Predestination, intheology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed byGod, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individualsoul.[1] Explanations of predestination often seek to address theparadox of free will, whereby God'somniscience seems incompatible with humanfree will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religiousdeterminism; and usuallypredeterminism, also known astheological determinism.
Predestination has been a topic of debate throughout Jewish and Christian history. In pre-Christian texts like theBook of Enoch and theBook of Jubilees, some writings suggest a mix of determinism and free will, while authors likeBen Sira affirm human choice. Scholars debateNew Testament passages such as Romans 8–11, with interpretations ranging from predestination being corporate or service-based, to God choosing some individuals for salvation while leaving others toreprobation. Jewish groups like theEssenes may have believed in predestination, but there were complex differences among sects.
In the earlyChristian centuries, thePatristic period saw varied views on predestination.Origen tied predestination to foreknowledge of individual merits, while others, like theThomasines andValentinus, developed systems of election or salvation according to one’s innate spiritual nature.Augustine of Hippo later emphasized that salvation results from God’s grace rather than human merit, sparking debates overdouble predestination. Subsequent thinkers, includingJohn of Damascus,Thomas Aquinas, andWilliam of Ockham, further explored how God’s providence, foreknowledge, and human freedom interact, with medieval and Reformation theologians likeGottschalk,Calvin, andZwingli developing influential predestination doctrines, including double predestination.
Different Christian branches interpret predestination differently.Eastern Orthodoxy emphasizes the synergy of human effort and divine grace, whileRoman Catholicism teaches that God predestines in harmony with human response and rejects predestining anyone to sin. Protestant traditions vary:Lutheranism affirms unconditional election to salvation but denies predestination to damnation,Calvinism teaches double predestination, andArminianism links election to foreseen human faith. TheLDS Church rejects predestination but teaches foreordination, emphasizing moral agency. Other variations, like corporate election, focus on God choosing groups or the church collectively rather than individuals.
Some have argued that theBook of Enoch contains a deterministic worldview that is combined with dualism.[2] Thebook of Jubilees seems to harmonize or mix together a doctrine of free will and determinism.[3]
Ben Sira affirms free will, where God allows a choice of bad or good before the human and thus they can choose which one to follow.[4]
Biblical scholarN. T. Wright argues that Josephus's portrayal of these groups is incorrect, and that the Jewish debates referenced by Josephus should be seen as having to do with God's work to liberate Israel rather than philosophical questions about predestination. Wright asserts that Essenes were content to wait for God to liberate Israel while Pharisees believed Jews needed to act in cooperation with God.[5]John Barclay responded that Josephus's description was an over-simplification and there were likely to be complex differences between these groups which may have been similar to those described by Josephus.[6]Francis Watson has also argued on the basis of4 Ezra, a document dated to the first century AD, that Jewish beliefs in predestination are primarily concerned with God's choice to save some individual Jews.[7]
However some in the Qumran community possibly believed in predestination, for example1QS states that "God has caused (his chosen ones) to inherit the lot of the Holy Ones".[8]
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.[9]
Biblical scholars have interpreted this passage in several ways. Many say this only has to do with service, and is not about salvation. The Catholic biblical commentator Brendan Byrne wrote that the predestination mentioned in this passage should be interpreted as applied to the Christian community corporately rather than individuals.[10] Another Catholic commentator,Joseph Fitzmyer, wrote that this passage teaches that God has predestined thesalvation of all humans.[11]Douglas Moo, a Protestant biblical interpreter, reads the passage as teaching that God has predestined a certain set of people to salvation, and predestined the remainder of humanity toreprobation (damnation).[12] Similarly, Wright's interpretation is that in this passage Paul teaches that God will save those whom he has chosen, but Wright also emphasizes that Paul does not intend to suggest that God has eliminated human free will or responsibility. Instead, Wright asserts, Paul is saying that God's will works through that of humans to accomplish salvation.[13]
Origen, writing in the third century, taught that God's providence extends to every individual.[14] He believed God's predestination was based on God's foreknowledge of every individual's merits, whether in their current life or aprevious life.[15]
Gill and Gregg Alisson argued that Clement of Rome held to a predestinarian view of salvation.[16][17]
