While the Lutheran Church arose from a concern with the doctrine of justification, the Reformed Church was born out of a desire to reestablish the evangelical model of the apostolic Church, which we will look at in more detail in Chapter 9. We will now turn our attention to one of the leading ideas of Reformed theology, which has great significance for its political and social theories - on the concept of divine sovereignty. Reformed theologians considered Luther's interest in personal experience to be too subjective and too individual-centered; They were concerned, first of all, with the establishment of objective criteria on the basis of which it was possible to reform society and the Church. And they found such criteria in Scripture. They had little time to devote to scholastic theology, which never posed a serious threat to the Swiss Reformation.

The doctrine of predestination is often seen as a core feature of Reformed theology. For many, the concept of “Calvinist” is almost identical to the definition of “a person who pays great attention to the doctrine of predestination.” How then did the concept of mercy, which for Luther meant the justification of the sinner, come to be related to the sovereignty of God, especially as expressed in the doctrine of predestination? And how did this evolution take place? In this chapter we will examine the understanding of the doctrine of mercy as presented by the Reformed Church.

Zwingli on Divine Sovereignty

Zwingli began his pastorate in Zurich on January 1, 1519. This ministry almost ended in August of the same year, when Zurich was hit by a plague epidemic. That such epidemics were common in the early sixteenth century should not detract from its drama: at least one in four, and perhaps one in two, inhabitants of Zurich died between August 1519 and February 1520. Zwingli's pastorate included consoling the dying, which naturally required contact with the sick. Being near the dying, Zwingli fully realized that his life was completely in the hands of God. We have a poetic fragment, generally known as the "Pestlied" ("Plague Song"), which is dated in the autumn of 1519. In it we find Zwingli's reflections on his fate. There are no appeals to saints or assumptions about the intercession of the Church. Instead, we find a firm determination to accept whatever God sends to man. Zwingli is ready to accept everything that God puts into his lot:

Do according to Your will, For I lack nothing. I am Your vessel, Ready to be saved or destroyed.

Reading these lines, one cannot help but feel Zwingli’s complete submission to the Divine will. Zwingli's disease was not fatal. Probably from this experience grew his conviction that he was an instrument in the hands of God, completely obedient to His purpose.

We noted earlier that Luther's difficulties with the "righteousness of God" were as much existential as they were theological. Clearly, Zwingli's emphasis on Divine Providence also has a strong existential side. For Zwingli, the question of God's omnipotence was not purely academic, but had direct significance for his existence. While Luther's theology, at least initially, was largely shaped by his personal experience of vindication as a sinner, Zwingli's theology was shaped almost entirely by his sense of God's absolute sovereignty and humanity's complete dependence on His will. Thought about absolute sovereignty God developed Zwingli in his doctrine of Providence and especially in his famous sermon“De providentia” (“About Providence”). Many of Zwingli's more critical readers noted similarities between his ideas and Seneca's fatalism and suggested that Zwingli only revived Senecan fatalism and gave it a self-critical meaning. Some weight was given to this assumption by Zwingli's interest in Seneca and references to him in De providentia. The salvation or damnation of an individual depends entirely on God, who judges freely from the perspective of eternity. However, it appears that Zwingli's emphasis on divine omnipotence and human impotence was ultimately drawn from the writings of Paul, reinforced by his reading of Seneca, and imbued with the existential significance of his subsequent close encounter with death in August 1519.

It is very instructive to compare the attitudes of Luther and Zwingli to Scripture, which reflect their different approach to the grace of God. For Luther, the main meaning of Scripture is the gracious promises of God, which culminate in the promise of justification of the sinner by faith. For Zwingli, Scripture is first and foremost the Law of God, a code of conduct containing the demands made by a sovereign God on His people. Luther makes a sharp distinction between law and Scripture, while for Zwingli they are essentially the same thing.

