Scriptural Mormonism: Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley on the Lack of "Proto-Calvinists" in the earliest Post-New Testament Writings

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley on the Lack of "Proto-Calvinists" in the earliest Post-New Testament Writings

While attempting to support there being “proto-Calvinists” (at least with respect to the nature of God’s sovereignty) in the early Church, Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley had to concede that the earliest post-New Testament authors were not “proto-Calvinists”:

. . . we also find among several church fathers a strong emphasis on the merit of human choices instead of the sovereignty of divine grace. In their zeal to avoid pagan fatalism, theologians such as Tatian (c. 110–172), Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Ambrose reduced predestination to God’s determination of blessing and reward according to his foreknowledge of what men would choose. (Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, 4 vols. [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2019], 1:1002)

References provided by Beeke and Smalley:

Tatian, To the Greeks, chap. 7, in ANF, 2:67–68; Justin Martyr, First Apology, chaps. 42–44, in ANF, 1:177; Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.29.2, 4.39.3–4, in ANF, 1:502, 523; and Ambrose, Exposition of the Christian Faith, 5.6.83, in NPNF², 10:294.