The Roman Church, especially in the West, adapted Augustine's teachings as doctrine and began persecuted all dissenters out of existence over the next couple of centuries. To embrace original sin you, must negate man’s free will and their ability to obey God on their own.
If you honestly study the early church Saints along with the apostles, and yes including Paul, you will see they taught free will.
I already gave examples of the New Testament writers backing me on free will in my comment #13. However, if you read the writings of 2nd century Saints, you will see that they also believed and taught free will as it was taught to them by the 1st century Saints.
Tertullian:
“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.
Justin Martyr:
“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.”
Clement:
“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
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.
As for my disdain for Calvin's teachings, I will reserve any more comment on the man personally for God himself. For when a man's teachings lead millions astray from the truth, it is God he must eventually answer to. By now I am sure he has.
“Calvinism is but an extension of the pagan teachings Augustine brought into the church.”
It’s absurd to turn to something other than scripture to defend one’s theological views, as it is the scripture which is the end all and the be all for all doctrine. However, it cannot be reasonably concluded that the early Christian Saints, as you called them, didn’t believe in predestination or held to your views of Free-Will. Quoting one or two people, one of which left to the Montanists, cannot make this the universal position of Christianity. Until Pelagius, who denied Original Sin and affirmed things as you do, there was no real need to defend it, and therefore no real need to guard against it. But by your logic we would also have to throw out the Trinity, since no one discussed it, though it is clearly in the scripture upon analysis. One can find in the works of Tertullian, or many others, favorable quotations that can be applied to both positions. And, certainly, these same people you quote held many errors, which we cannot attribute to having been carried on to them from the Apostles. Some of these early Christians were better than others, though, for example, Ignatius certainly did not speak like a Pelagian!
Ignatius of Antioch (1st Century)
“Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia, deservedly most happy, being blessed in the greatness and fullness of God the Father, and predestinated before the beginning of time, that it should be always for an enduring and unchangeable glory, being united and elected through the true passion by the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ, our God: Abundant happiness through Jesus Christ, and His undefiled grace.” (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Ephesians, Ch. 0)
“Seeing, then, all things have an end, these two things are simultaneously set before us— death and life; and every one shall go unto his own place. For as there are two kinds of coins, the one of God, the other of the world, and each of these has its special character stamped upon it, [so is it also here.] The unbelieving are of this world; but the believing have, in love, the character of God the Father by Jesus Christ, by whom, if we are not in readiness to die into His passion, His life is not in us.” (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Magnesians, Ch. 5)
“Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which has obtained mercy, through the majesty of the Most High Father, and Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son; the Church which is beloved and enlightened by the will of Him that wills all things” (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans. Ch. 0)
“I give you these instructions, beloved, assured that you also hold the same opinions [as I do]. But I guard you beforehand from those beasts in the shape of men, whom you must not only not receive, but, if it be possible, not even meet with; only you must pray to God for them, if by any means they may be brought to repentance, which, however, will be very difficult. Yet Jesus Christ, who is our true life, has the power of [effecting] this.” (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, Ch. 4)
“Flee, therefore, those evil offshoots [of Satan], which produce death-bearing fruit, whereof if any one tastes, he instantly dies. For these men are not the planting of the Father. For if they were, they would appear as branches of the cross, and their fruit would be incorruptible.” (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Trallians, Ch. 11)
And just an FYI, the “pagan” Augustine was originally of your mind, though he changed it later.
“Chapter 7 [III.]— Augustine Confesses that He Had Formerly Been in Error Concerning the Grace of God.
“It was not thus that that pious and humble teacher thought— I speak of the most blessed Cyprian— when he said that we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own. And in order to show this, he appealed to the apostle as a witness, where he said, For what have you that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Corinthians 4:7 And it was chiefly by this testimony that I myself also was convinced when I was in a similar error, thinking that faith whereby we believe in God is not God’s gift, but that it is in us from ourselves, and that by it we obtain the gifts of God, whereby we may live temperately and righteously and piously in this world. For I did not think that faith was preceded by God’s grace, so that by its means would be given to us what we might profitably ask, except that we could not believe if the proclamation of the truth did not precede; but that we should consent when the gospel was preached to us I thought was our own doing, and came to us from ourselves. And this my error is sufficiently indicated in some small works of mine written before my episcopate.”
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/15121.htm
So, if Augustine is a Pagan and comes up with Pagan ideas, were his original ideas less Pagan than his later opinions?
“Pagan concepts such as original sin, biblical predestination and election.”
We’ve gone over predestination, which beyond your appealing to non-biblical sources to refute, and your assertions that they are refuted, stand generally unmolested. But on original sin, how can you deny this when the scripture tells us that we are by nature the children of wrath, who served the desires of the flesh and of the mind?
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
“To embrace original sin you, must negate man’s free will and their ability to obey God on their own.”
If it is “on their own,” without even the aid of grace to open up their hearts, your views aren’t even Arminian, but totally Pelagian!
“As for my disdain for Calvin’s teachings, I will reserve any more comment on the man personally for God himself. For when a man’s teachings lead millions astray from the truth, it is God he must eventually answer to. By now I am sure he has.”
One last thing. If Calvin led “millions astray from the truth,” then the entire Reformation was a “leading astray” of millions from the “truth” of Catholicism, as it was Luther, the Augustinian monk, who declared the bondage of the will and waged war against man’s Free-Will. And his legacy was carried on by all the reformers thereafter. If what you say is true, then it is the Roman Catholic view which is the truth, as it is they who always championed the freedom of the will. After all, the doctrines of grace utterly abolish Catholicism and its rites.
I’m sure the Catholics would be happy with your assertions, but I’m willing to bet that you wouldn’t.
I asked four questions. You didn’t answer any of them.
OK. Please provide us with a reference on the subject of predestination outside Augustine and Calvin comparing and contrasting the scriptures. I have yet to find any scholarly works apart from Augustine and Calvin.
This is your opportunity to provide us with why you've come to the conclusion you have. I have yet to find any such detailed analysis.