04 - Prosper of Aquitaine : No Calvinist
Prosper of Aquitaine : No Calvinist
Introduction
Prosper of Aquitaine was a church historian, theologian, supporter of Augustine, and contender against Semi-Pelagianism. He originally wrote against the Semi-Pelagian views of Rufinus. He wrote to Augustine asking for supporting arguments and Augustine replied to him. Prosper wrote an answer to what he perceived as Semi-Pelagian attacks in Answers to the Gauls. and Answers to Vincentian Articles, where he responded to teaching of another Semi-Pelagian, Vincent of Lerins. The quotes are all from Answers to the Gauls.
Prosper shared with Augustine some peculiar views. Everyone’s guilt for Adam’s sin was removed by water baptism.
Summary of Prosper’sAnswer to the Gauls In Answer to the Gauls Prosper wrote 15 articles and 15 qualifications (or summaries, of the articles. Here is a brief synopsis.
1. No fatal necessity: God’s predestination is not in any way the cause of sin.
2-3. Water baptism takes away original and previous personal sins of both the elect and reprobate.
4. All elect and reprobate who hear the Gospel are called to grace. Those who never heard were not called.
5. There is only one call, common to both elect and reprobate. A man’s faith is both a gift of God and his free will, but unbelief is solely from his will.
6. We have a free will in the shadow of death. God’s grace does not suppress free will but strengthens it.
7. Some genuine believers not predestinated as the elect because God foreknew they would fall away.
8. Christ paid the price for the entire world. God’s call is not universal and equal for all, but He wants all to be saved.
9. It is right to say the Savior died for the entire world, but it also may be said it was only for those who would benefit.
10. The reason all do not hear the gospel is a secret of God’s.
11. God hardens some because they first deserved this by their previous sins.
12. God foreknows and wills good, but only foreknows evil. God preserves believers in Him, but some turn away by their own fault.
13. Even the reprobate have a role on this earth and in God’s plan.
14. God foreknew but did not cause our disbelief. Faith and righteousness are gifts of God.
15. Foreknowledge and predestination are not the same, for that would make God the author of evil.
Quotes from Prosper’sAnswer to the Gauls from Article 6: “It is wrong to say that free will is nothing or does not exist; but it is also wrong to deny that, before it is illumined by the light of faith, it moves about in darkness and in the shadow of death. Before man is freed from the slavery of the devil by the grace of God, he lies in the depth of the abyss in which he threw himself headlong through his own free will.” from Article 6 “When, then, a man is justified, that is, from sinner made into a just man, he receives, without any previous merit of his own, a gift by which he is able to gain merits. And the goodness which the grace of God started in him must grow by his own free co-operation, though never without God’s help, without which man can neither advance nor persevere in virtue.” from Article 6: “But it is altogether silly to say that the predestination of God is operative in men both for good and for evil. This seems to imply that some sort of necessity drives men to both good and evil, when actually in good men their willingness comes from grace, while in the wicked their wills act without grace.” from Article 9: “... Accordingly, though it is right to say that the Saviour was crucified for the redemption of the entire world, because He truly took our human nature and because all men were lost in the first man, yet it may also be said that He was crucified only for those who were to profit by His death....”
Article 15 Answer: “If you make no distinction whatever between God’s prescience [foreknowledge] and His predestination, then you endeavor to attribute to God with regard to evil what must be ascribed to him with regard to what is good.... And so prescience can exist without predestination, but predestination cannot exist without prescience.” (p.156)
Qualification of Article 2: “Likewise, he who says that in those who are not predestined the grace of baptism does not wipe away original sin is not a Catholic. The sacrament of baptism, which takes away all sins without exception, is a true baptism also in those who are not to persevere in the truth and who for that reason were not predestined for eternal life.” (p.157)
Qualification of Article 5: “...A man’s faith, it is true, is both a gift of God and a fruit of his free will, but unbelief comes solely from the will of man.” (p.158)
Qualification of Article 6: “Likewise, he who says that free will is nothing in man but that it is the predestination of God which is operative in all men whether for good or for evil, is not a Catholic [i.e. of Orthodox faith]....” (p.158)
Qualification of Article 7: “...It is because God foresaw that they would do so through their own fault that He did not include them among the elect that were predestined....” (p.158-159)
Qualification of Article 9: “...For it is certain that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the price for the redemption of the entire world. But they do not share in the application of this price who either cherishing their captivity refused to be liberated or having been liberated returned to their captivity....” (p.159)
Qualification of Article 15: Likewise, he who says that prescience [foreknowledge] and predestination are one and the same thing may certainly unite the two with regard to our good works. ... But with regard to evil works, we must refer these solely to God’s prescience.” (p.162) Ways in Which Prosper was Calvinistic T - Total Depravity
Prosper said that we had free will, but it moves about in darkness and in the shadow of death. We are slaves and in the abyss which he threw himself headlong through his own free will.
L- Limited (or Definitive) Atonement
Prosper accepted aspects of limited (or definitive) atonement, as well as accepting aspects of universal atonement (Article 9).