Predestination

Predestination is the Biblical doctrine that before the foundation of the world, God has chosen certain individuals to be saved and granted eternal life, while others are left in their sinful state and destined for eternal punishment. This choice is entirely based on God's free and unconditional election and not on any merit or foreseen goodness in individuals. Predestination can also be included as a form of determinism.

Mentions within scripture

• Ephesians 1:4-5 (NASB): "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 and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will."
• Romans 8:29-30 (NASB): "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 brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
• Acts 13:48 (NASB): "When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."
• 2 Timothy 1:9 (NASB): "He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity."
• John 6:37 (NASB): "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."
• John 10:27-29 (NASB): "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand."
• Proverbs 16:4 (NASB): "The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil."
• Isaiah 46:9-10 (NASB): "Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'"
• John 15:16 (NASB): "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you."
• Acts 4:27-28 (NASB): "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."
• Ephesians 1:11 (NASB): "In Him also we have received an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the counsel of His will."
• Romans 9:22-23 (NASB): "What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory."
• 1 Peter 1:1-2 (NASB): "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as strangers, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure."

History

Numerous theologians and scholars have written extensively about the concept of predestination. One of the most influential figures in this regard was Augustine of Hippo. In his works, especially in "On Grace and Free Will" and "The City of God," Augustine wrote of the tension between God's sovereign election and human free will, positing that God's grace is necessary for salvation and that humans are incapable of meriting their own salvation. Later on, John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan theologian during the middle ages, provided an alternative perspective on predestination. Scotus emphasized God's absolute freedom in election, rejecting the idea that God's choices were solely based on foreknowledge of human actions. However, the most prominent theological development concerning predestination emerged during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. John Calvin, a leading Reformer, extensively discussed predestination in his systematic theology work "Institutes of the Christian Religion." Calvin emphasized the sovereignty of God in predestining individuals to salvation, asserting that salvation is entirely dependent on God's divine will and not on human merit or works. Alongside John Calvin's work, Jacobus Arminius challenged Calvin's views, proposing a more synergistic understanding of salvation that allowed for a cooperation of divine grace and human free will. His followers, known as Arminians, opposed the strict determinism of Calvinism and advocated for a more inclusive view of God's saving grace.