Saint Augustine of Hippo was a prominent theologian and philosopher in the 4th-5th centuries AD who helped shape many Christian doctrines. He is renowned for clarifying the Trinity, predestination, original sin, grace, and other theological concepts. Augustine emphasized that humanity is incapable of achieving salvation through free will alone and requires God's grace. He argued against the Pelagian idea that humans can attain salvation through their own moral efforts without divine aid. Augustine maintained that God's grace is necessary to overcome the effects of original sin and enable humans to have free will and do good. His writings, such as Confessions and City of God, had immense influence on Western Christianity.

1. SAINT AUGUSTINE
The Theologian of Grace

2. QUESTIONS
Who was Augustine and what made
him “tick”?
What doctrines did he help clarify for
the Church?
What are Sacraments and how do
they work?

3. HIS INFLUENCE
Saint Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430) is by far the most quoted person on
the doctrines of the Church outside of the writers of the Bible
Some of the things that he is most remembered for in formulating for the
Church are:
a more complete understanding of the
Trinity
the way God governs His people
The “ontology” of God and the soul
the efficacy of the Sacraments
how we know God
predestination
the nature of love and (especially) loving
God
the nature of divine Grace
the role of secular government and
the Christian’s place in it
Defining “the inner self”
“Just War”
etc.

4. He was born on a small farm
in Thagaste (in modern-day
Algeria)

5. BIBLE BELT
Christianity had long since become
established in that region of Roman
Africa
His mother was a staunch Catholic
His father was a pagan (who was Saved sixteen years
before his son)

6. In modern-American terms,
he was born in Hicksville in
the middle of the Bible Belt

7. STEALING PEARS
At one point, he and his friends, in addition to a lot of
other “normal” teenage pranks, went onto his neighbor’s
property and stole pears from the neighbor’s tree
The adult Augustine, when remembering this in The
Confessions, seems more torn up about this than many of
his other sins (like heresy and fornication)

8. A MAJOR SIN?
Why, do you suppose, would he see
stealing some pears to throw to the
pigs as being so bad?

9. SEARCHING FOR TRUTH
The fall into heresy was because he
was searching for the truth, but
going about it in the wrong way

10. BASIC NEEDS/DESIRES
The fornication and the like were
attempts to satisfy basic
needs/desires, though in the wrong
way

11. THE THRILL OF SIN
Stealing the pears was sin for sin’s own sake
He was not hungry, he had a pear tree of his
own, etc.
The thrill was in knowing that he was sinning
for no other reason than to be sinning

12. BIG EMPIRE DREAMS
Growing up, he was by far the smartest
person around, and he knew it
Ambitious and arrogant, he went into the
study of rhetoric
Rhetoric was a prerequisite for virtually any position of power in the
Roman Empire

13. His studies take him to the
major metropolitan city of
Carthage

14. For historical context, the Council of
Constantinople (381 AD) met while he was
in Carthage and finally finished the Nicene
Creed

15. Manichaeanism was gnostic religion
out of Persia that at its height
“conquered” from Britain to China,
and was Christianity’s chief rival
when the Roman gods fell until the
rise of Islam

16. Being both highly mystical and
rational, they had answers for many
of the questions about God that
nobody else really had good
responses for, such as a holy God
creating evil

17. While in Carthage, Augustine
became a Manichaean, finally finding
answers to the questions that no one
else he’d met could provide

18. LEARNING TO LOVE TRUTH
While in Carthage he lead a rather hedonistic
life, but he reads a great deal by Cicero, the
famous Roman rhetoritician, which brought
him to study philosophy
As he wrote later in the Confessions, Augustine says
that the study of philosophy is what created that
burning passion to know Truth

19. Growing up he had indulged in many
“youthful indiscretions,” but now he
started to settle down
He lived with his girlfriend and was faithful to her,
and she soon bore him a son

20. GETTING ENGAGED
When his mother, Monica, joins him much later,
she makes arrangements for Augustine to become
engaged to a wealthy Christian girl
The girl was underage for marriage, but
Augustine had to send away his “concubine” –
whom he had loved and been faithful to for over
12 years – which broke his heart (read
Confessions 6.15)
While waiting for his fiancé to be “of age” (thirteen), he could not stand
being alone any more and took another lover for a while. He never
reestablished his relationship with his fiancé.

