Posted on 05/13/2010 10:39:52 PM PDT by GonzoII
ISSUE: How does the Catholic Church understand predestination?
RESPONSE: Predestination is a term used to identify God’s plan of salvation, in which according to His own decree, He “accomplishes all things according to his will” (Eph. 1:11). God gives us the gift of salvation through grace and faith. In turn, we must use our free will to persevere in good works “prepared beforehand” by God Himself (Eph. 2:8-10; cf. Phil. 2:12, 13).
DISCUSSION: There are two opposite and equally erroneous positions about predestination that have always been rejected in authentic Catholic teaching. The first is that of the Pelagians.[1] Pelagius taught that a person, by the exercise his free will, could obtain salvation unaided by grace. The obvious error here is that God has nothing to do with salvation.
Calvinists and Jansenists teach the second error.[2] They teach that Christ died only for the elect; those predestined to salvation. The rest He predestined to eternal damnation by His own decree. Furthermore, they taught that if God predestined someone to eternal life, it is impossible that he should fall away. Likewise, one chosen for damnation has no choice in the matter, but will surely perish in hell. In short, the individual has nothing to do with his own salvation.
There are various schools of thought among Catholic theologians and philosophers through the ages. Most notably we should mention St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. There are also theories by Molina, St. Robert Bellarmine and the Franciscan Duns Scotus. It is outside the scope of this Faith Fact to look at these in great detail. However, to understand how the Catholic Church views predestination, we must first understand some fundamental concepts. First, the Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that the source of all things is God. This includes grace, the act of faith and even our good works (Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 1:17, 18). God alone initiates salvation. He always turns toward man first and seeks him, as when God walked in the Garden (Gen. 3:8). Man does not seek God or turn to him without God first calling man to Himself (Jn. 6:37, 44; 1 Jn. 4:10,19). Second, God’s initiative does not exclude man’s free response, but demands it (Catechism of the Catholic Church [Catechism], nos. 154, 155, 2002; Phil. 2:12, 13). In other words, God wills that man be free to choose His grace or reject it. Third, salvation is extended to each and every human person, not limited to just some, and one can fall away from grace (Heb. 2:1-4; 6:4; 2 Pet. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Jn. 5:16, 17). Furthermore, it is imperative that once one is touched by grace, he perseveres in charity lest he forfeit the free gift of salvation (Lumen Gentium [LG], no. 14). Within the confines of these principles, Catholics have sought to understand the mystery of predestination. Though opinions and formulations have varied among Catholic theologians, with these principles left intact, there is room for legitimate speculation.
The only proper framework to understand predestination must be rooted in the notion of a communion of persons in love. Why? The nature of God as Trinity is this very kind of communion and God created man to share in that “blessed life” (cf. Catechism, no. 1). This communion of love demands freedom of will. For love is not something thrust upon a person, but offered as a gift. This communion of love in the Trinity is also the basis for evangelization in the Church (cf. Catechism, no. 850). As this is the very essence of the relationship between God and man, everything in one way or another must refer back to it and be measured by it. As this was God’s purpose in creating man, it is also intimately tied to our redemption and our ultimate destiny. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8).
God alone is uncreated. All that is, including man, owes its existence to God. He created man freely and out of “sheer goodness” (Catechism, no. 1). Man has nothing that he did not receive from God. Anyone who would charge the Catholic Church of teaching salvation by works alone or that salvation originates in any way in man, does so in contradiction to the whole history of authentic Catholic teaching.[3] No one can come to Christ, except that the Father draw him (Jn. 6:37, 44). We love Him, because He first loved us (1 Jn. 4:10, 19). The fount and source of these things is the grace that comes from God alone.
Grace is God’s favor. It means “gift.” In other words, it is not something received in return for anything, but is free and unmerited. It is a participation in the life of God, which comes to us by the Holy Spirit (Catechism, nos. 1997, 1999). God is the “high and lofty One who inhabits eternity” (Is. 57:15). He must reveal Himself to us if we are to participate in His divine life unto eternal salvation. It is not possible to know Him, except He reveals Himself (Catechism, no. 1998). Thus, this initiative which is freely made by God alone in revealing Himself is a gift we call grace. Because it is a gift, it can be rejected.
