The Epistle
to Diognetus (the author is often called Mathetes and is dated around to around
the mid-second century) is often abused by Reformed apologists to support Sola
Fide. This has been refuted by Mario
Lopez and David
Waltz. What I will briefly examine here is how the author (I will just call
him Mathetes) did not believe in Total Depravity, instead, he believed
Diognetus was unable to accept the Gospel (not merely reject it).
Firstly, it
is clear that Diognetus is not only non-Christian, but one engaged in idolatry,
and, notwithstanding, the author believed that Diognetus had the ability to
accept, not merely reject, the gospel:
Since
I perceive, most excellent Diognetus, that you are exceedingly zealous to learn
the religion of the Christians and are asking very clear and careful questions
concerning them, both who is the God in whom they believe, and how they worship
him, so that all disregard the world and despise death, and do not reckon as
Gods those who are considered to be so by the Greeks, nor keep the superstition
of the Jews, and what is the love which they have for one another, and why this
new race or practice has come to life at this time, and not formerly; I indeed
welcome this zeal in you, and I ask from God who bestows on us the power both
of speaking and of hearing, that it may be granted to me so to speak that you
may benefit so much as possible by your hearing, and to you so to hear that I
may not be made sorry for my speech. (1:1 [Kirsopp Lake translation])
The term
translated as "exceedingly zealous" is the Greek ὑπερσπουδάζω, which
according to BDAG means "to be very eager about some undertaken, take
great pains, be very eager.”
Elsewhere we
read of Diognetus' ability to accept (not merely reject) the gospel:
If you also desire this faith, and receive
first complete knowledge of the Father. (10:1 [this would be odd if Matethes
believed that the unregenerate do not have genuine desire to have faith!])
Then is the fear of the Law sung, and the
grace of the Prophets known, the faith of the Gospels is established, and the
tradition of apostles is guarded, and the grace of the Church exults. And if
you do not grieve this grace you will understand what the word says through the
agents of his choice, when he will. For in all things which we were moved by
the will of him who commands us to speak with pain, we become sharers with you
through love of the things revealed to us. (11:6-8)
If you consider and listen with zeal to these
truths you will know what things God bestows on those that love him rightly,
who are become "a Paradise of delight," raising up in themselves a
fertile tree with all manner of fruits, and are adorned with divers fruits.
(12:1)
This,
notwithstanding Matethes believing Diognetus to be outside the saving grace of
God unless he repented:
Come then, clear yourself of all the
prejudice which occupies your mind, and throw aside the custom which deceives
you, and become as it were a new man from the beginning, as one, as you
yourself also admitted, who is about to listen to a new story. Look, not only
with your eyes, but also with your intelligence, what substance or form they
chance to have whom you call gods and regard as such. (2:1)
Do you call these things gods? Are these what
you serve? Are these what you worship and in the end become like them? Is this
the reason why you hate the Christians—that they do not think that these are
gods? For is it not you, who, though you think and believe that you are
praising the gods, are much more despising them? Are you not (2:5-7)
Interestingly, Mathetes was not a (proto-) Reformed Presuppositionalist,
offering reasons and evidence to make his argument:
Let one of you suffer
these things, let him endure that it should be done to him. Why, there is not a
single man who would willingly endure this punishment, for he has perception
and reason. But the stone endures, for it has no perception. Do you not then
refute its perception? I could say much more as to the refusal of Christians to
serve such gods, but if any one find these arguments insufficient, I think it
useless to say more. (2:9-10)
As we see,
when it comes to the natural ability of man to accept (not merely reject) the
Gospel, The Epistle to Diognetus is a strong witness against Reformed theology.
For more
against Reformed theology, see: