Predestination prior to merits & Free Will

[Isearch]

Could this schema be reconciled with Saint Augustine’s late views on predestination:

*In a logical procession, the Lord first decides to create a person.

*Logically proceeding from His decision to create that person, He then decides which kinds of the infinite Graces He has should be given to that person He decided to create.

*Proceeding from His decision to bestow which of the infinite kinds of Graces, He then foresees the free response of the created person, based on his freely chosen disposition, and rewards or condemns that said person based on his responses.

One may object to this schema by stating that this predestination to glory is merely based on the person’s future merits. But I may respond to this by stating that the person would only cooperate with the Graces if the right kind of Graces would, in a sense, “fit” with the freely chosen disposition of the person. If the other kind of Graces were given, it wouldn’t “fit” and the person would reject that kind of Graces given. This, in turn, will earn him his reprobation.

This schema, I believe, preserves predestination prior to merits (because any man can convert to godliness, in any of his dispositions he has freely chosen, if the kinds of Graces given fit the chosen disposition), man’ free will (because he freely chooses which of the dispositions he might adopt), and defends God’s Justice in the eyes of men. In this schema, the Lord is still said to have the power to change the hearts of men, even if they are in their most evil, as long as they live.

 

[twf]

God is beyond and outside of time, thus there is no past, present, or future for God… just one eternal present. I could be wrong, and I’m sure I’m oversimplifying it… but to my mind we are predestined from OUR perspective rather than from God’s. We were/are always before God.

 

[Vico]

Could this schema be reconciled with Saint Augustine’s late views on predestination:

*In a logical procession, the Lord first decides to create a person.

*Logically proceeding from His decision to create that person, He then decides which kinds of the infinite Graces He has should be given to that person He decided to create.

*Proceeding from His decision to bestow which of the infinite kinds of Graces, He then foresees the free response of the created person, based on his freely chosen disposition, and rewards or condemns that said person based on his responses.

One may object to this schema by stating that this predestination to glory is merely based on the person’s future merits. But I may respond to this by stating that the person would only cooperate with the Graces if the right kind of Graces would, in a sense, “fit” with the freely chosen disposition of the person. If the other kind of Graces were given, it wouldn’t “fit” and the person would reject that kind of Graces given. This, in turn, will earn him his reprobation.

This schema, I believe, preserves predestination prior to merits (because any man can convert to godliness, in any of his dispositions he has freely chosen, if the kinds of Graces given fit the chosen disposition), man’ free will (because he freely chooses which of the dispositions he might adopt), and defends God’s Justice in the eyes of men. In this schema, the Lord is still said to have the power to change the hearts of men, even if they are in their most evil, as long as they live.

From Catholic Encyclopedia on Predestination:

Owing to the infallible decisions laid down by the Church, every orthodox theory on predestination and reprobation must keep within the limits marked out by the following theses:

• (a) At least in the order of execution in time (in ordine executionis) the meritorious works of the predestined are the partial cause of their eternal happiness;
• (b) hell cannot even in the order of intention (in ordine intentionis) have been positively decreed to the damned, even though it is inflicted on them in time as the just punishment of their misdeeds;
• (c) there is absolutely no predestination to sin as a means to eternal damnation.

Pohle, J. (1911). Predestination. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12378a.htm

 

[Isearch]

Oh I did take into account that aspect of God “viewing” the past, present, and future as the eternal “now”. The succession, from God’s decision to create a person to His foreknowledge of the person’s future actions in response to the Graces He chose to give, is a logical succession, not chronological.

 

[Isearch]

@HopkinsReb @TULIPed @William_Scott

I need to know if you believe this schema could be reconciled with Saint Augustine’s predestination prior to merits.