It was Zwingli's growing interest in the sovereignty of God that led to his break with humanism. It is difficult to say exactly when Zwingli ceased to be a humanist and became a reformer: there are good reasons to assume that Zwingli remained a humanist throughout his life. As we saw above (pp. 59-63), Kristeller's definition of humanism concerns its methods, not its doctrines: if this definition of humanism is applied to Zwingli, then we can conclude that he remained a humanist throughout his ministry. Similar remarks apply to Calvin. One may, however, object: how can these people be considered humanists if they developed such an inexorable doctrine of predestination? Of course, one cannot call Zwingli or Calvin a humanist, if we use this term in the meaning that is given to this concept in the twentieth century. However, this does not apply to the sixteenth century. If we remember that numerous writers of antiquity - such as Seneca and Lucretius - developed a fatalistic philosophy, then it becomes clear that there is every reason to consider both reformers as humanists. Nevertheless, it appears that it was at this point in his ministry that Zwingli changed his mind on one of the central issues shared by his contemporary Swiss humanists. If Zwingli was still a humanist after this, he was expressive of a particular form of humanism that might be regarded by his colleagues as slightly eccentric.

The reform program begun by Zwingli in Zurich in 1519 was essentially humanist. The nature of his use of Scripture is deeply Erasmian, as is his preaching style, although his Political Views bear the color of Swiss nationalism, which Erasmus rejected. More important for our consideration is that the Reformation was seen as an educational process, reflecting the views of both Erasmus and the Swiss humanist fraternities. In a letter to his colleague Myconius, dated December 31, 1519, Zwingli, summing up the first year of his stay in Zurich, announced that his result was that “more than two thousand more or less educated people appeared in Zurich.” However, the letter of July 24, 1520 paints an image of Zwingli admitting the failure of the humanistic concept of the Reformation: the success of the Reformation required more than the educational views of Quintilian. The fate of humanity in general, and the Reformation in particular, was determined by Divine Providence. God, not humanity, is the main actor in the Reformation process. The educational technique of the humanists was a half-measure that did not address the root of the problem.

This skepticism about the viability of the humanist reform program was made public in March 1515, when Zwingli published his Commentary on True and False Religion. Zwingli attacked two ideas that were central to the Erasmian reform program - the idea of ​​"free will" (libemm arbitrium), which Erasmus had persistently defended in 1524, and the proposal that educational methods could reform a depraved and sinful humanity. According to Zwingli, providential Divine intervention was required, without which true Reformation was impossible. It is also well known that in 1525 Luther’s militantly anti-Erasmus work “De servo arbitrio” (“On the Slavery of the Will”) was published, in which Erasmus’s doctrine of free will was criticized. Luther's work is imbued with the spirit of the complete sovereignty of God, associated with a doctrine of predestination similar to that of Zwingli. Many humanists found this emphasis on human sinfulness and divine omnipotence unacceptable, which led to a certain estrangement between Zwingli and many of his former supporters.

Calvin on Predestination

In popular perception, Calvin's religious thought appears to be a strictly logical system centering on the doctrine of predestination. No matter how widespread this image is, it has little to do with reality; Whatever the importance of the doctrine of predestination to later Calvinism (see pp. 162-166), it does not reflect Calvin's views on the matter. Calvin's successors later in the sixteenth century, faced with the need to apply a method of systematization to his teachings, found that his theology was eminently suitable for transformation into the more rigorous logical structures defined by the Aristotelian methodology so beloved of the late Italian Renaissance (p. 62) . This led to the simple conclusion that Calvin's thought itself had the systematic structure and logical rigor of late Reformed orthodoxy, and allowed orthodoxy's interest in the doctrine of predestination to be traced back to the Institutes. Christian faith» 1559. As will be pointed out below (pp. 162-166), there is some difference on this point between Calvin and Calvinism that marks and reflects a significant turning point in intellectual history in general. Calvin's followers developed his ideas in accordance with the new spirit of the times, which regarded systematization and interest in method as not only respectable, but also highly desirable.

