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S11 reasoning: Predestination and election

Reasoning steps: Predestination and election

Verdicts: S11 · Predestination and election. Shared notes and post-750 development: salvation.

S11.1 (was salvation/S2): Free will

Step S11.1.1: Scripture

Deut 30:19; Matt 23:37; also John 8:34 (slave to sin) and Rom 8:7. Scripture holds both real choice and bondage to sin.

Step S11.1.2: Patristic evidence

justin-martyr-sal-s1, irenaeus-sal-s1, origen-sal-s1, john-cassian-sal-s1.

Step S11.1.3: Weighing decision

Reading A: the pre-Augustinian fathers teach a libertarian free will that excludes the need for grace. Reading B: they defend responsibility against fate and Gnostic determinism by nature, without addressing prevenient grace. B is chosen on context: Justin writes against fate, Irenaeus against natures. All the fathers affirm free choice, and none of them denies it. Augustine himself affirms it, as healed by grace.

  • Confidence: High that free will is universally affirmed; medium on how it relates to grace

Step S11.1.4: Source-proximity weighing

See the proximity tiers.

  • Scripture (benchmark): Both real choice (Deut 30:19; Matt 23:37) and bondage to sin (John 8:34; Rom 8:7–8). (Scripture confidence: medium)
  • Key sources by tier: Justin Martyr (T2, w 0.8); Irenaeus (T2, w 0.8). Proximity factor: 0.8 (mean tier weight of 2 key source(s)).
  • Assessment: Broad T2 support (Justin, Irenaeus) against fatalism. Scripture holds both choice and bondage. Verdict unchanged.

S11.2 (was salvation/S3): Predestination

Step S11.2.1: Scripture

Rom 8:29–30; 9:10–23; Eph 1:4–11; Acts 13:48; 1 Tim 2:4.

Step S11.2.2: Patristic evidence

augustine-sal-s2, augustine-sal-s3. Pre-Augustinian fathers: predestination according to foreknowledge: Origen, Comm. Rom. (Rufinus): ’non propterea aliquid erit, quia id scit Deus futurum; sed quia futurum est, ideo scitur a Deo antequam fiat’ (verified as quoted by Aquinas, ST I q.14 a.8 obj. 1; Rufinus’s text not checked directly).

Step S11.2.3: Weighing decision

Reading A: unconditional election, the Augustinian view. Reading B: election according to foreseen faith. Reading C: reprobation as a decree parallel to election. Split. A is Augustine’s late teaching. B is the common pre-Augustinian and Greek line, though weakly verified here. C has no patristic support verified: Augustine speaks of the non-elect as passed over, and Orange anathematizes predestination to evil: ‘We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but … they are anathema’ (verified, conclusion of the canons).

  • Confidence: Medium (split A/B); C unsupported

Step S11.2.4: Source-proximity weighing

See the proximity tiers.

  • Scripture (benchmark): Rom 9:11–16 (’not because of works but because of him who calls’), Eph 1:5, 11 and Acts 13:48 favour election by God’s purpose, not by foreseen faith. Corporate or national readings of Rom 9 were considered; they are weaker given 9:15–16 (individual mercy). No text states a parallel decree of reprobation (κατηρτισμένα, Rom 9:22, is debated). (Scripture confidence: medium)
  • Key sources by tier: Augustine (T3, w 0.6); Augustine (T3, w 0.6). Proximity factor: 0.6 (mean tier weight of 2 key source(s)).
  • Assessment: No T1 text on election was verified, and the foreknowledge line (Origen, T2/T3) is weighed against Augustine (T3), which leaves the patristic evidence split. On the benchmark, Rom 9:11–16 and Eph 1:5, 11 favour election by God’s purpose. A double decree is in neither Scripture nor any tier. Verdict changed: the Scripture reading is now stated in the verdict (it was previously reported only as a patristic split).

S11.3: Can the grace that brings a person to faith be resisted?

