Christians have been arguing about free will since about 400 AD when Augustine decided to reject it. These views were used by the Catholic church to baptize babies, and teach that there is always sin involved in sex and other things stemming from a lack of free will. But when the church reformed its gospel message John Calvin took the Augustinian idea of an enslaved will with him. He himself drew the line back to Augustine “even though the Greeks [Early Church Fathers] above the rest—and Chrysostom especially among them—extol the ability of the human will, yet all the ancients, save Augustine, so differ, waver, or speak confusedly on this subject, that almost nothing certain can be derived from their writings.” -John Calvin
I want to list some quotes on the matter from some early church fathers. But we need to understand that these were not just obscure ancient writers. These were the giants of their day. Many of these men studied under those church leaders that were taught by the apostles themselves. My point in sharing them is to hopefully bring light to the false dilemma that Augustine introduced, namely that God’s Sovereignty is somehow affected by the free will of man. It is not one or the other. Austine and Pelagian or Calvin and Arminian or Reformed and Whosoeverism or Monergism or Synergism. All of these sides stem from the Augustinian dichotomy of God in control or man’s self-determinism. So as you read these quotes from the early church fathers about free will notice they are not taking anything away from God in their view.
Justin Martyr: “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. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy from God.” –Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 141, 170 AD
Irenaeus : “God made man a free [agent] from the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his own soul, to obey the behests (ad utendum sententia) of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with God, but a good will [towards us] 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.” Against Heresies, Book IV, 202 AD
Athenagoras the Athenian: “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” A Plea for Christians, 180 AD
Theopolis: “For God made man free, and with power over himself.(55) That, then, which man brought upon himself through carelessness and disobedience, this God now vouchsafes to him as a gift through His own philanthropy and pity, when men obey Him.(56) For as man, disobeying, drew death upon himself; so, obeying the will of God, he who desires is able to procure for himself life everlasting. For God has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption.” Book II, 169 AD
Tatian: “Live to God, and by apprehending Him lay aside your old nature.(33) We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault.(34) 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.” To the Greeks, 180 AD
Bardesan: “How is it that God did not so make us that we should not sin and incur condemnation? ‘-if man had been made so, he would not have belonged to himself, but would have been the instrument of him that moved him; and it is evident also, that he who moves an instrument as he pleases, moves it either for good or for evil. And how, in that case, would a man differ from a harp, on which another plays; or from a ship, which another guides: where the praise and the blame reside in the hand of the performer or the steersman,(12) and the harp itself knows not what is played on it, nor the ship itself whether it be well steered and guided or ill, they being only instruments made for the use of him in whom is the requisite skill? But God in His benignity chose not so to make man; but by freedom He exalted him above many of His creatures.” Book of the Laws of Divers Countries, 155 AD
Clement of Alexandria: “we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a willing spirit, since we have chosen life and believe God through His voice. And he who has believed the Word knows the matter to be true; for the Word is truth. But he who has disbelieved Him that speaks, has disbelieved God.” book II
“For neither did the Lord suffer by the will of the Father, nor are those who are persecuted by the will of God; since either of two things is the case: either persecution in consequence of the will of God is a good thing, or those who decree and afflict are guiltless. But nothing is without the will of the Lord of the universe. It remains to say that such things happen without the prevention of God; for this alone saves both the providence and the goodness of God. We must not therefore think that He actively produces afflictions (far be it that we should think this!); but we must be persuaded that He does not prevent those that cause them, but overrules for good the crimes of His enemies” book IV
So: Do you agree with Calvin that the early church fathers had “nothing certain” to say about free will? I have only listed a few. Please investigate yourself. All their surviving writings are all available online for free.
All the major schools of Christian thought: Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Carthage, Lycia, and even early Rome believed and agreed on the following three doctrines:
- Free will is a gift from God.
- We have free will because we were made in the image of God. God has free will.
- The rejection of free will was heretical.
We need to forget all this polarization of the church driven by reformed theology or any other man made doctrine and return to a biblical church model.
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