preview

What is Predestination?

Decent Essays

Predestination
For a substantial part of the Christendom history, there have been wide divisions regarding the determining agent of human temporal fate and his eventual destiny. While some Christians hold on to the assertion that Scriptures testify of man’s possession of free will, a significant number assert that man has no claim to free will. The latter group stands for predestination. Among this group are John Calvin and Martin Luther. These two protestant reformers developed constituted two different theories of predestination. While Calvin composed the “Double Predestination Theory.,” Luther composed the “Single Predestination Theory.” Looking at the two theories, Luther’s theory seems to be more consistent with itself and the scriptures than Calvin’s theory.
To John Calvin, predestination is the only means through which human beings, his temporal activities, his institutions, and his eternal fate, are determined. However, Calvin’s illustration of predestination mainly dealt with man’s eventual salvation from evil. To Calvin, on the Creator has the mandate to determine the eventualities of a man, by automatically generating the future dictations of a man. Therefore, man is viewed as one born independent from the power of choosing his own end. This way, either God decided to save a man or to leave him unsaved, awaiting his destruction. Calvin asserted that God finalized his decision regarding all individuals before creation commenced. Relating predestination to

Get Access