Today's collect seems clearly wrong: We do indeed have power in ourselves to help ourselves - just not enough

The collect for today (third Sunday in Lent) reads: 

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves
to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and
inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all
adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil
thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer at p. 218, emphasis added)

Huh?  This is a pretty strongly Reformed statement (HT: Ross); I'm guessing it's a leftover from the 1928 BCP.  The bold-faced portion, about our having "no power in ourselves to help ourselves," seems grossly mistaken in a literal sense, flying in the face of millennia of human experience.

For the sake of argument, we should probably assume that the collect authors intended to say that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves achieve 'salvation.'  Even with that limitation, I don't see how exactly the authors of the collect can claim to know that the statement is true.

For this assertion in today's collect to make any sense, it would have to be rewritten to indicate that we have the power to help ourselves, and that our own power is necessary but not sufficient for salvation. 

I like the way Ross TenEyck put it in a similar discussion thread at TitusOneNine:

... as the article you link to quotes (and vehemently disagrees with):  “If God takes a thousand steps to reach out to you for your redemption, still in the final analysis, you must take the decisive step to be saved.”

Call it semi-Pelagian if you like, but I think that if you throw out the necessity for that one step on our part, you render Christianity pointless.

Comments

[R. Eric Sawyer]

I too took this collect as a product of the more calvinist reformers of the 15th/16th century. I looked it up in "The Collects of Thomas Cranmer" where I was surprised to find their assertion that it does not date from the reformation, but is much older, probably 6th centery Italian.

[fred]

first of all, i enjoy reading your thought-provoking blog. i, too, consider myself a questioning christian.

i personally do not care about my salvation; God will do as He pleases with my soul - that is, if i actually have a soul. what i care about is Christ's message of love, forgiveness, and peace. that will remain relevant to me as long as i'm alive.

[Duane]

This is the first time I have ever participated in a blog...

Devotionally, I love this prayer. I reminds me that where my best efforts at self improvement may not be enough for the restoration of my sanity, God's grace will bring me to that point; that place and point where by best efforts will fall short.

[John Wilkins]

semi-pelagianism is an accurate account of divine and human agency. It shouldn't be considered a "heresy."