Throughout church history, there have been generally two distinct interpretations from Scripture regarding salvation.

One is that mankind is morally unable to respond positively to the appeals of God to be reconciled,

and thus an effectual or irresistible work of grace is required for the lost to believe. This is sometimes referred to as

Calvinism, a more theistic form of determinism. This is in contrast to the more libertarian perspective,

which teaches that all fallen humanity remains, or is graciously made, morally able to respond

positively or negatively to God's gracious

appeals to be reconciled from that fall.

The more deterministic or Calvinistic interpretation of Scripture is first introduced by

Augustine, a 5th century philosopher from Africa who converted from Manichaean Gnosticism and did not know

Greek or Hebrew. Though Manichian-Nostic beliefs are very different from Calvinistic Christians,

one commonality is the adherence to deterministic philosophy. For instance, John Christosum,

an early church father prior to Augustine's conversion,

wrote in his commentary on John 64, quote, the Manichaeans spring upon these words, saying,

quote, that nothing lies in our own power. This demonstrates that the early church fathers saw the interpretation of John

644 and other texts from the more deterministic framework to be more Gnostic than Christian.

Dr. Ken Wilson, an orthopedic hand surgeon, wrote his Oxford thesis on the subject,

demonstrating that Augustine was the first to shift

teaching in the early church from a traditional view of free will to a non-free free will,

or what is sometimes called compatibilism, a form of determinism. We had the privilege here at

Socherology 101 to host Dr. Ken Wilson to talk about this thesis

and the impact that Augustine had upon church history.

Dr. James White, a Calvinistic apologist, learned of Dr. Wilson's work and took one of his

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