Did the Early Church Fathers teach anything similar to reformed theology, also known as Calvinism? Reformed theology teaches the depravity of man, election and predestination, faith alone for salvation, the granting of faith by God, federal headship, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, unconditional election, and sin is a legal debt.  The following is a list of quotes, arranged alphabetically by topic, from various Church Fathers in support of those doctrines.  Please note that the Church Fathers did not always agree on everything – including the doctrines listed below. But, you can see that some of them taught things harmoniously with the Protestant Reformation. After reading these quotes, do you think they are sufficient to support the idea that some of the Church Fathers taught Reformed Theology, also known as Calvinism?

Please note that the quotes are arranged so you can copy and paste them for social media, chat rooms, or articles. It would be nice if you could backlink to this article, though it is not necessary.

1. The Church is the Body of Believers
2. Depravity of Man
3. Election
4. Faith Alone
5. Faith is granted by God
6. Federal Headship
7. Irresistible Grace
8. Limited Atonement
9. Perseverance of the saints
10. Predestination
11. Sin is a legal debt
12. Unconditional Election

 

The Church is the body of believers  *

1. Augustine refers to the Church as those that belong to the Lord:  “After that,” says John, “he must be loosed a little season.” If the binding and shutting up of the devil means his being made unable to seduce the Church, must his losing be the recovery of this ability? By no means. For the Church predestined and elected before the foundation of the world, the Church of which it is said, “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” shall never be seduced by him. And yet there shall be a Church in this world even when the devil shall be loosed, as there has been since the beginning, and shall be always, the places of the dying being filled by new believers. (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120120.htm, Augustine, The City of God, Book 20, Chapter 8)
2. Augustine refers to the Church as the whole world   “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also [for those] of the whole world.” The whole world then is the Church, and yet the whole world hates the Church.”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701087.htm)

 

Depravity of man – People are touched by sin in their entirety and must receive God’s action to be born again  *

1. Augustine on depravity  “But the fault by which sin is committed is not yet in every respect healed, and the fact of its becoming permanently fixed in us arises from our not rightly using the healing virtue; and so out of this faulty condition the man who is now growing strong in depravity commits many sins, either through infirmity or blindness.” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1503.htm)
2. Chrysostom on depravity   “Wherefore the birth was twofold, both made like unto us, and also surpassing ours. For to be born of a woman indeed was our lot, but “to be born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of man,” but of the Holy Ghost, was to proclaim beforehand the birth surpassing us, the birth to come, which He was about freely to give us of the Spirit.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.v.html)
3. Chrysostom on depravity  “For it was neither sleep, nor the will of the flesh, nor embraces, nor the madness of desire, but “God’s love toward man,” which wrought the whole.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf111.vii.xviii.html)
4. Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus on depravity   “But to as many as received Him He gave power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  Here the soul makes an advance beyond the attainment of its natural capacities, is taught more than it had dreamed concerning God.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.ii.v.ii.i.html)
5. Leo the Great, Gregory the Great on depravity   “…the Evangelist speaks of believers as those “who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And of this unutterable grace no one is a partaker, nor can be reckoned among the adopted sons of God, who excludes from his faith that which is the chief means of our salvation.”  (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.iv.xxxi.html)
6. Augustine  “And, look you! so also say I, that those who have such lofty ideas of themselves as to suppose that so much must be attributed to the powers of their own will, that they deny their need of the divine assistance in order to a righteous life, cannot believe in Christ.”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701053.htm)

 

