Continuing the discussion of David Allen’s book, one thing that I’ve noted before is Dr. Allen’s repeated claims along the lines of “no one in church history”, “no one allowed”, or other such phrases intended to demonstrate that Augustine just pulled beliefs out of thin air in creating doctrines new to the church – without any push-back, either!
I will make this post brief since the best response to “no one” is showing just one.
On Page 58, Dr. Allen positively cited Gustav Wiggers to make a point. Allen used Wiggers for support quite often in his book, and he stated the following as truth and without making any statement of disagreement with the uses of “no one”.
Gustav Wiggers noted that Augustine’s innovations extended beyond predestination: [“]No one assumed, with Augustine, that the original freedom of the will was lost after the fall; no one allowed with him that condemned for Adam’s sin; no one assumed with him an imputation of Adam’s sin, and therefore also no one assumed any forgiveness of it in infant baptism. . . . The options of the Greek fathers especially differed immeasurably from Augustine’s system in respect to the consequences of Adam’s sin.”[197]
Since I already knew that there was at least one, which I had documented elsewhere, refuting this all-or-nothing claim was simple. What’s better is that in my last post I cited Dr. Allen using Origen positively!
Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin. . . . In the Church, baptism is given for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants. If there were nothing in infants which required the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of baptism would seem superfluous. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus 8:3
The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit. Origen, Commentaries on Romans 5:9
Origen, writing about 150 years before Augustine, was very clear. Baptism is to remit sins and it is to be given to infants. If they did not require sins to be remitted, then they would not be given baptism. While I disagree with ex opere operato and the practice of infant baptism in general, that is irrelevant to the claim that Dr. Allen agreed with Wiggers on: “no one assumed with him an imputation of Adam’s sin, and therefore also no one assumed any forgiveness of it in infant baptism“.
Yet again, history proves Dr. Allen wrong. In this case, Origen believed both that Adam’s sin needed to be cleansed and that such original sin was forgiven through infant baptism.
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