Is Catholicism Similar to Pelagianism?

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Alainval

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Hey everyone! I’ve been looking into the Catholic faith and studying to see which denomination is closest to the Bible and Church history. But I’ve got a question along with it. Is Catholicism, in one way or another, similar to the Pelagian heresy? Because he believed that salvation was possible apart from the grace of God and yet I hear people say that Catholics believe you earn your salvation. How is this reconcilable? Thanks in advance.
 
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Alainval said:
Because he believed that salvation was possible apart from the grace of God and yet I hear people say that Catholics believe you earn your salvation. How is this reconcilable? Thanks in advance.
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I would read through this, the catechism on grace and justification

https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm

the quick answer is (bold mine)
CCC 2027 No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.
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Alainval . . .
Hey everyone! I’ve been looking into the Catholic faith and studying to see which denomination is closest to the Bible and Church history. But I’ve got a question along with it. Is Catholicism, in one way or another, similar to the Pelagian heresy? Because he believed that salvation was possible apart from the grace of God and yet I hear people say that Catholics believe you earn your salvation. How is this reconcilable? Thanks in advance.
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Hello Alainval.

In Pelagianism people think they can earn their way to Heaven on their own.

Finite beings cannot earn their way into Heaven.

In Catholicism, our MOMENT of justification came via God drawing us first, and us responding to His grace.
This is completely gratouitous or undeserved.

But AFTER the moment when we are born again (born by water and the Spirit) than we are no longer “on our own”.

We have Christ working IN US and THROUGH us.

Our justification is a moment followed by a process.
A lifelong process.

Then once we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us and through us, then you CAN sew works unto eternal life.

So the diiference is . . .

The Pelagian = Justification on their own
The Christian = Justification all God initially . . . then WITH GOD thereafter.

Hope that helps.

God bless.

Cathoholic
 
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No, Pelagianism is a heresy condemned by the Church. Catholics have a nuanced view of predestination. Through the cooperation with God’s Grace we are saved. Without that grace we achieve nothing.
 
Alainval said:
Hey everyone! I’ve been looking into the Catholic faith and studying to see which denomination is closest to the Bible and Church history. But I’ve got a question along with it. Is Catholicism, in one way or another, similar to the Pelagian heresy? Because he believed that salvation was possible apart from the grace of God and yet I hear people say that Catholics believe you earn your salvation. How is this reconcilable? Thanks in advance.
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The 418 AD Council of Carthage was assembled specifically to attack Pelagianism and its canons were issued in defiance of Pelagianism. In other words, if someone agrees with these canons, they are inherently not a follower of Pelagianism. So here we go:

Canon I: Adam was not created subject to death.
Canon II: Infants are to be baptized for the remission of sins.
Canon III: Grace not only gives remission of sins but aid that we sin no more.
Canon IV: Grace gives knowledge, inspiration and desire to perform required duty.
Canon V: Without grace of God we can do no good thing.
Canon VI: The statement “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves” should not be said out of humility but because it is true.
Canon VII: In the Lord’s Prayer, the Saints pray “Forgive us our trespasses” not only for others but also for themselves.
Canon VIII: The Saints pray “Forgive us our trespasses” not out of humility but because they have sinned.
(Source: Canons of the Council of Carthage (418) on sin and grace)

Every single one of those canons, which again were made specifically to be in contradiction to Pelagianism, is believed by the Catholic Church.
 
Alainval said:
Because he believed that salvation was possible apart from the grace of God and yet I hear people say that Catholics believe you earn your salvation. How is this reconcilable? Thanks in advance.
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Because as Chesterton said people don’t disagree with the teachings of the Catholic Church, they disagree with what they falsely think the Catholic Church teaches.
 
So the Catholic Church doesn’t believe we earn our salvation? Almost all my life I heard people say that Rome taught faith plus works. Doesn’t that necessarily mean that they believe they earn their salvation?
 
Faith through works. And no it doesn’t mean we earn our salvation. It means that through Grace we have Faith which is demonstrated through works. Works without Faith are fruitless.
 
A question was asked me that changed the way i viewed it: Can one who is without love be saved even if they believe? I think we all know the answer to that.
God Bless
 
Alainval said:
So the Catholic Church doesn’t believe we earn our salvation? Almost all my life I heard people say that Rome taught faith plus works. Doesn’t that necessarily mean that they believe they earn their salvation?
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A person is the partial cause of their own salvation, and that only after first receiving grace from God.
 
