Predestination

A destination set beforehand

To predestine, proorizō (προορίζω), is literally to mark out a boundary beforehand. The word is rare in the New Testament, and it usually points to a destination. God "predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:5), and the end of it all is "the praise of His glorious grace" (Ephesians 1:6). Romans joins the whole work of God from beginning to end in one chain:

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

Romans 8:29-30

Paul wrote this to comfort suffering believers, and at once he asks, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). In Scripture predestination is less a subject for speculation than a language of thanks and assurance. God's purpose concerning human destiny is part of his eternal decree, and his choosing of people for life is called election.

Yet the same Scripture says that God "wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). How to read these two witnesses together is where the long debate lies.

The church's story and its differing views

In the fifth century Augustine, answering Pelagianism, taught that even the beginning of faith is God's gift, and that predestination is God's preparing of that grace Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints. The Council of Orange in 529 confessed that the beginning of faith comes from grace, and also rejected the idea that anyone is predestined to evil by divine power Council of Orange.

After the Reformation the paths divided, and evangelicals walk more than one of them. Reformed and Presbyterian churches confess that before the world began God predestined some to life out of free grace alone, not because of foreseen faith or merit, and passed by others, leaving them in their sins; they insist that God is not the author of sin and that the blame for unbelief lies with the unbeliever Canons of Dort, First Head (see Calvinism). Lutherans confess that predestination is wholly of grace and that no one is predestined to damnation, leaving as a mystery why some believe and others do not Formula of Concord, art. 11. Those who follow Arminius, and the Wesleyan tradition, teach that God's grace goes before every person and enables a response, and that God chose in Christ those he foreknew would believe The Five Articles of Remonstrance (see Arminianism).

The Catholic Church teaches that God predestines people to eternal life but predestines no one to hell Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1037, and allows several schools, Thomist and Molinist among them, to explain how grace and freedom meet. The Orthodox churches, following John of Damascus, hold that God foreknows all things but does not predetermine what lies in our power John of Damascus, Exact Exposition, and speak of salvation as the cooperation of God and the human person.

All these traditions confess that salvation is the free gift of grace and that human beings are answerable to God. Calvin counselled anxious believers not to pry into the hidden decree but to look to Christ, the mirror in which our election is seen Calvin, Institutes 3.24. Christ has promised, "the one who comes to Me I will never drive away" (John 6:37). See further What is predestination? and the lesson Grace and election.