21. After over a decade in
Carthage, he moved to Milan
as professor of rhetoric at the
imperial court there

22. BOOKS OF THE PLATONISTS
Augustine read “books of the Platonists” and finally got the answers to some of
the questions that had been plaguing him
This was good because it gave him many of the intellectual tools that he
was able to use in defending the Christian Faith and made him the single
most influential of the Church Fathers
The negative consequence was that Plotinus had a very allegorical way of
reading the Bible, which Augustine also adopted, paving the way for over
a thousand years of absolutely nonsensical interpretations of the Word

23. MEETING AMBROSE
He went to listen to Bishop Ambrose speak because Ambrose
was one of the best living orators, and Augustine wanted to
learn his techniques
While listening to Ambrose, Augustine heard an expression of
Christian faith that wasn’t just for simpletons, but of a
Christianity that answered the questions he had been asking all
his life

24. AMBROSE OPENS THE BIBLE
From the influence of Ambrose he saw that what
he recognized as Truth was also what the
Christian Church taught
This caused him to take another look at the Bible

25. As he read the Bible and became increasingly convinced of
its truths, he recognized an old and bitter conflict in his
will:
“as a youth … II had prayed to you for chastity
“as a youth … had prayed to you for chastity
and said, ‘‘Give me chastity and continence,
and said, Give me chastity and continence,
but not yet.’’ For II was afraid that you would
but not yet. For was afraid that you would
answer my prayer at once and cure me of the
answer my prayer at once and cure me of the
disease of lust, which II wanted satisfied, not
disease of lust, which wanted satisfied, not
quelled.” (Confessions 8.7)
quelled.” (Confessions 8.7)

26. It was very much the same with his conversion: even
though he willed that he could turn himself over to
God and become a Christian, he also willed that he
wouldn’t
Without the grace of God, his sinful nature would
always have won
Augustine later makes it clear, particularly in his writings against
the Palagians, that even that part of his will that wanted to become
Christian was entirely the gracious gift of God, not something
inherent in himself

27. As he wrote later, the inner struggle
was forcing him to the brink of
madness, with his will tearing his
mind and soul apart

28. While in a garden he heard a child’s
voice repeatedly saying, “Take up and
read.”

29. He rushed and grabbed a Bible from his friend and
read the first passage he came across:
Let us pass our time honorably, as by the light of day, not in
reveling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in
quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ; spend no more thought on nature or nature’s appetites.
(Romans 13:13-14)

30. That did it – that was when God had “flipped
the switch” and Augustine finally became a
Christian
He was baptized, along with his brilliant son
and close friends, by Ambrose the following
Easter

31. LOCAL BOY DONE GOOD
After his mother dies, he returned to
Thagaste to found a monastic
community
Monasticism was a new movement, and Augustine’s monastery became
one of the principle developers of the movement in the Western Church
He is received very much as a “local boy
done good,” and becomes tremendously
popular with the Christian community

32. A few years later, while visiting Hippo, a priest begins
talking in his sermon about how desperately the
Church needs people like Augustine, and Augustine is
grabbed by the parishioners and ordained – very much
against his will – as a priest
Augustine wanted to live his life as a scholar; not having to spend his
time worrying about all the “trivialities” involved in running a parish
and trying to teach “simple” people the deep things of God

33. After only four years as a priest,
he distinguished himself so much
as a man of God that he was
made the Bishop of Hippo

34. Fifteen years after his appointment as Bishop,
Rome falls for the first time in her thousand
year history

35. This sparked an enormous political and
cultural crisis

36. The pagans blamed the Empire’s conversion
to Christianity, saying that it was the gods’
punishment on Rome for leaving her roots

37. This prompted Augustine to
write “The City of God”, his
most famous book alongside
“The Confessions”

38. He spelled-out the differences
between the City of God and
the City of Man

39. In 430 A.D., as the Vandals are at
the gates of Hippo, Augustine died

40. FREE WILL

41. “Free will” means that we are able
to make own our choices
It is what makes us moral beings

42. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??
Does that mean that a pagan can choose to live a righteous
life, pleasing to God, and therefore go to Heaven?
Does it mean that a Christian can choose to live a wholly
unrighteous life?