Calvin's theological thought also reflected a concern with human sinfulness and divine omnipotence and found its fullest expression in his doctrine of predestination. In the early period of his life, Calvin held soft humanistic views on the Reformation, which were perhaps similar to the views of Lefebvre d'Etaples (Stapulensis). By 1533, however, he took a more radical position. On November 2, 1533, rector of the University of Paris Nicola Cope gave a speech to mark the start of the new school year, in which he hinted at several important themes associated with the Lutheran Reformation. Although these hints were very careful and alternated with lamentations about traditional Catholic theology, the speech caused a scandal. The rector and Calvin, who probably took part in composing the speech, were forced to flee Paris. Where and how did the young humanist become a reformer?

The question of the date and nature of Calvin's conversion has preoccupied many generations of scholars of his legacy, although these studies have yielded incredibly little concrete results. It is generally accepted that Calvin moved from mild humanistic views of the Reformation to a more radical platform in late 1533 or early 1534, but we know why. Calvin describes his conversion in two places in his later works, but we do not have Luther's wealth of autobiographical detail. However, it is clear that Calvin attributes his conversion to Divine Providence. He claims that he was deeply devoted to "popish superstitions", and only the action of God could free him. He claims that God "humbled his heart and brought him into submission." Once again we encounter the same emphasis characteristic of the Reformation: the powerlessness of humanity and the omnipotence of God. It is these ideas that are associated and developed in Calvin's doctrine of predestination.

Although some scholars have argued that predestination was central to Calvin's theological thought, it is now clear that this is not the case. It is only one aspect of his doctrine of salvation. Calvin's main contribution to the development of the doctrine of grace is the strict logic of his approach. This is best seen by comparing the views of Augustine and Calvin on this doctrine.

For Augustine, humanity after the Fall is corrupt and powerless, requiring the grace of God for salvation. This grace is not given to everyone. Augustine uses the term “predestination” to mean the escheat of the bestowal of Divine grace. It refers to the special divine decision and action by which God bestows His grace on those who will be saved. However, the question arises as to what happens to the rest. God passes them by. He does not specifically decide to condemn them, He just does not save them. According to Augustine, predestination refers only to the Divine decision of redemption, not to the abandonment of the remainder of fallen humanity.

For Calvin, strict logic requires that God actively decide whether to redeem or condemn. God cannot be assumed to do things by default: He is active and sovereign in His actions. Therefore, God actively desires the salvation of those who will be saved and the damnation of those who will not be saved. Predestination is therefore “the eternal command of God by which He determines what He wills for each individual person. He does not create equal conditions for everyone, but he prepares eternal life for some and eternal damnation for others.” One of the central functions of this doctrine is to emphasize the mercy of God. For Luther, God's mercy is expressed in the fact that He justifies sinners, people who are unworthy of such a privilege. For Calvin, God's mercy is manifested in His decision to redeem individuals, regardless of their merit: the decision to redeem a person is made, no matter how much this person worthy of it. For Luther, Divine mercy is manifested in the fact that He saves sinners despite their vices; for Calvin, mercy is manifested in God saving individuals regardless of their merits. Although Luther and Calvin defended God's mercy from slightly different points of view, they affirmed the same principle in their views on justification and predestination.

Although the doctrine of predestination was not central to Calvin's theology, it became the core of later Reformed theology through the influence of authors such as Peter Martyr Vermigli and Theodore Beza. From approx. 1570 the theme of “chosenness” began to dominate Reformed theology and allowed Reformed communities to be identified with the people of Israel. Just as God had once chosen Israel, He now chose the Reformed congregations to be His people. From this moment on, the doctrine of predestination begins to fulfill the leading social and political function, which she did not possess under Calvin.

Calvin sets forth his doctrine of predestination in the third book of the Institutes of the Christian Faith, 1559 edition, as one aspect of the doctrine of the atonement through Christ. The earliest edition of this work (1536) treats it as one aspect of the doctrine of providence. Since the 1539 edition it has been treated as an equal topic.

Calvin's consideration of “the manner in which the grace of Christ is received, the advantages it brings with it, and the results to which it produces” suggests that there is the possibility of redemption through what Christ achieved by His death on the cross. Having discussed how this death can become the basis for human redemption (see pp. 114–115), Calvin moves on to discuss how man can benefit from the advantages that result from it. Thus the discussion moves from the grounds of the atonement to the means of its implementation.

