Class notes on Augustine's division of history

(Originally written March 27, 2007 in Book 15)

Class notes

Salvation

The Christian emphasis on salvation being the most important part of religion is a criteria of differentiating it from all other religions.

Christianity is unique in its conception of Original Sin (or Fallenness or Total Depravity).Christians cannot save themselves nor do they believe man is desiring of salvation.

Atonement (makes possible) grace. Grace (how we receive it) is faith.

Augustine vs. Pelagius (c.a. 400 A.D.)

Pelagius held that we must be able to achieve the righteousness required to go to Heaven or else God couldn't have given the Commandments.

Augustine held that the commandments are given so as to show our fallenness in order to receive grace from God.

Pelagianism - possible to earn salvation, but salvation via grace is a secondary option.

Semi-Pelagianism - Grace is essential to salvation; once one has received the grace of God then one has the ability to earn one's salvation.

Receiving God's grace is not merely the forgiving of all our sins, it includes a transformation of the receiver's nature.

Regeneration - 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here!

Augustine's 4 divisions of history

1) Adam & Eve in the Garden
- "posse pecare" - it is possible to sin

2) Fallenness pre-Christ
- "non posse non pecare" - not possible not to sin

3) Fallenness post-Christ
- " posse non pecare" - it is possible to not sin

4) In Heaven
- "non posse pecare" - not possible to sin

Justification - God declares us to be righteous in the light of the work of Christ

Conversion - a change in the will.