43. SOVEREIGN? ELECT PUPPETS?
When the Bible talks about God’s
“elect,” is He reacting to the choice we
make to believe in Him? Or does He
make it happen?

44. SOVEREIGN! PUPPETS?
Does He control every aspect of our lives, manipulating
us like puppets?
If God makes the choice for us, doesn’t that override
our freedom and therefore makes our choices – be
they good or evil – out of our control?
Then He’s cruel to condemn people that He
essentially ordains to Hell

45. FREE! SOVEREIGN?
Does He leave us to our own devices, “hoping”
that we come back to Him (or stay with Him
once we’re His children)?
If He leaves the choice up to us, does it strip
God of His power over His creation, making
Him reliant upon us to shape our lives: the
choices of Man being what controls history?

46. How we view free will defines not
only how we see ourselves, but how
we see God

47. The Heart of the Church
Every time we say things like, “I was
saved” or “I chose Christ” or even “I have
sinned,” we express the cor ecclesiae: the
very heart of what we believe, and how we
view the grace of God

48. PELAGIANISM

49. “Grant what thou commandest, and
“Grant what thou commandest, and
command what thou dost desire.”
command what thou dost desire.”
That prayer Augustine published was an example of what
really ignited a brilliant and eloquent Celtic monk named
Pelagius

50. He had no qualms with the second part as God has
every right to command what He desires; God is
Lord, after all
Pelagius was, however, greatly distressed by
Augustine’s implication that we need God’s help to
fulfill His commands

51. God is completely holy and perfectly just, he argued:
God wouldn’t command us to do something that He
knows we don’t have the ability to do (e.g., “Be ye
holy even as I am holy,” for example)
For God to command us to do something that He
knows we can’t do is simply cruel, and the
Scriptures make it abundantly clear that there’s no
way you can attribute cruelty with Jehovah

52. Pelagius rejected the idea of Original Sin, saying that
God’s creation was good and His good creation can’t
be anything other than good
Our will is wholly free and can choose to give into the
temptations of Satan or to rebuke him
Adam and Eve failed that test, but we are all born
with the same opportunities as them to choose
holiness or perversion

53. Charles Finney, the father of modern
evangelism (he was a direct influence on
Dwight L. Moody, J. Wilber Chapman,
Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham, among
many others) was one of the most vocal
voices of Pelagius’ teachings in the
modern Church

54. “II object to the doctrine of constitutional sinfulness
“ object to the doctrine of constitutional sinfulness
[Original Sin], that it makes all sin original and
[Original Sin], that it makes all sin original and
actual, and not a crime… If the nature is sinful, in
actual, and not a crime… If the nature is sinful, in
such a sense that action must necessarily be sinful…
such a sense that action must necessarily be sinful…
then sin in action must be a calamity, and can be no
then sin in action must be a calamity, and can be no
crime. It is the necessary effect of a sinful nature. This
crime. It is the necessary effect of a sinful nature. This
cannot be a crime, since the will has nothing to do
cannot be a crime, since the will has nothing to do
with it.” {Finney, Systematic Theology, lecture 16}
with it.” {Finney, Systematic Theology, lecture 16}
In short, if we are born sinful then we can’t be accused of committing a
crime [sin] against God since we didn’t have any choice in the matter
It would be like condemning people for simply living

55. “The human will is free, therefore men have power
“The human will is free, therefore men have power
or ability to do all their duty. The moral
or ability to do all their duty. The moral
government of God everywhere assumes and
government of God everywhere assumes and
implies the liberty of the human will, and the
implies the liberty of the human will, and the
natural ability of men to obey God. Every
natural ability of men to obey God. Every
command, every threatening, every expostulation
command, every threatening, every expostulation
and denunciation in the Bible implies and assumes
and denunciation in the Bible implies and assumes
this.” {Finney, Systematic Theology, lecture 20}
this.” {Finney, Systematic Theology, lecture 20}

