The Early Church Fathers - Free Will

The Apostolic Fathers 

Mathetes [A.D. 130.]

 

Chapter X.--The blessings that will flow from faith.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.iii.ii.x.html

 

If you also desire [to possess] this faith, you likewise shall receive first of all the knowledge of the Father. For God has loved mankind, on whose account He made the world, to whom He rendered subject all the things that are in it, to whom He gave reason and understanding, to whom alone He imparted the privilege of looking upwards to Himself, whom He formed after His own image, to whom He sent His only-begotten Son, to whom He has promised a kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved Him. And when you have attained this knowledge, with what joy do you think you will be filled? Or, how will you love Him who has first so loved you? And if you love Him, you will be an imitator of His kindness. And do not wonder that a man may become an imitator of God. He can, if he is willing.

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Justin [a.d. 110–165]

 

The First Apology of Justin:
Chapter XXVIII.—God’s care for men.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.xxviii.html

 

“For He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even that are perhaps not yet born. In the beginning He made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing the truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God; for they have been born rational and contemplative. And if any one disbelieves that God cares for these things, he will thereby either insinuate that God does not exist, or he will assert that though He exists He delights in vice, or exists like a stone, and that neither virtue nor vice are anything, but only in the opinion of men these things are reckoned good or evil. And this is the greatest profanity and wickedness.”

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Irenaeus [a.d. 120–202.]

 

Against Heresies: Book IV
Chapter XXXVII.--Men are possessed of free will, and endowed with the faculty of making a choice. It is not true, therefore, that some are by nature good, and others bad.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.vi.xxxviii.html

 

If then it were not in our power to do or not to do these things, what reason had the apostle, and much more the Lord Himself, to give us counsel to do some things, and to abstain from others? But because man is possessed of free will from the beginning, and God is possessed of free will, in whose likeness man was created, advice is always given to him to keep fast the good, which thing is done by means of obedience to God.

 

Fathers of the Second Century

Athenagoras of Athens (2nd century)

 

Chapter XXIV.—Concerning the Angels and Giants.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.v.ii.xxiv.html

 

"Just as with men who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice (for you would not either honor the good or punish the bad; unless vice and virtue were in their own power, and some are diligent in the matters entrusted to them, and others faithless), so is it among the angels"

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Theophilus of Antioch (2nd century)

 

Chapter XXVII.—The Nature of Man.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.iv.ii.ii.xxvii.html

 

"For God made man free, and with power over himself . . . now God vouchsafes to him as a gift through His own philanthropy and pity, when men obey Him. For as man, disobeying, drew death on himself; so, obeying the will of God, he who desires is able to procure for himself life everlasting."

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Tatian of Syria (late 2nd century)

 

Chapter XI.--The Sin of Men Due Not to Fate, But to Free-Will.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.iii.ii.xi.html

 

 "Why are you 'fated' to grasp at things often, and often to die? Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live to God, and by apprehending Him lay aside your old nature. We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault. Our free-will has destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it."

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Clement of Alexandria [a.d. 150-215]

 

Chapter IV.--Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.ii.iv.html

 

“But we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a willing spirit, since we have chosen life and believe God through His voice. And he who has believed the Word knows the matter to be true; for the Word is truth. But he who has disbelieved Him that speaks, has disbelieved God.”

 

Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian

Tertullian of Carthage [A.D. 155-225]

 

Chapter V.--Marcion's Cavils Considered. His Objection Refuted, I.e., Man's Fall Showed Failure in God. The Perfection of Man's Being Lay in His Liberty, Which God Purposely Bestowed on Him. The Fall Imputable to Man's Own Choice.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.iv.iii.v.html

 

“I find, then, that man was by God constituted free, master of his own will and power; indicating the presence of God's image and likeness in him by nothing so well as by this constitution of his nature.”

 

“So in the Creator's subsequent laws also you will find, when He sets before man good and evil, life and death, that the entire course of discipline is arranged in precepts by God's calling men from sin, and threatening and exhorting them; and this on no other ground than that man is free, with a will either for obedience or resistance.”

 

The Fathers of the Third Century

Hippolytus [a.d. 170–236.]