Election – People are chosen, elected by God  *

1. Augustine on election  “For before His advent He had not yet been desired by all nations. For they knew not Him whom they ought to desire, in whom they had not believed. Then, also, according to the Septuagint interpretation (for it also is a prophetic meaning), “shall come those who are elected of the Lord out of all nations.” For then indeed there shall come only those who are elected, whereof the apostle saith, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XVIII.48.html)
2. Chrysostom on Election    “Even as,” he proceeds, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love.” His meaning is somewhat of this sort. Through whom He hath blessed us, through Him He hath also chosen us. And He, then, it is that shall bestow upon us all those rewards hereafter…What is meant by, “He chose us in Him?” By means of the faith which is in Him, Christ, he means, happily ordered this for us before we were born; nay more, before the foundation of the world.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf113.iii.iv.ii.html)
3. Clement of Rome on election  “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not impute to him, and in whose mouth there is no guile. This blessedness comes upon those who have been chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm) (Chapter 50)
4. Tertullian  Predestined by God before the world was: We are they “upon whom the ends of the ages have met, having ended their course.” We have been predestined by God, before the world was, (to arise) in the extreme end of the times. And so we are trained by God for the purpose of chastising, and (so to say) emasculating, the world. We are the circumcision – spiritual and carnal–of all things; for both in the spirit and in the flesh we circumcise worldly principles. (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0402.htm  On the apparel of Women–Book II, Chapter 9)

 

Faith Alone for Salvation  *

1. Chrysostom on faith alone for salvation  “Even the miracles done by themselves, he says, declare the power of Faith, but I shall attempt if you will suffer me to draw my proofs from ancient narratives also. Then, as they made great account of the Patriarch, he brings his example forward, and shows that he too was justified by Faith. And if he who was before grace, was justified by Faith, although plentiful in works, much more we. For what loss was it to him, not being under the Law? None, for his faith sufficed unto righteousness. (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23103.htm)
2. Chrysostom on faith alone for salvation They said that he who kept not the Law was cursed, but he proves that he who kept it was cursed, and he who kept it not, blessed. Again, they said that he who adhered to Faith alone was cursed, but he shows that he who adhered to Faith alone, is blessed. And how does he prove all this? for it is no common thing which we have promised; wherefore it is necessary to give close attention to what follows. He had already shown this, by referring to the words spoken to the Patriarch, “In thee shall all nations be blessed,” at a time, that is, when Faith existed, not the Law; so he adds by way of conclusion,” (Chrysostom, Commentary on Galatians – on Gal. 3:8, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23103.htm)
3. Justin Martyr on faith alone for salvation  “For Abraham was declared by God to be righteous, not on account of circumcision, but on account of faith. For before he was circumcised the following statement was made regarding him: ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.’” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01287.htm, Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 92)
4. Polycarp on faith alone for salvation  “by grace ye are saved, not of works,’ but by the will of God through Jesus Christ . . . If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive also the future world, according as He has promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead, and that if we live worthily of Him, ‘we shall also reign together with Him,’ provided only we believe…” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0136.htm, Epistle to the Philippians, 1, 5, 8)
5. Theodoret on faith alone for salvation   “All this I say not for the sake of boasting, but because I am forced to defend myself. It is not the fame of my sermons to which I am calling attention; it is their orthodoxy alone. Even the great teacher of the world who is wont to style himself last of saints and first of sinners, that he might stop the mouths of liars was compelled to set forth a list of his own labours; and in shewing that this account of his sufferings was of necessity, not of free will, he added “I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me.” I own myself wretched—aye thrice wretched. I am guilty of many errors. Through faith alone I look for finding some mercy in the day of the Lord’s appearing. I wish and I pray that I may follow the footprints of the holy Fathers, and I earnestly desire to keep undefiled the evangelic teaching which was in sum delivered to us by the holy Fathers assembled in council at the Bithynian Nicæa.” (Of Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus, to Dioscorus, Archbishop of Alexandria, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2707083.htm )
6. Vincent of Lerins on faith alone for salvation  “To this most noteworthy example he adds the authority of two bishops of Rome, Sixtus III., then occupying the Papal Chair, and Celestine, his immediate predecessor,—the gist of the whole being the confirmation of the rule which it had been his object to enforce throughout the Treatise—that profane novelties must be rejected, and that faith alone adhered to which the universal Church has held consentiently from the earliest times, QUOD UBIQUE, QUOD SEMPER, QUOD AB OMNIBUS.” (Vincent of Lerins, The Commonitory, Introduction, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf211.iii.i.html)