56. Against these teachings of Pelagius and
his followers, Augustine took his famous
stand that earned him his title as The
Theologian of Grace

57. …it was by the evil use of his free-will that man destroyed both it
…it was by the evil use of his free-will that man destroyed both it
and himself. For, as a man who kills himself must, of course, be alive
and himself. For, as a man who kills himself must, of course, be alive
when he kills himself, but after he has killed himself ceases to live,
when he kills himself, but after he has killed himself ceases to live,
and cannot restore himself to life; so, when man by his own free-will
and cannot restore himself to life; so, when man by his own free-will
sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his will
sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his will
was lost…
was lost…
But whence comes this liberty to do right to the man who is in
But whence comes this liberty to do right to the man who is in
bondage and sold under sin, except he be redeemed by Him who has
bondage and sold under sin, except he be redeemed by Him who has
said, “He whom the Son has freed is free indeed.” [John 8:36]?
said, “He whom the Son has freed is free indeed.” [John 8:36]?
And before this redemption is wrought in a man, when he is not yet
And before this redemption is wrought in a man, when he is not yet
free to do what is right, how can he talk of the freedom of his will
free to do what is right, how can he talk of the freedom of his will
and his good works, except he be inflated by that foolish pride of
and his good works, except he be inflated by that foolish pride of
boasting which the apostle restrains when he says, “By grace are ye
boasting which the apostle restrains when he says, “By grace are ye
saved, through faith” [Eph. 2:8]. {The Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope
saved, through faith” [Eph. 2:8]. {The Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope
And Love; 1:675}
And Love; 1:675}

58. A Middle Ground?
With Pelagius and Augustine defining the
polar opposites of the debate, a lot of people
came in seeking some compromise
The most famous was St. John Cassian, an
abbot, who argued for “Semi-Pelagianism”
He asserted that the human soul was,
indeed, corrupted by the Fall…

59. Semi-Pelagianism
However – contrary to the Augustinian position that
we are dead in our sins, wholly against God and His
righteousness – we have a lingering piece of “life” in us
We can not come to God by ourselves, but when God
extends His invitation of regenerating grace, it’s up to
us to assent to Him doing so

60. Some illustrations are that of a man drowning: the lifesaver ring is tossed, but it’s up to that person to grab a
hold of the ring
Or the person dying of a disease, where the physician
pours the medicine into his mouth – all they have to do is
swallow – but the person can choose to spit it out
God does 99% of the work, but there’s still the 1% that
requires a work on our part

61. Most Popular Definition of “Free Will”
A strong emphasis on the need for God’s
help in our salvation but still very much
keeps Man responsible for choosing good
or evil (and therefore worthy of salvation
or damnation)

62. Who is the author of our
faith?

63. Pelagian & Semi-Pelagian
Man is ultimately who reaches out and
accepts God
God then responds to our good decision
so that we are among His elect

64. Augustinian
God reaches into our evil hearts that hate Him,
and recreates them into hearts that love Him
We have no claim on having “made a good
decision,” but rest the credit of our faith entirely
on His love and grace

65. And now for something completely different…

67. (16)And the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy
Pin.
(17)Then, shalt thou count to three; no more, no less.
(18)Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the
counting shall be three.
(19)Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting
that thou then proceed to three.
(20)Five is right out!
(22)Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then
lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who,
being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.”

68. What makes that scene funny (besides the rabbit) is all
the ways that he says the same thing, approaching it from
every possible direction; and that it’s VERY typical of
how the Scriptures really do speak

69. While God has chosen to leave some things hidden from
us, there are some things that He repeats over and over
and over again from numerous angles to make sure the
message is communicated as clearly as possible, even to
sinful people like us who refuse to listen

70. At the Council of Carthage in 418, the
bishops agreed that the Bible was indeed
very clear on the matter and issued
several statements against Pelagian
teaching

71. Pope Zosimus (who had earlier endorsed
Pelagius) retreated from his earlier
position and issued a statement
requesting that all bishops refute
Pelagianism

72. At the third ecumenical council in
Ephesus in 431 (a year after
Augustine’s death) Pelagianism was
officially declared a heresy

73. This did not fully settle the issue between
the Augustinians and the Semi-Pelagians,
though…

74. Over eleven hundred years later that
controversy would be one of the focal points of
the Reformation in debates over “sola gratia”
(“Sola” means “alone” and “gratia” means “grace”)

75. Are we saved principally by grace, as the
Roman Catholic Church teaches?
Are we saved by grace alone, as the Protestants
(and Augustine) assert?