 

Chapter XXIX.—The Doctrine of the Truth Continued.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iii.viii.xxx.html

 

Since man has free will, a law has been defined for his guidance by the Deity, not without answering a good purpose. For if man did not possess the power to will and not to will, why should a law be established? For a law will not be laid down for an animal devoid of reason, but a bridle and a whip;

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Origen [a.d. 185-254]

 

De Principiis – Preface
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.v.i.html
"Now it ought to be known that the holy apostles, in preaching the faith of Christ, delivered themselves with the utmost clearness on certain points which they believed to be necessary to everyone”
“This also is clearly defined in the teaching of the Church, that every rational soul is possessed of free-will and volition;  

Chapter I.—On the Freedom of the Will
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.v.iv.ii.html
"There are, indeed, innumerable passages in the Scriptures which establish with exceeding clearness the existence of freedom of will."

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Novatian of Rome [a.d. 200-258]

 

Chapter I. Argument.--Novatian, with the View of Treating of the Trinity, Sets Forth from the Rule of Faith that We Should First of All Believe in God the Father and Lord Omnipotent, the Absolute Founder of All Things. The Works of Creation are Beautifully Described. Man's Free-Will is Asserted; God's Mercy in Inflicting Penalty on Man is Shown; The Condition after Death of the Souls of the Righteous and Unrighteous is Determined.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.vi.iii.ii.html

 

And after these things He also placed man at the head of the world, and man, too, made in the image of God, to whom He imparted mind, and reason, and foresight, that he might imitate God; and although the first elements of his body were earthly, yet the substance was inspired by a heavenly and divine breathing. And when He had given him all things for his service, He willed that he alone should be free. And lest, again, an unbounded freedom should fall into peril, He laid down a command, in which man was taught that there was no evil in the fruit of the tree; but he was forewarned that evil would arise if perchance he should exercise his free will, in the contempt of the law that was given. For, on the one hand, it had behoved him to be free, lest the image of God should, unfittingly be in bondage”

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Methodius of Olympus [a.d.  260-311]

 

Chapter XVI.--Several Other Things Turned Against the Same Mathematicians.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.xi.iii.ix.xvi.html

 

“Now those who decide that man is not possessed of free-will, and affirm that he is governed by the unavoidable necessities of fate, and her unwritten commands, are guilty of impiety towards God Himself, making Him out to be the cause and author of human evils.”

Concerning Free-will
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.xi.iv.html

"I say that man was made with free-will, not as if there were already existing some evil, which he had the power of choosing if he wished . . . but that the power of obeying and disobeying God is the only cause."

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Archelaus  [a.d. 277]

 

The Disputation with Manes – Chapter 32
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.vii.iii.xxxi.html

 

“Moreover, as to this word which is written in the Gospel, "Ye are of your father the devil," and so forth, we say in brief that there is a devil working in us, whose aim it has been, in the strength of his own will, to make us like himself. For all the creatures that God made, He made very good; and He gave to every individual the sense of free-will, in accordance with which standard He also instituted the law of judgment.

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Arnobius of Sicca [a.d. 253-327]

 

Against the Heathen:
Chapter 64
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.xii.iii.ii.lxiv.html

 

“But, my opponents ask, if Christ came as the Saviour of men, as you say, why does He not, with uniform benevolence, free all without exception? I reply, does not He free all alike who invites all alike? or does He thrust back or repel any one from the kindness of the Supreme who gives to all alike the power of coming to Him,--to men of high rank, to the meanest slaves, to women, to boys? To all, He says, the fountain of life is open, and no one is hindered or kept back from drinking.”

Chapter 65
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.xii.iii.ii.lxv.html

“Nay, my opponent says, if God is powerful, merciful, willing to save us, let Him change our dispositions, and compel us to trust in His promises. This, then, is violence, not kindness nor the bounty of the Supreme God, but a childish and vain strife in seeking to get the mastery. For what is so unjust as to force men who are reluctant and unwilling, to reverse their inclinations; to impress forcibly on their minds what they are unwilling to receive, and shrink from; to injure before benefiting, and to bring to another way of thinking and feeling, by taking away the former?”

 

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers

John Chrysostom [a.d. 347-407]

 

On Hebrews, Homily 12
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf114.v.xvi.html

 

What then? Does nothing depend on God? All indeed depends on God, but not so that our free-will is hindered. If then it depend on God,' (one says), why does He blame us?' On this account I said, so that our free-will is not hindered.' It depends then on us, and on Him. For we must first choose the good; and then He leads us to His own. He does not anticipate our choice, lest our free-will should be outraged. But when we have chosen, then great is the assistance he brings to us.”