 

Faith is granted by God – God grants faith to people as a gift  *

1. Ambrose on faith is granted by God   “Do we dare to say that life is not restored to those to whom Christ has given a crown? As, then, a crown is given to many after they have lapsed, so, too, if they believe, their faith is restored, which faith is the gift of God, as you read: “Because unto you it hath been granted by God not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer in His behalf.”  (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210.iv.vi.ii.xi.html)
2. Augustine on faith is granted by God  “Whence it is said to certain believers: “Unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Who, then, can doubt that each of these is the gift of God, when he learns from this passage, and believes, that each of them is given?” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.v.vi.xxxiii.html)
3. Augustine on faith is granted by God   “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake”? Each is by the apostle’s testimony made a gift,—both that he believes in Christ, and that each suffers for His sake.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xv.iii.xxxiv.html)
4. Chrysostom on faith is granted by God  “Furthermore, discoursing with others, he even calls the thing a free gift, saying, “It hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer in His behalf.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf112.iv.xxxiv.html)
5. Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Le on faith is granted by God  “What could well be clearer than the assertion that both our good will and the completion of our work are fully wrought in us by the Lord? And again “For it is granted to you for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for Him.” Here also he declares that the beginning of our conversion and faith, and the endurance of suffering is a gift to us from the Lord. And David too, as he knows this, similarly prays that the same thing may be granted to him by God’s mercy. “Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought in us:” 29 showing that it is not enough for the beginning of our salvation to be granted by the gift and grace of God, unless it has been continued and ended by the same pity and continual help from Him.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf211.iv.iv.iv.xv.html)
6. Theodoret on faith is granted by God  “And to me our master Christ hath granted the boon “not only of believing on Him but also of suffering for His sake.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf203.iv.x.cxxxix.html)

 

Federal headship – Adam and Jesus represented their people  *

1. Athanasius on federal headship  “How then has He chosen us, before we came into existence, but that, as he says himself, in Him we were represented beforehand? and how at all, before men were created, did He predestinate us unto adoption, but that the Son Himself was ‘founded before the world,’ taking on Him that economy which was for our sake?” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxi.ii.iii.ix.html)
2. Augustine on federal headship   “For God, the author of natures, not of vices, created man upright; but man, being of his own will corrupted, and justly condemned, begot corrupted and condemned children. For we all were in that one man, since we all were that one man, who fell into sin by the woman who was made from him before the sin.”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120113.htm)

 

Irresistible Grace – God’s grace in changing a person’s heart cannot be successfully resisted  *

1. Augustine on God affects our will to salvation  “What do you have that you did not receive?” the very will by which we believe is reckoned as a gift of God, because it arises out of the free will which we received at our creation. Let the objector, however, attentively observe that this will is to be ascribed to the divine gift, not merely because it arises from our free will, which was created naturally with us; but also because God acts upon us by the incentives of our perceptions, to will and to believe, either externally by evangelical exhortations, where even the commands of the law also do something, if they so far admonish a man of his infirmity that he betakes himself to the grace that justifies by believing…” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1502.htm)

 

Limited Atonement – Christ died for the elect  *

1. Augustine on non perish for whom Christ died  “…through the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God and His unsearchable judgments, that, on the one hand, some who do discern between the material and the spiritual in their own nature, while pluming themselves on this attainment, and despising that foolishness of preaching by which those who believe are saved, wander far from the only path which leads to eternal life; and, on the other hand, because not one perishes for whom Christ died, many glorying in the cross of Christ, and not withdrawing from that same path…”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102169.htm, note: since people perish, then those who perished are not those for whom Christ died)
2. Augustine Christ died for the elect  “In this redemption, the blood of Christ was given, as it were, as a price for us, by accepting which the devil was not enriched, but bound: that we might be loosened from his bonds, and that he might not with himself involve in the meshes of sins, and so deliver to the destruction of the second and eternal death, any one of those whom Christ, free from all debt, had redeemed by pouring out His own blood unindebtedly; but that they who belong to the grace of Christ, foreknown, and predestinated, and elected before the foundation of the world should only so far die as Christ Himself died for them, i.e. only by the death of the flesh, not of the spirit.” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130113.htm)

