Pelagianism has been condemned by council after council and creed after creed. Until modern days it has been considered non-Christian by all champions of orthodoxy. While many “Reformed” people in the modern day are zealous against hyper-Calvinism, it appears that some are simply fighting historical Calvinism. True hyper-Calvinism, while not something to just ignore, has no real impact today. Pelagianism, on the other hand, has made massive inroads in the professing Church. While many would not hold to all the teachings of Pelagianism in their own minds, they are practical Pelagians in evangelism and sanctification. Pelagianism hides behind the teachings on man’s responsibility, of free-will, and then by those in methods of evangelism. It hides in the guise of Arminian theology and it hides in the guise of Reformed theology. It is rampant.
The basic tenants of Pelagianism are given below in something of a logical form.
(a) Moral character can be predicated only of volitions.
(b) Ability is always the measure of responsibility
(c) Therefore, every man has always the plenary power to do all that it is his duty to do.
(d) Therefore, the human will alone, to the exclusion of the interference of an internal influence from God, must decide human character and destiny.
(e) Therefore, the only divine influence needed by man or consistent with his character as a self-determined agent is an external, providential, and educational one.
In evangelism and preaching we must teach people the nature of sin. Now, if all we do is try to get them to see that they have committed external acts of sin rather than teach them the nature of their sinful hearts, then we are practical Pelagians at this point. This cannot be stressed too much as it is so dangerous. If all people admit to is that they are sinners because of the fact that they have committed external sins, they still don’t have any idea of what it means to be a sinner. If people have no idea that they have sinful hearts that sin in all that comes from the heart, they have no concept of the biblical teaching of sin. They will have no concept that they need a new nature and not just some external forgiveness. If they have no idea of what it means to have a sinful heart, they will have no idea of the Gospel which is a promise of a new heart.
While many will say that of course they believe that morality is of the heart, it could not be seen in their methods of evangelism. There are popular methods of evangelism that focus on the externals of the Ten Commandments. This can get quite tricky, but we can think of certain “inward” sins and still think of sin as external. We can still leave people as thinking that a sinful desire or a sinful thought is nothing more than an act of the will or choice. We may think that we have escaped Pelagian thinking if we tell people that their lusting is sin, but we have not if we have not pressed home the reason people have lustful thoughts. We must take people to the point where they see that they have a sinful nature and all that flows from their hearts is sin. They have sinful actions and lustful thoughts because they have sinful hearts. If we don’t take them to the very depths of their sinful natures they will think that repentance is nothing more than an external turning from sin and that amounts to nothing more than a moral reformation.
The New Covenant is built on the fact that God will give a new heart. It is built on the fact that it is God who will come in the soul and be the life of that soul in Christ. The New Covenant is built on the indwelling of Christ by the Spirit and so the believer becomes a temple of the living God. Salvation is to be rescued from the devil and the bondage of sin and not just external sins. In chapter 7 of Mark we have the words of Jesus on this: “After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” The only thing that can happen to a sinful heart that is the spring and fountain of sin is to be replaced with a new heart. We must be born from above (again) if we are going to enter the kingdom. Once a sinner understands that s/he has a sinful heart, it becomes clear that s/he needs a new heart and so must be born from above. But if we do nothing but get people to see that they have sinned and need a sacrifice for sin to be saved, we have not gotten beyond what a Pelagian would teach. Can a person repent of a sinful nature if the person does not know about that nature and feel its power on them? Can a person repent of pride of the heart (a sinful heart is full of self and pride) if s/he thinks that only acts of the will need to be repented of? Pelagianism attacks the Gospel even when it is disguised in Arminian or Reformed clothing. It is the deception of the devil to keep people from seeing that they must become new creatures. It can be the difference between the Gospel and a distortion of it.
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