We all have prejudices, though some of us are in greater states of denial than others. I recently had to add another prejudice to my ever-lengthening list (which I’ll get to in a minute), though I have also successfully (and painfully) removed a few in the past year, as well.

If you’re wondering about my previously stated prejudice against people’s extended usage of the KJV translation of the Bible, it still exists.  Mind you, quoting from the book that defines Truth is not the problem – quoting at length in the KJV or quoting at length from ANY translation without an obvious tie-in to the discussion at had cause my eyes to glaze and skip on to the next article/comment/thread.

I also find myself very sympathetic to Julie Neidlinger’s list of reasons ‘why I don’t take you seriously’ – and I could probably add to her list.  In particular, I am in concert with her observation:

The strength of the blogosphere is people writing about what they know. The weakness is people yammering away on stuff they don’t know anything about.

Which brings me to one of my new prejudices: People who casually toss about accusations which include the word ‘Semi-Pelagian’.  Upon hitting that word, it is like my brain converts everything following it into “blah, blah, blah … apostate blah, blah, blah”, and my mind wanders back to ‘why I don’t take you seriously’.

Let’s jaunt over to the wikipedia to see what they have to say on the subject of semipelagianism:

Semi-Pelagian teaching [...] teaches that it is necessary for humans to make the first step toward God and then God will complete salvation. [...]

Pelagianism is the teaching that man has the capacity to seek God in and of himself apart from any movement of God or the Holy Spirit. According to semi-Pelagianism, man doesn’t have such an unrestrained capacity, but man and God could cooperate to a certain degree in this salvation effort: man can (unaided by grace) make the first move toward God, and God then completes the salvation process. [...]

In more recent times the word is frequently used by those in the Reformed protestant camp to designate anyone who deviates from the Augustinian/Calvinist/Reformed Theology camp, such as Arminians. Many Arminians disagree with this generalization and believe it is libellous to Jacobus Arminius, John Wesley, and the many other Arminians that maintain original sin and total depravity.

OK, so we have one really basic test for semipelagianism: Who takes the first step toward God? 

In Evangelical Christianity, the basic assumption is that God took the first step in creation, when He wrote Torah upon our hearts.  He took the second step about 4,000 years ago in providing a written Torah.  Then, nearly 2,000 years ago on the cross, he took the third step with Christ’s sacrifice and the provision of grace via Jesus’ death and resurrection.  He then took the fourth step 50 days later on Pentecost via the gift of the Holy Spirit, or, as Ray VanderLaan likes to put it, God changed His address from the brick and mortar Temple to the Temple made of the flesh and blood of His people.

And so, God having made the first several steps, man now has the opportunity, via grace, to choose to accept or reject what God has already given freely.  And here is the bone of contention – how does God operate in and apart from time?  Is that opportunity pre-ordained and an irresistable sham, or is it a decision which can be made via free will allowed by God?

So, as you really start digging into the accusations of ’semipelagianism’, what it really comes down to is a discussion on free will and the very nature of time, and not on whether or not man or God takes the first step.  It really comes down to a discussion of whether or not man ever takes any step, which is not a debate on semipelagianism.  Rather, it is a debate on predestination (which will be saved for a later time…)

So, what am I to do with this particular prejudice?  I’m still working that out, because I really don’t want every discussion (though some is warranted) to boil down to predestination vs. free will.  God seems much bigger than that.  Perhaps in response to the tossing about of ’semi-pelagian (this) and pelagian (that)’ I need to come up with a graphic quoting the immortal words of Inigo Montoya:

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Indeed.