Predestination

Predestination (from Latin 'praedestinare,' "fore-ordain") is a religious idea, under which the relationship between the beginning and destiny of the world, angels, and human beings are discussed. In particular, predestination concerns God's decision to create and to govern Creation, and the extent to which God's decisions determine ahead of time what the destiny or fate of groups and individuals will be. Conflicts over this topic have concerned various religious groups, in particular Christianity. The disagreement many Christians have is between those affirming human freedom and those affirming God's sovereign rule. A view balancing divine governance with human freedom is sought in order to reconcile a divided Christianity and strengthen humanity's sense of responsibility in relation to God's work in the world.

Significance of the Topic

Views on predestination do not impact human behavior on a mundane level. People make the decisions they have to make regardless of their belief as to their freedom to do so. From that point of view the matter of predestination would seem to have little practical relevance. Nonetheless, it impacts life in two ways. On a personal level it provides comfort to those who believe that all affairs are firmly in the hands of a loving and just God. On a social level views on predestination have enormous sway on society. For example, the view that the present status is the way it is meant to be, or that history is inevitably moving in one way or another, toward one's nation's triumph (imperialism, fascism, nazism), toward a classless society (communism), toward "the end of history" (democratic capitalism), or toward a religious regime of Christian, Muslim, or other provenance, have a huge impact on individual lives and the course of history.

Predestination in Contrast with Determinism

Its religious nature distinguishes it from discussions of determinism, free will, and other related concepts with strictly philosophical, historical, or economic interpretations.

In Chinese Buddhism, predestination is a translation of yuanfen, which does not necessarily imply the existence or involvement of a deity. Predestination in this sense takes on a very literal meaning: pre- (before) and destiny (fate), in a straightforward way indicating that some events seem bound to happen.

Predestination may sometimes be used to refer to other materialistic, spiritualist, non-theistic or polytheistic ideas of determinism, destiny, fate, doom, or karma. Such beliefs or philosophical systems may hold that any outcome is finally determined by the complex interaction of multiple, possibly immanent, possibly impersonal, possibly equal forces. Rather than simply the reliance of the Creator's conscious choice.

Finally, of the oppositions to determinism, there are theories that claim that the cosmos asserts any outcome that is ultimately unpredictable, the working out of luck, chance, or chaos.

All conceptions of an ordered or rational cosmos have determinism implications, as a logical consequence of the idea of predictability; but predestination usually refers to a specifically religious type of determinism, especially as found in the various monotheistic systems of Christianity, wherever omniscience is attributed to God, but it appears in Islam as well.

Predestination and Omniscience

Discussion of predestination usually involves consideration of whether God is omniscient, eternal, or atemporal (out of the flow of time in our universe). In terms of these ideas, God may see the past, present, and future allowing God to effectively know the future. If God in some sense knows ahead of time what will happen, then events in the universe can be effectively predetermined from God's point of view. This is not predestination in itself. Predestination implies that God will determine ahead of time what the destiny of creatures will be.

Judaism may accept the possibility that God is atemporal; some forms of Jewish theology teach this virtually as a principle of faith, while other forms of Judaism do not. Jews may use the term omniscience or preordination as a corollary of omniscience, but normally outright reject the idea of predestination.

Islam traditionally has strong views of predestination similar to some found in Christianity. In Islam, Allah both knows and ordains whatever comes to pass.

Jewish Views of Predestination

Generally speaking Judaism has no strong doctrine of predestination. The idea that God is omnipotent and omniscient didn't formally exist in Judaism during the Tanakh era, but rather was a later development due to the influence of neo-Platonic and neo-Aristotelian philosophy. Many modern Jewish thinkers in the 20th century have resolved the dialectical tension by holding that God is simply not omnipotent, in the commonly used sense of that word. These thinkers are primarily not Orthodox Jews. Orthodox Jewish rabbis generally affirm that God must be viewed as omnipotent, but they have varying definitions of what the word means. Thus one finds that some modern Orthodox theologians have views that are essentially the same as non-Orthodox theologians, but they use different terminology.