76. DONTATIST
SCHISM

77. CAVING TO PERSECUTION
During the Roman persecution
there were those that caved to
the pressure and made
“compromises” with the
government

78. LEADERS FELL TOO
Included in the list of “not
entirely faithful” were many
of the leaders in the Church

79. ONLY THE FAITHFUL
Because of their zeal for
maintaining an “untainted”
communion of believers, a group
of Christians banded together,
called Donatists

80. They, along with the Catholics, believed in Apostolic
Succession – specifically, where new church leaders are
ordained by God through current leaders, who in turn were
ordained via their predecessors, etc. through to the Apostles
(and ultimately Jesus)

81. UNFAITHFUL INFECTION
The problem was that the Catholic Church had
been infected with unfaithful leaders, who, the
Donatists argued, had rejected their Apostolic
calling when they gave in, and therefore were
not true leaders of the Church – and therefore
also could not ordain successors

82. CORRUPTED CHAIN
Any leader that had been
“compromised” three hundred years
prior had likely ordained a number of
successors, and they had ordained
successors, and so on

83. BROKEN LINKS?
But the Apostolic link had been
broken with the first leader, so
none of the successors had a
legitimate ordination

84. A CANCER IN THE CHURCH?
By Augustine’s time, that
effectively called most of the
Catholic Church illegitimate…

85. DONATIST ISSUES
There were three major issues that the
Donatist schism presented the Church
with:
Purity
Unity
Baptism

86. PURITY
Is the Church a gathering of the
Pure, or something else?

87. UNITY
How does the Church stay one
Church?

88. BAPTISM
The Donatists said that Baptism
by an illegitimate Catholic was not
a real Baptism, and would
therefore rebaptize people that
came to them

89. UNBAPTIZED CHRISTIANS?
It was Baptism that was the real kicker,
because the “working” definition of a
Christian held by the Church (East and West)
is that you are a Christian if you’ve been
baptized into the Christian Church
There are exceptions and clarifications, but that is the basic
stance of all the “orthodox” churches

90. LEGITIMATE BAPTISM
So if you’re a Christian by your Baptism,
and Donatists are the only ones that can
properly administer that Sacrament, then
only those baptized by Donatists are
Christians...

91. DONATIST DILEMA
Everybody agreed in the vitality of
a true Baptism, which created a
big problem for the Catholics…

92. DONTATIST BAPTISMS
VALID?
If they regard the Donatist baptism as
valid, then they are essentially validating
the legitimacy of the Donatists, which
puts a real crimp in trying to say that
they should rejoin the Catholic Church

93. DONATIST BAPTISM
INVALID?
But if it is invalid, and they
rebaptize people coming to the
Catholic Church from the Donatists,
then they are by their actions
agreeing with the Donatist position
on Baptism

94. WHAT IS A VALID BAPTISM?
Hopefully, the resolution to the
problem is obvious to you, but
that’s because we’ve all learned
about Baptism as Augustine
defined it...

95. HAVING THE TOOLS
Augustine led the fight against the Donatists
by providing the philosophical tools needed
to clarify the issues, as well as the rationale
used for the means used to suppress the
Donatists

96. REASONS FOR SUPRESSION
We’ll talk about the way he dealt with the
Sacramental issues later, so here we’ll talk
about the reasoning he gives for suppression
– and how to do it – since they would be
used as the basis for doing so from that time
forward

97. ARGUING THE CASE
At the Conference of Carthage in 411
A.D., the Donatists and the Catholics
debated before an Imperial official
Remember, this was after Christianity had become the
official religion of the Empire, and the Empire desperately
wanted a united Christendom

