# Predestination ## Intro Predestination is the teaching that God decides ahead of time who will be saved. It is in the Bible. The Greek verb *proorizō* (literally *to mark out beforehand*) shows up in [Romans 8:29-30](/codex/romans-8-29-30/), [Ephesians 1:4-5](/codex/ephesians-1-4-5/), and a few other places. Christians have argued for centuries not about whether God predestines, but about how. Two main pictures sit on the table. The first comes from Augustine and runs through John Calvin. God chooses to save certain people purely out of His own good pleasure, before they have done anything good or bad. Their salvation is not based on God peeking ahead and seeing who would believe. It is based on His sovereign choice alone. Those He does not choose are passed over and left to the just judgment their sins deserve. This is sometimes called *unconditional election*. The second runs through the early Greek Fathers and Jacob Arminius. God knows ahead of time who will, by His grace, freely respond to the gospel, and *those* are the ones He chooses. The election is real, but it tracks foreseen free response. People who reject grace to the end are passed by. A third option, [Molinism](/codex/molinism/), says God uses something called *middle knowledge*: He knows what every possible person *would* freely do in every possible situation, and He creates a world in which the people He intends to save are the ones who freely choose to come. Each view is trying to hold two things together: God is fully in charge, and people really choose. The disagreement is about which of those gets the steering wheel and which sits in the passenger seat. This page lays out all three, plus where each runs into trouble. ## In full The doctrine that God determines beforehand the eternal destiny of persons, that the salvation of the saved is, in some sense, the outworking of an eternal divine decree rather than a purely contingent post-hoc result of creaturely choice. The doctrine is biblically explicit (the verb *proorizō* in [Rom 8:29-30](/codex/romans-8-29-30/) and [Eph 1:4-5](/codex/ephesians-1-4-5/)); the contested question is *its mechanism*, whether it is *unconditional* (resting on God's sovereign decree alone, the Augustinian / Calvinist reading) or *conditional* (resting on God's foreknowledge of free creaturely response, the Arminian / Molinist reading), and whether it covers only election to salvation (*single* predestination) or also reprobation to damnation (*double* predestination). Predestination is the theological hinge of the entire Free Will / Sovereignty cluster. ## Definition The biblical word *proorizō* (*to mark out beforehand*) appears six times in the New Testament: - [Acts 4:27-28](/codex/acts-4-27-28/), the actors at the cross "did whatever Your hand and Your purpose *predestined* (*proōrisen*) to take place." - [Rom 8:29-30](/codex/romans-8-29-30/), "whom He foreknew, He also *predestined* (*proōrisen*) to be conformed to the image of His Son... whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; whom He justified, these He also glorified." - [1 Cor 2:7](/codex/1-corinthians-2-7/), God's wisdom *predestined* before the ages for our glory. - [Eph 1:5](/codex/ephesians-1-5/), "*predestined* us to adoption as sons." - [Eph 1:11](/codex/ephesians-1-11/), "*predestined* according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will." The cognate noun *prognōsis* and verb *proginōskō* (*foreknowledge*, *to foreknow*) likewise appear in [Rom 8:29](/codex/romans-8-29/), [Rom 11:2](/codex/romans-11-2/), [1 Pet 1:2](/codex/1-peter-1-2/), [1 Pet 1:20](/codex/1-peter-1-20/), [Acts 2:23](/codex/acts-2-23/). The relation between *foreknowing* and *predestining* is the exegetical pivot: does foreknowledge *ground* predestination (Arminian) or merely accompany it (Calvinist)? ## The classical positions ### Augustinian / Calvinist (unconditional, double-decree) - God's choice of the elect rests on His sovereign good pleasure, *not* on any foreseen merit, faith, or response in the creature ([Rom 