Calvinism and Arminianism

SOVEREIGNTY, FREEWILL AND SALVATION
PROF. M. M. NINAN
no such thing as original sin, sin being a thing of will and not of nature; for if it could be of
nature, our sin would be chargeable on God the creator. There seems to be confusion
between individual responsibility and the collective responsibility in all this free will
predestination debate. It all seems to be based on individuals whereas there are reasons
that are communal than individual. Even when Jesus established his communities, they all
went selfish and the communes failed very often, because of one person (as in the case of
Judas Iscariot) or a couple (as in Ananias and Saphira). As far as we know none of the
early communities survived. When it emerged it was in the form of a hierarchial system of
power and authority as in the Catholic Church. Instead of being servants of one another,
all Christian Church and the saved believers formed a structure, based on power and
authority, based on “who rules over whom.”
These are the teachings of Pelegius
The first assumption of Pelegius was the rejection of the concept of Original Sin and the
conseqent teaching that man lost his freewill as a result. If anything is transmitted
genetically according to Pelegius it is this freedom upon which Adam acted in partaking of
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even God agrees that their eyes
were openned and Adam and Eve became like God.
According to Aurelius, bishop of Carthage,
who charged Coelestius the disciple of Pelegius as holding.
(1) that Adam would have died even if he had not sinned;
(2) that the sin of Adam injured himself alone, not the human race;
(3) that newborn children are in the same condition in which Adam was before the fall;
(4) that the whole human race does not die because of Adam's death or sin, nor will the
race rise again because of the resurrection of Christ;
(5) that the law gives entrance to heaven as well as the gospel;
(6) that even before the coming of Jesus Christ there were men who were entirely
without sin.
To these propositions a seventh is sometimes added, "that infants, though unbaptized,
have eternal life", a corollary from he third.
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