OCKHAM PREDESTINATION FREE
The chief concern was to combat the concept of fatalism and affirm that humans are free to do what is righteous. 200 ce), however, they interpreted proorizo as depending upon proginosko (foreknow) -those whom God foreknew would believe, God decided upon beforehand to save. Following the lead of Clement of Alexandria (fl. For three hundred years after Paul, theologians were content to produce commentaries on the pertinent passages. Paul's writings in the Bible formed the basis of all future treatments. The process has passed through four phases so far.
Over the ages, through this process of turning verbs into nouns and metaphors into concepts, theologians have built a logical edifice of considerable magnitude. Commonly they linked proorizo with a time metaphor from Ephesians 1 about God "choosing us" "before the foundation of the world." This they augmented with Paul's references in Romans 9 to one Old Testament passage about God's "hardening the heart of Pharaoh" and another about God choosing Jacob instead of Esau even before these twins were conceived. …" In constructing the concept, theologians had to piece together the several passages in keeping of some sense of logic, and the ways they did this led to differences. … Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called. The King James translation of the Bible renders the Romans passage this way: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. The word occurs six times in four passages in the New Testament: Acts of the Apostles 4:28, Romans 8:28 –30, 1 Corinthians 2:7, and Ephesians 1:3 –14. The Latin term praedestinatione derives from the creation of an abstract noun from the translation of the Greek verb proorizo, which refers to deciding or setting limits on something beforehand. They have raised periodic warnings against trying to penetrate the mystery of salvation, against impugning the justice or the mercy of God, and against making God the author of evil.Īdvocates of all positions have appealed to the Bible, even though the biblical scriptures do not contain what one might call doctrines or concepts of free will and predestination, nor even these words. Christians have used the doctrines of free will and predestination as their means of expressing these contrary experiences -on the one hand, the certitude of salvation as God's act on the other hand, the human responsibility to believe and do what is right.Ĭhristians have related these two concepts to many others, including God's sovereignty and grace, divine foreknowledge of future human acts, divine election in relation to human merits, eternity and time, causation, and the process of salvation. That the question arises -and that it persists -may be attributed to the human experience of being able to choose responsibly among real options while at the same time being overwhelmed by forces apparently beyond human ability to choose. In recent times, churches have tended to mute their references to predestination, allowing the discourse to continue in a new form outside of ecclesiastical and theological milieux as a debate about freedom and determinism. They have, however, meant very different things by these concepts and have given them different roles in relation to each other. On the contrary, all Christian traditions that honor the ancient creeds have in some way affirmed both free will and predestination. The two notions exist in a paradoxical relationship with each other, and they turn on an understanding of history.Ī widely held but mistaken opinion identifies the notion of predestination as a concept peculiar to Calvinists since the sixteenth century, asserting that Calvinist traditions have denied or rendered irrelevant the notion of free will. Following Augustine and Paul, theologians and the creeds have usually maintained that God's decision occurred "before the foundation of the world." In the face of this emphasis on God's previous power of decision, the notion of free will affirms the human role that might appear to be overridden thereby, and acknowledges the power of human decision within the process of salvation. The notion of predestination introduces the matter of time-order in affirming that God made a decision or decree about who over the course of the ages would be saved by Christ prior to any decision or action that those who are saved might take during their lifetime in relation to their own salvation. The concepts entered the creeds of the churches. In an effort to explain the roles of human and divine agency in the accomplishment of salvation, Christian theologians have formulated concepts of free will and predestination. FREE WILL AND PREDESTINATION: CHRISTIAN CONCEPTS
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