Some verses in theOdes of Solomon, which was made by an Essene convert into Christianity, might possibly suggest a predestinarian worldview, where God chooses who are saved and go into heaven, although there is controversy about what it teaches.[18][19] The Odes of Solomon talks about God "imprinting a seal on the face of the elect before they existed".[19] TheThomasines saw themselves as children of the light, but the ones who were not part of the elect community were sons of darkness. The Thomasines thus had a belief in a type of election or predestination, they saw themselves as elect because they were born from the light.[19]
Valentinus believed in a form of predestination, in his view humans are born into one of three natures, depending on which elements prevail in the person. In the views of Valentinus, a person born with a bad nature can never be saved because they are too inclined into evil, some people have a nature which is a mixture of good and evil, thus they can choose salvation, and others have a good nature, who will be saved, because they will be inclined into good.[20]
Irenaeus also attacked the doctrine of predestination set out by Valentinus, arguing that it is unfair. For Irenaeus, humans were free to choose salvation or not.[21]
Justin Martyr attacked predestinarian views held by some Greek philosophers.[22]
Later in the fourth and fifth centuries,Augustine of Hippo (354–430) also taught that God orders all things while preserving human freedom.[23] Prior to 396, Augustine believed that predestination was based on God's foreknowledge of whether individuals would believe, that God's grace was "a reward for human assent".[24] Later, in response toPelagius, Augustine said that the sin ofpride consists in assuming that "we are the ones who choose God or that God chooses us (in his foreknowledge) because of something worthy in us", and argued that it is God's grace that causes the individual act of faith.[25] Scholars are divided over whether Augustine's teaching impliesdouble predestination, or the belief that God chooses some people for damnation as well as some for salvation. Catholic scholars tend to deny that he held such a view while some Protestants and secular scholars affirm that Augustine did believe in double predestination.[26]
TheCouncil of Arles in the late fifth century condemned the position "that some have been condemned to death, others have been predestined to life", though this may seem to follow from Augustine's teaching. TheSecond Council of Orange in 529 also condemned the position that "some have been truly predestined to evil by divine power".[29]
In the eighth century,John of Damascus emphasized the freedom of the human will in his doctrine of predestination, and argued that acts arising from peoples' wills are not part of God's providence at all. Damascene teaches that people's good actions are done in cooperation with God, but are not caused by him.[30]
Prosper of Aquitaine (390 – c. 455 AD) defended Augustine's view of predestination against semi-Pelagians.[31]Marius Mercator, who was a pupil of Augustine, wrote five books against Pelagianism and one book about predestination.[32]Fulgentius of Ruspe andCaesarius of Arles rejected the view that God gives free choice to believe and instead believed in predestination.[33]
Cassian believed that despite predestination being a work that God does, God only decides to predestinate based on how human beings will respond.[34]
Augustine stated, "And thus Christ's Church has never failed to hold the faith of this predestination, which is now being defended with new solicitude against these modern heretics."[35]
Gottschalk of Orbais, a ninth-centurySaxon monk, argued that God predestines some people to hell as well as predestining some to heaven, a view known as double predestination. He was condemned by several synods, but his views remained popular. Irish theologianJohn Scotus Eriugena wrote a refutation of Gottschalk.[36] Eriugena abandoned Augustine's teaching on predestination.[37] He wrote that God's predestination should be equated with his foreknowledge of people's choices.[38]
In the thirteenth century,Thomas Aquinas taught that God predestines certain people to thebeatific vision based solely on his own goodness rather than that of creatures.[39] Aquinas also believed that people are free in their choices, fully cause their own sin, and are solely responsible for it.[40] According to Aquinas, there are several ways in which God wills actions. He directly wills the good, indirectly wills evil consequences of good things, and only permits evil. Aquinas held that in permitting evil, God does not will it to be done or not to be done.[41]
John Calvin rejected the idea that God permits rather than actively decrees the damnation of sinners, as well as other evil.[52] Calvin did not believe God to be guilty of sin, but rather he considered God inflicting sin upon his creations to be an unfathomable mystery.[53] Though he maintained God's predestination applies to damnation as well as salvation, he taught that the damnation of the damned is caused by their sin, but that the salvation of the saved is solely caused by God.[54] OtherProtestant Reformers, includingHuldrych Zwingli, also held double predestinarian views.[55]
TheEastern Orthodox view was summarized by BishopTheophan the Recluse in response to the question, "What is the relationship between the Divine provision and our free will?"
