Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Man, Part 23.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

Welcome to Defenders. We're glad that you could join us again this week. We've been talking about

the doctrine of original sin, and last time we examined the views of Augustine and his opponent

Pelagius concerning this doctrine. Today we want to turn to a third view called

semi-Pelagianism.

Semipalagianism attempts to come closer to the classic Augustinian doctrine of original sin

than Pelagius himself did.

Recall that Pelagius thought that we already have, as created human beings, all the grace we

need in order to live sinless lives before God. This seems wrong. It seems that surely we need

to call upon God to assist us in order to live holy lives, to give us more

grace and more strength in order to live a sinless life. So, Semipalajians attempted to accommodate

themselves to the doctrine of original sin by saying that man's will is indeed weakened

by the fall. As a result of Adam's sin, there is a kind of weakness of will that we are

to, but they said that the basic tendency to good still lies within man. So grace is indeed

necessary, that is to say additional grace, not just the grace that is given you as a created

being, and additional grace is available in order to deal with this weakness of will.

But this grace is given only in response to your free will.

You go to God and say, God, I can't live a sinless life without you.

I need your help.

I come to you, poor, destitute, naked, give me the grace to live a holy life that is pleasing

...