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Predestination is a doctrine in
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...
dealing with the question of the control that God exercises over the world. In the words of the
Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the " subordinate standard" ...
, God "freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass." The second use of the word "
predestination
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...
" applies this to salvation, and refers to the belief that God appointed the eternal
destiny
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
of some to salvation by grace, while leaving the remainder to receive
eternal damnation
Damnation (from Latin '' damnatio'') is the concept of divine punishment and torment in an afterlife for actions that were committed, or in some cases, not committed on Earth.
In Ancient Egyptian religious tradition, citizens would recite t ...
for all their
sins
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
, even their
original sin
Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...
. The former is called "
unconditional election
Unconditional election (also called sovereign election or unconditional grace) is a Calvinist doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to ...
", and the latter "
reprobation
Reprobation, in Christian theology, is a doctrine which teaches that a person can reject the gospel to a point where God in turn rejects them and curses their conscience. The English word ''reprobate'' is from the Latin root ''probare'' (''Engl ...
". In Calvinism, some people are predestined and effectually called in due time (
regenerated/born again) to faith by God, all others are reprobated.
Calvinism places more emphasis on election compared to other branches of Christianity.
Origins
Predestination of the elect and non-elect was taught by the Jewish
Essene
The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''Isiyim''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st c ...
sect,
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...
, and
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
. In Christianity, the doctrine that God unilaterally predestines some persons to heaven and some to hell originated with
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
during the
Pelagian controversy
Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius ( – AD), an ascetic and philosopher from th ...
in 412 AD.
Pelagius
Pelagius (; c. 354–418) was a British theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by his opponents) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius and his followers abhorred the moral s ...
and his followers taught that people are not born with
original sin
Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...
and can choose to be good or evil. The controversy caused Augustine to radically reinterpret the teachings of the
apostle Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
, arguing that faith is a free gift from God rather than something humans can choose. Noting that not all will hear or respond to God's offered covenant, Augustine considered that "the more general care of God for the world becomes particularised in God's care for the elect".
He explicitly defended God's justice in sending newborn and stillborn babies to hell if they died without baptism.
Double predestination
Double predestination is the idea that not only does God choose some to be saved, he also creates some people who will be damned.
Some modern Calvinists respond to the ethical dilemma of double predestination by explaining that God's active predestination is only for the elect. God provides grace to the elect causing salvation, but for the damned God withholds salvific grace. Calvinists teach that God remains just and fair in creating persons he predestines to damnation because although God unilaterally works in the elect producing regeneration, God does not actively force the damned to sin. Double predestination may not be the view of any of the
Reformed confessions
Calvinist confessions of faith are the confessions of faith of various Calvinist churches. These documents express consensus on doctrine for the church adopting the confession. A few confessions are shared as subordinate standards (i.e. authoriti ...
, which speak of God passing over rather than actively reprobating the damned. However, John Calvin refuted such a position, stating "This they do ignorantly and childishly since there could be no election without its opposite reprobation ... whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children."
[Calvin, ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'', 3.23.1.]
Scholars have disagreed over whether
Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger (18 July 1504 – 17 September 1575) was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a pastor at the Grossmünster. One of the most important leaders of the Swiss Re ...
accepted the doctrine of double predestination.
Frank A. James says that he rejected it, preferring a view called "single predestination" where God elects some to salvation, but does not in any way predestine to reprobation.
Cornelis Venema, on the other hand, argues that "Bullinger did not consistently articulate a doctrine of single predestination," and defended double predestination on a few occasions.
Calvin's writings
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
taught double predestination. He wrote the foundational work on this topic, ''
Institutes of the Christian Religion
''Institutes of the Christian Religion'' ( la, Institutio Christianae Religionis) is John Calvin's seminal work of systematic theology. Regarded as one of the most influential works of Protestant theology, it was published in Latin in 1536 (at th ...
'' (1539), while living in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
after his expulsion from
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
and consulting regularly with the Reformed theologian
Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer ( early German: ''Martin Butzer''; 11 November 1491 – 28 February 1551) was a German Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a me ...
.
Calvin's belief in the uncompromised "
sovereignty of God
The attributes of God are specific characteristics of God discussed in Christian theology. Christians are not monolithic in their understanding of God's attributes.
Classification
Many Reformed theologians distinguish between the ''communicabl ...
