This is the third post addressing David Allen’s book, “Liberating Romans from Reformed Captivity”. The first two posts can be found here and here. One of the points that Dr. Allen believes cinches his case is his assertion that Augustine previously held that predestination was based on foreknowledge and that he reversed that view “after AD 411”. It would appear that Allen is simply trying to drive a wedge between Augustine and the Reformers in an attempt to not only undermine any reliance upon Augustine as an advocate of the Reformed position from the 4th-5th Centuries, but also to somehow make the Reformed question the doctrine altogether. It’s almost as if Allen doesn’t understand that while Augustine is an extremely important voice here, the Reformed believed this, first and foremost, through Biblical exposition. Calvin could point to Augustine so often on this topic because he believed that Augustine was teaching what was in the Bible.
Allen also fails to understand the Reformed position. Calvin even said that the foreknowledge is “the adoption by which he had always distinguished his children from the reprobate.” And Calvin would end the same paragraph by stating that “he foreknew nothing out of himself, in adopting those whom he was pleased to adopt; but only marked out those whom he had purposed to elect.” Biblically, God’s foreknowledge can’t be isolated or placed “prior” to his electing love. This wasn’t something that we can measure in time, not even in nanoseconds. This happened before time even existed. Those who God foreknew, he also predestined. We typically refer to this passage as “the golden chain”, but that does not mean that we can isolate any of the links in such a way that they become disconnected.The ordo salutis should not be thought of as chronological. It is a logical order.
With these preliminaries out of the way, let us now go on to consider Dr. Allen’s argument.
Dr. Allen mentions this initially on page 58:
Eventually, however, Augustine came to abandon his earlier position. In works such as Ad Simplicianum, he developed a theology in which calling, election, and predestination are not based on foreknowledge.[195] This shift marked a significant departure from earlier tradition and introduced a theological divergence that persisted throughout the history of the Church.
Footnote 195 is significant to his understanding here: “This work, Ad Simplicianum, was revised by Augustine after AD 411 to conform to his later theology.”
He mentions it again on page 75:
Romans 8:29-30 undermines the traditional Reformed ordo salutis which places predestination prior to foreknowledge. Origen had made clear that the foreknowledge of God preceded predestination and that foreknowledge is not the cause of future events. Prior to Augustine, all the early Church Fathers followed this chronology. Augustine, however, reversed the biblical order of foreknowledge and predestination and taught that God’s predestination is not based on his foreknowledge. Rather, God foreknows everything because he has predestined everything.
Now that we have seen the argument from Dr. Allen, let us review several statements that Augustine made which are in direct contradiction to what Dr. Allen stated above. Keep in mind the two things that Allen has asserted. For his argument to be valid, both of these points must be met.
Augustine “taught that God’s predestination is not based on his foreknowledge.”
That his original teaching (which followed Romans 8:29-30) was abandoned “after AD 411”.
A brief note on these statements from Augustine. I only searched through the highlights I had compiled from personally reading over 9,500 pages of Augustine. This was not an effort of me quote-mining for things that Augustine said from some random works I have not read. I had already noted these statements as helpful through my reading of these works of his. I will simply present the quotes below without inline commentary.
For, according to His foreknowledge, who knows whom He has foreordained before the foundation of the world to be made like to the image of His Son, many who are even openly outside, and are called heretics, are better than many good Catholics. For we see what they are today, what they shall be tomorrow we know not. And with God, with whom the future is already present, they already are what they shall hereafter be. (On Baptism, Against the Donatists, AD 401)
“but because through the Holy Ghost He sheds love abroad in the hearts [Romans 7:7] of those whom he foreknew, in order to predestinate them; whom He predestinated, that He might call them; whom He called, that he might justify them; and whom he justified, that He might glorify them. [Romans 8:29-30]” (On The Spirit and the Letter, AD 412)
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. Such good then as this, seeking after God, there was not a man found who pursued it, no, not one; but this was in that class of men which is predestinated to destruction. It was upon such that God looked down in His foreknowledge, and passed sentence.” (On Man’s Perfection in Righteousness, AD 416)
“In this redemption, the blood of Christ was given, as it were, as a price for us, by accepting which the devil was not enriched, but bound: that we might be loosened from his bonds, and that he might not with himself involve in the meshes of sins, and so deliver to the destruction of the second and eternal death, any one of those whom Christ, free from all debt, had redeemed by pouring out His own blood unindebtedly; but that they who belong to the grace of Christ, foreknown, and predestinated, and elected before the foundation of the world should only so far die as Christ Himself died for them, i.e. only by the death of the flesh, not of the spirit.” (On The Trinity, AD 419 – also note the statement that “Christ Himself died for them” which speaks to Limited Atonement)
“Our predestination is not wrought in ourselves, but in secret with Him, in His foreknowledge.” (On Psalm 150, AD 420)
“For He foreknew the remnant which He should make so according to the election of grace. That is, therefore, He predestinated them; for without doubt He foreknew if He predestinated; but to have predestinated is to have foreknown that which He should do.” (On The Predestination of the Saints, AD 429)
With the exception of my first citation above, from AD 401, the rest of these are well after the magical date of AD 411. Even in one of his final works, he maintained that “to have predestinated is to have foreknown that which He should do.” As I have just demonstrated, Dr. Allen’s assertions here are historically inaccurate.
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