Having set forth the orthodox teaching concerning election and reprobation, the Synod rejects the errors of those,

IV. Who teach that in election to faith a prerequisite condition is that man should rightly use the light of nature, be upright, unassuming, humble, and disposed to eternal life, as though election depended to some extent on these factors.

For this smacks of Pelagius, and it clearly calls into question the words of the apostle: “We lived at one time in the passions of our flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, made us alive with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages we might show the surpassing riches of his grace, according to his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith (and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God) not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:3–9).

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The fourth error rejected by the authors of the Canons is still quite popular today. This is the idea that God elects those who through natural ability and spiritual insight, place themselves in a position to receive grace from God. In other words, they are able to prepare themselves to receive and act upon God’s grace. At its heart, this is the ancient heresy of Pelagianism, which holds that even after the fall of our race into sin, humans retain the ability to save themselves. This amounts to an outright denial of sola gratia (grace alone). It also denies the biblical teaching about election as set forth in articles one through nineteen of the first head of doctrine in the Canons.

In the Pelagian scheme, grace is understood to be the communication of right information about what God requires of us, so that the creature (who retains sufficient natural ability) can do what is necessary to be saved. The Pelagian road is built upon human ability, and inevitably leads to the dead-end of works-righteousness.

Unfortunately, this very flawed idea is very common in much of American Evangelicalism. In large measure, it was bequeathed to us by Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), who wrote in his Systematic Theology, “Regeneration consists in the sinner changing his ultimate choice, intention, preference; or in changing from selfishness to love and benevolence; or, in other words, in turning from the supreme choice of self-gratification, to the supreme love of God and the equal love of his neighbor. Of course the subject of regeneration must be an agent in the work” (Systematic Theology, 224).

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