" spawned his doctrines of providence and predestination. For the world, without providence it would be "unlivable". For individuals, without predestination "no one would be saved".
Calvin's doctrine of providence is straightforward. "All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God." Therefore, "nothing happens but what
odhas knowingly and willingly decreed." This excludes "fortune and chance." Calvin applied his doctrine of providence concerning "all events" to individuals and their salvation in his doctrine of predestination.
Calvin opened his exposition of predestination with an "actual fact". The "actual fact" that Calvin observed was that even among those to whom "the covenant of life" is preached, it does not gain the same acceptance.
[Calvin, ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'', 3.21.1.] Although, "all are called to repentance and faith", in fact, "the spirit of repentance and faith is not given to all".
[Calvin, ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'', 3.22.10.]
Calvin turned to the teachings of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
for a theological interpretation of the diversity that some people accept the "covenant of life" and some do not. Pointing to the
Parable of the Sower, Calvin observed, "it is no new thing for the seed to fall among thorns or in stony places".
In Jesus' teaching in John 6:65 that "no one can come to me unless it has been granted him by my Father", Calvin found the key to his theological interpretation of the diversity.
For Calvin's biblically-based theology, this diversity reveals the "unsearchable depth of the divine judgment", a judgment "subordinate to God's purpose of eternal election". God offers salvation to some, but not to all. To many this seems a perplexing subject, because they deem it "incongruous that ... some should be predestinated to salvation, and others to destruction". However, Calvin asserted that the incongruity can be resolved by proper views concerning "election and predestination".
Thus, Calvin based his theological description of people as "predestinated to life or to death" on biblical authority and "actual fact". Calvin noted that Scripture requires that we "consider this great mystery" of predestination, but he also warned against unrestrained "human curiosity" regarding it. For believers, knowing that "the cause of our salvation did not proceed from us, but from God alone" evokes gratitude.
Reprobation: active decree, passive foreordination
Calvinists emphasise the ''active'' nature of God's decree to choose those foreordained to eternal wrath, yet at the same time the ''passive'' nature of that foreordination.
This is possible because most Calvinists hold to an
infralapsarian In Calvinist theology, lapsarianism is the study of the logical order of God's decree to ordain the fall of man in relation to his decree to save some sinners through election and condemn others through reprobation. Several opposing positions have b ...
view of God's decree. In that view, God, before Creation, in his mind, first decreed that the
Fall
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...
would take place, before decreeing
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
and
reprobation
Reprobation, in Christian theology, is a doctrine which teaches that a person can reject the gospel to a point where God in turn rejects them and curses their conscience. The English word ''reprobate'' is from the Latin root ''probare'' (''Engl ...
. So God actively chooses whom to condemn, but because he knows they will have a
sinful nature, the way he foreordains them is to simply let them be – this is sometimes called "preterition." Therefore, this foreordination to wrath is passive in nature (unlike God's active predestination of his elect where he needs to overcome their sinful nature).
Equal ultimacy
The WCF uses different words for the act of God's election and reprobation: "predestinated" and "foreordained" respectively. This suggests that the two do not operate in the same way. The term "equal ultimacy" is sometimes used of the view that the two decrees are symmetrical: God works equally to keep the elect in heaven and the reprobate out of heaven. This view is sometimes erroneously referred to as "double predestination", on which see above.
R. C. Sproul
Robert Charles Sproul ( ; February 13, 1939 – December 14, 2017) was an American Reformed theologian and ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries (named for the Ligonier Va ...
argues against this position on the basis that it implies God "actively intervenes to work sin" in the lives of the reprobate.
Robert L. Reymond Robert Lewis Reymond (October 30, 1932 – September 20, 2013) was a Christian theologian of the Protestant Reformed tradition and the author of ''New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith'' (1998; 2nd edition, 2002). Reymond held B.A., M.A., ...
, however, insists on equal ultimacy of election and reprobation in the divine decree, though he suggests that "we must not speak of an exact identity of divine causality behind both."
Calvinists hold that even if their scheme is characterized as a form of determinism, it is one which insists upon the free agency and moral responsibility of the individual. Additionally, they hold that the will is in bondage to sin and therefore unable to actualize its true freedom. Hence, an individual whose will is enslaved to sin cannot choose to serve God. Since Calvinists further hold that salvation is by grace apart from good works (''
sola gratia
''Sola gratia'', meaning by grace alone, is one of the five ''solae'' and consists in the belief that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, not as something earned or deserved by the sinner. It is a Christian theologica ...
