Editing Predestination (section)

==Types of predestination==
===Conditional election===
[[Conditional election]] is the belief that [[God in Christianity|God]] chooses for eternal [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] those whom he foresees will have [[Faith in Christianity|faith]] in [[Christ]]. This belief emphasizes the importance of a person's [[free will]]. The counter-view is known as [[unconditional election]], and is the belief that God chooses whomever he will, based solely on his purposes and apart from an individual's free will. It has long been an issue in [[History of the Calvinist–Arminian debate|Calvinist–Arminian debate]]. An alternative viewpoint is [[Corporate election]], which distinguishes God's election and predestination for corporate entities such as the community "in Christ," and individuals who can benefit from that community's election and predestination so long as they continue belonging to that community.

===Supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism===
[[Supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism|Infralapsarianism]] (also called sublapsarianism) holds that predestination logically coincides with the preordination of Man's fall into sin. That is, God predestined sinful men for salvation. Therefore, according to this view, God is the [[proximate and ultimate causation|ultimate cause]], but not the proximate source or "author" of sin. Infralapsarians often emphasize a difference between God's decree (which is inviolable and inscrutable), and his revealed will (against which man is disobedient). Proponents also typically emphasize the grace and mercy of God toward all men, although teaching also that only some are predestined for salvation.

In common English parlance, the doctrine of predestination often has particular reference to the doctrines of [[Calvinism]]. The version of predestination espoused by [[John Calvin]], after whom Calvinism is named, is sometimes referred to as "double predestination" because in it God predestines some people for salvation (i.e. [[unconditional election]]) and some for condemnation (i.e. [[Reprobation]]) which results by allowing the individual's own sins to condemn them. Calvin himself defines predestination as "the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. Not all are created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestined to life or to death."<ref name=Calvin>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iv.iii.xxii.html |title=Calvin, John. ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'', (Henry Beveridge, trans.), III.21.5 |access-date=21 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829234225/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iv.iii.xxii.html |archive-date=29 August 2006 }}</ref>

On the spectrum of beliefs concerning predestination, Calvinism is the strongest form among Christians. It teaches that God's predestining decision is based on the knowledge of his own will rather than foreknowledge, concerning every particular person and event; and, God continually acts with entire freedom, in order to bring about his will in completeness, but in such a way that the freedom of the creature is not violated, "but rather, established".<ref name="WCF3">[[s:Westminster Confession of Faith#CHAPTER III. Of God's Eternal Decree.|Westminster Confession of faith, Ch 3]]</ref>

Calvinists who hold the infralapsarian view of predestination usually prefer that term to "sublapsarianism," perhaps with the intent of blocking the inference that they believe predestination is on the basis of foreknowledge (''sublapsarian'' meaning, assuming the fall into sin).<ref>Here, sub- is opposed to super- or supra- in a sense related to volition and/or necessity. Cf., for relapse of same origin, http://freedictionary.org/index.php?Query=relapse&database=%2A&strategy=exact : L. relapsus, p. p. of relabi to slip back, to relapse.</ref> The different terminology has the benefit of distinguishing the Calvinist double predestination version of infralapsarianism from Lutheranism's view that predestination is a mystery, which forbids the unprofitable intrusion of prying minds since God only reveals partial knowledge to the human race.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Comparison and Evaluation of the Theology of Luther with That of Calvin |date=19 March 2015 |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/comparison-and-evaluation-theology-luther-calvin |access-date=19 October 2022 |archive-date=1 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601152021/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/comparison-and-evaluation-theology-luther-calvin |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism|Supralapsarianism]] is the doctrine that God's decree of predestination for salvation and reprobation logically precedes his preordination of the human race's fall into sin. That is, God decided to save, and to damn; he then determined the means by which that would be made possible. It is a matter of controversy whether or not Calvin himself held this view, but most scholars link him with the infralapsarian position. It is known, however, that Calvin's successor in Geneva, [[Theodore Beza]], held to the supralapsarian view.

