Historical Review

For centuries theological battles have raged over the interrelationship between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Some, following the teachings of the British monk, Pelagius, a fourth century moralist, have argued that the sin of Adam did nothing more than provide a bad example for his posterity. There is no such thing as original sin; man is neither depraved or under condemnation because of Adam’s sin. All people have free will, and because of it God’s grace is universal.3 Augustine, a contemporary to Pelagius, stood in opposition to his teachings and stressed man’s total inability to gain right standing before God. Augustinianism, later developments of which would be called by some Realism or Calvinism, also taught that man’s entire nature was corrupt; that he was under condemnation because of Adam’s sin; and that his will was bound to that nature, thus limiting his choices to the sphere of that corrupt nature.4 Later developments of Pelagianism were more moderate and by the middle of the sixteenth century, a large number of its adherents became known as Arminianists, following in the traditions of the Dutch theologian, Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). Although the views of Arminius were not that differen