Pre-destination and Catholism

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dee_burk

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So, another thread has mentioned this but since it is off topic for that thread i want to ask my question here. what is Catholic dogma on pre-destination? i have found nothing in the catechism on the topic yet i was told it was Catholic dogma on the other thread.:confused:
 
Yes, that was I who said that.

Predestination is Catholic dogma (de fide) and this is one thing Catholics should be aware of when in discussions with Protestants. The Catechism makes a very brief mention of it in n. 600 but only in passing, but yes it is mentioned.

In short, Catholicism affirms predestination in that God decrees that certain people will be saved and he makes sure that this happens. Further, he ensures that this happens with the person’s full and free cooperation with his grace, that is, using his free will.

How, exactly this happens, though is not defined by the Church. However, the following must be held and cannot be denied; to do so is heresy.
  1. God predestines certain people to glory, and he ensures that this happens, because he is sovereign. Whether this happens before consideration of one’s foreseen merits or after it is not defined by the Church and both can be held as acceptable.
  2. Even for the elect, God always uses the person’s free will so that he will freely respond to his grace and merit salvation.
  3. God predestines no one to hell without consideration of his foreseen demerits. To affirm this denies God’s holiness, justice and the universal desire for salvation (1 Tim 1:4). This is double-predestination and is to be rejected.
In Catholic thought on predestination, God’s sovereignty and man’s free will are both affirmed.
 
Section 1037 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states “God predestines no one to go to Hell”.
 
God’s omniscience (specifically, his middle knowledge) comes heavily into play in the Molinist school. The Thomist school focuses more on God’s sovereignty and does not account for man’s merits; God in Thomism ordains, for no other reason than his sovereign will, to predestine certain people to glory without any consideration of his future merits.
 
i guess its the definitive quality of the word, i was taught predestination is that God puts some people on earth to go to Hell and some to go to Heaven, its out of their control. If they are born predestined for Hell, no matter how good they live, they are damned to Hell.

God knows what decisions we will make in our lives and the outcome that we will endure, agreed, yet he still calls on everyone to follow him and gives us the free will to follow or reject

sounds like the confusion its all in the definition
 
#1037 rejects double-predestination, not predestination as a whole. The Catechism also mentions God’s plan of predestination in #600.

As I said, predestination is a dogma of the faith and must be held by the faithful and there is a very interesting body of theology behind it, way richer than what the Catechism tells us in passing.

This is the teaching (as stated in Ott):

GOD, BY HIS ETERNAL RESOLVE OF WILL, HAS PREDETERMINED CERTAIN MEN TO ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS (De fide)

(The “de fide” tells us this is a binding teaching. Catholics are not free to reject it).

This doctrine is proposed by the Ordinary and General Teaching of the Church as a truth of Revelation. The doctrinal definitions of the Council of Trent presuppose it . . . The reality of Predestination is clearly attested to in Rom 8:29 et seq: . . . cf. Mt 25:34, Jn 10:27 et seq., Acts 13:48, Eph 1:4 et seq. . . . Predestination is a part of the Eternal Divine Plan of Providence.

And the shocker that alarms many Catholics, but is also binding Church teaching is this:

GOD, BY AN ETERNAL RESOLVE OF HIS WILL, PREDESTINES CERTAIN MEN, ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR FORESEEN SINS, TO ETERNAL REJECTION (De fide)

The reality of Reprobation is not formally defined, but it is the general teaching of the Church.

This, however, is NOT the same as Calvinistic double-predestination, which does NOT account for foreseen demerits, but is explained nicely with the Molinist school of thought.

Ultimately, it is just these two that we need to accept, although a study of the Thomist and Molinist views is very enlightening and interesting. However, predestination is one of the most difficult theological topics, which is why other than the basics of the teachings given above, the Church has not defined exactly how this happens.
 
dee_burk said:
i guess its the definitive quality of the word, i was taught predestination is that God puts some people on earth to go to Hell and some to go to Heaven, its out of their control. If they are born predestined for Hell, no matter how good they live, they are damned to Hell.
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This is double-predestination, not mere predestination, and is heretical.
 
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