The subsequent order of consideration of the questions is a mystery for many generations of Calvin scholars. Calvin addresses a number of issues in the following order: faith, regeneration, Christian life, justification, predestination. Based on Calvin's definition of the relationship between these entities, one would expect this order to be somewhat different: predestination would precede justification, and regeneration would follow it. Calvin's order appears to reflect educational considerations rather than theological precision.

Calvin attaches markedly little importance to the doctrine of predestination, devoting only four chapters to it (chapters 21-24 of the third book in what follows, III. XXI-XXIV). Predestination is defined as “the eternal command of God by which He determines what He wants to do to each person. For He does not create everyone in the same conditions, but ordains eternal life for some, and eternal damnation for others” (HI. xxi. 5). Predestination should fill us with a sense of awe. "Dectum horribile" (Ill. xxiii. 7) is not a "terrible command", as a literal translation, insensitive to the nuances of the Latin language, might betray; on the contrary, it is an “awe-inspiring” or “terrifying” command.

The very location of Calvin's discussion of predestination in the Institutes of 1559 is significant. It follows his exposition of the doctrine of grace. It is only after discussing the great themes of this doctrine, such as justification by faith, that Calvin turns to consider the mysterious and puzzling category of "predestination." From a logical point of view, predestination would have to precede this analysis; after all, predestination sets the stage for man's election and, consequently, his subsequent justification and sanctification. And yet Calvin refuses to submit to the canons of such logic. Why?

For Calvin, predestination must be seen in its proper context. It is not a product of human reflection, but a mystery of Divine revelation (I. ii. 2; III. xxi. 12). However, it was discovered in a specific context and in a specific way. This method is associated with Jesus Christ himself, who is “the mirror in which we can see the fact of our election” (III. xxiv. 5). Context relates to the strength of the gospel call. Why is it that some people respond to the Christian gospel and others do not? Should this be attributed to a certain impotence inherent in the inadequacy of this Gospel? Or is there another reason for these differences in response?

Far from dry, abstract theological speculation, Calvin's analysis of predestination begins with observable facts. Some believe the Gospel and some don't. The primary function of the doctrine of predestination is to explain why the gospel resonates with some but not with others. It is an ex post facto explanation of the uniqueness of human responses to grace. Calvin's Predestinarianism should be seen as an a posteriori reflection of the data human experience, interpreted in the light of Scripture, and not as something a priori deduced on the basis of a preconceived idea of ​​​​Divine omnipotence. Belief in predestination is not in itself a part of faith, but the final result of scriptural reflection on the influence of grace on people in the light of the mysteries of human experience.

Experience shows that God does not influence every human heart (III. xxiv. l5). Why is this happening? Is this due to some deficiency on God's part? Or is there something stopping the Gospel from converting every person? In the light of Scripture, Calvin feels able to deny the possibility of any weakness or inadequacy on the part of God or the Gospel; The observed paradigm of human responses to the gospel reflects the mystery by which some are predestined to accept the promises of God and others are destined to reject them. “For some are destined for eternal life, and for others eternal damnation” (III. xxi. 5).

Doctrine of Predestination

It should be emphasized that this is not a theological innovation. Calvin does not introduce a previously unknown concept into the realm of Christian theology. As we have already seen, the “modern Augustinian school” (schola Augustiniana moderna), represented by such representatives as Gregory of Rimini, also taught the doctrine of absolute double predestination: God destined for some eternal life, and for others eternal damnation, regardless of their personal merits or shortcomings. Their fate depends entirely on the will of God, and not on their individuality. Indeed, it is quite possible that Calvin consciously adopted this aspect of late medieval Augustinianism, which bears an extraordinary similarity to his own teaching.

Thus, salvation is beyond the power of people who are powerless to change the existing situation. Calvin emphasizes that this selectivity is not limited to the question of salvation. In all areas of life, he argues, we are forced to confront an incomprehensible mystery. Why are some people more successful in life than others? Why does one person have intellectual gifts that are denied to others? Even from the moment of birth, two babies, without any fault of their own, may find themselves in completely different circumstances: one may be brought to a breast full of milk and thus be nourished, while the other may suffer from malnutrition, forced to suckle almost dry. breast. For Calvin, predestination was just another manifestation of the common mystery human existence when some receive material and intellectual gifts that are denied to others. It does not cause any additional difficulties that are not present in other areas of human existence.

