III.

Double Predestination

Double predestination is a conclusion deduced from single predestination. If some are to enjoy God's presence by his eternal decree, others must then be eternally separated from God, also by his decree. Because salvation and glory are predestined, it follows that condemnation and destruction must also be predestined. The first theologian to enunciate a doctrine of double predestination was St. Augustine in the 5th century. He has not, however, had many successors. The best-known exponent of double predestination was French reformer John Calvin: “We call predestination God's eternal decree, by which he determined within himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others” (Institutes 3. 21. 5).

After Augustine, Roman Catholic theologians rejected double predestination, insisting that no predestination to evil exists and that those who suffer damnation bear full responsibility for it. Anglicans have also adhered to a doctrine of single predestination. In the 17th century, the Dutch Protestant theologian Arminius, whose teachings inspired the movement called Arminianism, criticized the injustice of Calvin's doctrine of predestination and formulated a modified version of it that allowed for human free will. Liberal Protestant theologians have tended to ignore or deny predestination in either the single or double form. The most influential restatement of the doctrine of single predestination was made by the 20th-century Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who claimed that God's will is revealed in Jesus Christ, and all are elect through him. In this form the doctrine of predestination is virtually universalist—that is, all are promised salvation.