One noted Jewish philosopher, Hasdai Crescas, resolved this dialectical tension by taking the position that free-will does not exist. Hence all of a person's actions are predetermined by the moment of their birth, and their judgment in the eyes of God is effectively preordained. However, in this view, the determination is not a result of God's predetermining one's fate, but rather from the view that the universe is deterministic. Crescas's views on this topic were rejected by Judaism at large. In later centuries this idea independently developed among some in the Chabad (Lubavitch) sect of Hasidic Judaism. Many individuals within Chabad take this view seriously, and hence effectively deny the existence of free will.

However, many Chabad (Lubavitch) Jews attempt to hold both views. They affirm as infallible their rebbe's teachings that God knows and controls the fate of all, yet at the same time affirms the classical Jewish belief in free will, in other words,. there is no such thing as determinism. The inherent contradiction between the two results in their belief that such contradictions are only "apparent" due to man's inherent lack of ability to understand greater truths. To most people outside of these Hasidic groups, this position is held to be a logical contradiction, and is only sustained due to cognitive dissonance.

All other Jews (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and secular) affirm that since free will exists, then by definition one's fate is not preordained. It is held as a tenet of faith that whether God is omniscient or not, nothing interferes with mankind's free will. Some Jewish theologians, both during the medieval era and today, have attempted to formulate a philosophy in which free will is preserved, while also affirming that God has knowledge of what decisions people will make in the future. Whether or not these two ideas are mutually compatible, or whether there is a contradiction between the two, is still a matter of great study and interest in philosophy today.

Islamic Views of Predestination

In Islam, "predestination" is the usual English language rendering of a belief that Muslims call al-qada wa al-qadar in Arabic. The phrase means "the divine decree and the predestination"; al-qadar derives from a root that means "to measure out."

The phrase reflects a Muslim doctrine that God has measured out and foreordained the span of every person's life, and their lot of good or ill fortune. When referring to the future, Muslims frequently qualify any predictions of what will come to pass with the phrase inshallah, Arabic for "if God wills." The phrase recognizes that human knowledge of the future is limited, and that all that may or may not come to pass is under the control of God. A related phrase, mashallah, indicates acceptance of what God has ordained in terms of good or ill fortune that may befall a believer.

Christian Views of Predestination

The New Testament

The word predestination is translated from the Greek verb proorizo which appears six times in the New Testament to say that God predetermines or preordains people or events for his purpose.

1. "whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur" (Acts 4:27).
2. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29).
3. "and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:30).
4. "but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory" (1 Corinthians 2:7).
5. "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will" (Ephesians 1:3-5).
6. "also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11).

The predestination of people is election (elektos in Greek), which means to choose. This Greek word appears 25 times in the New Testamanet as in Ephesians 1:4: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him."

At the same time, the New Testament also seems to teach that humans have free will: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7); "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you" (John 15:6-7).

Augustine

St. Augustine's view of predestiantion is a little complex, for in his earlier days as a newly converted Christian he had to address the problem of Manichaean fatalism, of which he used to be a member. From a Christian point of view, he now had to defend the existence of free will within human beings created by God. Later in his life, however, he had to refute the libertarian position of Pelagius, by emphasizing the importance of the sovereignty of God's grace. It was in this context that Augustine developed a theory of the two phases of human growth in his Anti-Pelagian treatise on "Grace and Free Will" written in 426 or 427 C.E. According to this, in the first phase the human will is still "small and weak" due to the fall, thus being unable to do God's commandment; so, God's grace takes the initiative in its operation for us. In this initial phase God's grace is called "operating grace" (gratia operans), and it is gratuitous and even irresistible. In the second phase, however, the human will now becomes "great and robust"; so, God's grace works together with us cooperatively. In the second phase, therefore, God's grace is termed "cooperating grace" (gratia cooperans). These two types of divine grace were also called by Augustine "prevenient grace" (gratia praeveniens) and "subsequent grace" (gratia subsequens), respectively. The theology of Augustine influenced both Catholicism and Protestantism later, but while Catholicism basically understood both phases mentioned by him, Protestantism rejected the second phase.

Augustine's doctrine of predestination was developed during and after the period of the Pelagian controversy, but it is particularly relevant to the first phase of human growth mentioned by him, because in that phase the human will is very weak in front of the almighty God. God determines the destiny of humans, even choosing a certain number of people for salvation beforehand: "I speak thus of those who are predestinated to the kingdom of God, whose number is so certain that one can neither be added to them nor taken from them."

Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas tried to explain the meaning of Augustine's second phase of the cooperation between God and humans through a more general theory of primary and secondary causation. According to that theory, while God as "pure act" is the primary cause of what happens, nature itself as a composite of "act" and "potency" is the secondary cause. Among all creatures, humans have the highest grade of "act." So, While God is the first agent of actualization, humans are the second agent of actualization. One possible difficulty of of this model would be that there hardly exists reciprocity in the divine-human relationship because God as "pure act" is perfect and immutable, thus not being able to be acted upon by humans. However, it is notable that Thomas' philosophical conceptuality was able to secure some level of human participation in what happens centering on God's will.

Calvinists

The first phase of human growth mentioned by Augustine involves predestination, and it was taken seriously by Protestants. On the spectrum of beliefs concerning predestination, Calvinism is the strongest form among Protestants. Some even associate the doctrine of predestination with one name, John Calvin. Calvin asserted that God's grace that leads to salvation is irresistible and given to some but not to others on the basis of God's predestinating choice. Calvin reasoned further that since God is almighty, by predestinating some to salvation ("election"), he is in the same act of predestinating the others to hell ("reprobation"). In his own words,

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.

This is usually referred to as "double predestination." Calvin taught that God's predestinating decision is based on the knowledge of his own will rather than foreknowledge, concerning every particular person and event. Additionally, God continually acts with entire freedom, in order to bring about his will in completeness, in an unfathomable way, not accessible to scrutiny, so that the freedom of the creature is not really violated.

• Supralapsarianism — Some of Calvin's followers believed that God decreed both election and reprobation even before the fall of Adam, and that the fall happened to facilitate this divine decree. This is called "supralapsarianism" or "antelapsarianism." Calvin himself is said to have had this position, although it is not that easy to say it.

• Sublapsarianism — Less rigid than supralapsarianism was "sublapsarianism," "infralapsarianism," or "postlapsarianism," according to which God decreed election and reprobation after the fall of Adam. This position has been commonly current amongst Calvinists since the Synod of Dort in 1618.

"Moderate" Calvinists

There are "moderate" Calvinists such as Millard Erickson who try to explain the possibility of cooperation between God and humans even in the context of predestination. According to Erickson, the divine-human cooperation is possible, but it is only possible in the sense that a human choice is actually made through the will of God-given human personality. Human freedom is only within the limitations of what God created it to be. So, although a human could freely choose differently, he/she would not in reality.

Arminians

Arminians were named after Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch Reformed theologian (1560-1609). According to Arminians, all humans can use their free will to choose salvation, if they want, because they all are given "prevenient grace." So, whether they choose election or reprobation is up to them. Hence conditional election. But, it is completely compatible with God's sovereign will because the cooperation between God and humans can be explained through divine foreknowledge. While humans are genuinely free to do anything because of their free will, God foreknows what their decisions and actions will be like in the end. So, while God's plan is virtually conditional upon human decision (i.e., virtual priority of human decision), it can still be said that God wills what he foreknows will happen. Therefore, God predestinates on the basis of his foreknowledge of how some will respond to his universal love. Arminianism was condemned at the Synod of Dort (1618-1619). Nonetheless, Arminian thinking maintained itself in the Church of England and world Anglicanism and the Methodist movements.

Molinists

Molinists in Catholicism are equivalent to Arminians in Protestantism. They were named after Luis de Molina (1535-1600), a Jesuit theologian in Spain. Their explanation of the divine-human cooperation was very similar to that by Arminians. Molinists were strongly opposed by the conservative Dominican, Domingo Báñez (1528-1604), just like Arminians were strongly critiqued by Calvinists. It is interesting to note that even within Catholicism the disagreement between Molinism and the conservatism of Báñez has been officially allowed to exist, just like in Protestantism the discord of Calvinism and Arminianism is allowed to exist.

Whiteheadians

As an Anglican, Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) basically had an Arminian background. His philosophical understanding of the relationship between God and the world can be seen in his major work, Process and Reality, according to which God and each actual entity in the world cause each other and work together through the principle of dipolarity. This was applied to Christian theology, and a new school of theology, called process theology, was created. Many of the process theologians or Whiteheadians such as John B. Cobb, Jr. are Methodists.

External Links

• Determinism in Theology: PREDESTINATION
• Occurrences of predestination in the Bible text (ESV)
• Theopedia: Predestination (conservative Calvinist perspective)
• Divine Principle

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