predestination

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Predestination. The theological view that God foreknows and predetermines the outcome of all things, including an individual's life and eternal destiny; predestination is sometimes used of foreknowledge alone; and in Christianity it may apply to salvation alone or to condemnation as well (single and double predestination). Predestination is usually discussed in relation to the fierce and unending controversies in Christianity, but the term is also applied to similar doctrines in other religions, especially to qadar in Islam, but also to kāla, karma, daiva, and astrology in Hinduism, and to the (heavenly) mandate (ming) in China. The Christian doctrine became associated particularly with Augustine, who held that humans are so subverted by sin that they do not have the capacity even to seek for salvation, let alone find it: he thus doubted the ability of humans to produce works of worth in the sight of God. If any are saved, it can only be because the sovereign will of God so decrees it—although even so, it remains the case that all are still justly condemned. Pelagius, in contrast, held that humans had the freedom to choose or deny God (semi-Pelagians held that God's grace was a necessary initiative, but that works had status thereafter), but Augustine maintained that the will is enslaved to sin, that grace is needed to make the choice for God, and that this grace is given to those whom God has predestined to receive it. To say less than this is to limit the omniscience and omnipotence of God. However, the Augustinian position, while it gave adequate emphasis to the grace of God, raised problems about the responsibility of humans in their decisions, and about the justice and severity of God in predestining so many to damnation—the doctrine of reprobation. The Reformers led to a renewed stress on the Augustinian position, that since the will is wholly enslaved (as Luther held against Erasmus), even the assent of faith which admits to the community of the elect must be enabled by the grace of God, wholly and completely unearned and unmerited. But if the gift is entirely gracious, it can of course lie within God's predestined intention. Melanchthon attempted to rescue a place for the worth and validity of the human will, in the so-called ‘Synergistic’ (‘working together with’) controversy; and in Calvinism, which held strongly to predestination, comparable controversies broke out (and continue) over the scope of what God willed (and foresaw) in relation to the Fall. The argument was between those who were later called sublapsarians (or infralapsarians) and supralapsarians: did God always know, when he created, that some would be saved and some not, so that he allowed the Fall (lapsus) in order to bring this about (as the supralapsarians held); or (since, as the sublapsarians held, this seemed to make God the author of sin), did he create with a foreknowledge of the possibility of the fall, and, when it happened, then elect some to salvation, leaving the rest in a condition of enmity (but that seemed to suggest a lack of control on the part of God, and also that Christ's atonement had reference only to a few)? The Synod of Dort (1618–19) upheld the sublapsarians, whose position is expressed in the Westminster Confession (1647). Various attempts (see e.g. ARMINIUS; SUAREZ for Congruism) were made to ameliorate the most severe forms of the doctrine, attributing, as it seems to do, a character to God which would be prosecuted if exhibited by a human father to his children. More recently, therefore, Barth shifted the emphasis by taking Paul's argument to be pointing to the absolute centrality of Christ as the one who experienced in himself both election and reprobation for the sake of all humanity.

predestination. The Divine decree according to which certain persons are infallibly guided to eternal salvation. It is presupposed in the Gospels, e.g. Mt. 20: 23, where Christ is reported as saying that sitting on His right and left is reserved ‘for them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father’. In Rom. 8: 28–30 St Paul traces the process of salvation of those ‘that are called according to His purpose’ from foreknowledge and predestination to vocation, justification, and glorification.

In the W. St Augustine developed this teaching in the Pelagian controversy. For him the mystery of predestination consists in the inaccessibility to the human mind of the reasons for the Divine choice, which, nevertheless, is made in perfect justice. It contains the gift of final perseverance and depends not on human acceptance, but on the eternal decree of God; it is therefore infallible, without, however, according to Augustine, violating free will. In S. Gaul his teaching was questioned by John Cassian and other Semipelagians, but the Augustinian position was accepted at the Council of Orange (529). In the 9th cent. Gottschalk, basing himself on Augustine, taught a double predestination of some to eternal blessedness and others to eternal fire. This doctrine was condemned by the Synod of Quiercy in 849. Medieval teaching was based on Augustine but took account of the Greek doctrine represented by St John of Damascus. He held that God ‘antecedently’ wills the universal salvation of all men, but, in consequence of their sins, He wills eternal punishment for some. Various attempts to reconcile this view with the Divine omnipotence and the efficacy of grace were made by the Schoolmen.

