Predestination

Predestination (Greek proorizo, "to mark out beforehand") refers to God's eternal sovereign purpose to bring a definite people to salvation through Jesus Christ. The term in the strict biblical sense applies specifically to God's redemptive plan: those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and these he called, justified, and glorified (Rom. 8:29–30). Paul grounds election in God's grace before the foundation of the world, not in foreseen human merit (Eph. 1:4–5; 2 Tim. 1:9). The crucifixion itself is presented as the outworking of God's predetermined plan (Acts 4:27–28). Predestination has been a subject of intense theological debate across Christian traditions, particularly in Reformed, Arminian, and Calvinist contexts, though all traditions affirm that God's sovereign purpose and human responsibility are both genuinely real.