Does the idea of ​​predestination imply that God is freed from traditional categories of goodness, justice, or rationality? Although Calvin particularly rejects the concept of God as an Absolute and Arbitrary Power, from his consideration of predestination emerges the image of a God whose relationship with creation is whimsical and capricious, and whose authority is not bound by any law or order. Here Calvin clearly places himself in line with the late medieval understanding of this controversial issue, and especially with the "via moderna" and "schola Augustiniana moderna" in the question of the relationship between God and the established moral order. God is in no sense subject to law, for this would place the law above God, an aspect of creation, and even something outside of God before creation above the Creator. God is outside the law in the sense that His will is the basis of existing concepts of morality (III. xxiii. 2). These brief statements represent one of Calvin's clearest points of contact with the late medieval voluntarist tradition.

Finally, Calvin argues that predestination must be recognized as based on the incomprehensible judgments of God (III. xxi. 1). It is not given to us to know why He chooses some and condemns others. Some scholars argue that this position may reflect the influence of late medieval discussions of the "absolute power of God (potentia Dei absolute)", according to which the Capricious or Voluntarily Acting God is free to do whatever He wishes without having to justify His actions. This assumption, however, is based on a misunderstanding of the role of the dialectical relationship between the two powers of God - absolute and predetermined - in late medieval theological thought. God is free to choose whomever He wishes, otherwise His freedom will become subject to external considerations and the Creator will be subject to His creation. Nevertheless. Divine decisions reflect His wisdom and justice, which are supported by predestination, and do not conflict with it (III. xxii. 4 III. xxiii. 2).

Far from being the central aspect of Calvin's theological system (if that word can be used at all), predestination is therefore an auxiliary doctrine that explains the mysterious aspect of the consequences of the proclamation of the gospel of grace. However, as Calvin's followers sought to develop and reshape his thought in the light of new intellectual directions, it was inevitable (if this potentially predestinarian style could be justified) that changes were bound to occur in his proposed structure of Christian theology.

Predestination in Late Calvinism

As stated above, it is not entirely true to speak of Calvin as developing a “system” in the strict sense of the term. Religious ideas Calvin, as presented in the Institutes of 1559, are systematized on the basis of pedagogical considerations, rather than a leading speculative principle. Calvin considered biblical exposition and systematic theology essentially identical and refused to make the distinction between them that became common after his death.

During this period, a new interest in the method of systematization, that is, the systematic organization and sequential conclusion of ideas, received impetus. Reformed theologians were faced with the need to defend their ideas against both Lutheran and Roman Catholic opponents. Aristotelianism, which Calvin himself had viewed with some suspicion, was now seen as an ally. It became extremely important to demonstrate the internal consistency and consistency of Calvinism. Consequently, many Calvinist authors turned to Aristotle in the hope of finding in his writings on method hints on how to give their theology a firmer rational basis.

Four characteristics of this new approach to theology can be pointed out:

1. To the human mind plays a major role in the study and defense of Christian theology.

2. Christian theology was presented in the form of a logically consistent, rationally defensible system, derived from syllogistic conclusions based on known axioms. In other words, theology began with first principles from which its doctrines were derived.

3. It was believed that theology should be based on Aristotelian philosophy, in particular on his views on the nature of method; Late Reformed authors are better called philosophical, rather than biblical, theologians.

4. It was believed that theology should deal with metaphysical and speculative questions, especially those related to the nature of God, His will for humanity and creation, and, above all, the doctrine of predestination.