Answer: The fact that the Kingdom of God is "taken by force" presupposes personal effort. When the Apostle Paul says, "it is not of him that willeth," this means that one's efforts do not produce what is sought. It is necessary to combine them: to striveand to expect all things from grace. It is not one's own efforts that will lead to the goal, because without grace, efforts produce little; nor does grace without effort bring what is sought, because grace acts in us and for usthrough our efforts. Both combine in a person to bring progress and carry him to the goal. (God's) foreknowledge is unfathomable. It is enough for us with our whole heart to believe that it never opposes God's grace and truth, and that it does not infringe man's freedom. Usually this resolves as follows: God foresees how a man will freely act and makes dispositions accordingly. Divine determination depends on the life of a man, and not his life upon the determination.[56]
Roman Catholicism teaches the doctrine of predestination. TheCatechism of the Catholic Church says, "To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore He establishes His eternal plan of 'predestination', He includes in it each person's free response to his grace."[57]
According to the Roman Catholic Church, God does not will anyone to mortally sin and so to deserve punishment in hell.[58]
The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church. (...)For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation.
Augustine of Hippo laid the foundation for much of the later Roman Catholic teaching on predestination. His teachings on grace and free will were largely adopted by the Second Council of Orange (529), whose decrees were directed against the Semipelagians. Augustine wrote,
[God] promised not from the power of our will but from His own predestination. For He promised what He Himself would do, not what men would do. Because, although men do those good things which pertain to God's worship, He Himself makes them to do what He has commanded; it is not they that cause Him to do what He has promised. Otherwise the fulfilment of God's promises would not be in the power of God, but in that of men"[60]
Thomas Aquinas' views concerning predestination are largely in agreement with Augustine and can be summarized by many of his writings in hisSumma Theologiæ:
God does reprobate some. For it was said above (A[1]) that predestination is a part of providence. To providence, however, it belongs to permit certain defects in those things which are subject to providence, as was said above (Q[22], A[2]). Thus, as men are ordained to eternal life through the providence of God, it likewise is part of that providence to permit some to fall away from that end; this is called reprobation. Thus, as predestination is a part of providence, in regard to those ordained to eternal salvation, so reprobation is a part of providence in regard to those who turn aside from that end. Hence reprobation implies not only foreknowledge, but also something more, as does providence, as was said above (Q[22], A[1]). Therefore, as predestination includes the will to confer grace and glory; so also reprobation includes the will to permit a person to fall into sin, and to impose the punishment of damnation on account of that sin."[61]
Lutherans historically hold to unconditional election to salvation. However, some do not believe that there are certain people that are predestined to salvation, but salvation is predestined for those who seek God.[64] Lutherans believe Christians should be assured that they are among the predestined.[65] However, they disagree with those who make predestination the source of salvation rather than Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection. Unlike someCalvinists, Lutherans do not believe in a predestination to damnation.[66] Instead, Lutherans teach eternal damnation is a result of the unbeliever's rejection of the forgiveness of sins and unbelief.[67]
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch theologianJacobus Arminius formulatedArminianism and disagreed with Calvin in particular onelection and predestination.[68] Arminianism is defined by God's limited mode ofprovidence.[69] This mode of providence affirms the compatibility between humanfree will anddivine foreknowledge, but its incompatibility withtheological determinism.[70] Thus predestination in Arminianism is based on divine foreknowledge, unlike in Calvinism.[71] It is therefore a predestination by foreknowledge.[72]
From this perspective, comes the notion of aconditional election on the one who wills to have faith in God for salvation.[73]
In common English parlance, the doctrine of predestination often has particular reference to the doctrines ofCalvinism. The version of predestination espoused byJohn Calvin, after whom Calvinism is named, is sometimes referred to as "double predestination" because in it God predestines some people for salvation (i.e.unconditional election) and some for condemnation (i.e.Reprobation) which results by allowing the individual's own sins to condemn them. Calvin himself defines predestination as "the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. Not all are created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestined to life or to death."[77]
On the spectrum of beliefs concerning predestination, Calvinism is the strongest form among Christians. It teaches that God's predestining decision is based on the knowledge of his own will rather than foreknowledge, concerning every particular person and event; and, God continually acts with entire freedom, in order to bring about his will in completeness, but in such a way that the freedom of the creature is not violated, "but rather, established".[78]
