Essays on Predestination

Predestination, otherwise known as destiny or fate, is a timeless construct which consists of past, present, and future at once. However, free will exists in the present state and constitutes humanity’s actions as they transpire moment to moment in a chronological fashion. Whereas the manifestations of free will are tangible and constant, destiny and fate represent more abstract ideas that are subject to change based upon the conscious choices and decisions that individuals make. In other words, free will and predestination are constantly interacting with each other. The decisions that we make using our own free will have ...

Discussion Board 4

The theory of predestination proposed and developed by Jean Calvin had an immense impact on the religious beliefs and secular life of Early Modern Times. It states that there are people who were born for salvation and those who were born for destruction and this predestination cannot be changed by the individual’s actions. Calvin in his famous book “Institutes of the Christian Religion” proves that the theory is fair because “we shall never feel persuaded as we ought that our salvation flows from the free mercy of God as its fountain, until we are made acquainted with his ...

The second synod of Orange is famous due to its deep consideration of some typical problems for the medieval man‘s perception of the world. First of all it relates to the basic contradiction between the independent human mind and the Almighty God’s predestination. In other words, writing basic points of the synod theologians tried to find some simple and obvious conception of the human free will, its abilities, limits and its importance for the main goal of everyone – Salvation of the eternal soul. The deciding opinion of most disputants, as Mozley notes, took into account the doctrine ...

Augustine of Hippo and His View of Election As Regards Salvation

Biography Augustine of Hippo, or more popularly known as St. Augustine, was the child of St. Monica. However, despite a religious upbringing, Augustine spent most of his young life in blasphemous beliefs and immoral lifestyle. Although he was a remarkably intelligent person and had been indoctrinated to the Christian faith early in life, his sins of wickedness and his self-glorification corrupted his thoughts too much, that he became completely blind to the Divine Truth. Augustine's mother, Monica, was a devout Christian, while his father supported paganism for most of his life, merely converting to Christianity prior to his death. ...

Augustine and Pelagius on Nature and Grace

In the 5th century, in the Church of Rome, the theological debate arises about the balance of forces of human nature and the grace of God in the salvation of man. Long before the separation of the Churches, the theological debate has significant influences on the development of Western Christianity both in the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. Particularly, the debate focused with the two important and outstanding names of the history, the Father of the Western Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo with his counterpart monk Pelagius, both are involved of this argument. Correspondingly, the Pelagian controversy has changed ...