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Gregory of Nyssa [a.d. 335-395]

Apologetic Works - Chapter 5
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.xi.ii.vii.html

“For He who made man for the participation of His own peculiar good, and incorporated in him the instincts for all that was excellent, in order that his desire might be carried forward by a corresponding movement in each case to its like, would never have deprived him of that most excellent and precious of all goods; I mean the gift implied in being his own master, and having a free will. For if necessity in any way was the master of the life of man, the "image" would have been falsified in that particular part, by being estranged owing to this unlikeness to its archetype.”

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Jerome [a.d. 347-420]

 

Letter CXXXIII. To Ctesiphon.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.CXXXIII.html

 

"It is in vain that you misrepresent me and try to convince the ignorant that I condemn free-will. Let him who condemns it be himself condemned. We have been created endowed with free-will; still it is not this which distinguishes us from the brutes. For human free-will, as I said, depends upon the help of God and needs His aid moment by moment, a thing which you and yours do not choose to admit. Your position is that once a man has free-will he no longer needs the help of God. It is true that freedom of the will brings with it freedom of decision. Still man does not act immediately on his free-will but requires God's aid who Himself needs no aid."

 

Against the Pelagians Book III, 10
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vi.ix.III.html
"But when we are concerned with grace and mercy, free-will is in part void; in part, I say, for so much depends upon it, that we wish and desire, and give assent to the course we choose. But it depends on God whether we have the power in His strength and with His help to perform what we desire, and to bring to effect our toil and effort."

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Cyril of Jerusalem [a.d. 312-386]

Lecture IV - On the Ten Points of Doctrine
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.viii.html

 

18 - "Know also that thou hast a soul self governed, the noblest work of God, made after the image of its Creator, immortal because of God that gives it immortality, a living being rational, imperishable, because of Him that bestowed these gifts: having free power to do what it willeth."
20 - "There is not a class of souls sinning by nature and a class of souls practicing righteousness by nature; but both act from choice, the substance of their souls being of one kind only and alike in all."
21 - "The soul is self-governed: and though the Devil can suggest, he has not the power to compel against the will. He pictures to thee the thought of fornication: if thou wilt, thou rejectest. For if thou wert a fornicator of necessity then for what cause did God prepare hell? If thou wert a doer of righteousness by nature and not by will, wherefore did God prepare crowns of ineffable glory? The sheep is gentle, but never was it crowned for its gentleness; since its gentle quality belongs to it not from choice but by nature."

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Basil of Caesarea [a.d. 329-379]

 

IV.—Homiletical - Homily IX
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vi.ii.v.html
“As the proverb has it, Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell.' The flesh is smitten that the soul may be healed; sin is put to death that righteousness may live.  In another passage it is argued that death is not an evil.  Deaths come from God.  Yet death is not absolutely an evil, except in the case of the death of the sinner, in which case departure from this world is a beginning of the punishments of hell.  On the other hand, of the evils of hell the cause is not God, but ourselves.  The origin and root of sin is what is in our own control and our free will."

 

As we finally get to Augustine over 360 years after Jesus sacrifice on the cross we now see a shift from Man’s free will, to a God controlled will, in which when God imparts his grace on the will of man, so that then his will becomes good. This teaching is not found in the writings of the Church Fathers prior to Augustine, but as we have seen something very similar in the teachings of the Gnostics.

 

Augustine clarifies this with “Consequently a man cannot be said to have even that will with which he believes in God, without having received it; since this rises at the call of God out of the free will which he received naturally when he was created”.

 

These are the Gnostic roots of Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace that were later used by John Calvin in the 1500’s.

 

Augustine of Hippo [a.d. 354-430]

The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Chapter 30.--Of the Eternal Felicity of the City of God, and of the Perpetual Sabbath.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XXII.30.html

“And in this divine gift there was to be observed this gradation, that man should first receive a free will by which he was able not to sin, and at last a free will by which he was not able to sin,--the former being adapted to the acquiring of merit, the latter to the enjoying of the reward. But the nature thus constituted, having sinned when it had the ability to do so, it is by a more abundant grace that it is delivered so as to reach that freedom in which it cannot sin.  For as the first immortality which Adam lost by sinning consisted in his being able not to die, while the last shall consist in his not being able to die; so the first free will consisted in his being able not to sin, the last in his not being able to sin.”

