unavoidable necessities of fate, are guilty of impiety toward God Himself, making Him out to be the cause and author of human evils. ” (Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins discourse 8, chap. 16)
“To do good or evil is in our own power”. (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 292, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
Archelaus said, “All the creatures that God made, He made very good. And He gave to every individual the sense of free will, by which standard He also instituted the law of judgment…. And certainly whoever will, may keep the commandments. Whoever despises them and turns aside to what is contrary to them, shall yet without doubt have to face this law of judgment…. There can be no doubt that every individual, in using his own proper power of will, may shape his course in whatever direction he pleases.” (Archelaus Disputation With Manes, see. 32, 33)
Athenagoras of Athens said, “Just as with men who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice (for you would not either honor the good or punish the bad; unless vice and virtue were in their own power, and some are diligent in the matters entrusted to them, and others faithless), so it is among the angels.” (Athenagoras of Athens (c.177) Embassy for Christians XXIV)
Irenaeus said, “But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect similar to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself his own cause that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 286, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds’…And ‘Why call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?’…All such passages demonstrate the independent will of man…For it is in man’s power to disobey God and to forfeit what is good.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 287, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
“…there is no coercion with God, but goodwill is present with Him continually. And therefore does He give good counsel to all. And in man as well as in angels, He has placed the power of choice (for angels are rational beings), so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good, given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves . . . If then it were not in our power to do or not to do these things, what reason had the apostle, and much more the Lord Himself, to give us counsel to do some things and to abstain from others? But because man is possessed of free-will from the beginning, and God is possessed of free-will in whose likeness man was created, advice is always given to him to keep fast the good, which thing is done by means of obedience to God.” (Irenaeus of Gaul (c. 130-200) Against Heresies, XXXVII)
John Chrysostom said, “All is in God’s power, but so that our free will is not lost… it depends therefore on Him and on Us. We must first choose the good, and then He adds what belongs to Him. He does not precede our will, that our free will may not suffer. But when we have chosen, then He affords much help … It is ours to choose beforehand and to will, but God’s to perfect and bring to the end.” (John Chrysostom (347-407) On Hebrews, Homily 12)
Cyril of Jerusalem said, “And you must know your soul to be endowed with free-will, and to be God’s fairest work in the image of himself. It is immortal in as far as God grants it immortality. It is a rational living creature not subject to decay, because these qualities have been bestowed by God upon it. And it has the power to do what it chooses. For you do not sin because you were born that way, nor if you fornicate is it by chance. And do not take any notice of what some people say, that the conjunctions of the stars compel you to fall into unclean living. Why should you avoid acknowledging that you have done wrong by blaming it on the stars that had nothing to do with it?” (Cyril of Jerusalem (c.350) Catechetical Lectures IV 18 (109))
“Learn this also, that before it came into this world, your soul had committed no sin, but we come into the world unblemished, and, being here, sin of our own choice. Do not listen, I say, to anyone who expounds ‘If then I do that which I would not’ in the wrong sense, but remember who says, ‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat of the good land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword,’ and what follows.” (Cyril of Jerusalem (c.350) Catechetical Lectures IV 19)
Hippolytus said, “For man is able to both will and not will. He is endowed with power to do both.” (c.180, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David Bercot, p. 288, published by Hendrickson Publishers)
For, just as it is impossible that material substance should partake of salvation (since, indeed, [the Gnostics] maintain that it is incapable of receiving it), so again it is impossible that spiritual substance (by which [the Gnostics] mean themselves)
should ever come under the power of corruption, whatever the sort of actions in which they indulged. … so they affirm that they cannot in any measure suffer hurt, or lose their spiritual substance, whatever the material actions in which they may be involved. And committing many other abominations and impieties, [the gnostics] run us [Christians] down (who from the fear of God guard against sinning even in thought or word) as utterly contemptible and ignorant persons, while [the gnostics] highly exalt themselves, and claim to be perfect, and the elect seed. For they declare that we simply receive grace for use [in sanctification], wherefore also it will again be taken away from us; but that they themselves have grace as their own special possession, which has descended from above by means of an unspeakable and indescribable conjunction; and on this account more will be given them. Irenaeus
Closing Comments
It is very hard for me to believe that any honest and truth-seeking follower of Christ could ignore all of these quotes and fall for the errors that Augustine brought to Christian Doctrine.
In the next article, we will consider what Pelagius, a contemporary of Augustine, taught and believed regarding the doctrine of Original Sin and Guilt.