Calvinists who hold the infralapsarian view of predestination usually prefer that term to "sublapsarianism," perhaps with the intent of blocking the inference that they believe predestination is on the basis of foreknowledge (sublapsarian meaning, assuming the fall into sin).[79] The different terminology has the benefit of distinguishing the Calvinist double predestination version of infralapsarianism from Lutheranism's view that predestination is a mystery, which forbids the unprofitable intrusion of prying minds since God only reveals partial knowledge to the human race.[80]
Double predestination, or the double decree, is the doctrine that God activelyreprobates, or decrees damnation of some, as well as salvation for those whom he has elected. During the Protestant Reformation John Calvin held this double predestinarian view:[81][82] "By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death."[83]
Gottschalk of Orbais taught double predestination explicitly in the ninth century,[36] andGregory of Rimini in the fourteenth.[84] Some trace this doctrine to statements made by Augustine in the early fifth century that on their own also seem to teach double predestination, but in the context of his other writings it is not clear whether he held this view. InThe City of God, Augustine describes all of humanity as being predestinated for salvation (i.e., the city of God) or damnation (i.e., the earthly city of man); but Augustine also held that all human beings were born "reprobate" but "need not necessarily remain" in that state of reprobation.[85][26]
Corporate election is a non-traditional Arminian view of election.[86] Incorporate election, God does not choose which individuals he will save prior to creation, but rather God chooses the church as a whole. Or put differently, God chooses a group of people he will save (members of the church), and individuals may work their way into (or out of) the said group. Another way the New Testament puts this is to say that God chose the church in Christ (Eph. 1:4). In other words, God chose from all eternity to save all those who would be found in Christ, by faith in God. This choosing is not primarily about salvation from eternal destruction either but is about God's chosen agency in the world. Thus individuals have full freedom in terms of whether they become members of the church or not.[86]
^"Predestination".The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Third ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2005. Retrieved13 June 2011 – via Dictionary.com.
^Malan, J. C. (1983). "Enochic (apocalyptic) and Christian perspectives on relationships: A tentative comparison of striking aspects and underlying lines of thinking revealed in 1 Enoch and the New Testament".Neotestamentica.17:84–96.ISSN0254-8356.JSTOR43047851.
^Sigal, Philip.The Emergence of Contemporary Judaism, Part I and II: The Foundations of Judaism from Biblical Origins to the Sixth Century A.D.
^St. Theophan the Recluse,An Explanation of Certain Texts of Holy Scripture, as quoted in Johanna Manley'sThe Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox: Daily Scripture Readings and Commentary for Orthodox Christians, p. 609.
^Table drawn, though not copied, from Lange, Lyle W.God So Loved the World: A Study of Christian Doctrine. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 2006. p. 448.
^Peterson, Robert A.; Michael D. Williams (2004).Why I am not an Arminian. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press. p. 132.ISBN0-8308-3248-3.
^2 Thess. 2:13, Mueller, J.T.,Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 589–593, section "The Doctrine of Eternal Election: 2. How Believers are to Consider Their Election, and Engelder, T.E.W.,Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 127–128, Part XXXI. "The Election of Grace", paragraph 180.
^Hos. 13:9, Mueller, J.T.,Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 637, section "The Doctrine of the Last Things (Eschatology), part 7. "Eternal Damnation", and Engelder, T.E.W.,Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 135–136, Part XXXIX. "Eternal Death", paragraph 196.
^Olson 2018. "What is Arminianism? A) Belief that God limits himself to give human beings free will to go against his perfect will so that God did not design or ordain sin and evil (or their consequences such as innocent suffering); B) Belief that, although sinners cannot achieve salvation on their own, without 'prevenient grace' (enabling grace), God makes salvation possible for all through Jesus Christ and offers free salvation to all through the gospel. 'A' is called 'limited providence,' 'B' is called 'predestination by foreknowledge.'"
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dePrater, William A. (2015).God Hovered Over the Waters: The Emergence of the Protestant Reformation. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.ISBN978-1-4982-0454-5.
Olson, Roger E. (2018)."Calvinism and Arminianism Compared".Roger E. Olson: My evangelical, Arminian theological musings. Patheos. Retrieved27 August 2019.
Akin, James.The Salvation Controversy. San Diego, Calif.: Catholic Answers, 2001.Vid. pp. 77, 83–87, explaining the resemblances of this Catholic dogma with, and the divergences from, the teaching of Calvin and Luther on this matter.ISBN1888992182
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