with all due respect, dear friend. You said once that you don't agree with Augustine, but actually you are not rejecting his theology.
He is certainly closer to the truth than Pelagius. If Pelagius was correct, then Jesus was no better and no different than the Prophets, Buddha or Krishna.
I have to underline that this is very similar to Augustine's theology
one question: do you believe, at least, that we are supposed to behave as the parables suggest?
Of course, else Jesus wouldn't have preached them.
I certainly reject Paul's theology about salvation in Romans 1. Yes, lots of Paul's affirmations sound devilish in my ears. I have to assume that Paul's soul was not that pure.
Would you say that the souls of Sts. Peter and John were impure as well?
1 John 1:7-2:2
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Was the soul of John the Baptist impure?
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Was the soul of the author of Hebrews impure?
Hebrews 9:26
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
The idea of Jesus being offered up for our sins is nothing unique to Paul. It's all over the New Testament.
Mary is the evidence. She was saved even before Jesus was born. But not because she was chosen, But because she chose to erase sin from her nature.
Where is your evidence for this?
well...as I've always repeated in this forum: nobody forced Caiaphas to sentence Jesus to death. and nobody forced Pilate to obey.
There is freewill. what if Pilate had saved him?
Jesus didn't give himself. He didn't suicide himself. I understand that the 99% of people want to discharge their responsibility onto others.
but Caiaphas and Pilate were responsible for Jesus' death
That's like asking what would happen if the Germanic tribes beat Caesar and conquered Rome. Or if the sky was red. Or if reptiles remained the dominant animals after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Pilate did try to save Jesus, but it didn't work. Jesus gave the Pharisees and Saducees every opportunity to repent, but they didn't. If Jesus didn't die on the Cross, then it wasn't His will to do so. He had the power to come down off of that cross any time He liked. He could have summoned the entire heavenly host to smash the high priests for their faithlessness and hard-heartedness, but He didn't.
Remember what Jesus said to Peter when he was arrested, in Matthew 26: "But Jesus said to him, Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish[
a] by the sword. 53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? 54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?
If it had happened any other way, then God's plan for our salvation would have accomodated that. But it didn't. You think God is only as smart as we are. I can assure you He is not.