Posted on 01/27/2011 7:05:45 AM PST by marshmallow
We hold, therefore, that free-will comes on the scene at the same moment as reason, and that change and alteration are congenital to all that is produced. For all that is produced is also subject to change. For those things must be subject to change whose production has its origin in change. And change consists in being brought into being out of nothing, and in transforming a substratum of matter into something different.
Inanimate things, then, and things without reason undergo the aforementioned bodily changes, while the changes of things endowed with reason depend on choice. For reason consists of a speculative and a practical part. The speculative part is the contemplation of the nature of things, and the practical consists in deliberation and defines the true reason for what is to be done. The speculative side is called mind or wisdom, and the practical side is called reason or prudence.
Every one, then, who deliberates does so in the belief that the choice of what is to be done lies in his hands, that he may choose what seems best as the result of his deliberation, and having chosen may act upon it. And if this is so, free-will must necessarily be very closely related to reason. For either man is an irrational being, or, if he is rational, he is master of his acts and endowed with free-will. Hence also creatures without reason do not enjoy free-will: for nature leads them rather than they nature, and so they do not oppose the natural appetite, but as soon as their appetite longs after anything they rush headlong after it. But man, being rational, leads nature rather than nature him, and so when he desires anything he has the power to curb his appetite or to indulge it as he pleases.
Hence also creatures devoid of reason are the subjects neither of praise nor blame, while man is the subject of both praise and blame.
Note also that the angels, being rational, are endowed with free-will, and, inasmuch as they are created, are liable to change. This in fact is made plain by the devil who, although made good by the Creator, became of his own free-will the inventor of evil, and by the powers who revolted with him , that is the demons, and by the other troops of angels who abode in goodness.
St. John Damascene, saint and doctor of the Church, was the last of the Greek Fathers. Born in Damascus around 676.
Church Fathers ping!
Too bad there’s no way anyone can prove that they could have made a different choice.
There is no true love without free will to choose.
Man's basic act of free will is his primary choice to use his faculty of reason or not. He has to decide whether to survive by relying on his conceptual level or the perceptual level of his mind.
It is not, therefore, true, as some affirm that we say, and as that correspondent of yours ventures moreover to write, that “all are forced into sin,” as if they were unwilling, “by the necessity of their flesh;” but if they are already of the age to use the choice of their own mind, they are both retained in sin by their own will, and by their own will are hurried along from sin to sin. For even he who persuades and deceives does not act in them, except that they may commit sin by their will, either by ignorance of the truth or by delight in iniquity, or by both evils,—as well of blindness as of weakness. But this will, which is free in evil things because it takes pleasure in evil, is not free in good things, for the reason that it has not been made free. Nor can a man will any good thing unless he is aided by Him who cannot will evil,—that is, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For “everything which is not of faith is sin.” (Rom. xiv. 23). And thus the good will which withdraws itself from sin is faithful, because the just lives by faith. (Hab. ii. 4). And it pertains to faith to believe on Christ. And no man can believe on Christ—that is, come to Him—unless it be given to him. (Rom. i. 17). No man, therefore, can have a righteous will, unless, with no foregoing merits, he has received the true, that is, the gratuitous grace from above. (Augustine, A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Book 1, Chap. 7)
AMEN!
When he got it right, he got it very right. 8~)
That brief little essay should go here, actually; would you like to post it? If not, may I?
Augustine understood the consequences of the true depth of the fall , something that most today minimize
With all due respect to Damascene, this is incorrect logic. What's more, there isn't any shred of scripture to support the "age of accountability" and "the age of reason". This is typical Greek thinking trying to link reason with human nature and is part of the reason Christians have error. It isn't typical of Jewish thinking of scripture or the Jewish view of God from scripture. I would suggest reading the last 5 chapters of Job.
A man can be completely rational, be a master of his act and simply will NOT want to follow God. In fact, scripture teaches that man KNOWINGLY does not want to do the things of God.
Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
“There is no true love without free will to choose.”
How about we let God speak for Himself.
John 8:34 - “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.’”
John 3:3 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”
Ephesians 2:1 - “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.........”
Ephesians 2:4&5 - “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved.....”
Does a slave have free will?
How can a blind man choose what he cannot see?
Can a dead man do anything?
Augustine taught that Adam (The First Man) had a completely free will, and that that fallen man no longer enjoys this free will, but it is in bondage to sin. ”Non posse non peccare.” Only the positive action of God working through grace (regeneration) can change that.
There is little doubt why some consider Augustine the father of the Reformation.
The reformed position is this
Adam had a free moral will, he could choose to sin or not sin
After the fall, that free moral will was lost and unregenerate men can only choose sin.
When a man is saved, He can choose to sin or not sin
When glorified men can not choose to sin
How can a blind man choose what he cannot see?
Can a dead man do anything?
AMEN!
Your questions and their righteous answers bring glory to God.
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." -- Philippians 2:13
"But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you." -- John 10:26
"Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." -- John 6:65"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." -- Jeremiah 10:23
As usual, partially true.
Augustine sees free will in a balance in perfect equilibrium in Adam. He declares that it was destroyed after original sin. You are correct.
Thus, the will has to struggle and react against an inclination to evil, but it remains mistress of its choice (Answer to Julian III, cxvii). Thus, when he says that we have lost freedom in consequence of the sin of Adam, he is careful to explain that this lost freedom is not the liberty of choosing between good and evil, (because without it we could not help sinning), but the perfect liberty which was calm and without struggle, and which was enjoyed by Adam in virtue of his original integrity.
All unregenerate man can do is sin before God..
Rom 14:23 — And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because [he eateth] not of faith: for whatsoever [is] not of faith is sin.
Tts 1:15 Unto the pure all things [are] pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving [is] nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Hbr 11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
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