Who Is Semipelagian? Does Someone Need to Be a Calvinist Not to Be Semipelagian?

Church historians will say that a big part of the history of the church is a reaction to major heresies or at least strains of heresy that caused major problems in the church.  The true church starts with the truth, and a heresy would be a deviation or detour off that path.  A heresy would be a false teaching that diverts from true teaching, so some kind of perversion of the truth.  Pelagianism is identified as one of these major strains of heresy in the history of the church.

Before I get to that point, I digress.  Are there really only five strains of heresy in the history of the church like some pose:  Judaizers, Gnostics, Arians, Pelagians, and Socinians?   One old one, seen through the New Testament, and then throughout church history, but especially today in professing Christianity, is antinomianism, where grace is used as an occasion of the flesh, what seems to be the grace of modern Christianity.  Now back to the point of this post.

Pelagianism gets its name from Pelagius, a fifth century British monk.  Pelagius taught something contradictory to established truth of scripture and his position became prominent especially in its conflict with a contemporary, Augustine.  Wikipedia gives a suitable definition of the essence of Pelagianism:

Pelagianism, also called Pelagian heresy, is the Christian theological position that the original sin did not taint human nature and mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special divine aid or assistance.

Also represented by this:

The novelty of the doctrine which he taught is repeatedly asserted by Augustine, and is evident to the historian; but it consisted not in the emphasis that he laid on free will, but rather in the fact that, in emphasizing free will, he denied the ruin of the race and the necessity of grace.

In the 16th century, Protestant reformer Theodore Beza coined the term, "Semipelagianism," targeting Roman Catholicism.  Just being honest, even though Augustine was Roman Catholic, Beza recognized that infant sprinkling didn't leave its object with only an inclination to sin.  Semipelagianism to Beza attributes salvation partly to God’s grace and partly to human effort, which is a doctrine of Roman Catholicism.  He was targeting a Roman Catholic perversion with his term.  As a reaction, certain Roman Catholics embraced a late fifth century modification of John Cassian, a Syrian monk who moved to Marseilles, France and staked out a middle position between Augustine and Pelagius that was widely accepted, in essence accepting Beza's analysis.

"Semipelagianism" was weaponized after Beza to label any degree short of complete or hard determinism.  Using logic as an explanation, they work anything smacking of "synergism" back all the way into Pelagianism, barely slowing down at Semipelagianism.  The line follows:  no one can make a decision or it is actually Pelagianism, which is a type of salvation by works because then someone not totally depraved can then be saved by works.  With Beza, semipelagianism was the invention that original sin could become just an inclination to sin with water sprinkled on a baby's head.

Today I've noticed that Calvinists are fine with people who behave like Pelagians and call themselves Calvinists.  This is widespread.  Does the grace of God actually change someone or is he left with only an inclination to sin?

If a person is not a Calvinist, a lot, probably a large majority, of Calvinists would call him a Semipelagian.  This would be one of those weaponized usages of the term several iterations after Beza.  In my reading of Calvinists, someone is a Semipelagian if he is the ultimate decider (with the crucial adjective, "ultimate")?  There can be only one ultimate decider and that is God, so if someone thinks a person needs to or can decide to be saved, then he's Semipelagian.

I think someone has to decide to be saved.  And I'm saying I'm not Pelagian or Semipelagian.  I can agree to original sin.  I reject infant sprinkling.  Total depravity.  I don't believe man initiates salvation.  Salvation is of the Lord.  Faith isn't a work.  We love God because He first loved us.  I don't seek after God, but God works in me to will.  God gets all the credit and the glory for my salvation.  But I still will.  I still decide.  I turn from idols to serve the living and true God.

Especially in the United States, most professing Calvinists trace the size of their church back to their methods, their music, how good the preaching is, the conveniences, and their relevance.  The fruit of what I just described is all over Calvinist belief and practice today.  All that matters is a Calvinist doctrinal statement and verbal profession, essentially joining the Calvinist club.  All of the human means of coercing a bigger church contradict their major, if not primary, thesis.

As I write this, I watch three Calvinists in a podcast, dedicated determinists with the hard rock music theme song, tipping back their beers, and oozing with machismo, interview another Calvinist about heresy.  In the discussion, they laugh over the recognition of most Baptists as especially semipelagian.  In the midst of the questioning, the hosts ask how that statism especially is Pelagian.  They could see the connection, I think, in light of the "woke church" today that favors socialism.  Socialism doesn't fit their postmillennial view of the future.  Statism proceeds from Pelagianism, he explains, because the state thinks people are good and so it governs as if it can change people.  I was asking myself, what about state churchism, both Roman Catholic and Protestant?  Isn't that statism too?

I understand people's heads spinning over pigeon holes and applied labels.  It matters if you reject original sin.  It matters if you believe in salvation by works or baptismal regeneration or easy prayerism or pragmatism or denying eternal security.  In other words, anything that disagrees with or violates scripture is a problem.  If someone calls you a semipelagian.  That doesn't matter.  Even if it did, you couldn't do anything about it.  Everything is predestined.  You don't have a choice.