Predestination | Definition, Doctrines, & Theology (2024)

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Predestination | Definition, Doctrines, & Theology? ›

Basically, predestination is the belief that God has predetermined who will receive salvation and who will not. Sometimes the term is used to refer not only to salvation, but to express the idea that God is in control of the universe in general, even over mundane things.

The word “predestined” has both a broad and narrow meaning. In the narrow sense it refers to the election of all who will be saved (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11). In the broader sense predestine refers to all things, including God's plan (1 Corinthians 2:7) and the crucifixion of Christ (Acts 2:23; 4:28).

In the Reformed view, God from all eternity decrees some to election and positively intervenes in their lives to work regeneration and faith by a monergistic work of grace. To the non-elect, God withholds this monergistic work of grace, passing them by and leaving them to themselves.

Contrary to the view that God predetermines to give the elect grace by which they merit glory, Calvin maintains grace is predestined to those to whom glory was previously assigned. Consequently, “predestination to glory is the cause of predestination to grace, rather than the converse.”

In Calvinist theology, unconditional election is considered to be one aspect of predestination in which God chooses certain individuals to be saved. Those elected receive mercy, while those not elected, the reprobates, receive justice without condition.

Starting from these premises, theologians and philosophers developed further Augustine's view on predestination, marking out three major lines of thoughts: first, a fatalist or determinist model, in which God predestines to both damnation and salvation, the so-called double predestination, which excludes any human ...

ALL southern baptists believe in predestination, but they dont all agree on exactly what predestination is---most but not all, believe that we are predestined according to the FOREKNOWLEDGE of GOD--in other words we believe that GOD knows everything in advance, so HE already knows who will come to repentance, and thus ...

At its heart is the concept of predestination. Calvinists believe that, at the beginning of time, God selected a limited number of souls to grant salvation and there's nothing any individual person can do during their mortal life to alter their eternal fate.

However, Calvin's conclusion at this point logically follows from his major premise. Luther was thus a thoroughgoing predestinarian; this fact has been emphasized above. But Luther's predestinarianism was not a theological or metaphysical affiar.

Regular Baptists adhere to a Reformed soteriology. Those who are Old Regular Baptists largely hold to the tenets of Calvinism, "but maintain that God never predestined anyone to hell and that only those who do not heed the Word of God will be lost."

Which churches believe in predestination? ›

There are many different religious groups that believe in predestination, but most of them are Christian. Some examples include Roman Catholicism, Arminianism, and Calvinism, although they all apply predestination in different ways.

Calvin rejected the images of saints and the crucifix (that is, the image of the body of Christ upon the cross) but allowed a plain cross. These modifications do not, however, refute the generalization that Calvinism was largely opposed to art and music in the service of religion but not in the secular sphere.

Predestination has been especially associated with John Calvin and the Reformed tradition.

John Calvin is known for his influential Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), which was the first systematic theological treatise of the reform movement. He stressed the doctrine of predestination, and his interpretations of Christian teachings, known as Calvinism, are characteristic of Reformed churches.

From a Calvinist viewpoint, a person who has sinned was predestined to sin, and no matter what a person does, they will go to Heaven or Hell based on that determination. There is no repenting from sin since the most evil thing is the sinner's own actions, thoughts, and words.

Double predestination may not be the view of any of the Reformed confessions, which speak of God passing over rather than actively reprobating the damned. However, John Calvin rejected such a position, stating: "This they do ignorantly and childishly since there could be no election without its opposite reprobation ...

Sovereign Grace Baptists in the broadest sense are any "Calvinistic" Baptists that accept God's sovereign grace in salvation and predestination. In the narrower sense, certain churches and groups have preferred "Sovereign Grace" in their name, rather than using the terms "Calvinism", "Calvinist", or "Reformed Baptist".

Catholicism also teaches that humanity has free will and must freely choose to accept God's grace in order to receive salvation. Another branch of Christianity, Arminianism, also rejects Calvin's version of predestination.

Reformed Christianity is often called Calvinism after John Calvin, influential reformer of Geneva. The term was first used by opposing Lutherans in the 1550s. Calvin did not approve of the use of this term, and scholars have argued that use of the term is misleading, inaccurate, unhelpful, and "inherently distortive."