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1 posted on 08/04/2004 12:32:57 PM PDT by xzins
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A look at Pelagius from an article positive toward him. Despite your position, it is an interesting history lesson.


2 posted on 08/04/2004 12:36:53 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army and Supporting Bush/Cheney 2004!)
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To: xzins
Morgan's view of God's grace was broader than that of his opponents. He wrote, "This grace we do not allow to consist only in the law but also in the help of God. God helps us through His teaching and revelation by opening the eyes of our heart, by pointing out to us the future so that we may not be preoccupied with the present, by uncovering the snares of the devil, by enlightening us with the manifold and ineffable gift of heavenly grace.

As St. Augustine pointed out, this form of "grace", while true, is defective. Certainly, God does enlighten us- the Scriptures and Fathers are in certain testimony of that. However, if all He did was enlighten us to the truth, we would hardly be in a better spot. What Plato said is wrong: to know the good is not necessarily to do it. I think we can all attest to that from personal experience. It is one of the inanities of human behaviour: we will sometimes deliberately do wrong knowing it is bad and will probably end in no good to ourselves even. Mere ignorance is not our only problem.

And if this were our only problem- that of not being sufficiently enlighened- then we would not need a Saviour the way we have been given one. Jesus is useful as the perfect exemplar of piety, but that is all, if grace only consists in seeing the good.

But God's grace, as proclaimed by the catholic faith, is far more than just a divine enlightenment. God not only shows us the good, He enables us to do it! We have a much deeper problem than ignorance: we have corruption within ourselves, wound about our nature as St. Maximus put it. Humanity fell into sin and death, not just ignorance, and we were in desperate need of Someone to deliver us out of it. That someone is Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect Man in one Person, Who not only showed us the perfect life, but through His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, freed us from corruption, pardoned our sin, delivered us from bondage, transfered us to His own divine glory, and enabled us to live in communion with God. That is grace. That is what the Church Catholic has always taught and believed: that Jesus is not simply a good man, or even a perfect man, but that He is God made man, and that His redemption of us is not simply the setting of a good example, but a radical remaking and transforming of man through grace that He pours out on undeserving, unmeriting creatures, freely forgiving them and inviting them into His Life.

As a slight digression, I must also note that the Council of Orange, in which Pelagianism was rebuked soundly, while not an Ecumenical Council, has always been accepted by the Eastern Church.

10 posted on 08/04/2004 8:52:04 PM PDT by Cleburne
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To: xzins

Ha! The Author, after giving us a biased historical prologue, gives us his unsubstantiated thesis,

"Unlike Augustinianism with its grounding in neo-Platonic philosophy and Manichean religion, Morgan's theology is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and the Early Church Fathers.",

then goes on to give the same old tired "arguements". Why do you bother to post articles by these Finney hacks?


17 posted on 08/05/2004 6:48:26 AM PDT by lockeliberty
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