There are many effects and purposes of grace. We even have different terms to express the varying functions of grace (sanctifying, habitual, etc.). Grace enables us to respond to God’s call that we may become His adopted sons (Catechism, no. 1996). Grace sustains us and helps us grow in holiness towards Christian perfection. The Holy Spirit gives all the graces that we receive. He employs several means, such as the Sacraments, direct intervention, Mary, prayer, etc., through which He communicates grace to us.
The proper disposition to receive grace is faith, which is itself “a work of grace” (Catechism, no. 2001). The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum [DV]) reminds us: “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God.”[4]
It is equally true that we need grace to sustain us in faith. Faith is not a once for all event. Rather, “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4). It must be preserved, nourished and be made to grow, as Holy Scripture reminds us often (cf. 1 Cor. 16:13; 2 Cor. 10:15; Col. 1:23 2 Thess. 1:3).
Good works are a fruit of God’s grace. Jesus emphasizes this with the imagery of the vine. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).
What is clear is that grace must be antecedent to any act on our part, whether of the act of believing or any good work. The question that this often raises is that of the nature of our response to grace. Is it free? And if it is, how does grace work with freedom of will?
St. Paul reminds us that we are to work out our own salvation “with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). God provides grace and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, works within us in order that we might persevere on the way to salvation. Salvation is not just a one-time event, but a continual process of growth. The freedom of our will is necessary for this growth. Exactly how our will cooperates with this grace is a mystery.
This mystery of how grace works with human nature is reflected in the Catechism. “Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is not less true that believing is an authentically human act” (Catechism, no. 154).
Working from the premise that God created us to share in a loving communion with Him, the necessity of free will becomes apparent. Some narrowly understand the cooperation of the will with God as“helping God out” as if He is somehow limited. Some find it objectionable that man has any free part to play in His eternal destiny. If that eternal destiny is a communion of love, how else could it be but truly free (cf. Catechism, nos. 2001, 2002)? Further, there is no logic in the notion that an absence of free will necessarily follows God’s sovereignty, or that from free will it necessarily follows that God needs our help. God wills our free will in love. That is His design.
God created man for heaven, not hell. Hell is the ultimate isolation and a free choice by an individual. As stated above, man was created for love, to love God, to love others and to be loved. This “civilization of love” or “communion of persons” is central to man’s being. Each and every person was created both to be his own end (“willed for his own sake”) and to make a gift of that self to others. The Decree on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), especially paragraphs 12 and 24, is particularly helpful reading to see this “dyadic” structure of the human person.
As is clear in Matthew 25:41-46, there will be those who find themselves in Hell. Some would explain this by asserting that Christ did not die for everyone, but only the “elect.” Scripture, to the contrary, confirms that God does wish for all to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Christ did die for the sins of the whole world, but it is necessary, enabled by grace, that one respond to the free gift and persevere until the end. We can have confidence that Christ can see us through to the end. He is called the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). St. Paul encourages us that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
In his second epistle, St. Peter reminds us that God has granted us all things that “pertain to life and godliness” (1:3) and that through His promises we may escape corruption to become “partakers of the divine nature” (1:4). Because of this, he exhorts us:
For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed form his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you and entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:5-11).
Let us freely accept the gift of God’s grace and rejoice in Jesus Christ who upholds “the universe by his word of power” (Heb. 1:3). And with St. Paul, let us say: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:3-6).
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Pamphlet 054
This is not taking away from or adding to 'grace'. But as Christ says quoting the prophet King David, in Matthew 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter things which have been kept *SECRET* from the foundation (casting down - overthrow.... that VERB again) of the world (age).
There are some who stood against that first 'rebel', when he was cast down before the soul/spirit was placed into the flesh vessel... Paul, until his attention was gotten on his way to Damascus was doing his free will, but without him seeking or asking for it, he was, chosen/selected/elected/ to do the Will of the Heavenly Father in Christ's Holy Name.
When did Paul pass that test or take the stand to be among the already chosen/elected/selected?
I can add nothing to what appears to me to be a razor-sharp definition in the article....