98. AUGUSTINE WINS
Augustine led the Catholic
side and trounced the
Donatists quite neatly

99. CRIMINALS…
Donatism was then declared
illegal, and Augustine spelled-out
how to get rid of the Donatists

100. ENCOURAGEMENT
Augustine knew well that you can’t
force someone to become a
Christian (a.k.a., a Catholic), but
you could “encourage” and
“discourage”

101. MAKING THE CASE
With his usual clarity and zeal he laid-out the
theological reasons to fine the Donatists and
confiscate their property so that they would be
“discouraged” from staying with the Donatists
and “encouraged” to join the Catholic Church
He was never so extreme as to propose torture or the like, which would be used
for exactly the same reasons later – notably, during the various Inquisitions

102. IS INACTION AN ANSWER?
On the other side of that spectrum, we can’t
not “encourage” or “discourage” because we
are clearly called to do so – we do so every
time we evangelize or build each other up,
and when we exercise church discipline
The “tough love” reasons we use for excommunication and the like are the
same reasons the Church fined the Donatists

103. TIME OF GRACE
Better to have people see the error of
their ways during their time of grace
than to die in their sin and – at best –
receive a smaller inheritance, or – at
worst – go to Hell

104. POWER OF THE SWORD
How hard to you “encourage” someone to follow
Christ or “discourage” him from going to Hell –
and possibly drag others along?
Enough to use the power of the state, along
with its “power of the sword”? Where is the
line?

105. MAJOR QUESTIONS
This still leaves open major
questions about the purity of the
Church, the unity of the Church,
and the nature of Baptism…

106. QUESTIONS: PURITY
How important is “purity” to the
Church?
If a lack of purity can be accepted,
how much impurity, and what
kinds? Sinners? False teachers?

107. QUESTIONS: UNITY
What is the basis for unity in the
church?
Is there ever a reason for Christians to not be united?
If there is, then what is the effect such disunity has on the Christians
involved, other Christians, and unbelievers?
Can you name modern Christian groups that have separated themselves
from the rest of Christendom and the reasons why? Are they right in doing
so, and why or why not?

108. QUESTIONS: BAPTISM
What is the nature of Baptism?
What gives it power?

109. WHAT ARE SACRAMENTS?
This gets into what any Sacrament
is and what it does...

110. SIGNS &
SACRAMENTS

111. LEARNING FROM SIGNS
Signs, to Augustine, teach things and
convey information, though they carry
no power in themselves to teach
Words are the means by which we transfer knowledge, but you have to have
knowledge of what those words mean already or those words are useless (as
anybody that’s had to fight with different languages or technical jargon
knows)

112. EXAMPLE OF A “SIGN”
If you see smoke, it acts as an indicator (sign) of
fire, but you have to know that “where there’s
smoke there’s fire” before seeing the smoke can let
you know there’s fire
The sight of smoke or the hearing of words don’t
contain information, but they act as the conduit
through which information is conveyed

113. OUTWARD SIGN OF INWARD GIFT
The grace that grants faith, and
therefore salvation, is an inward gift
Sacraments are an outward sign that
shows what God has done

114. NEED FOR INTERPRETATION
Symbols, since they themselves are not
information, need to be “interpreted”
The same symbols can mean dramatically
different things to different people

115. THE INTERPRETER
The principle “interpreter” of spiritual
things for the Christian is the Holy Spirit,
who translates the symbols (words) of
Scripture for our heart, and the symbols
(rituals) of the Sacraments for our soul

116. BAPTISM

117. DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDINGS
While every major Christian denomination
agrees completely with Baptism being an
outward sign that marks you as a Child of
God, they have very different understandings
of it

118. DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDINGS OF
BAPTISM
How do Catholics and
Lutherans understand Baptism?
Calvinists (e.g. Presbyterians)?
Baptists?

