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Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up  /  Chapter 15: The Most Influential Christian of All Time  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 10
The chapter ends saying Augustine “obliterated” early Christian teachings on free will and human involvement in salvation, replacing them with “cold, grim… absolute predestination.” If you try to imagine a congregation shaped by Augustine’s framework versus one shaped by the earlier Christian balance described here, what differences would show up in assurance, fear, moral effort, compassion toward strugglers, and the way people talk about grace and obedience?
Another way to ask: Imagine one church shaped by Augustine’s predestination view and another shaped by the earlier Christian balance described here. How would they differ in assurance, fear, moral effort, care for struggling people, and how they talk about grace and obedience?

Direct Answer Based on Bercot’s contrast, an Augustine-shaped congregation would likely feel uncertain and fearful because no one can know if they are elect and perseverance is a separate gift, while moral effort could be overshadowed by the sense that outcomes are fixed. A congregation shaped by the earlier balance would stress responsibility and real obedience, yet talk about grace as saving and empowering help that people truly need and can respond to.

Support from Transcript:

  • Bercot says Augustine “obliterated the original early Christian teachings of free will and man’s involvement in salvation.”
  • He describes the replacement as “the cold, grim doctrine of absolute predestination.”
  • Under Augustine: the elect “cannot possibly lose” salvation; the non-elect “cannot possibly be saved.”
  • Yet “no one can know” if they are elect, and some with faith, baptism, and obedience “ultimately won’t persevere.”
  • Earlier balance: people are “responsible for [their] own sins” and “capable of living obediently to God.”
  • Yet they “stand in need of God’s grace… saving grace and… empowering grace,” and “Without grace, there can be no salvation.”
Discussion Follow-ups How might these two frameworks affect how patiently a church treats “strugglers”—as people who need empowering grace, or as people possibly not chosen to persevere?

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