Predestination in Protestantism is an interpretation in Protestant denominations of the doctrine that God has chosen certain individuals for salvation. Predestination should not be confused with providence, which pertains to God's ordinances regarding all things in general. Predestination is a highly controversial issue, with opinions varying significantly among the main branches of Protestantism. The main perspectives on predestination were formulated in the early centuries of Christianity, during the polemics between Augustine and Pelagius in the early 5th century. The issues related to predestination have been addressed in the works of major theologians, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jacobus Arminius. Among modern interpretations, the original treatment of the issue by Karl Barth stands out.
The doctrine of predestination is a complex theological discipline, within which specific issues are distinguished, such as providence or God's foreknowledge, election, the logical order of God's decrees, and others. From a practical perspective, it aims to explain the observed fact that some people believe in God and, consequently, will be saved, while others will not. In general, the doctrine asserts that God, before the beginning of time, determined which individuals are worthy of salvation. As a consequence, all actions performed by a person have no influence on whether they will be saved or damned. Typically, the doctrine is considered alongside teachings on free will, grace, and salvation, which are central concepts in Protestant theology. There are significant differences in their understanding both between Protestantism as a whole and Catholicism, as well as among various branches of Protestantism. The doctrine of predestination exists in numerous variants, which are divided into three types. For Semi-Pelagianism and certain forms of nominalism, the concept of divine foreknowledge as the basis for predestination is characteristic—it is assumed that God predestines salvation for those whose future merits and faith He foresees. The main directions of Protestantism reject the significance of human merits in the matter of salvation, that is, synergism. In the doctrine of double predestination, which traces back to Aurelius Augustine and is associated in Protestantism with the name of John Calvin, it is asserted that God eternally predestines some to salvation and others to damnation. According to the third approach, also originating with Augustine and later developed by Thomas Aquinas, salvation occurs through grace that is not conditioned by merits and is predestined, although condemnation to damnation occurs due to a person's own sins and their free will. In Arminianism, predestination is rejected, and it is believed that a person achieves salvation through their own free choice.
In Lutheranism and Calvinism, the issues of free will and predestination to salvation or sin are considered from different perspectives. In Lutheranism, it is linked to the problem of the origin and persistence of evil: how can an omnipotent God be holy and righteous despite the existence of sin in the world He created, and the answer is sought within the paradigm of Law and Gospel. Importantly, punishment does not serve the purposes of the Gospel — in this sense, the position of Martin Luther is often called "admonitory" and fully subordinate to logic. In Reformed theology, the issue was considered similarly but to a greater extent in the context of absolute divine sovereignty.
The idea of predestination has deeply permeated the collective consciousness of Protestant countries. According to Max Weber, the sense of uncertainty it caused led to the emergence of the "Protestant work ethic". In the Kingdom of England, the Puritans, who advocated for the purity of Calvinism, were supported by the English monarchs James VI and I (1603–1625) and Charles I of England (1625–1649), and thus the debate had political significance and is considered one of the prerequisites for the English Revolution.
Historical development Formulation of the issue in early Christian theology
The notion that God predestined the lives of all people was characteristic of most Jewish and Christian groups in the 1st century. In Judaism, election is a fundamental category denoting the relationship between Yahweh and the people of Israel, and the idea of predestination was largely associated with the political fate of the Jewish people. Each of the three main Jewish sects, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, had its own perspective on this issue. The foundational influence on the development of the Christian doctrine of predestination came from the epistles of Paul the Apostle, particularly chapters 9–11 of his Epistle to the Romans. The relevance of the issue during that period was tied to attempts to explain how the chosen status of the people of Israel could coexist with the fact that many of them refused to recognize Christ. Certain passages from the epistle allow for an interpretation in the spirit of the possibility of universal salvation, but there is no consensus on this in Protestant theology. For example, regarding the words "all Israel will be saved" (), the modern American scholar of the New Testament Douglas J. Moo points out that the apostle does not say that "every Israelite" will be saved. Similarly, the Anglican theologian Nicholas Thomas Wright emphasizes that neither Paul nor other New Testament authors are determinists who believe in some "blind" plan that renders human freedom a fiction. The Calvinist Karl Barth considers it indisputable that the concept of divine purpose (πρόθεσις) used in , , refers to divine election for salvation, but not to non-election or rejection, although these are implied as existing alongside this election.
