R.C. Sproul

Now this, of course, is not the only place in the Bible that we encounter this concept of predestination, but I just read that passage so that everybody will see that the word predestination is a biblical word.

And because it's a biblical word, all of those who have been diligent students of the Bible have tried to understand what the Bible means by divine predestination.

Before we explore that closely, let me give a little bit more historical background.

There are many, many, many, many different theologies to be found in the history of the Christian church, just as there are many denominations that we've already noted in

But I think it's safe to say that there are three basic, generic types of theology, historically.

And theologians speak of them in these general categories.

One is what we call Pelagianism.

The second is what we call semi-Pelagianism.

And the third is what we call Augustinianism.

Now the reason for this threefold designation of basic types of theology has its roots in the fourth century when the church underwent a titanic struggle

over many serious issues of theology.

And the one man who was recognized and usually acclaimed as the greatest theologian at least of the first thousand years of Christian history, if not the greatest theologian of all Christian history, who defended the faith at that period was, of course, Saint Augustine.

And his chief opponent in several debates at that period of Christian history was a monk by the name of Pelagius.

And one of the critical things about which they debated was how important or necessary was the grace of God for human salvation.

Pelagius was of the opinion

that the grace of God assists human beings to be saved, but is in no way necessary.

His fundamental assumption was that man, in his natural state, has within himself the capacity to keep the commandments of God to such a degree as to be redeemed without any help from divine grace.

Augustine stressed the absolute dependence of the fallen sinner upon the grace of God for that sinner's salvation and really repudiated Pelagianism as an early form of sheer humanism.

And Pelagianism was seen not merely as a subdivision of Christian thought, but really as sub-Christian in its thought, that is, not even worthy of being considered Christian.

Now, when I say there are three basic trains of thought that have come down through the church historically, I agree with this setup here.