2nd Century Christianity vs. Modern-day Calvinism
I have cited below at length a passage from the great 2nd-century Apologist Irenaeus that frankly, NO CALVINIST today would affirm. They would call the great 2nd-century apologist anachronistically a "semi-Pelagian" (or worse). And yet it is the Calvinists who have betrayed the Apostolic faith and would be entirely condemned by Irenaeus. History testifies that it is the Augustinian-Calvinists who have perverted the Apostolic deposit. It is they who have abandoned the faith "once for all delivered to the saints". In the 2nd century, the particular doctrines we know today as "Reformed" were nowhere to be found in Christianity. Some Calvinist doctrines can, in fact, be found in the 2nd century, BUT not amongst orthodox Christians. They were found amongst the heretics and/or amongst those who affirmed pagan Greek philosophy. The Church rejected these concepts as falsehood and error. Much of their writing combated these doctrines. We will now simply let Irenaeus' own words expose and condemn Calvinism for the darkness that it is...
"If then the advent of the Son comes indeed alike to all, but is for the purpose of judging, and separating the believing from the unbelieving, since, as those who believe do His will agreeably to their own choice, and as, [also] agreeably to their own choice, the disobedient do not consent to His doctrine; it is manifest that His Father has made all in a like condition, each person having a choice of his own, and a free understanding; and that He has regard to all things, and exercises a providence over all, making His sun to rise upon the evil and on the good, and sending rain upon the just and unjust. Matthew 5:45. And to as many as continue in their love towards God, does He grant communion with Him. But communion with God is life and light, and the enjoyment of all the benefits which He has in store. But on as many as, according to their own choice, depart from God, He inflicts that separation from Himself which they have chosen of their own accord. But separation from God is death, and separation from light is darkness; and separation from God consists in the loss of all the benefits which He has in store. Those, therefore, who cast away by apostasy these aforementioned things, being, in fact, destitute of all good, do experience every kind of punishment. God, however, does not punish them immediately of Himself, but that punishment falls upon them because they are destitute of all that is good. Now, good things are eternal and without end with God, and therefore the loss of these is also eternal and never-ending. It is in this matter just as occurs in the case of a flood of light: those who have blinded themselves, or have been blinded by others, are for ever deprived of the enjoyment of light. It is not, [however], that the light has inflicted upon them the penalty of blindness, but it is that the blindness itself has brought calamity upon them: and therefore the Lord declared, He that believes in Me is not condemned, John 3:18-21 that is, is not separated from God, for he is united to God through faith. On the other hand, He says, He that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God; that is, he separated himself from God of his own accord. For this is the condemnation, that light has come into this world, and men have loved darkness rather than light...
Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 27)
Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 27)
What you have just read is a faithful expression of the Apostolic faith that was believed in the 2nd century and had been handed down by the Apostles. No Christian leader before Augustine, and not even Augustine himself until the 5th century (AD 412 to be exact) believed in the doctrines that Calvinists teach today. May they repent and return to the Apostolic faith and understanding. May they abandon the doctrines they hold that originated with the Gnostic heretics and/or the pagan philosophers.
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