 

Perseverance of the Saints – Christians will not lose salvation  *

1. Augustine on the perseverance of the saints  “…through the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God and His unsearchable judgments, that, on the one hand, some who do discern between the material and the spiritual in their own nature, while pluming themselves on this attainment, and despising that foolishness of preaching by which those who believe are saved, wander far from the only path which leads to eternal life; and, on the other hand, because not one perishes for whom Christ died, John 17:12 many glorying in the cross of Christ, and not withdrawing from that same path…”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102169.htm)
2. Augustine on the perseverance of the saints  “These truly come to Christ, because they come in such wise as He Himself says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will not cast out; and a little after He says, “This is the will of the Father who hath sent me, that of all that He hath given me I shall lose nothing.” From Him, therefore, is given also perseverance in good even to the end; for it is not given save to those who shall not perish, since they who do not persevere shall perish.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xx.xxvi.html)
3. Augustine  on the perseverance of the saints   “But of such as these none perishes, because “of all that the Father hath given Him, He will lose none.”  Whoever, therefore, is of these does not perish at all; nor was any who perishes ever of these. For which reason it is said, “They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have continued with us.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xxi.ii.xxxiii.html)
4. Augustine on the perseverance of the saints   “Now unto Him that is able to keep you without offense, and to establish you before the presence of His glory, immaculate in joy,” does he not most manifestly show that perseverance in good unto the end is God’s gift? For what but a good perseverance does He give who preserves without offense that He may place before the presence of His glory immaculate in joy? What is it, moreover, that we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “And when the Gentiles heard, they rejoiced and received the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed”? Who could be ordained to eternal life save by the gift of perseverance?” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xx.xiii.html)
5. Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Le on the perseverance of the saints   “What could well be clearer than the assertion that both our good will and the completion of our work are fully wrought in us by the Lord? And again “For it is granted to you for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for Him.”Here also he declares that the beginning of our conversion and faith, and the endurance of suffering is a gift to us from the Lord. And David too, as he knows this, similarly prays that the same thing may be granted to him by God’s mercy. “Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought in us:” 29 showing that it is not enough for the beginning of our salvation to be granted by the gift and grace of God, unless it has been continued and ended by the same pity and continual help from Him.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf211.iv.iv.iv.xv.html)

 

Predestination – People predestined by God  *

1. Athanasius on predestination  “How then has He chosen us, before we came into existence, but that, as he says himself, in Him we were represented beforehand? and how at all, before men were created, did He predestinate us unto adoption, but that the Son Himself was ‘founded before the world,’ taking on Him that economy which was for our sake?” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxi.ii.iii.ix.html)
2. Augustine on predestined to eternal destruction: “Ye have already learned above (in Lecture XLV.) who the sheep are: be ye sheep. They are sheep through believing, sheep in following the Shepherd, sheep in not despising their Redeemer, sheep in entering by the door, sheep in going out and finding pasture, sheep in the enjoyment of eternal life. What did He mean, then, in saying to them, “Ye are not of my sheep”? That He saw them predestined to everlasting destruction, not won to eternal life by the price of His own blood,” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701048.htm,  Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. Tractates XLV to XLIX, Chapter 10.22-42, par. 4).
3. Augustine on predestined to destruction:  And they shall never perish:” you may hear the undertone as if He had said to them, Ye shall perish for ever, because ye are not of my sheep. “No one shall pluck them out of my hand.” Give still greater heed to this: “That which my Father gave me is greater than all.”What can the wolf do? What can the thief and the robber? They destroy none but those predestined to destruction. But of those sheep of which the apostle says, “The Lord knoweth them that are His;” and “Whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate; and whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified;”–there is none of such sheep as these that the wolf seizes, or the thief steals, or the robber slays. (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701048.htm, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. Tractates XLV to XLIX, Chapter 10.22-42, par. 6)
4. Clement of Rome speaks of predestined souls:  “But how can that be called good which is not done of purpose? And on this account the world required long periods until the number of souls which were predestined to fill it should be completed, and then that visible heaven should be folded up like a scroll, and that which is higher should appear, and the souls of the blessed, being restored to their bodies, should be ushered into light; but the souls of the wicked, for their impure actions being surrounded with fiery spirit, should be plunged into the abyss of unquenchable fire, to endure punishments through eternity.” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/080403.htm, Recognitions of Clement, Book 3, Chap. 26)
5. Tertullian on Predestination   “We have been predestined by God, before the world was, (to arise) in the extreme end of the times.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.iii.iii.ii.ix.html)

