Predestination

Predestination is a religious idea, under which the relationship between the beginning of things and the destiny of things is discussed. Its religious nature distinguishes it from other ideas concerning determinism and free will, and related concepts. In particular, predestination concerns God's decision to create and to govern Creation, and the extent to which God's decisions determine ahead of time what the destiny of groups and individuals will be.

Distinguished from preordination

Predestination, in the sense of preordination or foreordination, is concerned not only with the afterlife, but also with the roles and limitations that are assigned to things and people in life as well (temporal preordination). In Christian theology, usually all issues of preordination correspond directly with the issues of divine providence, with emphasis on God's particular determination of events: especially those events which arise from the choices made by men and angels. Predestination includes all of the issues of preordination, and in addition is concerned with the ultimate outcome, the final destiny of men and of angels. So, in Christianity, the terms are roughly synonymous and may be used interchangeably. These or related issues may be discussed in monotheistic religions besides Christianity.

Related Topics:
Monotheistic - Christianity

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In Christianity, ideas of preordination are strong or weak in parallel with ideas of predestination; the two live or die together. This is not the case in some other religions, which make a strong difference between earthly and eternal destinies. However, in Christianity, although the two are formally distinguished, the principles are the same which explain the relationship of God's determining will and man's free choices, whether speaking of the earthly fortunes and roles to which God has preordained men, or the final status to which they are predestined.

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On the other hand, in that ultimate reference there may be a complete reversal of the status of people or groups expected. Thus, for example the Christian sayings, "The meek shall inherit the earth" and "many who are first shall be last and the last, first", imply that there is no predictable continuity between present and final status. The final state (to which men are predestined) may be a reversal of the present injustices under which the righteous suffer (which are preordained), and yet God has as much to do with one as with the other (if the particular belief system allows that God has anything to do with either of them).

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Furthermore, predestination typically refers to God's will for salvation and not His will for damnation. Predestination to damnation is, rather, called reprobation.

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