Good morning everyone. Today is the 10th of January, 2025. Happy birthday, Rosette. I hope you have a good day today. We knew we were supposed to get... So I took her out last night for her birthday dinner. It's a good thing we did, because we got up this morning and we got five inches of snow out there on the trees and on the ground. We're ready this morning for Chapter 2 in the Lies of Free Will. It's entitled, Pelagius and His Teachings on the Reformation. Pelagius spent most of his life in Rome at the beginning of the 5th century. He studied and wrote and taught theology. He began to proclaim that man, through his free will, could self-govern himself. A long-term confrontation ensued between Augustine and Pelagius. Pelagius denied that man inherited the sin from Adam at the fall. brother-in-law's oldest son, or middle son, I guess. He's a preacher and he said, you're not going to make me responsible for Adam's sin. Sounds like he was holding to the teachings of Pelagius. Pelagius proclaimed the full potential of the human will. He taught that man can avoid sinning by the exercise of his will and that man could also of himself obey God's commandments. He also reinforced man's ability to do good. Pelagius also taught that God does not have the right to command his creation to do anything that they can't do. Pelagius also taught that man could fall away and lose his salvation by his own free decision. Augustine, on the other hand, taught the total depravity of man and that he was born and conceived in sin through the fall of Adam. He denied that man had a free will and taught that apart from the quickening power of God, man is eternally lost. Augustine was the first to really put in order the doctrines of grace and to utterly reject that man has a free will in salvation. Augustine affirmed the great doctrine of God of election as clearly revealed in the Bible. The teachings of Pelagius and Augustine resurfaced at the time of the Reformation, and these two opposing views have been debated ever since. Christ was the best teacher on election, predestination, and the reality of both. One only needs to read the 17th and 17th chapters of John to see that Christ was the most adamant teacher on the doctrines of grace. After Christ ascended back to heaven, the New Testament church leaders including Peter, Paul, and John taught the doctrines of grace in their writings and messages. However, the Church at Rome became more and more dictatorial over the smaller churches and began to renounce these great truths by setting forth contrary teachings and even affirming the free will of man and anathematizing any who would not do so as well. As the Roman Catholic Church began to take shape, this false church began to change the word of God and create numerous false doctrines. that are contrary to clearly revealed scripture. So they began to remove the access of the Word of God from the common people and left its interpretation in the hands of those who were under the control of the Roman Catholic Church. This brought in much error and false teachings. We are told in scripture, Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, re-exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables, 2 Timothy 4, 2-4. God ordained that some men would resist the Roman Catholic Church in her deceitful and false ways, men like Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, and Huss, who taught that grace alone in Christ was the only thing that God had described for salvation. This infuriated the powers of the Romish whore, and they sought with all sordid tactics to bring the Reformation to its knees. God had other plans, however, and with the printing press and those who were translating the Bible into English, the Word began to reach the masses. The development was like a light penetrating the darkness, and the power of the Word of God prevailed. The Reformers were adamantly opposed to the unbiblical teachings of the free will of man. Luther wrote a book, The Bondage of the Will, on the subject. Calvin and his Institutes of the Christian Religion addressed doctrines that Rome abhorred like election and predestination. However, Luther and Calvin still held on to many false teachings of the false Church of Rome. Luther and Calvin were steeped in the airs of infant baptism, Calvin called the water that was used to baptize sacred water. Luther still held erroneous views regarding communion, but the fact that the doctrine of free will of man was being contested and refuted with scripture was a marvelous development. The Apostle Paul had warned the New Testament Church regarding the work-centered doctrine that would be ushered into the church, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1, 8-9. civil government at this time are now beginning to either support the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, or conversely, those in the Protestant movement, that is, those protesting the doctrine of Rome. Well, that concludes Chapter 2. We'll continue in Chapter 3 tomorrow, but what I wanted to point out is that the Reformation was ordained by God to renounce the doctrine of free will, you know. And we're still renouncing it today. I mean, writing this book, The Lies of Free Will, you do not control your own destiny. And, you know, if man is in charge of his own salvation through his decision, then man is God, God is not God. But God is the author and finisher of our faith, not man. Jesus Christ is the one who hung on the cruel and rugged cross of Calvary, not man. Jesus Christ is the one who was born in a little baby in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. Okay, Jesus Christ was the one who was ordained to come and save his people from their sins. So the real crux of the matter is that the free willers are giving man the glory and those who believe in sovereign grace are giving God all the glory. If I'm going to err on any side, I'm going to err on the sovereignty of God. So that's kind of what's on my mind this morning. The Roman Catholic Church has literally tortured, maimed, and killed millions and millions of Christians. And, you know, one of these days, the judgment is going to come upon the Roman Catholic Church. The current Pope of Rome, Pope Francis, has now even embraced homosexuals and lesbians. That should tell you a lot about what Rome is really about. And so let us always be reminded that God is sovereign. God is the Creator, the Redeemer, and the King. And there's nothing we can do about it. And we shouldn't want to do anything about it other than bow at the knee and stay worthy as the Lamb that was slain to receive power and glory and honor and wisdom and might. May the good Lord be with you today in a special way is my prayer. And let us always remember man does not have a free will. The only one that has a free will is God. God bless.