 

Sin is a legal debt  *

1. Ambrose on sin is a legal debt   “And let no one be startled at the word “creditor.” We were before under a hard creditor, who was not to be satisfied and paid to the full but by the death of the debtor. The Lord Jesus came, He saw us bound by a heavy debt. No one could pay his debt with the patrimony of his innocence. I could have nothing of my own wherewith to free myself. He gave to me a new kind of acquittance, changing my creditor because I had nothing wherewith to pay my debt. But it was sin, not nature, which had made us debtors, for we had contracted heavy debts by our sins, that we who had been free should be bound, for he is a debtor who received any of his creditor’s money. Now sin is of the devil; that wicked one has, as it were, these riches in his possession. For as the riches of Christ are virtues, so crimes are the wealth of the devil. He had reduced the human race to perpetual captivity by the heavy debt of inherited liability, which our debt-laden ancestor had transmitted to his posterity by inheritance. The Lord Jesus came, He offered His death for the death of all, He poured out His Blood for the blood of all.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210.v.x.html)
2. Augustine on sin is a legal debt   “What, then, is the righteousness by which the devil was conquered? What, except the righteousness of Jesus Christ? And how was he conquered? Because, when he found in Him nothing worthy of death, yet he slew Him. And certainly it is just, that we whom he held as debtors, should be dismissed free by believing in Him whom he slew without any debt. In this way it is that we are said to be justified in the blood of Christ. For so that innocent blood was shed for the remission of our sins.” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130113.htm)
3. Augustine on sin is a legal debt   “That is not, however, to suppose that the woman who appears in Matthew was an entirely different person from the woman who approached the feet of Jesus on that occasion in the character of a sinner, and kissed them, and washed them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment, in reference to whose case Jesus also made use of the parable of the two debtors, and said that her sins, which were many, were forgiven her because she loved much. But my theory is, that it was the same Mary who did this deed on two separate occasions, the one being that which Luke has put on record, when she approached Him first of all in that remarkable humility, and with those tears, and obtained the forgiveness of her sins.” (https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf106.vi.v.lxxx.html)

 

Unconditional Election – God’s election is not based on our goodness  *

1. Augustine on unconditional election   “Therefore, in the election, and in this remnant which were made so by the election of grace, he wished to be understood the people which God did not reject, because He foreknew them. This is that election by which He elected those, whom He willed, in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without spot in His sight, in love, predestinating them unto the adoption of sons. No one, therefore, who understands these things is permitted to doubt that, when the apostle says, “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew,” He intended to signify predestination. For He foreknew the remnant which He should make so according to the election of grace.” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/15122.htm)
2. Augustine on grace is not merited   “And what compelled those passages of Scripture in which predestination is commended to be defended more abundantly and clearly by that labour of mine, than the fact that the Pelagians say that God’s grace is given according to our merits; for what else is this than an absolute denial of grace.” (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/15122.htm)
3. Augustine on grace is not merited   “And so no man can say that it Is by the merit of his own works, or by the merit of his own prayers, or by the merit of his own faith, that God’s grace has been conferred upon him; nor suppose that the doctrine is true which those heretics hold, that the grace of God is given us in proportion to our own merit.”  (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102214.htm)