First 300 Years: Christians Taught Free Will

 * Marston & Forster: the expanded (2000) edition of their classic book God's Strategy in Human History shows that early Christian leaders taught free will and rejected heresies that denied genuine free will. Scripture, and not church history, is authoritative on a debate over predestination and free will. However, Marston & Forster's observations, including the valuable information below, that the early Christian leaders taught free will, can help those many believers who are taught wrongly that the early Christian leaders opposed libertarian free will.
 * Augustinian Sympathizer: Alister McGrath, professor of historical theology at Oxford, admits that, "The pre-Augustinian theological tradition is practically of one voice in asserting the freedom of the human will." p. 296
 * Free Will Was Taught: by the Christian leaders in Alexandria, Antioch, Athens, Carthage, Jerusalem, Lycia, Nyssa (in Cappadocia), Rome, and Sicca (in Africa).
 * Martyrs, Sons of Martyrs: taught free will, including Justin Martyr (d 165), Irenaeus of Gaul (d 200), Athenagoras of Athens (2nd cent), Theophilus of Antioch (2nd cent), Tatian of Syria (late 2nd), Clement of Alexandria (d 215), Bardaisan of Syria (d 222), Tertullian of Carthage (d 225), Origen (d 254), Novatian of Rome (d 258), Methodius of Olympus (martyred 311), Arnobius of Sicca (d 327), Cyril of Jerusalem (d 386), Gregory of Nyssa (d 395), John Chrysostom (d 407), Jerome (d 420). Bob quoted on the air from all but the last five, so here are excerpts from their writings:
 * Methodius of Olympus: wrote in The Banquet of the Ten Virgins xvi: "Now those who decide that man is not possessed of freewill, and affirm that he is governed by the unavoidable necessities of fate... are guilty of impiety toward God..."
 * Cyril of Jerusalem: an ordinary churchman, in Lecture iv 18: "Know also that thou hast a soul self-governed... made after the image of its Creator... having free power to do what it willeth."
 * Gregory of Nyssa: On Virginity (3G8) chapter XII: "Being the image and the likeness... of the Power which rules all things, man kept also in the matter of a freewill, this likeness to Him..."
 * John Chrysostom: On Hebrews, Homily 12: "All is in God's power, but so that our freewill is not lost... He does not preced our willing, that our freewill may not suffer."
 * Jerome: Letters  CXXIII: "We have been created endowed with freewill... It is true that freedom of the will brings with it freedom of decision."
 * True Confessions: St. Augustine admitted that he would sacrifice any teaching, including on God's righteousness and man's freedom, in order to preserve the Greek philosophical concept of utter immutability.
 * Those Committed to Augustine: like D. James Kennedy's Professor of New Testament, write things like this: "The cheating man does what he wanted to do, simply because he could not have done otherwise does not mean that he did not freely choose to cheat on his wife..." Huh? Dr. Samuel Lamerson wrote this in debate with Bob Enyart in Post 3A of Battle Royale X: Is the Future Settled or Open? Again, I ask, "Huh?"
Today's Resource: Learn the powerful biblical hermeneutics called N.O.A.H. and J.O.N.A.H. by reading Bob's 250-page debate with the Professor of New Testament from D. James Kennedy's ministry! It's called Battle Royale X: Is the Future Settled or Open? or 2) read it for free online at TOL or 3) you can listen to a computer read BR X via an MP3 CD!