Semi-Pelagianism
Serious error
The teaching that sinners can take the first step toward God by their own power, after which God's grace helps them the rest of the way.
Also called: Semi-Pelagian, semipelagianism
What it means
Semi-Pelagianism arose in the fifth century as a middle path between Pelagius and Augustine. It agrees that Adam's fall weakened human nature and that people need God's grace to be saved. But it holds that the beginning of faith, the first turning toward God, comes from the sinner's own will. God responds to that first step by giving grace.
The Second Council of Orange in 529 rejected this view, teaching that even the beginning of faith and the desire to believe are gifts of grace. The Protestant Reformers, and later Reformed and classical Arminian theologians alike, agreed that fallen people cannot turn to God unless God first acts in them. The idea is still common in popular teaching that speaks of God doing His part once we have done ours.
What Scripture says
No one can come to Christ unless it has been granted to him by the Father.
Believing in Christ has been granted to us as a gift.
The Lord opened Lydia's heart to respond to Paul's message.
Those who receive Christ are born not of human will but of God.
God works in us both to will and to act for His good pleasure.
What is wrong with it
Scripture does not describe sinners as sick people who can reach for the medicine, but as dead people who must be made alive. Faith itself is said to be granted by God, and hearts are opened by the Lord. Semi-Pelagianism locates the decisive first move in the human will, which Scripture says is enslaved to sin until God frees it.
How it undermines the truth
It undermines the doctrine that salvation is by grace from beginning to end. If the first step is ours, then the difference between the saved and the lost finally comes down to something in them, and they have a ground for boasting. It also weakens the doctrine of sin, by implying that some spiritual ability survived the fall untouched.
How it can harm a church
In a church, it tends to produce preaching that leans on technique and pressure to get people to take their step, rather than on prayer and the plain proclamation of Christ. It quietly gives believers credit for their conversion, which feeds pride, and it can leave the anxious wondering whether they did their part well enough.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
History
Rejected by the Second Council of Orange (529), which taught that the beginning of faith is itself a gift of grace.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 9.3; WCF 10.2; LBCF 1689 9.3; Canons of Dort 3/4.10
Related terms
PelagianismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that Adam's sin harmed only himself, and that people are born able to obey God and earn salvation without inward grace.
Total depravityHistoric orthodoxy
Sin has affected every part of fallen human nature, so that no one can turn to God or please Him without His grace.
Effectual callingA view held among orthodox Christians
God's Spirit inwardly calls the elect in a way that certainly brings them to faith, by renewing their hearts so that they come to Christ willingly.
RegenerationHistoric orthodoxy
The work of the Holy Spirit by which a person dead in sin is made spiritually alive, given a new heart that turns to God in faith and repentance.
ArminianismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God, by grace, enables every person to respond to the gospel, and elects to salvation those He foresees will freely believe.