9:11](/codex/romans-9-11/), "before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad..."; [Eph 1:4](/codex/ephesians-1-4/), "before the foundation of the world"). - Reprobation is the symmetric (or sometimes asymmetric) decree: God passes by some and ordains them to just condemnation for their sins. *Double predestination* in its strong form (Calvin, Beza, the Westminster Confession III); some Reformed theologians prefer *single predestination* (election positively decreed, reprobation only permitted). - Strongly Augustinian roots: [Augustine](/codex/augustine/)'s *De Praedestinatione Sanctorum* and *De Dono Perseverantiae* against semi-Pelagianism. ### Arminian / Wesleyan (conditional, in view of foreknowledge) - God elects to salvation those whom He *foreknows* will, by prevenient grace, freely believe and persevere ([Rom 8:29](/codex/romans-8-29/), "whom He *foreknew*, He also predestined"). - Reprobation is symmetrically conditional: those who freely and finally reject the grace offered are passed by. - Strong continuity with the **pre-Augustinian Fathers** ([Justin Martyr](/codex/justin-martyr/), Irenaeus, [Clement of Alexandria](/codex/clement-of-alexandria/), [Origen](/codex/origen/), Chrysostom), who routinely glossed predestination as God's foreknowledge of free human response. ### Molinist (conditional, via middle knowledge) - God elects by surveying which feasible world (a world whose counterfactuals of creaturely freedom He can actualize) best realizes His saving purposes, and creating that world. The elect are those whom God knew, *via middle knowledge*, would freely respond to grace in the actualized world. - Combines exhaustive sovereignty (God chose this world) with libertarian freedom (the creatures' choices in it are free). See [Molinism](/codex/molinism/) for the metaphysical mechanism. ### Catholic / Thomistic (mediating) - The Council of Trent (1547) and subsequent magisterial teaching affirm predestination but condemn both Pelagianism (denying the necessity of grace) and a strong reprobationist double-decree. - Within Catholicism, two licit schools after the *De Auxiliis* controversy (1582-1607): **Bañezian Thomism** (closer to Augustinian unconditional election with *physical premotion*) and **Molinism** (middle knowledge). Pope Paul V suspended the dispute without verdict; both remain orthodox. ### Lutheran (asymmetric) - The *Formula of Concord* (1577) affirms unconditional election to salvation (Christians are saved wholly by grace, including the gift of faith) but *denies* a parallel decree of reprobation. Damnation is the consequence of human resistance to universally offered grace; election is wholly God's work. *Single predestination*. ### Open Theist (no exhaustive decree of future free choices) - Predestination covers what God has *decided to do* (e.g., to glorify His Son, to redeem a people through Christ) but not the specific future free choices of every individual creature. Names in the Lamb's book of life are written as people freely respond, not in eternity past. (See [Open Theism](/codex/open-theism/).) ## Biblical foundation ### Texts read as supporting unconditional election - [Rom 9:11-13](/codex/romans-9-11-13/), Jacob and Esau, "before they were born or had done anything good or bad." - [Rom 9:15-16](/codex/romans-9-15-16/), "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy... it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs." - [Rom 9:18](/codex/romans-9-18/), "He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." - [Rom 9:22-23](/codex/romans-9-22-23/), vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, prepared beforehand. - [Eph 1:4-5](/codex/ephesians-1-4-5/), [Eph 1:11](/codex/ephesians-1-11/), chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. - [2 Tim 1:9](/codex/2-timothy-1-9/), saved according to God's purpose and grace given before times eternal. - [John 6:37](/codex/john-6-37/), [John 6:44](/codex/john-6-44/), "all that the Father gives Me will come... no one can come unless the Father draws