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The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down  /  Chapter 26, Augustine, Apologist for the Hybrid  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 10
Regarding Pelagius and Augustine, Bercot says historic Christianity held both (a) God’s enabling grace is necessary and (b) humans “play a role” by letting go of the world and crucifying the flesh, while Augustine swung to predestination that makes obedience impossible and warnings pointless; as you read Bercot’s string of questions (“Why preach the gospel…? Why warn…?”), which New Testament warnings become non-functional under Augustine’s system, and what changes in daily discipleship if you treat the New Testament as an “open book” versus “a book dotted with landmines”?
Another way to ask: If Augustine’s predestination view is true, which New Testament warnings stop making sense, and how would everyday discipleship change if you read the New Testament as clear and workable versus as full of hidden traps?

Direct Answer Under Augustine’s extreme predestination, many New Testament warnings become practically meaningless because human response can’t change destiny; Bercot specifically points to Jesus’ calls to obey, endure, and heed judgment warnings. Treating the New Testament as an “open book” leads to straightforward obedience, while “landmines” thinking makes discipleship dependent on expert reinterpretation.

Support from Transcript:

  • Bercot summarizes historic balance: without grace “nobody would be ultimately saved,” yet “we, too, play a role…let go of the world…daily crucify our own flesh.”
  • Augustine’s swing: humans have “no power whatsoever to obey Christ” and God “arbitrarily chose” saved/damned “before the universe was ever created.”
  • Warnings Bercot says become pointless: the Sermon on the Mount (why give it?), “build our house on the rock by obeying,” “he who endures to the ends will be saved,” and the sheep/goats separation.
  • He also mentions moral accountability warnings: “Why did Jesus denounce the scribes and Pharisees…On what basis…any guilt…?”
  • Daily discipleship contrast: Kingdom = “an open book…read and obey quite literally”; Augustine/hybrid = “dotted with landmines that only theologically trained minds could interpret correctly.”
Discussion Follow-ups When you read Jesus’ commands, do you approach them as doable by grace, or as ideals that must be explained away? What “landmines” (texts you feel you need experts to neutralize) keep you from simple obedience?

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