Predestination
Predestination is a religious idea, under which the relationship between the beginning of things and the destiny of things is discussed. Its religious nature distinguishes it from other ideas concerning determinism and free will, and related concepts. 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 of groups and individuals will be.
Contrasted with other kinds of determinism
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, 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 the issue of the Creator's conscious choice.
For example, some may speak of predestination from a purely physical perspective, such as in a discussion of time travel. In this case, rather than referring to the afterlife, predestination refers to any events that will occur in the future. In a predestined universe the future is immutable and only one set of events can possibly occur; in a non-predestined universe, the future is mutable.
Finally, antithetical to determinism of any kind, are theories of the cosmos which assert that any outcome is ultimately unpredictable, the ludibrium of luck, chance, or chaos.
All conceptions of an ordered or rational cosmos have determinist 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 also appears in Islam.
Distinguished from preordination
Predestination, in the sense of preordination or foreordination, is concerned not only with the afterlife, but also with the roles and limitations that are assigned to things and people in life as well (temporal preordination). In Christian theology, usually all issues of preordination correspond directly with the issues of divine providence, with emphasis on God's particular determination of events: especially those events which arise from the choices made by men and angels. Predestination includes all of the issues of preordination, and in addition is concerned with the ultimate outcome, the final destiny of men and of angels. So, in Christianity, the terms are roughly synonymous and may be used interchangeably. These or related issues may be discussed in monotheistic religions besides Christianity.
In Christianity, ideas of preordination are strong or weak in parallel with ideas of predestination; the two live or die together. This is not the case in some other religions, which make a strong difference between earthly and eternal destinies. However, in Christianity, although the two are formally distinguished, the principles are the same which explain the relationship of God's determining will and man's free choices, whether speaking of the earthly fortunes and roles to which God has preordained men, or the final status to which they are predestined.
On the other hand, in that ultimate reference there may be a complete reversal of the status of people or groups expected. Thus, for example the Christian sayings, "The meek shall inherit the earth" and "many who are first shall be last and the last, first", imply that there is no predictable continuity between present and final status. The final state (to which men are predestined) may be a reversal of the present injustices under which the righteous suffer (which are preordained), and yet God has as much to do with one as with the other (if the particular belief system allows that God has anything to do with either of them).
Furthermore, predestination typically refers to God's will for salvation and not His will for damnation. Predestination to damnation is, rather, called reprobation.
Predestination and omniscience
Discussion of predestination usually involves consideration of whether God is omniscient, or 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, so that God effectively knows the future. If God in some sense knows ahead of time what will happen, then events in the universe are effectively predetermined from God's point of view. This is not predestination in itself (although it does involve determinism). Predestination implies that God has something to do with determining 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 reject the idea of predestination outright, as a completely foreign idea that has no place in their religion.
Islam traditionally has strong views of predestination similar to some found in Christianity. In Islam, Allah both knows and ordains whatever comes to pass. Muslims believe that God is literally atemporal, eternal and omniscient at the same time.
In philosophy, the relation between foreknowledge and predestination is a central part of Newcomb's paradox.
Predestination in Christianity
The "doctrine of predestination" usually refers to Christian teaching concerning the ultimate implications of the predestination idea: the final destiny of men and of angels. As such, discussion of predestination concerns the extent to which salvation and damnation are the issue of God's decisions before time, and the extent to which these are matters decided by men and angels for themselves. The more immediate application of the doctrine of predestination concerns the extent to which people and nations are confined by God to particular roles, compared to how much they are makers of their own destiny. Predestination is mentioned in the Bible (Ephesians 1:4-6 (ESV) for example), and therefore all Christian theologies discuss it in some way.
In terms of these ultimates, with creation as the ultimate beginning, and salvation as the ultimate end, a belief system has a doctrine of predestination if it teaches:
- God's decision, assignment or declaration concerning the lot of people is conceived as occurring in some sense prior to the outcome, and
- the decision is fully predictive of the outcome, and not merely probable.
There are numerous ways to describe the spectrum of beliefs concerning predestination, in Christian thinking. To some extent, this spectrum has analogies in other monotheistic religions; although, in other religions the term predestination may not be used. For example, teaching on predestination may vary in terms of three considerations.
- Is God's predestinating decision based on a knowledge of His own will, or does it arise from a knowledge of whatever will happen?
