Earliest Church Father's View of God

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Augustine introduced the heresy of original sin. He had only Jerome's Latin Bible, and did not have the original Greek. He misinterpreted Romans 5:12 and taught that Adam's sin made all mankind sinners through inherited sin. Calvin, being a disciple of Augustine, formulated the doctrine of total depravity of man through inherited sin from Adam to the degree that man was unable to make a choice whether to believe the Gospel or not unless God, through predestination, gave him enlightenment to start off. This was followed up with Irresisible grace where he had no choice but to receive the Gospel and be saved. Those who were not predestined to be saved were condemned to hell. According to Calvin, influenced by Augustine, babies and infants were automatically condemned to hell if they died because of inherited sin. This is a false and very cruel doctrine. As we see from the writings of the Early Church fathers, a person did not become a sinner until reaching the age of accountability where they knew right from wrong, and started sinner against their conscience. This means that babies and infants, if they died before the age of accountability, went to heaven.

Evangelism which consists of presenting the Gospel and giving the unconverted free choice to accept or reject it, is totally consistent with what the Earliest Church fathers taught. Ray Comfort is an excellent example of showing an unconverted person that they are responsible for their own sins, and this is why he is so successful at winning souls to Christ. Those who try to persuade sinners to accept that they are sinners through inherited sin by Adam are most unsuccessful before unconverted people find it difficult to accept that they should judged by the sin of someone else, making them helpless to choose unless they are enlightened by predestined grace of God. This is what causes a lot of confusion to those who have believed and accepted the Gospel, because they still have doubts whether they are actually predestined for salvation or not.

But accepting responsibility for one's own sin and making the free choice to receive Christ as Saviour, results in a stronger assurance of salvation because they know that because they have chosen Christ, they are automatically predestined for Salvation and are therefore part of the elect.

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Augustine introduced the heresy of original sin. He had only Jerome's Latin Bible, and did not have the original Greek. He misinterpreted Romans 5:12 and taught that Adam's sin made all mankind sinners through inherited sin. Calvin, being a disciple of Augustine, formulated the doctrine of total depravity of man through inherited sin from Adam to the degree that man was unable to make a choice whether to believe the Gospel or not unless God, through predestination, gave him enlightenment to start off. This was followed up with Irresisible grace where he had no choice but to receive the Gospel and be saved. Those who were not predestined to be saved were condemned to hell. According to Calvin, influenced by Augustine, babies and infants were automatically condemned to hell if they died because of inherited sin. This is a false and very cruel doctrine. As we see from the writings of the Early Church fathers, a person did not become a sinner until reaching the age of accountability where they knew right from wrong, and started sinner against their conscience. This means that babies and infants, if they died before the age of accountability, went to heaven.

Evangelism which consists of presenting the Gospel and giving the unconverted free choice to accept or reject it, is totally consistent with what the Earliest Church fathers taught. Ray Comfort is an excellent example of showing an unconverted person that they are responsible for their own sins, and this is why he is so successful at winning souls to Christ. Those who try to persuade sinners to accept that they are sinners through inherited sin by Adam are most unsuccessful before unconverted people find it difficult to accept that they should judged by the sin of someone else, making them helpless to choose unless they are enlightened by predestined grace of God. This is what causes a lot of confusion to those who have believed and accepted the Gospel, because they still have doubts whether they are actually predestined for salvation or not.

But accepting responsibility for one's own sin and making the free choice to receive Christ as Saviour, results in a stronger assurance of salvation because they know that because they have chosen Christ, they are automatically predestined for Salvation and are therefore part of the elect.

Yes, personal accountability is the main thread of the Early Church. I have not read Augustine in full, have his documents here on my computer, but from what I have been told of his beliefs they would be considered untrue at best, and heretical at worst.

I agree with what you say about salvation, knowing God is indeed "just" leads to stronger faith. Calvinistic thinking not only throws doubt on people's salvation, it also throws mud at the character of God.