Religious Libertarianism

Pelagius

Pelagius did not like the idea of predestination because he believed that it was responsible for the sin and corruption in the Catholic Church. The reason for this was because so many people believed that because they were predestined, there was no point in trying to change whether or not they were the elect or the reprobates, therefore they would just live their life how they felt free to.

He then wrote 2 works explaining why humans have freewill. these were 'On Nature' and 'Defense of the Freedom of the Will'.

He said, like Augustine, that The Fall resulted in Original Sin.

However, he said that the whole of humanity cannot be punished for this first sin because an omnibenevolent God would not do that. The Original Sin only affected Adam and Eve.

He explained this through Deuteronomy 24:16 which said that 'Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents. Each will die for their own sins'.

As humanity does not inherit Original Sin, they do not also have an overwhelming desire to sin (concupiscence)

Pelagius said that The Fall was a good thing because it meant that Adam and Eve were able to make a freewill decision. He said that just as a rebellous teenager needs to go against their parents to become mature, so Adam and Eve needed to defy God.

Pelagius said that because Adam and Eve choose to eat from the Tree, it showed that they were mature enough to receive the gift of freewill.

Pelgaius said that through freewill, we can obey God's commandments. He said that a loving God would not create commandments that we could not follow. Every commandments is given because God knows that we can follow them. Pelagius said that 'No one knows better the true measure of our strength than He who has given it to us'. He said that a good work was when humans used their freewill to resist temptation and follow God's commandments.

Despite the fact that Pelgius spoke about the importance of God's commandments, he said that humans could not follow them without God's help. It was only through the grace of God that they would be fulfilled. Pelagius said that God's grace was not forceful but compelled the individual to do the good works, thus ensuring that the person still has the freewill to choose to do certain actions. Humans can act on their freewill and be sinful because they have ignored the guidance from God. Pelagius said that when a person sins, it is actually a good thing because it emphasises the goodness when good things are done.

He said 'this very capacity to do evil is also good-good I say. Because it makes the good part better by making it voluntary and independent'. Choosing to do good works it due to the guidance of God.

Pelagius said that even if peope did not carry out God's commandments, they could still ask for forgiveness. Through God's grace this can come. It is through the sacrfice of Jesus that forgiveness and salvation can come. He therefore said that atonement was universal-for everyone. He also said that askign for forgiveness is nto enough. It is all very well being a mass murderer and asking for forgiveness, for you must also repent. This means to change your ways. Only by doign this you can gain God's atonement.

Arminius

Initally, Arminius beleived in what Calvin said, but then he rejected this.

He said that if you accepted predestination, then you were forced to conclude that humanity was nothing more that just God's pre-programmed minions. Humanity was just a 'play thing'. Arminius also concluded that God must be responsible for all the evil in the world. If humans follow the actions that have already been predetermined by God, then this must be the case. He said that he needed to defend God so that he 'might not be considered the author of sin, nor man a automaton in the hands of God'.

Arminius said that original sin was bad for humankind. Because all humans are therefore compelled to sin due to original sin, freewill is compromised. We are less free. He said that in a natural state, a person's instinct would be to sin.

Arminius said that the Fall did not mean that humans would always sin though. He said that God's Grace, shown and offered through the Hoy Spirit helped people not to. He said that There is a link between God's Grace and the Holy Spirit called prevenient grace. It is God's grace that precedes each moral decision.

Arminius said that in all of humanity, god places his Holy Spirit. It enourages people to do good work. It will 'fight against Satan, sin, the world and their own flesh'.

However, this guidance is dependent on whether or not a person asks for it. They can choose, through their own freewill not to gain that guidance. In this sense, the person's impulse to sin is balanced by the Holy Spirit. However it does not override it. This is because if the Holy Spirit overrode a person's decisions, we would no longer be free.

God has provdied a way for all humans to be saved through accepting the Holy Spirit.

Implications

Although some might say that it shows that God does not have enough power, it could be said that the very fact that God gave us freewill is an illustration of the extentof God's power.

Freewill supports the idea of an omnibenevolent God because it says that everyone can achieve salvation by chosing to follow God.

The value of prayer makes sense because if we are predestined, there is no point in praying because God will not listen because he knows that will already happen. But if freewill is true prayer is meaningful because it can be used to seek God's guidance.

The idea of rewards and punishments makes more sense with freewill.

Freewill shows that God is not responsible for the evil in the world and provides a good theodicy.