Predestination

I. Introduction

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way Chapter Nine: The Decree: Trinity and Predestination

The doctrines of the Trinity and predestination (or God’s decree) converge at the point of the eternal covenant of redemption (pactum salutis) between the persons of the Godhead. In that covenant, before the world existed, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit already turn toward us, with a purpose to create, redeem, and gather a church for everlasting fellowship. As in all of God’s external operations, both the eternal decree itself and its execution in history are accomplished from the Father, in the Son, through the Spirit.

The Westminster Confession of Faith Section 1

God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: (Eph. 1:11, Rom. 11:33, Heb. 6:17, Rom. 9:15,18) yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, (James 1:13,17, 1 John 1:5) nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. (Acts 2:23, Matt. 17:12, Acts 4:27–28, John 19:11, Prov. 16:33)

II. The History of the Doctrine

A. Some Definitions

Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure.

Reprobation is the sovereign decision of God before the creation to pass over some persons, in sorrow deciding not to same them, and to punish them for their sins, and thereby to manifest his justice. This view is commonly called double predestination.

Conditional election: this perspective affirms divine election and specifies that such election is conditional - it is based on God’s foreknowledge of a person’s positive response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, double predestination is denied.

B. The Historical Context from the Beginning

It should be noted from the very beginning that the early church inherited her Scripture from the Jews. In those Scriptures there is a strong element of predestination.

The nation of Israel is presented as an example of God’s gracious election:

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 NASB95

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

In eschatological teaching, Jesus spoke of the elect:

Matthew 24:22 NASB95

“Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Matthew 24:24 NASB95

“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:31 NASB95

“And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Colossians 3:12 NASB95

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

ἐκλεκτός: pert. to being selected, chosen gener. of those whom God has chosen fr. the generality of mankind and drawn to himself [William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 306.]

pert. to being selected, chosen gener. of those whom God has chosen fr. the generality of mankind and drawn to himself

ἐκλεκτός

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 306.

The word appears 22x in the GNT: 14x it is rendered elect and 8x chosen.

Clearly the idea of being chosen by God is a concept that finds its origins in both the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus, and the rest of the New Testament Scripture.

C. The Philosophical Context of Early Church

The development of the doctrine of predestination took place in a historical and philosophical context that features such notions as fatalism and absolute determinism. Not surprisingly, therefore, the church placed a strong emphasis on human free will, and self-determination, but not at the expense of divine sovereignty.

William Cunningham:

Historical Theology: A Review of the Principal Doctrinal Discussions in the Christian Church Since the Apostolic Age, Volume 1 Chapter XI: The Pelagian Controversy

Whereas, not only has there never been much real religion where there was not a profession of substantially sound doctrine in regard to the points involved in the Pelagian controversy, but also—and this is the point of contrast—the decay of true religion has always been accompanied by a large measure of error in doctrine upon these subjects; the action and reaction of the two upon each other being speedy and manifest.

Historical Theology: A Review of the Principal Doctrinal Discussions in the Christian Church Since the Apostolic Age, Volume 1 Chapter XI: The Pelagian Controversy

Pelagianism, in its original historical sense, is thus a pretty definite heresy, striking at the root of almost all that is most peculiar and distinctive p 323 in the system of revealed truth

1. Plato

Metaphysics: dualism

Truth: Correspondence theory of truth

Epistemology: only philosophers can have true knowledge because only philosophers can know the world of forms.

Value: based in being.

Morality: the five virtues - justice, courage, temperance, piety, and wisdom.

It is likely that Plato was a monotheist.

2. Aristotle

Metaphysics: a one-world ontology. Universals exist in the world of concrete particulars.

Truth correspondence theory of truth.

Epistemology: Reliabilist, knowledge results from properly functioning cognitive faculties.

Ethical Theory: Aristotle’s virtues are justice, wisdom, courage, and temperance.

He was a monotheist and viewed God as the prime mover.

3. Epicurus - Empiricists

Metaphysics: Everything is composed of atoms

Rejected fate in preference for free will.

Focused on the community.

The gods do not interfere with the concerns of men, so we should not worship them. Denied immortality and believed there is no sensation or consciousness in death.

4. Cynics

4. Stoics - Rationalists

Metaphysics: two principles in reality. The active principle is immanent reason (logos) or God.

The passive principle is matter devoid of properties.

Fire is the substance of all things.

The logos (God) is the active fire and source of all other elements.

God orders all things for the best.

Everything is predetermined.

The Stoics rejected free will.

Everything has an order which is perceived through reason.

Subscribed to natural law. To act in accord with natural law is to be virtuous.

The logos is the agent of creation, created everything, set everything in order.

Everything is predetermined and interconnected. Even evil has a purpose.

6. Pythagorus

D. Early Fathers and Predestination

Concerning the Greek fathers, Berkhof observes:

Their view of sin was, particularly at first, largely influenced by their opposition to Gnosticism with its emphasis on the physical necessity of evil and its denial of the freedom of the will. [Berkhof, The History of Christian Doctrine, 128]

On the whole the main emphasis was on the free will of man rather than on the operation of divine grace. It is not the grace of God, but the free will of man that takes the initiative in the work of regeneration.

It was in the 3rd and 4th century that the seed of the doctrine which would finally be embraced by the West made its appearance. It did so in men like Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilary, and Ambrose.

Tertullian said, Tradux animae, tradux peccati: the propagation of the soul involves the propagation of sin. While each of these men moved ever closer to what would become the Augustinian view of original sin embraced by the church, they remained to lessor degrees synergistic in their theory of regeneration.

E. Pelagius

If you want to do well, God is ready to help you.

Adam was not created with positive holiness, but was instead, created neutral.

He was created mortal, already subject to the law of death.

His fall into sin injured no one but himself.

There is no hereditary transmission of a sinful nature or of guilt, and consequently, no such thing as original sin.

Man is born in the same condition in which Adam was created before the fall.

Sin does not consist in wrong desires or affections, but only in the separate acts of the will.

Man is endowed with perfect freedom of the will, with a liberty of choice or indifference.

God’s command for man to do good is pure proof that he is able to do it.

His responsibility is the measure of his ability.

Man is not dependent on grace in his turning from evil even though its operation is an advantage.

F. Augustine

For Augustine, sin is a privation privation of good. He finds the root principle of sin in that self-love which is substituted for the love of God.

Man was created immortal. He possessed the ability not to sin and die.

Had he been obedient, he would have passed into the state of inability to sin and die.

Instead, he sinned and passed into the state of inability not to sin and die.

Augustine viewed original sin organically. The whole human race was germinally present in Adam, as opposed to the reformed federal view.

Man is now totally depraved, unable to do any spiritual good.

The will of man stands in need of renewal, and this is exclusively a work of God.

Augustine’s doctrine of regeneration is entirely monergistic.

Augustine distinguishes several stages in the work of divine grace:

Prevenient grace.

The Holy Spirit employs the law to produce the sense of sin and guilt.

Operative grace.

The Holy Spirit uses the gospel for the production of that faith in Christ and his atoning work which issues in justification and peace with God.

Co-operative grace.

The renewed will of man cooperates with the Holy Spirit in the life-long work of sanctification.

Early Augustine grounded predestination in the foreknowledge of future acts of free creatures.

Reprobation differs from election in this that it is not accompanied with any direct divine efficiency to secure the result intended.

Augustine held that regenerate men could be lost.