Wow. I had no idea it was that bad. Practically two-thirds of evangelicals in America believe "everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God" (source:
Ligonier survey). No wonder Provisionism is far more popular than it should be.
Yep.
Two thoughts on that. The first is that the use of the word "
innocent" can be misleading. Innocence is generally tied to matters of wrongdoing. Those lacking experience (like newborns) have no experience so how could such a person possibly have any experience of wrongdoing (or so that rationale goes)? There's likely no doctrinal consideration given to the question. Second, polls do not always or well reflect the depth of a person's beliefs. I'd guess most of that two-thirds would also agree with a statement such as, "
I have been a sinner from my birth," or "
death comes to everyone because of Adam," or "Everyone will eventually sin," and do so not thinking of the contradiction or cognitive dissonance inherent in these co-occurring beliefs. I cannot count the number of times I have heard a counseling client, especially males, deny the premise of brokenness. "
I'm not broken," is the declaration of the man losing his marriage that has been in crisis for a long time, partly because he long ago abdicated his roles and either did not see it or dismissed what he
knows to be true. The drug or pornography dependent, the sex worker, the controller, the abuse or combat survivor..... most know there's something awry within them, but many deny it knowingly or unknowingly. So, I am not surprised many Evangelicals in the US think they are born innocent.
Is Provisionism correlative or causal (or both)?
Not to detract from the op, but a British seminarian preached today and he and his wife (who is Texan) minister in Brussels, here, according to him, only 1% of the population is Christian (the Vatican, according to him, says 8% but that's still dismal). He spoke of effective preaching resulting in people asking, "
Where can I go to hear more about this?" or "
What do I do next?" and his having nowhere to send them because there are so few congregations (churches) and the ones that exist are typically inaccessible because of their location (outside of the city, across town, in an impoverished part of the city). Landlords and municipal authorities are often hostile to any attempts to establish meeting places. They will not renew rent so sufficient funds to purchase must be obtained and property in the city is at premium prices. Despite the foolishness of the two-thirds (and it is rightly called foolishness) we live in an amazing place where, by God's grace, we have been privileged to live out our faith with a first-world version of suffering and endurance that could be much, much worse. This privilege, imo, is an incredible responsibility, and I will say standing on Christ's victory is critical to that responsibility.
Thinking we're born innocent diminishes Christ's sacrifice and the victory thereof.
In the logic of Pelagianism, Jesus defeated a mistake each human makes, not a disease so sickening it corrupted everything in creation, and were it not for God preserving a remnant all creation would have been lost and destroyed long ago.
Your chronology of volitionalism op was very good but there were forces outside the Church that influenced bad thinking, bad doctrine, and bad practice all along the way and as the Church left the totalitarian control of the RCC those worldly influences came from outside, not just from within. Humanism has always been a problem when not correctly considered in the context of the Creator. With the introduction of experientialism, modern Christians put a gun to their head. The gun was loaded with blanks, but wadding proves just as lethal when the gun is held so close. In America we've always had this dissociated sense of self in which fierce independence exists alongside equally fierce national identity and compassionate community. The founders built this republic on Montesquieu, Locke, and Rousseau, and very quickly Hegel, Kierkegaard, Darwin, Marx, and then Nietzsche were impacting the Church (through academia and fads). America had a Civil War that a lot of Christians (mistakenly) thought was the beginning of the Apocalypse and in typical American fashion many of them went out to the early battlefields to have a picnic and watch the end of the world begin!
Such is the nature of much of American Evangelicalism.
Meanwhile folks like Darby were running amuck outside the US tearing down the portion of the Church in which they lived under the misguided guise of purification. With the rise of (in no particular order) Modernism, Postmodernism, Post-postmodernism, Existentialism, Analytics, Positivism, Pragmatism, Phenomenology, Idealism (not to be confused with the Christian eschatology of the same name), Structuralism, Deconstruction, Feminism, Objectivism, etc. it is no wonder the Church significant portions of Evangelicals have crooked ideas about themselves. Most Christians have never heard of most of the philosophies in that list but every single one of us has been influenced by them, even if it is only through antithesis (or so Hegel would have us understand
).
It is really quite remarkable Christianity exists and there are people who believe the gospel. Sadly, many think this is because of
their genius and not God's. After all, we are born innocent and screw ourselves up. There's no invisible force(s) influencing any of us. I chose God. All He had to do was have the gospel preached. I went to where it could be heard. I listened. I considered what was said. I made a decision. I'm such a good and wise person (and God has rewarded me accordingly because He does not force salvation on anyone).
How dare you even remotely suggest otherwise
.
To bring this back to your point, the radio, television, and internet make exposure epidemic (Osteen, Hillsong, Dispensationalism, prosperity, etc.). I once offered to teach a survey class of Christian theology at a well-known church in DC that used my counseling services. They have a filled auditorium in attendance on Sunday morning and an international presence in cyberspace and I was told, "
No, we don't teach theology, we don't do that here. We just bring them to Christ."
There is a lot of diversity of belief among Christians, so I am not surprised to hear two-thirds think they're born innocent. This is critical because a Pelagianism was vigorously and prayerfully debated many centuries ago and deemed heretical. While there has always existed a modicum of diversity within Christianity that diversity was not found in core doctrines. The inherent propensity of humans to sin (in spite of their being created in God's image) is core doctrine and that, when followed through to its logically necessary conclusion there is no option to believe in one's neonatal innocence. Ignorance, maybe, but not innocence
.
Apologies. Once I got started it just came out of the keyboard.