Perhaps you would then point me to where the cut is made by said razor? I cannot even find the subject discussed... what is discussed is what different denominations have to say about stages of 'salvation', which is NOT the subject of predestination. None of them even appear to notice that 'predestination' took place BEFORE this 'world' (man in flesh bodies,) age. Moses does not say one 'word' about when the soul/spirit was formed/created, what he says is that the Adam was not living until the breath of life, which means 'soul' was breathed into his nostrils...
The soul/spirit was already in existence before that flesh body was formed/created... and it did not come about the long and winding road of evolution.
The problem with discussing Predestination is that the two “opposite and erroneous positions” are simple, elegant, and rational, while the truth is an impenetrable mystery.
A freewill that's not free...ouch!!
The problem is the subject of what predestination literally means never gets discussed. Christ said Mark 13:23 (Before one word of the "NEW" ever got penned) But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things... And then he quotes Isaiah...
Curious now that before Paul without asking for, got his 'free will' removed from him, or even the crucifixion of Christ, Christ would say that He had already foretold us all things... that would include what is meant by the declaration that some were already predestined before their conception into a flesh body. John 3.... instruction given to Nicodemus regarding what is the first requirement to 'see', NOT enter the kingdom of God.
I think “predestination” is a misnomer — to the Almighty, time is not necessarily linear. Thus, He can know how the story ends without betraying free will. I believe whether we ascend to heaven is already known by Him because He already knows the outcome that we will choose. Thus, in some respects, it is predestined.
What is truly remarkable is, even though He already knows the outcome, He still seeks those who He knows will be lost.
SnakeDoc
We are told there is one named entity, the devil, that has already been judged to be destroyed from within, at a time appointed. There is a numbered, 7,000 not named that already been judges for the same out come, death.
We are told there are some that have overcome, from the foundation (overthrow - casting down) also called the 'elect', the set aside ones, chosen, etc. Paul fits the profile on one of these that was placed when and where to fulfill the Will, and yet Paul all on his own in his own free will was against Christ. That is until he got a face to face on his way to to his will.
Paul says in Romans 11:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him That calleth;)
12 It was said unto her, "The elder shall serve the younger,"
13 As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."
Esau, was hated before he was ever born into a flesh body. Something had to cause this 'hate' because it goes against everything good and Godly to suggest or claim that the Heavenly Father created/formed a soul/spirit, let alone a flesh body for the purpose to be hated.
There had to be a 'history' of Esau soul/spirit going against the Heavenly Father, before he was placed in his mother's flesh body to cause this hate. It is just not natural or 'super' natural to hate ones own child without cause.
Both Isaiah 14:12-- and Ezekiel 28:12--- describe the devil and the obvious love the Heavenly Father had for him before he rebelled. And the devil has already been judged to die, at a time appointed. Love cannot be bought, it cannot be blackmailed, love from the soul/spirit for ones spiritual parent is either there or it is not. Thus there are three mindsets from the overthrow... those that sided with the devil, those that sat on the fence testing the wind, and those that stood against the rebellion.
People since the beginning of this flesh age that have free will are allowed exactly that, there is NO unsocilitated interference as demonstrated in particular by Paul's example. If these individuals do not seek God, He sure is not going to interfere in their lives/world, because to do so would mean by definition they do not have 'free will'.
We can even see the mindset/personality types in our nation today. We have the liberal, we can do it better types, around a third, then there are the high minded moderates that are always checking to see which way the wind blows before they take a stand; (about a third of them around) and then there are conservatives, who from their inner being are seeking 'right' and are willing to take a stand for what is 'right'.
It is written there is nothing new under the sun, what has been will be again... Ecclesiastes 1
***
There are two opposite and equally erroneous positions about predestination that have always been rejected in authentic Catholic teaching./cut/
Calvinists and Jansenists teach the second error.[2] They teach that Christ died only for the elect; those predestined to salvation. The rest He predestined to eternal damnation by His own decree.
****
Always? ALWAYS? Except of course by the Council of Orange and such great theologians as Augustine.