119. CATHOLIC & LUTHERAN
The sign is an indication of the grace
that God is working in the person,
bringing them to faith at that moment
(though the person can then reject that
grace)
This view is known formally as “baptismal
regeneration”

120. CALVINIST: CIRCUMCISION
Calvinists view it more as a New
Testament form of circumcision,
whereby God is marking the person as
His own and part of the Christian
community

121. CALVINIST: PRESERVATION
The difference between it and baptismal
regeneration is subtle, but best
understood in light of the Calvinist
doctrine of Preservation of the Saints
(Once God has made you His own, He will ensure that you never fall
completely away from Him)

122. CALVINIST: SPECIAL BLESSING
God is probably infusing His grace into the person,
but He may not be
Not every Jewish boy that was circumcised was automatically saved
At the very least He is granting the person His
special protection and blessings
Every Jew was under the covenantal blessings that God gave to Abraham

123. BAPTIST
Baptism is a sign akin to a diploma, saying
that you have confessed Jesus as your
Savior and acting as an outward “sealing”
of that declaration
It is very much like the role that Confirmation serves in other
denominations

124. REBAPTIZE?
In light of the different understandings of
the symbolism involved in Baptism, how
does that explain why Catholics,
Lutherans, Calvinists and the like don’t
rebaptize, but Baptists do?

125. REBAPTIZE? BAPTISTS
For Baptists, since it acts as a sign that
you gave a proper confession, if you
were not baptized for having given the
proper confession you need to receive a
“proper” baptism for your proper
confession

126. REBAPTIZE? AUGUSTINIANS
For those following in the
Augustinian tradition, Baptism is
an indelible mark on the soul
placed there by God

127. Baptism caries with it power that is dependent
upon what God has done for the person, not
what the person has said or done
In other words: The power comes from God,
not us

128. LORD’S SUPPER

129. “THIS IS MY BLOOD…”
In light of this definition of signs and
what we know about the major
sacramental division in the Church,
how does this explain the differences
in understandings of the Lord’s
Supper?

130. CATHOLIC & LUTHERAN
Christ is physically there and conveys
the forgiveness of sins through the
administration of the body and blood
It’s not a magical incantation or anything, but a medium through which
God graciously promises to increase faith

131. CALVINIST: SYMBOLICLY
Christ’s body and blood are there
symbolically (not physically) and the
blessings of the sacrament are
conveyed through that medium

132. CALVINIST: SYMBOLS
Of course, saying that Christ’s body and blood are
“merely” there symbolically doesn’t diminish it in any
way; most everything important we do – confirmation,
weddings, naturalization, etc. – is symbolism
The Bible itself is, of course, “merely” a collection of
symbols
Symbols carry enormous power…

133. BAPTIST: MEMORIAL
The Lord’s Supper acts as a
symbol along the lines of a
memorial

134. BAPTIST: IN REMEMBERENCE
OF ME
Focus is less on “This is my body”
and more on “Do this in
remembrance of me”

135. BAPTIST: REMEMBERENCES
Similar to how we celebrate Christmas and
Easter and other church “remembrances,” the
Lord’s Supper serves the same purpose
It’s an extremely important symbol of what
Christ has done for us and is therefore should
be practiced with the honor that is due such a
memorial

136. LOVE

137. OUR HEARTS
“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts
“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts
are restless, until they can find rest in you.” –
are restless, until they can find rest in you.” –
Confessions
Confessions
Everything, to Augustine, revolved
around love
Especially the love of God

138. GROW IN LOVE
For Augustine, the goal of all of
our interpretations should be to
grow in our love for God (which
then extends to our neighbor)

139. SIGNS OF LOVE
All of the symbols that God gives
us show His love for us (directly or
indirectly), and when we interpret
them we must do so in that light so
that we love Him more

140. MY WILL IS MY WEIGHT
Probably the best way to
summarize how Augustine
approached everything is his
statement, “my will is my weight.”
(Confessions 13.9)

141. GRAVITY
“My will [love] is my weight”
means simply that I will gravitate
(to use Newtonian terms) toward
what I love

142. THAT IS HIS GOD
An Augustinian monk, eleven hundred years
later, said, “Whatever man loves, that is his
god. For he carries it in his heart; he goes
about with it night and day; he sleeps and
wakes with it, be it what it may – wealth or self,
pleasure or renown.”