him." - [Acts 13:48](/codex/acts-13-48/), "as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." ### Texts read as supporting conditional election / universal will - [1 Tim 2:4](/codex/1-timothy-2-4/), God "desires all to be saved." - [2 Pet 3:9](/codex/2-peter-3-9/), "not wishing for any to perish." - [Ezek 18:23](/codex/ezekiel-18-23/), [Ezek 33:11](/codex/ezekiel-33-11/), "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked." - [John 3:16](/codex/john-3-16/), "whoever believes in Him." - [Matt 23:37](/codex/matthew-23-37/), "how often I wanted to gather your children together... and you were unwilling." - [Rom 8:29](/codex/romans-8-29/), "whom He *foreknew*, He also predestined" (the Arminian pivot). - [1 Pet 1:2](/codex/1-peter-1-2/), "chosen *according to the foreknowledge* of God the Father." ### Texts on the corporate / covenantal dimension - [Rom 11](/codex/romans-11/), Israel's election as a corporate body, with conditions for grafting and pruning. - [Deut 7:6-8](/codex/deuteronomy-7-6-8/), Israel chosen because God loved her, not because of greatness. - [1 Pet 2:9](/codex/1-peter-2-9/), believers as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood." The **N. T. Wright / new perspective** reading reframes much of [Romans 9](/codex/romans-9/)-11 as concerning *corporate-covenantal* election (Israel and the Gentiles in God's redemptive-historical purpose) rather than the eternal destinies of unrelated individuals. ## Historical development - **Pre-Augustinian Fathers (2nd-4th c.)**, predominant emphasis on free will and conditional election in view of foreknowledge. - **Augustine (354-430)**, the watershed; in his late anti-Pelagian period (*De Praedestinatione Sanctorum*, c. 429) defends unconditional election and the gift of perseverance. - **The Council of Orange (529)**, condemns semi-Pelagianism but stops short of endorsing double predestination. - **Gottschalk of Orbais (9th c.)**, first to teach explicit double predestination; condemned at Quierzy (853) and Valence (855). - **Aquinas (13th c.)**, predestination is a part of providence; God predestines positively to salvation, *permits* reprobation; the elect's faith is foreknown because predestined, not predestined because foreknown. - **Reformation (16th c.)**, Luther (*Bondage of the Will*, 1525), Calvin (*Institutes* III), and the Reformed scholastics develop magisterial Protestant unconditional election. *Synod of Dort* (1618-19) codifies the Calvinist position against the Remonstrants. - **Trent (1547)**, Catholic affirmation of predestination with rejection of strong reprobationism. - **Modern era**, Karl Barth's *christological reframing* of election (*Church Dogmatics* II/2): Christ is the elect *and* the reprobate; election is in Christ for all. Major 20th-c. revival of analytic engagement (Plantinga, Craig, Flint, Wolterstorff). ## Spread of positions (a comparison) | Tradition | Conditional? | Double? | Mechanism | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **[Calvinism](/codex/calvinism/)** | Unconditional | Double (or asymm.) | Sovereign decree | | **[Arminianism](/codex/arminianism/)** | Conditional | Symmetric | Foreknowledge of free response | | **[Molinism](/codex/molinism/)** | Conditional | (varies) | Middle knowledge | | **Catholic / Thomist** | Unconditional positively; conditional permission of reprobation | Asymmetric | Predestination as part of providence | | **Lutheran** | Unconditional positively | Single | Election to salvation only | | **Eastern Orthodox** | Conditional | Symmetric | Synergistic foreknowledge | | **[Open Theism](/codex/open-theism/)** | Conditional | Not exhaustively determined | God adapts purposes responsively | | **Karl Barth** | All election in Christ | (re-framed) | Christological universalization | ## Tensions - The **[Romans 9](/codex/romans-9/)** vs. **[1 Tim 2:4](/codex/1-timothy-2-4/)** problem is the central exegetical pressure. Each tradition reads one cluster as primary and the other as accommodated to it. - The **Augustinian shift** is