In his
debate against LDS apologist, Martin Tanner, James White said that he believed that Athanasius
(296-373) was “orthodox in most things.” I do find it interesting that White
would hold Athanasius as being “orthodox,” notwithstanding Athanasius holding
to beliefs and practices that, as a Reformed Baptist, White would find mistaken
at best; blasphemous at worst (e.g., baptismal regeneration; infant baptism;
New Covenant priesthood; celibate priesthood; perpetual virginity of Mary; Mary
as the New/Second Eve and being free from personal sin; prayers to Mary; a view
of the Eucharist closer to the Catholic understanding than White’s
understanding; justification as being transformative, not merely declarative/judicial, etc).
Anyway, in
my own reading of Athanasius today, I came across the following quote which
shows Athanasius disagreed with Reformed Baptists on another point. Here is a
text from Athanasius’ work, History of the Arians 67:
For it is the part of true godliness not to compel,
but to persuade, as I said before. Thus our Lord Himself, not as employing
force, but as offering to their free choice, has said to all, “If any
man will follow after me” (Matt 16:24) and to His disciples, “Will ye also go
away?” (John 6:67) (Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series II, vol. 4 p. 295)
In this one
text, Athanasius shows that (1) the call to accept the gospel is for all
people, without distinction and (2) that man has a free-will to accept or
reject the gospel. This flies in the face of the TULIP.