143. PERSPECTIVE OF LOVE
Everything in Augustine’s theology
is seen from the perspective of love
– either God’s love, or our love

144. GOD’S LOVE
God created us that He may have
us to love
Christ died on the cross that we
may be with him through all
eternity

145. THE “LESS”
We love the things of this world (or
ourselves) above God, which shifts
our focus from God to what is less
than God – and so we gravitate
toward (and get) the “less”

146. CHANGE OF GRAVITY
Christ died on the cross that we
may love Him again – and
therefore we gravitate toward Him

147. And now these three remain:
faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love. (1Cor
13:13)

148. EVEN LOVE
It’s important to notice how even
something as wonderful as love is,
it can be perverted

149. EVIL

150. PERVERTED
“Perverted” means, literally,
“twisted” or “bent,” and carries the
idea that something that was good
has now become “not good”

151. QUESTION OF EVIL
One of the classic posers is, “If
God created everything, did He
create evil? If He didn’t create
evil, then where did evil come
from?”

152. EVIL DOES NOT EXIST
Augustine said that while evil is
real, it doesn’t exist
Again: evil is real, but it doesn’t
exist

153. EVIL IS PERVERSION OF GOOD
Evil is a perversion or negation of the
good (which does exist since it flows from
the ontology of God)
A broken stick, a gnarled limb, cancer,
and a torn shirt are all examples in the
physical world of “ontological evil”

154. REAL? NOTHING?
The break is real, the tear
is real, etc. but at the same
time they are nothing

155. MORAL EVIL
When we turn (pervert) our love from
God, we are engaging in “moral evil”
When we shape our will closer to the will
of God because of our love for him (as we
are sanctified) the evil in our will is
lessened as it becomes less perverse

156. BECOMING LESS
As the will turns further and
further from God, we become less
and less than what we are meant to
be

157. MODERN LITERATURE
All of C.S. Lewis’ stories wonderfully picture this idea. In “Peralandria,” the second book of
“The Space Trilogy,” one of the main characters gradually becomes the Unman as he tries to
lead The Woman away from God. Or, to choose a more popular work, think of the wasting
away of Edward in “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”; or the glee of Wormwood in
“The Screwtape Letters” as he describes the “unmaking” (literally) of the people they tempt
away for The Enemy (God).
J.R.R. Tolkien’s books (like “The Lord of the Rings” saga) are packed with this imagery, and
it’s hard to forget the images of Gollum degenerating throughout the series; or the warping that
Melkor did to the world in “The Silmarillion,” creating goblins and other monsters by
corrupting the good elves and other good creatures. Melkor (Lucifer) does not have the power
to create out of nothing like Ilúvator (Jehovah), but only to shape, which he does in order to
make the world in his image instead of Ilúvator’s. If Ilúvator is good, then the only “identity”
that he – and that which he shapes – can have to be different than Ilúvator is to be “not good.”

158. TRUTH

159. KNOWING TRUTH
Augustine was adamant that Truth could
be known with certainty, but only through
the light of God’s love and grace
When we talk about “eyes of faith,” we’re
often talking metaphorically, but
Augustine wasn’t quite so symbolic about
it

160. OTHERS ECHOING HIM
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has
risen, not only because I see it, but because, by it, I see
everything else.” - C.S. Lewis
“Human things must be known to be loved: but
Divine things must be loved to be known.” - Blaise
Pascal
“[The purpose of science is to] think God’s thoughts
after Him.” - Johannes Kepler

161. REASONABLE FAITH
A final remark to be made on
Augustine’s legacy on Christian
epistemology is that true Godly
faith is always a reasonable faith

162. NEVER OPPOSED TO REASON
That’s not to say that what is
believed must “make sense,” but it
does mean that it must never be
opposed to reason

163. IMPIOUS PIETY
To believe a contradiction, no
matter how “piously,” is to be
impious

164. CAN NOT BE TRUSTED
If you believe that God is not “limited” by
logic, or that what He reveals through
general revelation (nature/science) and
what He reveals through special revelation
(Scripture) can contradict each other, then
you are saying that God, quite simply, can
not be trusted

165. USE WITH CARE
People with sinful and faulty
understandings misuse logic just as they
misuse the Bible, but that simply means
that we have to be extremely careful how
we use the things that God has given us to
know Him

166. POWER FOR GOOD OR EVIL
The more powerful the tool for
Good (e.g., Biblical interpretation
or science), the worse the damage
when its use is perverted