===Double predestination===
{{further|Predestination in Calvinism#Double predestination}}
Double predestination, or the double decree, is the doctrine that God actively [[reprobates]], or decrees damnation of some, as well as salvation for those whom he has elected. During the Protestant Reformation John Calvin held this double predestinarian <!-- not a typo or spelling error, just a very obscure word --> view:{{sfn|James|1998|p=30}}{{sfn|Trueman|1994|p=69}} "By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death."{{sfn|Calvin|1845|loc=3.21.7}}

Gottschalk of Orbais taught double predestination explicitly in the ninth century,{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=70}} and [[Gregory of Rimini]] in the fourteenth.{{sfn|James|1998|p=147}} Some trace this doctrine to statements made by Augustine in the early fifth century that on their own also seem to teach double predestination, but in the context of his other writings it is not clear whether he held this view. In ''[[The City of God]]'', Augustine describes all of humanity as being predestinated for salvation (i.e., the city of God) or damnation (i.e., the earthly city of man); but Augustine also held that all human beings were born "reprobate" but "need not necessarily remain" in that state of reprobation.<ref>Augustine, The City of God (New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, 1950), pp. 478–479.</ref>{{sfn|James|1998|p=102}}

=== Corporate election ===

Corporate election is a non-traditional Arminian view of election.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|author=Brian Abasciano|date=25 October 2013|title=The FACTS of Salvation: A Summary of Arminian Theology/the Biblical Doctrines of Grace|url=http://evangelicalarminians.org/the-facts-of-salvation-a-summary-of-arminian-theologythe-biblical-doctrines-of-grace/|access-date=18 May 2017|publisher=Society of Evangelical Arminians}}</ref> In [[corporate election]], God does not choose which individuals he will save prior to creation, but rather God chooses the church as a whole. Or put differently, God chooses a group of people he will save (members of the church), and individuals may work their way into (or out of) the said group. Another way the New Testament puts this is to say that God chose the church in Christ (Eph. 1:4). In other words, God chose from all eternity to save all those who would be found in Christ, by faith in God. This choosing is not primarily about salvation from eternal destruction either but is about God's chosen agency in the world. Thus individuals have full freedom in terms of whether they become members of the church or not.<ref name=":1" /> Corporate election is thus consistent with the open view's position on God's omniscience, which states that God's foreknowledge does not determine the outcomes of individual free will.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

=== Middle knowledge ===
[[Middle knowledge]] is a concept that was developed by [[Jesuit]] theologian [[Luis de Molina]], and exists under a doctrine called [[Molinism]]. It attempts to deal with the topic of predestination by reconciling God's sovereign providence with the notion of [[libertarian free will]]. The concept of Middle Knowledge holds that God has a knowledge of true pre-volitional [[counterfactuals]] for all free creatures. That is, what any individual creature with a free will (e.g. a human) would do under any given circumstance. God's knowledge of counterfactuals is reasoned to occur logically prior to his divine creative decree (that is, prior to creation), and after his knowledge of [[Logical truth|necessary truths]]. Thus, Middle Knowledge holds that before the world was created, God knew what every existing creature capable of libertarian freedom (e.g. every individual human) would freely choose to do in all possible circumstances. It then holds that based on this information, God elected from a number of these [[possible world]]s, the world most consistent with his ultimate will, which is the actual world that we live in.

For example:
* if Free Creature A was to be placed in Circumstance B, God via his Middle Knowledge would know that Free Creature A will freely choose option Y over option Z.
* if Free Creature A was to be placed in Circumstance C, God via his Middle Knowledge would know that Free Creature A will freely choose option Z over option Y.

Based on this Middle Knowledge, God has the ability to actualise the world in which A is placed in a circumstance that he freely chooses to do what is consistent with Gods ultimate will. If God determined that the world most suited to his purposes is a world in which A would freely choose Y instead of Z, God can actualise a world in which Free Creature A finds himself in Circumstance B.

In this way, Middle Knowledge is thought of by its proponents to be consistent with any theological doctrines that assert God as having divine providence and man having a libertarian freedom (e.g. Calvinism, Catholicism, Lutheranism), and to offer a potential solution to the concerns that God's providence somehow nullifies man from having true liberty in his choices.