predestination

• predestination = the view that all events have been willed by God from eternity, specifically the fate of the righteous + the damned

  • individual fates have been willed by God - implies their conduct is morally good because God has willed it, therefore implying good moral conduct in humans is less important than God's will - whatever God decides will happen
• predestination in the teaching of Paul:

  • "for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son"
  • God decided in advance who would be justified - however, many Christians think this is a distortion of Paul's teaching
  • God's purposes cannot be known or understood by humans
  • Paul may have simply been trying to say that because of Gods omniscience, he knows what individuals will freely choose, so in that sense salvation is predestined
• predestination in the teaching of Augustine:

  • God infallibly knows who will be saved
  • predestination is an act of grace
  • humans cannot understand the will of God - why he chooses to save some + not others
  • doctrine of double predestination
• the view of Pelagius:

  • freedom + predestination don't work together
  • everything God created was good, so God couldn't possibly have created humanity in a state of original sin
  • grace = God's gift of free will to humans
• Augustine's doctrine of double predestination:

  1. God predestines some to God's kingdom through his grace
  2. but leaves others immersed in their sin to be condemned to hell through both their choice + works
• predestination in the teaching of Calvin:

  • reaffirmed Augustine's doctrine of double predestination
  • God decided before creation who would be saved + who would be damned to hell
  • because of original sin, all humanity deserves damnation, so God's act of electing some is entirely an act of grace
  • "all are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others eternal damnation"

  the Catholic Church rejected Calvin's teaching
• problems with the idea of predestination:

  • problem of evil
  • why would God create beings who would inevitably go to hell?
  • seems to contradict ideas around free will
  • why have scripture or religious institutions if God has decided everything already?
• philosophers for predestination:

  • Paul
  • Augustine vs Pelagius
  • Calvin