I recommend two books by David Bercot who has studied the early Christians for over 20 years.
"Will the theologians please sit down" and "Will the real heretics please stand up"
From the latter Bercot writes:
Unfortionately for us, the New Testament wasn't written by Western minds, but by Hellenic Eastern minds. Augustine himself has never mastered Greek. This is highly significant, because Greek is the language of the New Testament and the vast majority of early Christian writings. Perhaps that's why Augustine departed from early Christianity in so many areas-more than any other Christian teacher of his time. It's unfortunate he had such a brilliant mind, because as a result of his genius, he took the entire Western Church with him.
The list of doctrines and practices that Augustine either initiated or gave his authority to is impressively long. The following is only a partial list of what he taught:
- that Mary was born and lived her entire life without sin; 1
- that unbaptized infants are eternally damned ;2
- that sex within marriage is an inherently debased act ;3
- that war can be holy ;4
- that there will be no litteral millenium ;5
- that there is no forgiveness of sins outside the Catholic church ;6
- that some of the practices and teachings of the apostles no longer apply to Christians because the apostles lived in a different age ;7
- that there is a purgatorial fire ;8
- that the dead can benefit from the sacrifice of the Eucharist and ;9
- that it's proper for a "Christian" state to persecute heretics ;10
Notes
1. Augustine - On nature and grace chap. 42
2. Augustine - On forgivness of sins and baptism of infants bk. 1, chap. 21.
3. Augustine - Enchiridion chaps. 26, 34 ...
4. Augustine - The city of God bk. 1. chap. 21
5. Ibid., bk 20, chap 7.
6. Augustine - Enchiridion chap. 65; On marriage and concupiscence.
7. Augustine - The correction of the Donatists Chap 5.
8. Justo L. Gonzalez - A history of Christian thought, vol. 2 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970), p. 53; Earle E. Cairns- Christianity through the centuries (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1954), p. 161.
9. Augustine - Enchiridion Chap 110.
10. Augustine - Donatists chap. 2.
What Augustine taught about salvation
1. As a result of Adam's sin, man is totally depraved. He is absolutely unable to do anything good or save himself. In fact he's even unable to believe or have faith in God.
2. Therefor, humans can believe in God or have faith in Him only if by grace He first gives them this faith or belief. Man has no free will to choose either to believe or not to believe.
3. God's decision to save one person and condemn another, to give faith to one person and withhold it from another is totally arbitrary. There is nothing we can do to influence Gods choice.
4. Before the creation or the world, God arbitrarely predestined (not simply foreknew) who would be saved and who would be damned. There is nothing we can do in this life or the next to change these matters.
5. The elect, those who were predestined for salvation, cannot possibly lose their salvation. Those predestined for damnation cannot possibly be saved.
6. No one can know whether or not he or she is of the elect. God gives many people the gift of faith so that they believe, are baptized, walk in Jesus' commandments. However some of them have not been predestined salvation and ultimately won't persevere. The gift of perseverance is a separate gift from that or faith. We have no way of knowing who in the church has been given the gift of perserverance.
7. Salvation is totally a matter of grace. Faith is a gift from God. Obedience is a gift of God. Perserverance is a gift from God.
Augustine managed to to persuade most of the bishops of North Africa, and his views ended up prevailing. However, by overreacting to the errors of Pelagianism. Augustine obliterated the original Early Christian teachings of free will and man's involvement in salvation. In their place was the cold, grim doctrine of absolute predestination.