'') and since they view making a choice to trust God as an action or work, they maintain that the act of choosing cannot be the difference between salvation and damnation, as in the
Arminian
Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...
scheme. Rather, God must first free the individual from his enslavement to sin to a greater degree than in Arminianism, and then the
regenerated heart naturally chooses the good. This work by God is sometimes called
irresistible, in the sense that grace enables a person to freely cooperate, being set free from the desire to do the opposite, so that cooperation is not the cause of salvation but the other way around.
Barthian views
20th century Reformed theologian
Karl Barth
Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Calvinist theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declara ...
reinterpreted the Reformed doctrine of predestination. For Barth, God elects Christ as rejected and chosen man. Individual people are not the subjects of election, but are elected or rejected by virtue of their being in Christ. Interpreters of Barth such as
Shirley Guthrie Shirley C. Guthrie Jr. (9 October 1927 – 23 October 2004) was a minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and J.B. Green Professor of Systematic Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary for nearly 40 years. He was well known for his book, ''Chri ...
have called this a "Trinitarian" as opposed to a "speculative" view of predestination. According to Guthrie, God freely loves all people, and his just condemnation of sinners is motivated by love and a desire for reconciliation.
See also
*
Five points of Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
*
Predestination
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...
*
Reprobation
Reprobation, in Christian theology, is a doctrine which teaches that a person can reject the gospel to a point where God in turn rejects them and curses their conscience. The English word ''reprobate'' is from the Latin root ''probare'' (''Engl ...
*
Theological determinism
Theological determinism is a form of predeterminism which states that all events that happen are pre-ordained, and/or predestined to happen, by one or more divine beings, or that they are destined to occur given the divine beings' omniscience. The ...
*
Theological fatalism
The argument from free will, also called the paradox of free will or theological fatalism, contends that omniscience and free will are incompatible and that any conception of God that incorporates both properties is therefore inconceivable. See ...
*
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists are part of a larger sub-group of Baptists that is commonly referred to as "anti-mission" Baptists. This sub-group includes the Duck River and Kindred Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, some Regular Bap ...
*
Unconditional election
Unconditional election (also called sovereign election or unconditional grace) is a Calvinist doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to ...
*
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
References
External links
*{{Curlie, Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianity/Theology/Reformed/Doctrines/Predestination/
Pro
A Brief Declaration on Predestinationby
Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformatio ...
Reformed Doctrine of Predestinationby
Loraine Boettner
Loraine Boettner (; March 7, 1901 – January 3, 1990) was an American theologian, teacher, and author in the Reformed tradition. He is best known for his works on predestination, Roman Catholicism, and Postmillennial eschatology.
Biography
Boett ...
Some Thoughts on Predestinationby
B. B. Warfield
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (November 5, 1851 – February 16, 1921) was professor of theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. He served as the last principal of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1886 to 1902. After the death o ...
Divine and Human Freedomnbsp;– by
Andrew Sandlin
P. Andrew Sandlin is a Christian minister, cultural theologian, and author; the founder and president of thCenter for Cultural Leadershipin Coulterville, California; De Yong Distinguished Visiting Professor of Culture and Theology at Edinburg The ...
. Good explanation of free will under a Calvinist system (i.e., the difference between Calvinist predestination and fatalism).
Con
The Antecedent and Consequent Will of God: Is this a Valid and Useful Distinction?by A. Hussman (a
Confessional Lutheran
Confessional Lutheranism is a name used by Lutherans to designate those who believe in the doctrines taught in the ''Book of Concord'' of 1580 (the Lutheran confessional documents) in their entirety. Confessional Lutherans maintain that faithfulne ...
perspective)
Sermon #58: "On Predestination"by
John Wesley
John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...
Sermon #128: "Free Grace"by
John Wesley
John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...
A criticism of predestination by
Tim Staples
Tim Staples (born July 11, 1964) is a Catholic author, apologist, and lecturer. He is the Director of Apologetics and Evangelization at Catholic Answers.
Personal life
In ''Surprised by Truth'' in a chapter entitled "The Bible Made Me Do It", ...
Calvinist theology
Salvation in Protestantism