*CANON 8. If anyone maintains that some are able to come to the grace of baptism by mercy but others through free will, which has manifestly been corrupted in all those who have been born after the transgression of the first man, it is proof that he has no place in the true faith.*
Always indeed.
Thanks for showing once again how the set in uncongealed Jello Catholic teaching really is.
So, who said that both theories (or heresies) preserved free will?
but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison,
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.....
So 'salvation' whether it is being discussed about those that came before it was officially offered, or all those that came after its offering does not change in how it is obtained, John 3:16. But we are told that while in the 'grave' Christ offered salvation to those spirits (souls) held in prison back to the days of Noah. This does not explain, address or expound the fact that some were predestined all the way back to the casting down/overthrow of the devil when he rebelled. Before this flesh age as Peter calls it the age that WAS... IIPeter 3 5-6.
So I don't think that the writers of the article would see the contradiction which is so evident to you.
And consequently this remark:
Thanks for showing once again how the set in uncongealed Jello Catholic teaching really is.
seems out of place.
I think what looks like uncongealed Jello to you is in fact an effort to remain responsible to the mystery conveyed in verses like Philippians 2:12-13. If there were some simple double predestination, why would Paul urge people to work out their salvation. If,on the other hand,it were not from God, why would he say it is God working in us both to will and to work?
Like concrete, Jello can congeal too soon and in the wrong place or shape. And when that happens one is stuck with something wrong and there is nothing to do but to destroy it and start over. I think both Pelagians and the double predestination folks have preferred a crisp and easily stated doctrine to the mysterious and difficult truth.
Looking for the key to predestination in Catholic liturgy is like looking for bacon in a mosque. The Presbyterians are the place to look:
I thought you did?
"The problem with discussing Predestination is that the two “opposite and erroneous positions” are simple, elegant, and rational, while the truth is an impenetrable mystery."
I'm interpreting the "erroneous positions” as coming from Calvin and Jansen to which you refer as [purely] "rational", reason tells us that our wills are free and can choose good and avoid evil and therefore also cooperate with grace....or what did you mean?
12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
I read nothing in your link that pointed me to the WORD that people like Jeremiah penned as warning as to what would be again.
Let's put that in context:
"The Council of Orange was an outgrowth of the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius. This controversy had to do with degree to which a human being is responsible for his or her own salvation, and the role of the grace of God in bringing about salvation. The Pelagians held that human beings are born in a state of innocence,i.e., that there is no such thing as a sinful nature or original sin.
As a result of this view, they held that a state of sinless perfection was achievable in this life. The Council of Orange dealt with the Semi-Pelagian doctrine that the human race, though fallen and possessed of a sinful nature, is still "good" enough to able to lay hold of the grace of God through an act of unredeemed human will. "
CANON 8. [Complete] If anyone maintains that some are able to come to the grace of baptism by mercy but others through free will, which has manifestly been corrupted in all those who have been born after the transgression of the first man, it is proof that he has no place in the true faith. For he denies that the free will of all men has been weakened through the sin of the first man, or at least holds that it has been affected in such a way that they have still the ability to seek the mystery of eternal salvation by themselves without the revelation of God. The Lord himself shows how contradictory this is by declaring that no one is able to come to him "unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44), as he also says to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 16:17), and as the Apostle says, "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3).
Source: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5349
I'm confused Gamecock, are you saying the Council of Orange denies free-will?
It's not Jello, Gamecock. It's a complicated question with complicated issues that is not served by exegetes spouting off definitively that they've squared the circle and solved the problem.
You well know that Augustine taught in his letter to Valentinus that in no way were his anti-Pelagian comments to be construed as denying free will. And yet that letter is systematically waved off--ah, well, that was later, or that's not germane, or he modified he views.
And anyway, it must apparently be restated again and again, a single Church Father's exposition *does not* Catholic teaching make. We have to look at the *totality* of the Patristic teachings...including the Greek ones which strangely seem to be ignored by some quarters.
There is virtue in simplifying theology. But there is no virtue in oversimplifying it.
Thanks for posting that...you nailed it. Canon 8 is assuming the idea of free will—just a corrupted and weakened one. It is not at all denying free will’s existence.
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