- How particular is God's prior decision: is it concerned with particular persons and events, or is it limited to broad categories of people and things?
- How free is God in effecting His part in the eventual outcome?
Furthermore, the same sort of considerations apply to the freedom of man's will.
- Assuming that an individual had no choice in who, when and where to come into being: How are the choices of existence determined by what he is?
- Assuming that not all possible choices are available to him: How capable is the individual to desire all choices available, in order to choose from among them?
- How capable is an individual to put into effect what he desires?
With each additional consideration relevant to predestination, the spectrum of beliefs can be expanded to display the religious presuppositions upon which the various systems are organized. For this reason, predestination is of particular interest in discerning the principle upon which a belief system explains differences of status or condition between people, in life and in death.
Various Views on Christian Predestination
There is a resounding consistency in the early church fathers, regarding the freedom of human choices. This polemic was crucial in the Christian confrontation with Cynicism and some of the chief forms of Gnosticism, such as Manichaeism, which taught that man is by nature flawed and therefore not responsible for evil in himself or in the world. At the same time, belief in a sovereign and predestinating God was held without clear attempt to reconcile these ideas with one another. That this was an uneasy tension eventually became obvious with the confrontation between Augustine of Hippo and Pelagius culminating in condemnation of Pelagianism (as interpreted by Augustine) in 417. The British monk denied predestination in order to affirm that salvation is achieved by an act of free will.
Leading to this controversy, Augustine's own early writings clearly affirmed that God's predestinating grace was granted on the basis of his foreknowledge of the human desire to pursue salvation. After 396, however, his understanding began to turn increasingly toward the necessity of God granting this grace in order for the desire for salvation to be awakened. Thus his thoughts took a more determinist direction, especially as Augustine wrestled with the implications of the writings of the Apostle Paul.
His solution was not to deny that man has freedom to choose, but to assert that on account of Original Sin, human free choice is enslaved to sin (liberum arbitrium captivatum). The individual does not lack knowledge of what God's will is and knows it to be good, but is deprived of the ability to desire to do God's will, and subsequently freely chooses what is desired, which is sin. The grace of God cures this disease, which has as its main symptom the absence of any desire to be cured, setting the person free to choose God's will (liberum arbitrium liberatum). God's grace acts first on the human heart, to awaken the desire to do His will, and cooperates with the individual in a process of granting prayers for the greater desire and ability to choose His will and to do it, according to Augustine's later thought on the issues.
Augustine's formulation is neither complete nor universally accepted by Christians. In a real sense, all ideas of predestination are further developments of this same struggle to reconcile the idea of free will with the idea of predestinating grace; both of which are affirmed in Scripture and throughout Christian tradition. Especially in Western Christianity, the history of this development is traced through Augustine.
Conditional predestination
Conditional Predestination, or more commonly referred to as conditional election, is a theological stance that came from the writings and teachings of Jacobus Arminius. Jacob studied under the staunch reformed scholar Theodore Beza, whose views of election, Jacob eventually argued, could not reconcile freedom with moral responsibility.
Jacob used a philosophy called Molinism (named for the philosopher, Luis De Molina) that attempted to reconcile freedom with God's omniscience. They both saw human freedom in terms of the Libertarian philosophy: man's choice is not decided by God's choice, thus God's choice is "conditional", depending on what man chooses. Jacob saw God "looking down the corridors of time" to see the free choices of man, and choosing those who will respond in faith and love to God's love and promises, revealed in Jesus.
Arminianism (the theological system that rose from Jacob Arminius) sees the choice of Christ as an impossiblity, apart from God's grace; and the freedom to choose is given to all, because God's prevenient grace is universal (given to everyone). Therefore, God predestinates on the basis of foreknowledge of how some will respond to his universal love ("conditional"). In contrast, the Calvinist views universal grace as resistable and not sufficient for leading to salvation, and instead supposes grace that leads to salvation to be irresistible, and given to some but not to others on the basis of God's predestinating choice ("unconditional").