 

Anti-Pelagian Writings

Chapter 58.—The Free Will of Man is an Intermediate Power.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xi.lxi.html

 

“Let us then, first of all, lay down this proposition, and see whether it satisfies the question before us: that free will, naturally assigned by the Creator to our rational soul, is such a neutral power, as can either incline towards faith, or turn towards unbelief. Consequently a man cannot be said to have even that will with which he believes in God, without having received it; since this rises at the call of God out of the free will which he received naturally when he was created. God no doubt wishes all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth; but yet not so as to take away from them free will, for the good or the evil use of which they may be most righteously judged. This being the case, unbelievers indeed do contrary to the will of God when they do not believe His gospel; nevertheless they do not therefore overcome His will, but rob their own selves of the great, nay, the very greatest, good, and implicate themselves in penalties of punishment, destined to experience the power of Him in punishments whose mercy in His gifts they despised.”

Chapter 31 [XV.]--Free Will Has Its Function in the Heart's Conversion; But Grace Too Has Its.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xix.iv.xxxi.html

“There is, however, always within us a free will,--but it is not always good; for it is either free from righteousness when it serves sin,--and then it is evil,--or else it is free from sin when it serves righteousness,--and then it is good. But the grace of God is always good; and by it it comes to pass that a man is of a good will, though he was before of an evil one. By it also it comes to pass that the very good will, which has now begun to be, is enlarged, and made so great that it is able to fulfil the divine commandments which it shall wish, when it shall once firmly and perfectly wish. This is the purport of what the Scripture says: "If thou wilt, thou shalt keep the commandments;" so that the man who wills but is not able knows that he does not yet fully will, and prays that he may have so great a will that it may suffice for keeping the commandments. And thus, indeed, he receives assistance to perform what he is commanded. Then is the will of use when we have ability; just as ability is also then of use when we have the will. For what does it profit us if we will what we are unable to do, or else do not will what we are able to do?”

 

Post-Nicene 

John of Damascus [7th century AD]

Chapter XXV.--Concerning what is in our own power, that is, concerning Free-will http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.iii.iv.ii.xxv.html

“The first enquiry involved in the consideration of free-will, that is, of what is in our own power, is whether anything is in our power: for there are many who deny this. The second is, what are the things that are in our power, and over what things do we have authority? The third is, what is the reason for which God Who created us endued us with free-will? So then we shall take up the first question, and firstly we shall prove that of those things which even our opponents grant, some are within our power. “

“for fate implies not possibility only but necessity: nor to nature, for nature's province is animals and plants: nor to chance, for the actions of men are not rare and unexpected: nor to accident, for that is used in reference to the casual occurrences that take place in the world of lifeless and irrational things. We are left then with this fact, that the man who acts and makes is himself the author of his own works, and is a creature endowed with free-will.”

 

As we finally take a look at the writings of John Calvin in the 1500’s and we see that he claims that with the exception of Augustine the Greek Fathers are “so confused, vacillating, and contradictory on this subject, that no certainty can be obtained from their writings” this simply a blatant lie or falsehood, for it is clear as is revealed that the Fathers were in agreement as to the freewill of man even before, during and after Augustine as we see even upto John of Damascus in the 7th Century A,D.and as Calvin notes John Chrysostom.

 

John Calvin [a.d. 1509-1564]

 

Institutes of the Christian Religion
BOOK 2 - CHAPTER 2. MAN NOW DEPRIVED OF FREEDOM OF WILL, AND MISERABLY ENSLAVED.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iv.iii.html

 

“Moreover although the Greek Fathers, above others, and especially Chrysostom, have exceeded due bounds in extolling the powers of the human will, yet all ancient theologians, with the exception of Augustine, are so confused, vacillating, and contradictory on this subject, that no certainty can be obtained from their writings. It is needless, therefore, to be more particular in enumerating every separate opinion.”

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We now see Christianity step back 1300 years and bring forth what the Gnostics taught and what Ireneaus was refuting in the second century. The Gnostics's taught that the Material Man “must of necessity perish, inasmuch as it is incapable of receiving any afflatus of incorruption”.