Where's "somewhere down the line"?
Not so hard to find.
...from the Catholic Encyclopedia on Pelagius & Pelagianism:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htm
"
- Even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died.
- Adam's sin harmed only himself, not the human race.
- Children just born are in the same state as Adam before his fall.
- The whole human race neither dies through Adam's sin or death, nor rises again through the resurrection of Christ.
- The (Mosaic Law) is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel.
- Even before the advent of Christ there were men who were without sin.
On account of these doctrines, which clearly contain the quintessence of Pelagianism,..."
All that amounts to a doctrine of "Free Will" by denying the nature & scope of Original Sin, leaving man with the "redeeming quality" of free will which he employs to make salvation an effective personal reality.
The article in The Catholic Encyclopedia makes this explicitly clear a little further on in the article:
"Pelagius, having won the good-will of the assembly by reading to them some private letters of prominent
bishops among them one of Augustine (Ep. cxlvi) -- began to explain away and disprove the various accusations. Thus from the charge that he made the possibility of a sinless life solely dependent on
free will, he exonerated himself by saying that, on the contrary, he required the help of
God (
adjutorium Dei) for it,
though by this he meant nothing else than the grace of creation (gratia creationis). Of other doctrines with which he had been charged, he said that, formulated as they were in the complaint, they did not originate from him, but from Caelestius, and that he also repudiated them. After the hearing there was nothing left for the synod but to discharge the defendant and to announce him as worthy of communion with the
Church. The Orient had now spoken twice and had found nothing to blame in Pelagius, because he had hidden his real sentiments from his judges. "
Later,...
"...the
pope developed the
Catholic teaching on
original sin and grace, and excluded Pelagius and Caelestius, who were reported to have rejected these doctrines, form communion with the
Church until they should come to their senses."
Finaly...
"Pursuant to the
papal command, there was held on 1 May, 418, in the presence of 200
bishops, the famous
Council of Carthage, which
again branded Pelagianism as a heresy in eight (or nine) canons (
Denzinger, "Enchir.", 10th ed., 1908, 101-8). Owing to their importance they may be summarized:
- Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin.
- New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin.
- Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, but also gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins.
- The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them.
- Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works.
- Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners.
- The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses", not only to others, but also to themselves.
- The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness.
- Some codices containing a ninth canon (Denzinger, loc. cit., note 3): Children dying without baptism do not go to a "middle place" (medius locus), since the non reception of baptism excludes both from the "kingdom of heaven" and from "eternal life".
These clearly worded canons, which (except the last-named) afterwards came to be
articles of faith binding on the universal Church, gave the death blow to Pelagianism; sooner or later it would bleed to death. "
Notice #5 & how it is confirmed by 1Cor2:14
14: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
"It was not until the Second Synod of Orange (529) that Pelagianism breathed its last in the West, though that convention aimed its decisions primarily against Semipelagianism. "
Semi-Pelagians tried to soften the destruction Free Will doctrine causes to the Original Sin doctrine explicitly stated in Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
with "Semi-Pelagianism" that preserves the free will by redefining the word "dead" in Eph 2:1 as "sick" or "diseased" & placing the origin of faith in man instead of crediting it as a gift of God:
Eph 2:8 - For by
grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:
The flip flop from declaring it heresy to making it orthodoxy was completed at The Council of Trent where "co-operative grace" was term given the works gospel and confusing the concepts of salvation & justification was employed to effect the switch.
CANON 9: "If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification,
and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema."
Scriptural refutation:
- "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin," (Rom. 3:20).
- "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," (Rom. 3:24).
- "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," (Rom. 3:28).
- "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness," (Rom. 4:3).
- "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Rom. 5:1).
- "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God," (Eph. 2:8).
- "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," (Titus 3:5).
