Predestination - Part 2 - Misconceptions

Many hold a common misconception that only Calvinists teach Predestination, or that they somehow originated this teaching (or doctrine).

Instead, many Christian traditions hold various forms of Predestination, which originates with the Church fathers.  St. Augustine wrote, "A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints," back around 428 or 429 A.D..  He was not the first Church father who addressed this issue.  The Bible itself addresses predestination, but I plan to more fully address that in another post.

Both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy teach about predestination.  So Thomas Aquinas largely agrees with St. Augustine about this issue.  However, Catholics usually do not like to talk about predestination.

Lutherans also usually do not like to talk about predestination, though Luther largely agreed with Calvin about it.  Luther usually wanted to stick to talking about the Law and Gospel.  Methodists also do not like to talk about predestination since the Wesley brothers emphasized free will, though they closely worked with those who held strong views about predestination, such as George Whitefield (a Calvinist).

Yet, even those who usually do not like to talk about predestination usually agree with the closely related teachings about the Sovereignty of God, as well as Election.  Thus, I usually find more agreement about predestination among Christian traditions than disagreement, even when some want to talk about Election or the Sovereignty of God.

Another common misconception - many equate predestination with pre-determinism (or simply determinism, or just fatalism).  In another words, in this misconception, they believe predestination means God controls (or compels) people and their decisions.  Thus God compels the evil people act out.  This view simply misunderstands the historic teachings about predestination.

A similar misconception - many believe predestination opposes, cancels out, or negates free will.  Simply stated, it does not.

In future posts, I will try to carefully set forth how I understand what historic Christianity usually asserts about predestination, and some variations about this held by various traditions.

Part 1 - Predestination - Personal Testimony