Editing Predestination (section)

=== Patristic period ===
==== Pre-Nicene period ====
[[Origen]], writing in the third century, taught that God's providence extends to every individual.{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=38}} He believed God's predestination was based on God's foreknowledge of every individual's merits, whether in their current life or a [[pre-existence|previous life]].{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=39–40}}

Gill and Gregg Alisson argued that Clement of Rome held to a predestinarian view of salvation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murrell |first=Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pq1JAwAAQBAJ&dq=predestination+Clement+of+Rome&pg=PT32 |title=Predestined to Believe: Common Objections to the Reformed Faith Answered, Second Edition |date=2009 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-175-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Allison |first=Gregg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZH8oAfw-bHMC&dq=predestination+Clement+of+Rome&pg=PT832 |title=Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine |date=2011 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |isbn=978-0-310-41041-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Some verses in the [[Odes of Solomon]], which was made by an Essene convert into Christianity, might possibly suggest a predestinarian worldview, where God chooses who are saved and go into heaven, although there is controversy about what it teaches.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Carson |first1=D. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3UFAJ4zmxF8C&dq=predestination+odes+of+solomon&pg=PA54 |title=Justification and Variegated Nomism |last2=O'Brien |first2=Peter Thomas |last3=Seifrid |first3=Mark A. |date=2001 |publisher=Isd |isbn=978-3-16-146994-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Denzer |first=Pam |title=Odes of Solomon: Early Hymns of the Jewish Christian Mystical Tradition |url=https://www.academia.edu/4440268}}</ref>{{sps|certain=yes|date=April 2022}}<ref name="DeConick">{{Cite book |last=DeConick |first=April |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-p5DwAAQBAJ&dq=predestination+odes+of+solomon&pg=PA88 |title=Seek to See Him: Ascent and Vision Mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas |date=2015|publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-31300-2 |language=en}}</ref> The Odes of Solomon talks about God "imprinting a seal on the face of the elect before they existed".<ref name="DeConick" /> The [[Thomasines]] saw themselves as children of the light, but the ones who were not part of the elect community were sons of darkness. The Thomasines thus had a belief in a type of election or predestination, they saw themselves as elect because they were born from the light.<ref name="DeConick"/>

[[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] believed in a form of predestination, in his view humans are born into one of three natures, depending on which elements prevail in the person. In the views of Valentinus, a person born with a bad nature can never be saved because they are too inclined into evil, some people have a nature which is a mixture of good and evil, thus they can choose salvation, and others have a good nature, who will be saved, because they will be inclined into good.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karamanolis |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91cmEAAAQBAJ&dq=predestination+Valentinus&pg=PT153 |title=The Philosophy of Early Christianity |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-62823-8 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Irenaeus]] also attacked the doctrine of predestination set out by Valentinus, arguing that it is unfair. For Irenaeus, humans were free to choose salvation or not.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfT_DwAAQBAJ&dq=Free+will+irenaeus&pg=PA220 |title=Fate, Providence and Free Will: Philosophy and Religion in Dialogue in the Early Imperial Age |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-43638-1 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Justin Martyr]] attacked predestinarian views held by some Greek philosophers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knell |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNLYDwAAQBAJ&dq=free+will+justin+martyr&pg=PT37 |title=Sin, Grace and Free Will: A Historical Survey of Christian Thought (Volume 1): The Apostolic Fathers to Augustine |date=2017 |publisher=ISD LLC |isbn=978-0-227-90567-8 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Post-Nicene period ====
{{See also|Augustinian soteriology}}
Later in the fourth and fifth centuries, [[Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430) also taught that God orders all things while preserving human freedom.{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=44}} Prior to 396, Augustine believed that predestination was based on God's foreknowledge of whether individuals would believe, that God's grace was "a reward for human assent".{{sfn|Levering|2011|pp=48–49}} Later, in response to [[Pelagius]], Augustine said that the sin of [[pride]] consists in assuming that "we are the ones who choose God or that God chooses us (in his foreknowledge) because of something worthy in us", and argued that it is God's grace that causes the individual act of faith.{{sfn|Levering|2011|pp=47–48}} Scholars are divided over whether Augustine's teaching implies [[double predestination]], or the belief that God chooses some people for damnation as well as some for salvation. Catholic scholars tend to deny that he held such a view while some Protestants and secular scholars affirm that Augustine did believe in double predestination.{{sfn|James|1998|p=102}}

Augustine's position raised objections. [[Julian of Eclanum]] expressed the view that Augustine was bringing [[Manichean]] thoughts into the church.{{sfn|Chadwick|1993|p=232}} For [[Vincent of Lérins]], this was a disturbing innovation.{{sfn|Chadwick|1993|p=233}} This new tension eventually became obvious with the confrontation between Augustine and [[Pelagius]] culminating in condemnation of [[Pelagianism]] (as interpreted by Augustine) at the [[Council of Ephesus]] in 431. Pelagius denied Augustine's view of predestination in order to affirm that salvation is achieved by an act of free will.

The [[Council of Arles (475)|Council of Arles]] in the late fifth century condemned the position "that some have been condemned to death, others have been predestined to life", though this may seem to follow from Augustine's teaching. The [[Second Council of Orange]] in 529 also condemned the position that "some have been truly predestined to evil by divine power".{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=37}}

In the eighth century, [[John of Damascus]] emphasized the freedom of the human will in his doctrine of predestination, and argued that acts arising from peoples' wills are not part of God's providence at all. Damascene teaches that people's good actions are done in cooperation with God, but are not caused by him.{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=60}}

[[Prosper of Aquitaine]] (390 – c. 455 AD) defended Augustine's view of predestination against semi-Pelagians.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Saint Prosper of Aquitaine {{!}} Christian polemicist|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Prosper-of-Aquitaine|access-date=2021-10-29|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> [[Marius Mercator]], who was a pupil of Augustine, wrote five books against Pelagianism and one book about predestination.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Henry Wace: Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies|url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Marius%20Mercator,%20a%20writer|access-date=2021-12-02|website=www.ccel.org – Christian Classics Ethereal Library}}</ref> [[Fulgentius of Ruspe]] and [[Caesarius of Arles]] rejected the view that God gives free choice to believe and instead believed in predestination.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gumerlock |first=Francis X. |title=Predestination in the century before Gottschalk (Part 1) |url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/2009-3_195.pdf |journal=Evangelical Quarterly: An International Review of Bible and Theology |volume=81 |issue=3 |year=2009 |pages=195–209|doi=10.1163/27725472-08103001 }}</ref>

[[John Cassian|Cassian]] believed that despite predestination being a work that God does, God only decides to predestinate based on how human beings will respond.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Battle for Grace Alone by R.C. Sproul|url=https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/battle-grace-alone|access-date=2021-12-01|website=Ligonier Ministries|language=en-US}}</ref>

Augustine stated, "And thus Christ's Church has never failed to hold the faith of this predestination, which is now being defended with new solicitude against these modern heretics."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Philip Schaff: NPNF1-05. St. Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xxi.iii.lxvii.html |access-date=2021-12-02 |website=www.ccel.org – Christian Classics Ethereal Library}}</ref>