One of the issues that the early church had to wrestle with was how to deal with the nature of sin. What was it? How do we deal with it? How did it affect us? How did what happened with Adam and Eve fall upon us?
This last question led to the development of what we would call 'original sin'. Pelagius basically taught that the effect of the first sin ended with Adam and Eve. There is no transmission of the sin and its effect down to succeding generation. The implicatin of this is that we are not fallen men and women and that we can make a conscious choice to follow God and be obedient without any string attached. That is, our nature is not corrupted by sin but becomes that way as we sin our way through life. God has given us natural grace to obey Him and we do not ever have to sin. It is an act of the will to be obedient to God and we have it in us to do so.
Augustine thought different. We have indeed been damanged by the events in Eden and we will always carry that scar with us. God's grace in helping to overcome the effects of and desire to sin is external. That is, we need to ask God for His grace to help us be obeident. Pelagius taught that this grace was already in us and we didn't need to ask for it. We simply needed to try harder to be obedient.
According to Pelagius, a Christian can lead a virtuous life once he understands clearly that the human will can accomplish this on its own. Human nature, in and of itself, because of grace already within us, can obey God under its own strength. The problem lies in the fact that, if left solely to ourselves, we would not choose to serve God and ber obedient.
Pelagius understands the sin of Adam and Eve to be theirs alone with no ramifications for us today. Augustine, however, saw (most correctly) that human nature is condemned b y the guilt of this sin and it is only God's grace outside of ourselves that can save us.
How do we deal with this controversy today? Go to Barnes and Noble. Go to the self-help section and look at Dr. Phil, Tony Robbins, and yes, even Joel Osteen. Many others are available also. The basic philosophy behind all of these is Pelagian. Your life is yours alone and you have the strength to overcome adversity if you try hard with the tools that I give you. Your destiny belongs to you alone. Human nature is not corrupted but you are able to overcome the 'sin in your life because you have the innate ability to do it.
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I've never read Pelagius. (Do his works still exist or do we only know them from St. Augustine?) Do you know if he was talking about everyone being able to resist sin or just the baptised being able to resist sin?
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