Temporal predestination
Temporal predestination is the view that God only determines temporal matters, and not eternal ones. This Christian view is analogous to the traditional Jewish view, which distinguishes between preordination and predestination. Temporal matters are pre-ordained by God, but eternal matters, being supra-temporal, are subject to absolute freedom of choice. J. Kenneth Grider
Sublapsarianism
Also called infralapsarianism, holds that predestination logically coincides with the preordination of Man's fall into sin. That is, God predestined sinful men for salvation. This view assumes that God determined that there would certainly be sinners, while affirming the important proposition that God cannot be the author of sin. Infralapsarians often emphasize a difference between God's decree (which is inviolable and inscrutible), and his revealed will (against which man is disobedient). Proponents also typically emphasize the grace and mercy of God toward all men, although teaching also that only some are predestined for salvation. Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, John Calvin?
In common English parlance, the doctrine of predestination often has particular reference to the doctrines of Calvinism. The version of predestination espoused by John Calvin, after whom Calvinism is named, is sometime's 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). On the spectrum of beliefs concerning predestination, Calvinism is the strongest form among Christians. It teaches that God's predestinating 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, in an unfathomable way, not accessible to scrutiny, so that the freedom of the creature is not violated.
Calvinists who hold the sublapsarian view of predestination usually prefer to call it Infralapsarianism, 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). 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.
Calvinists seek never to divide predestination in a mathematical way. Their doctrine is uninterested, in the abstract, in questions of "how much" either God or man is responsible for a particular destiny. Questions of "how much" will become hopelessly entangled in paradox, Calvinists teach, regardless of the view of predestination adopted. Instead, Calvinism divides the issues of predestination according to two kinds of being, knowledge, and will, distinguishing that which is divine from that which is human. Therefore, it is not so much an issue of quantity, but of distinct roles, or modes of being. God is not a creature, and the creature is not God, in knowledge, will, freedom, ability, responsibility, or anything else. So that Calvinists will often attribute salvation entirely to God; and yet they will also assert that it is man's responsibility to pursue obedience. As the archetypical illustration of this idea, Jesus Christ humanly fulfilled all that he as God eternally determined from the Father would be done, in his words and work, death on the cross, and resurrection, etc. What he did humanly is distinguishable, but not separate, from what he did divinely.
Supralapsarianism
Supralapsarianism is the doctrine that God's decree of predestination for salvation and reprobation logically preceeds his preordination of Man's fall into sin. That is, God decided to save, and to damn; he then determined that the fall of Man into sin would accomplish his purpose. Calvin is often counted among the supralapsarians, especially by those who hold this view. John Calvin?, Theodore Beza, Franciscus Gomarus
Modified supralapsarianism
late 16th century - early 17th century
Bible reference
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. 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
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 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; 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 8:28-30
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
"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
Acts 4:27-28
Jewish views
- see also Free will In Jewish thought
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 Biblical 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 omnipotent 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. See the entry on omnipotence for a discussion of how people use this word in different ways.
One noted Jewish philosopher, Hasdai Crescas, resolved this dialectical tension by taking the position that free-will doesn't exist. Hence all of a person's actions are pre-determined by the moment of their birth, and thus their judgement in the eyes of God (so to speak) is effectively pre-ordained. However in this scheme this is not a result of God's predetermining one's fate, but rather from the view that the universe is deterministic. Crescas's views were 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 affirm the classical Jewish belief in free-will (i.e. no such thing as determinism). The inherent contradiction between the two results in their belief that such contraditions 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 contradiciton, and is only sustained due to cognative 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
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 recognises 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.
Islam and Christianity
Although comparable in broad terms, the differences between Christian and Islamic ideas of predestination are complex. These differences are due to the distinctives of each faith's belief system. In broad terms, the doctrine of predestination refers to inevitability as a general principle, and usually more particularly refers to the exercise of God's will as it relates to the future of members of the human race, considered either as groups or as individuals, with special concern for issues of human responsibility as it relates to the sovereignty of God. Predestination always involves issues of the Creator's personality and will; and consequently, the different versions of the doctrine of predestination go hand in hand with appropriately different conceptions of the contribution any creature is able to make toward its own present condition, or future destiny. Muslims believe that God is literally atemporal.
External Links
- Determinism in Theology: PREDESTINATION
- Occurrences of predestination in the Bible text (ESV)
- Theopedia: Predestination (conservative Calvinist perspective)
cs:Predestinace de:Prädestination fr:Prédestination nl:Predestinatie ja:予定説 pl:Predestynacja pt:Predestinação
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