Predestination emerged again as a significant issue at the Reformation. M. Luther revived the full Augustinian doctrine which he combined with a new stress on the depravity of man. In 1525 he maintained that in an act of Divine sovereignty both the elect and the reprobate are predestined without reference to their merits or demerits. The Formula of Concord in 1577, however, embodied the position of the Philippists, who, while accepting the total depravity of man after the Fall and justification by faith alone, denied that double predestination followed from either. This has remained Lutheran doctrine. The doctrine of double predestination, however, became a cornerstone of the Calvinist system. Though rejected by the Arminians, it was imposed by the Synod of Dort (1618–9) and by the Westminster Assembly (1647), which declared that at least after the Fall God does not will the salvation of all men and that Christ died only for the elect. Post-Tridentine RC theologians in their formulations of the doctrine of predestination have tried to preserve the element of human consent and the reality of the Divine will that ‘all men should be saved’.

See also ELECTION.

predestination in theology, doctrine that asserts that God predestines from eternity the salvation of certain souls. So-called double predestination, as in Calvinism , is the added assertion that God also foreordains certain souls to damnation. Predestination is posited on the basis of God's omniscience and omnipotence and is closely related to the doctrines of divine providence and grace . A predestinarian doctrine is suggested in St. Paul, but it is not developed (Rom. 8.28–30). St. Augustine's interpretation of the doctrine has been the fountainhead for most subsequent versions, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. Pelagianism argued against St. Augustine that by granting every individual freedom of choice, God wills the salvation of all souls equally, a view that became popular in liberal Protestant theology. The Roman Catholic view, as stated by St. Thomas Aquinas, maintains that God wills the salvation of all souls but that certain souls are granted special grace that in effect foreordains their salvation. The damned may be said to be reprobated to hell only in the sense that God foresees their resistance to the grace given them. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that predestination is consistent with free will since God moves the soul according to its nature. Calvinism, on the other hand, rejects the role of free will and teaches that grace is irresistible and that God by an absolute election saves the souls of some and abandons the souls of others. Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis ) was a corresponding predestinarian movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Traditional Jewish theology may be said to be predestinarian in the general sense that everything ultimately depends upon God. Islam teaches an absolute predestination, controlled by a God conceived of as absolute will. See atonement ; sin .

Bibliography: See P. Maury, Predestination (1960); J. H. Rainbow, The Will of God and the Cross (1990).

predestination Christian doctrine that a person's ultimate spiritual salvation or condemnation by God has been ordained in advance. According to this doctrine, people are at birth committed to the events of life, and their fate at death is already mapped out for them. As possible solutions to the problem of how this doctrine affects free will, three propositions have been put forward: the first is to refute the doctrine altogether (Pelagianism); the second is to state that God never intended to save everybody (Predestinarianism); and the third is to qualify the premise by seeing God's prevision as conditional and subject to possible revision depending on the will and spirituality of the individual. This last position is the solution to which most Christians adhere. The concept of predestination is also found in Islam. See also Pelagius

pre·des·ti·na·tion / prēˌdestəˈnāshən/ • n. (as a doctrine in Christian theology) the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, esp. with regard to the salvation of some and not others. It has been particularly associated with the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo and of Calvin.

predestination XIV. — ecclL. prædestinātiō, -ōn-, f. prædestināre appoint beforehand, f. præ- PRE- + destināre DESTINE. The L. vb. is also the ult. source of predestine vb. XIV and predestinate pp. (XIV) and pt. (XV), the latter form being used as present tense from XVI; see -ATE2.

predestination (as a doctrine in Christian theology) the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others. It has been particularly associated with the teachings of St Augustine of Hippo and of Calvin.