Replies on behalf of Augustine to the Objections of the Gauls

Contents

1. 0Prosper introduces his answers to a Gallic list of objections drawn from Augustine's writings.
2. 1Predestination is not fate: God forces no one to sin; sin comes from Adam's fall, and deliverance only from predestined grace.
3. 2Baptism truly forgives original sin even in those who later apostatize; they are condemned for their later sins, and God, foreseeing this, never predestined them.
4. 3Those who fall away after baptism were not predestined because God foreknew their voluntary fall; their fall is their own, not caused by God's giving them long life.
5. 4Not all have been called: many died without hearing the Gospel, the apostles were kept from Asia and Bithynia, the Gospel has not yet reached all nations, and unbaptized infants were never called.
6. 5The outward call is the same for all; what differs is God's inward work in some hearts; no one is called in order not to believe.
7. 6Free choice exists, but before grace it is sick and in darkness; grace, without prior merit, gives the gift by which merit is gained; predestination does not drive people to evil.
8. 7Some regenerated fall away by their own will; perseverance is God's gift, given in mercy to some and justly not given to others.
9. 8Why God has not called all in every age is hidden, yet God wills all to be saved in the sense that the promised fullness of the nations, predestined in Christ, will be saved; faith is God's gift, as the African bishops taught.
10. 9Christ died for the whole world in that he took the nature of all, yet his death profits only those reborn and joined to him in baptism, the children of the promise from Jews and Gentiles.
11. 10If some have not heard the Gospel, this is by God's incomprehensible judgment; and God compels no one to sin, but justly abandons those whose sins deserve it.
12. 12God does not withdraw obedience from the obedient; his foreknowledge of evil is not his will, and he did not predestine those he foresaw would fall away.
13. 13All are created by God, though not all are saved; God brings good even from the wicked, as from the cross, persecution and heresy, so that the faithful give thanks for grace.
14. 14Unbelief is not predestined but foreknown; predestination concerns only good things, the faith, works and perseverance that grace gives.
15. 15Foreknowledge and predestination differ: God foreknows evil without predestining it; predestination always includes foreknowledge. Prosper then introduces Part Two.