itself contested: did Augustine recover Pauline teaching that the East had underdeveloped, or did he overlay a deterministic frame on the apostolic data? - **Double predestination** is the position most theological traditions (Catholic, Lutheran, Arminian, Orthodox) reject; even within Calvinism, infralapsarians moderate it and supralapsarians embrace it. - The relation of [Foreknowledge vs Causation](/codex/foreknowledge-vs-causation/) underlies every dispute: whether God's foreknowing the elect *constitutes* or *follows* His decree. - **Pastorally**, predestination cuts in opposite directions for opposite traditions: Calvinist comfort (*God will not lose His own*) vs. Arminian / Open dread (*assurance must be grounded somewhere besides a hidden decree*). ## See also - [Calvinism](/codex/calvinism/), [Arminianism](/codex/arminianism/), [Molinism](/codex/molinism/), [Open Theism](/codex/open-theism/), the rival accounts of the predestination mechanism. - [Foreknowledge vs Causation](/codex/foreknowledge-vs-causation/), the conceptual hinge that distinguishes the views. - [Compatibilism](/codex/compatibilism/), [Libertarian Free Will](/codex/libertarian-free-will/), the philosophical commitments at stake. - Augustine, [John Calvin](/codex/john-calvin/), [Jacobus Arminius](/codex/jacobus-arminius/), [Luis de Molina](/codex/luis-de-molina/), [Thomas Aquinas](/codex/thomas-aquinas/) (entities). - [Problem of Evil](/codex/problem-of-evil/), predestination intersects with theodicy on every account. - [Hardening Pharaohs Heart](/codex/hardening-pharaohs-heart/), the OT-locus-classicus for the predestination / divine-hardening / human-responsibility question; full multi-position engagement. - [Inherited Guilt and Visiting Iniquity](/codex/inherited-guilt-and-visiting-iniquity/), adjacent on federal-headship vs personal-responsibility; original-sin frameworks. - Passages: [Romans 8.29-30](/codex/romans-8-29-30/), [Romans 9.1-29](/codex/romans-9-1-29/), [Ephesians 1.4-5](/codex/ephesians-1-4-5/), [Ephesians 1.11](/codex/ephesians-1-11/), [1 Peter 1.1-2](/codex/1-peter-1-1-2/), [1 Timothy 2.4](/codex/1-timothy-2-4/), [Acts 13.48](/codex/acts-13-48/), [John 6.37](/codex/john-6-37/), [John 6.44](/codex/john-6-44/), [Matthew 23.37](/codex/matthew-23-37/).
## Common questions this page answers **Q: What is predestination?** Predestination is the biblical teaching that God determines beforehand who will be saved. The Greek verb *proorizō* ("to mark out beforehand") appears in [Romans 8:29-30](/codex/romans-8-29-30/), [Ephesians 1:4-5](/codex/ephesians-1-4-5/), and [Ephesians 1:11](/codex/ephesians-1-11/). Christians have argued about *how* rather than *whether*. **Q: What is unconditional election?** The Augustinian-Reformed view that God chooses to save certain people purely out of His own good pleasure, before they have done anything good or bad. Election does not depend on foreseen faith but on God's sovereign decree. See [Calvinism](/codex/calvinism/). **Q: What is conditional election?** The Arminian view that God elects those whom He foreknows will freely respond to the gospel by grace. Election tracks foreseen free response rather than precedes it. [Romans 8:29](/codex/romans-8-29/) is read as "whom He *foreknew* (their faith), He also predestined." See [Arminianism](/codex/arminianism/). **Q: Does predestination cancel free will?** Calvinists say no, using [Compatibilism](/codex/compatibilism/): humans freely act according to their strongest desires while God ordains the heart-conditions. Arminians say predestination *must* preserve [Libertarian Free Will](/codex/libertarian-free-will/) or moral responsibility collapses. Molinists use middle knowledge to hold both together. **Q: What is double predestination?** The view that God actively decrees both the salvation of the elect and the reprobation of the lost. Most Reformed theologians hold a "single predestination" view: God elects the saved; He passes over the rest, leaving them to their own just judgment. See [Calvinism](/codex/calvinism/).