Step S11.3.1: Scripture

John 6:44: ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (ἑλκύσῃ); and I will raise him up on the last day’. John 6:37: ‘All that the Father gives Me will come to Me’. Ezekiel 36:26: ‘I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh’. Philippians 2:13: ‘it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work’. On the other side, Stephen tells his hearers they ‘are always resisting the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 7:51), and Jesus says of Jerusalem, ‘How often I wanted to gather your children together … and you did not want it’ (Matt 23:37). The texts say that those the Father gives and draws do come, and that people resist the Spirit’s call. No text uses either word, ‘irresistible’ or ‘resistible’, of the grace that converts.

Step S11.3.2: Patristic evidence

Augustine (Era III, On Rebuke and Grace 38) says the will is ‘unchangeably and invincibly influenced by divine grace’, and (Predestination of the Saints 13) that this grace ‘is rejected by no hard heart, because it is given for the sake of first taking away the hardness of the heart’. Chrysostom (Era III, Hom. John 46, on John 6:44) says ’the words do not take away our free will, but show that we greatly need assistance’. John Cassian (Era III, Conference XIII) warns that ‘if we resist with a stiff neck’ (Acts 7:51) we fall, and says that ‘when He sees in us some beginnings of a good will, He at once enlightens it and strengthens it’. Sources: augustine-s11x-s1 · augustine-s11x-s2 · chrysostom-s11x-s1 · john-cassian-s11x-s1 · john-cassian-s11x-s2.

Step S11.3.3: Weighing decision

Reading A: the grace that converts overcomes resistance in those to whom it is given (Augustine). Reading B: grace goes before and helps, but a person can refuse it (Chrysostom, Cassian). Split. Both are in Era III, from writers of equal standing; Cassian’s view was later criticised in the West, and Augustine’s was not taken up in the East. Earlier fathers defend free choice against fate, but do not address this question. Verdict, in plain terms: the early church agreed that no one comes to God without grace going first, but it did not agree on whether that grace can be refused.

  • Confidence: Medium-high on the split. Each side is explicit.

Step S11.3.4: Source-proximity weighing

  • Scripture (benchmark): John 6:37, 44; Ezek 36:26; Phil 2:13 (those drawn do come) vs Acts 7:51; Matt 23:37 (the Spirit’s call is resisted). Neither ‘irresistible’ nor ‘resistible’ is used. (Scripture confidence: low-medium)
  • Assessment: All the direct witnesses are Era III, so proximity does not decide the split. Scripture has texts on both sides and the confessions all systematise them, so the Scripture scores are level.

S11.3 by tradition

  • Catholic (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Trent VI, canon 4: anathema to anyone who says that free will moved by God ‘cannot refuse its consent, if it would’. Follows Chrysostom and Cassian; capped at 3 for a split verdict.
  • Orthodox (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Dositheus, Decree 3: preventing grace is ‘of use only to the willing, not to the unwilling’. Follows Chrysostom and Cassian.
  • Oriental Orthodox (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Shenouda III, lecture ‘The Problem of Election or Rejection’ (official-site summary, popeshenouda.org.eg): election is ’the result of a person’s free response to His grace’. Follows Chrysostom and Cassian.
  • Lutheran (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration II.60: ‘God does not force man to become godly (for those who always resist the Holy Ghost … are not converted), yet God the Lord draws the man whom He wishes to convert’. Grace can be resisted, yet conversion is God’s work alone: elements of both strands.
  • Anglican (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Art. XVII: the elect ‘be called according to God’s purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling’; Art. X: grace ‘preventing us, that we may have a good will’. Leans to Augustine without using his strongest terms.
  • Presbyterian (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): WCF X.1: God renews their wills and, ‘by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely’. Follows Augustine.
  • Reformed Baptist (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): 1689 10.1: the same words as WCF X.1. Follows Augustine.
  • General Baptist (fathers 3/4; Scripture 3/4): Orthodox Creed XXI: ’those that with Cordial Hearts do improve this common Grace, he in time worketh unfained Faith’. Close to Cassian’s ‘beginnings of a good will’.
  • Anabaptist (fathers n/a/4; Scripture n/a/4): Not assessed: Schleitheim and Dordrecht do not address the question.