Alainval . . .
Rome taught faith plus works. Doesn’t that necessarily mean that they believe they earn their salvation?
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AFTER our initial salvation “Rome” (Christianity) DOES teach faith plus works.
COUNCIL OF TRENT . . . . none of those things which precede justification - whether faith or works - merit the grace itself of justification . For, if it be a grace, it is not now by works, otherwise, as the same Apostle says, grace is no more grace.
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But never faith plus works APART from Christ.

Your faith came via WORKING too didn’t it? Other people’s WORK.

Yet joined to God in grace.

As St. Paul says in Romans 10.

How can we have faith if the word is not PREACHED by “men”!
ROMANS 10:14-15a 14 But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? 15 And how can men preach unless they are sent?
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Yet there is a supernatural dimension to your faith.

As 1st Corinthians 4 rhetorically asks . . . “What do you have that you were not given?”

.
1st CORINTHIANS 4:7b What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?
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.

The answer is nothing. Including your faith which is a gift of grace.

A gift you can potentially reject (just like your works done in grace. Not your works on your own which was all you had before being born of water and the Spirit).
 
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SeekerOfTruth7 . . .
Can one who is without love be saved even if they believe? I think we all know the answer to that.
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Great rhetorical question.

And of course the answer is “no”.

Even if they have a REAL supernatural faith.

For other readers in general . . .

And I have heard good Catholics try to say something of the effect of . . .

“Well if you have a real supernatural faith,
you NECESSARILY have supernatural charity or love too!”

Beware of that error.

The Council of Trent anathematizes that view.
COUNCIL OF TRENT CANON XXVIII If any one saith, that, grace being lost through sin,
faith also is always lost with it;
or, that the faith which remains, though it be
not a lively faith, is not a true faith; or, that
he, who has faith without charity, is not a Christian; let him be anathema.
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Alainval said:
So the Catholic Church doesn’t believe we earn our salvation? Almost all my life I heard people say that Rome taught faith plus works. Doesn’t that necessarily mean that they believe they earn their salvation?
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We couldn’t possibly “earn our salvation”. Everything we could do, all the good works in the world, would not be enough to earn that gift. Weave gave you the correct answer.

“Almost all your life” you’ve been hearing “people say” things about the Church that are wrong. The Church does not teach heresy, especially since the Church is the one who defined Pelagianism as a heresy and fought against Pelagianism in the first place.
Alainval said:
studying to see which denomination is closest to the Bible and Church history.
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Given that for 1000 years, “Church History” was the history of the Catholic Church and no others, I think the answer is pretty clear. Some church that emerged in the 1500s is not likely to be closer to either the Bible or Church History than a church that was intimately connected to both of those things since the time of Christ.
 
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Alainval said:
I’ve been looking into the Catholic faith and studying to see which denomination is closest to the Bible and Church history.
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There are no Catholic “denominations”. These are a protestant thing. The word “catholic” means -universal.
 
Alainval said:
Hey everyone! I’ve been looking into the Catholic faith and studying to see which denomination is closest to the Bible and Church history. But I’ve got a question along with it. Is Catholicism, in one way or another, similar to the Pelagian heresy? Because he believed that salvation was possible apart from the grace of God and yet I hear people say that Catholics believe you earn your salvation. How is this reconcilable? Thanks in advance.
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It’s not reconcilable. That is not what Catholicism teaches.

The problematic phrase is “I hear people say.”

Refer to the Catechism for the real Catholic teaching.
 
The fruit of faith is works.

Faith is more than just intellectual assent or fuzzy feelings.

It is cooperating with God’s Grace.

Faith without works is dead.
 
Can you be friends with someone without their consent?

Heaven is communion with God. You can’t be friends with God without his help, just like He can’t be friends with you without yours.
 
Catholics consider Pelagianism heresy. Catholics believe that no person can do anything good apart from God’s grace. In every meritorious work a human does, God is the first cause.

Where Catholics differ from Lutherans and Calvinists is that, where those two doctrines believe God does all of the work of making a person accept grace, Catholics believe that God allows a person’s free response to his grace. Lutherans and Calvinists deny that a person accepting grace has any role in accepting that grace. Catholics believe in a person’s cooperation with grace, meaning that person still has the agency to choose his response. But let me reiterate that we only have the ability to choose because God reached out to us first. We would not be able to make such a choice to accept faith or do meritorious work apart from God being the initiator and enabling in us the ability to give a free response. God’s action and grace is required.

This is different from the Pelagian heresy. That heresy professed that man did not need God to do meritorious work and that man could, without any assistance or action from God, merit Heaven. That is not what Catholics believe and is something we condemn.
 
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