The teaching of the Greek Fathers of the Church regarding predestination and grace is generally unified. Its main features, which include the defense of free will, divine justice, and the understanding of Christian life as participation in the divine plan, were formed during the struggle of early Christian apologists against pagan fatalism and astrology. A principal opponent of determinism was Origen (d. ca. 254). Origen's views can only be partially reconstructed, as his commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans and much of his treatise On the First Principles have not been fully preserved. Postulating that there is no cause for diversity within God Himself, Origen concludes that all rational creatures were created equal, and thus diversity arises from individual movements of the soul. Accordingly, the happiness or unhappiness of each is not accidental, and Divine providence is just.Origen, On First Principles, II, 9, 6 Commenting on , Origen states that purification will last for many centuries, but ultimately all people will be saved and come to the truth. There are no reasons for any rational being to be excluded from salvation. In the 4th century, Gregory of Nyssa developed an original doctrine of free will. Building on the Old Testament principle of human likeness to God, Gregory constructed his anthropology on the assertion of the "royalty" of "human constitution". The primary way in which humans are like God is freedom, for "if any necessity prevailed over human life, the image would be false in this respect, becoming distant from the Prototype due to this dissimilarity". Moreover, for Gregory, the possession of free will is not merely one aspect of human royalty but the very characteristic that constitutes the essence of godlikeness. Free will is good in itself, as it is only through it that virtue can be achieved. How, then, does the soul choose evil? Undoubtedly, God cannot be the cause of evil, and Gregory, following Neoplatonists, associates evil with non-being. It arises in humans through their free will when they separate themselves from eternal perfection. The reason for the inclination toward evil lies in the fact that, due to their mutability, humans can change, and not necessarily for the better. Besides pagans, proponents of the doctrine of the inevitability of evil included Gnostics, for whom determinism reached extremes, and God became a slave to necessity. During the Reformation, Albert Pighius accused John Calvin of being unable to find support for his views in the theology of the early church. Agreeing with this assessment, Calvin noted the lack of a clear position on the issue of free will in the works of the Greek Fathers.
The issue of predestination was repeatedly addressed by Aurelius Augustine (d. 430). His doctrine of grace was of defining significance for the Protestant Reformation. Commenting on the Apostle Paul between 394 and 395 ("Expositio quarundam propositionum ex epistola ad Romanos"), Augustine placed great importance on human merits as the basis for predestination and the reason for the manifestation of Divine justice. Thus, at this stage, the approach of the Bishop of Hippo was based on the idea of God's foreknowledge of acts of faith, which in turn are the cause of good deeds. Augustine proposes the following sequence: God directs His grace (vocatio) to all sinful humanity; those who, by their free will, heed His call receive the Holy Spirit and gain the ability to perform good deeds; those who persevere will attain eternity. In this scheme, human free will, although significantly limited by the divine, becomes the basis for merits. Symmetrically, predestination to damnation was explained in a similar manner. A few years later, Augustine revisited the issue of predestination, responding to questions from Bishop Simplicianus of Milan, who struggled to interpret well-known Old Testament stories: why did God hate Esau, and how is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart compatible with free will? In Quaestiones ad Simplicianum, Augustine completely changed his initial position, and now faith could no longer be the basis for merits, as it itself is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The symmetry of the previous approach is disrupted, and if foreknowledge of good deeds is no longer required for predestination, predestination to damnation is justified by original sin. With his responses, Augustine laid the foundation for an influential theological position in the West, linking the concepts of predestination and justification.