When faced with the veritable nonexistence of their soteriology within the first few hundred years of Christendom, Calvinists I’ve had exchanges with have frequently taken to google searches in an effort to justify the historicity of their faith tradition. There are a number of websites that reproduce the same couple of sources which quote-mine the Fathers, such as A Puritan’s Mind (https://www.apuritansmind.com/arminianism/calvinism-in-the-early-church-the-doctrines-of-grace-taught-by-the-early-church-fathers/). It can systematically be proven that each and every citation from the pre-Nicene Christians on such websites are brutal misrepresentations that have been taken out of context or even misquoted, and that is precisely why partial references, incorrect references, or even no references at all are given. Here’s a particularly egregious example to demonstrate the point, from the misquotation of Origen given under Total Depravity:
“Our free will . . . or human nature is not sufficient to seek God in any manner.”
Now here’s the context of the latter portion from a Protestant translation:
“For ourselves, we maintain that human nature is in no way able to seek after God, or to attain a clear knowledge of Him without the help of Him whom it seeks. He makes Himself known to those who, after doing all that their powers will allow, confess that they need help from Him”1
And so we see that far from teaching mongerism, Origen is instead teaching synergism here, and we see Origen reiterate this point in another of his writings:
“For when we have done all that is within our power, God will make up whatever is lacking through our human weakness as he works together with those who love him for good in all things [Romans 8:28]”2
And from earlier in the same writing, with an explanation of the relation of God’s foreknowledge to His predestination:
“If, then, our free will is preserved, its future, with its numerous inclinations to virtue or to vice or toward what is fitting or toward what is improper, must, like other things, be known to God from the creation and foundation of the world. And in all that God prearranges in accordance with what he has seen with regard to each act of our free will it has been prearranged that what is fitting to each action under free will be met from his providence and in accordance with the succession of things to come. Yet the foreknowledge of God is not the cause of all things that are to come about, and of all the actions that are to be performed out of our desire and in our free will.”3
And in case there’s still any lingering doubt that Origen taught synergism and libertarian free-will, this will end the matter:
“Observe however how the prophet has said: ‘And now Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you?’ [Deuteronomy 10:12] These words are an embarrassment to those who deny that human free-will plays a part in salvation. For how could God make demands from humanity, unless man had something in his power that ought to be offered to God, who is demanding it? So then, there are things that are given by God, and there are things that are offered by man.”4
And far from being unique to Origen, all of the pre-Nicene Christians universally believed in the same libertarian free-will and synergism, deceitful efforts to misquote and misrepresent them not withstanding. After giving this presentation some Calvinists insist that with the sheer number of instances in which the Fathers have been cherry-picked that some must surely reflect their soteriology, and yet when I offer to let them select any one other instance on these websites which they feel to cogently make their point so that I can refute the efforts to abuse it, I’ve yet to have anyone take me up on the challenge. No, the Apostolic Tradition which was once for all delivered to the saints makes clear how the Apostles intended the Scriptures to be understood on these matters, as per the universal teaching of the pre-Nicene Church.
Footnotes
1 Origen, Against Celsus 7:42, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 4:629
2 Origen, On Prayer 29:19, in Popular Patristics 29:204
3 Origen, On Prayer 6:3, in Popular Patristics 29:126
4 Origen, Homilies on Numbers 12:3:2, in Ancient Christian Texts 3:67-68