Thus, the starting point of theology became general principles, not specific historical event. The contrast with Calvina is quite obvious. For him, theology focused on Jesus Christ and came from His appearance as evidenced in Scripture. It is the new interest in establishing a logical starting point for theology that allows us to understand the attention that began to be given to the doctrine of predestination. Calvin focused on the specific historical phenomenon of Jesus Christ and then proceeded to explore its meaning (that is, in appropriate terms, his method was analytical and inductive). In contrast, Beza began with general principles and then moved on to explore their implications for Christian theology (i.e., his method was deductive and synthetic).

What general principles did Beza use as starting points for his theological systematization? The answer to this question is that he based his system on the Divine commands of election, that is, on the Divine decision to choose some people for salvation and others for damnation. Beza views everything else as consequences of these decisions. Thus, the doctrine of predestination received the status of a governing principle.

One important consequence of this principle can be pointed out: the doctrine of "limited reconciliation" or "particular atonement" (the term "reconciliation" is often used in reference to the benefits resulting from the death of Christ). Let's consider next question. For whom did Christ die? The traditional answer to this question is that Christ died for everyone. However, although His death can redeem all, it has a real effect only on those whom it can have this effect on by the will of God.

This question was raised very sharply during the great predestinary controversy of the ninth century, during which the Benedictine monk Godescalcus of Orbais (also known as Gottschok) developed a doctrine of double predestination, similar to the later constructions of Calvin and his followers. With merciless logic, examining the consequences of his assertion that God has predestined eternal damnation for some people, Godeskalk pointed out that in this regard it is incorrect to say that Christ died for such people, for if this is so, then His death was in vain, for it did not have any effect. influence on their fate.

Hesitating over the consequences of his statements, Godeskalk expressed the idea that Christ died only for the elect. The scope of His atoning works is limited to those who are destined to benefit from His death. Most ninth-century authors viewed this claim with disbelief. However, he was destined to be reborn in late Calvinism.

Related to this new emphasis on predestination was an interest in the idea of ​​election. As we explored the characteristic ideas of the via moderna (pp. 99-102), we noted the idea of ​​a covenant between God and believers, similar to the covenant made between God and Israel in the Old Testament. This idea began to gain everything higher value in the rapidly growing Reformed Church. Reformed congregations saw themselves as the new Israel, new people God, who was in a new covenant relationship with God.

The “Covenant of Grace” declared the duties of God towards His people and the duties of the people (religious, social and political) towards Him. It defined the framework within which society and individuals functioned. The form which this theology took in England, Puritanism, is of particular interest. The feeling of being “God’s chosen people” intensified as God’s new people entered the new “promised land” of America. Although this process is beyond the scope of this work, it is important to understand that the social, political, and religious views that characterized the settlers of New England were drawn from the European Reformation of the sixteenth century. The international Reformed social worldview is based on the concept of God's chosenness and the “covenant of grace.”

In contrast, later Lutheranism abandoned Luther's 1525 views on divine predestination and preferred to develop within the framework of free human response to God rather than sovereign divine election of specific individuals. For late sixteenth-century Lutheranism, "election" meant a human decision to love God, not a divine decision to choose certain people. Indeed, disagreement over the doctrine of predestination was one of the two major points of contention that occupied polemical writers during subsequent centuries (the other being the sacraments). Lutherans never had that sense of “God’s chosenness” and, accordingly, were more modest in their attempts to expand their sphere of influence. The remarkable success of "international Calvinism" reminds us of the power with which an idea can transform individuals and whole groups of people - the Reformed doctrine of election and predestination was undoubtedly the leading force in the great expansion of the Reformed Church in the seventeenth century.

The Doctrine of Grace and the Reformation

“The Reformation, when viewed internally, was but the final victory of the Augustinian doctrine of grace over the Augustinian doctrine of the Church.” This famous remark by Benjamin B. Warfield perfectly sums up the importance of the doctrine of grace to the development of the Reformation. The Reformers believed that they had freed the Augustinian doctrine of grace from the distortions and false interpretations of the medieval Church. For Luther, the Augustinian doctrine of grace, as expressed in the doctrine of justification by faith alone, was "articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae" ("the article on which the Church stands or falls"). If there were minor and not so minor differences between Augustine and the Reformers regarding the doctrine of grace, the latter explained them by more superior textual and philological methods, which, unfortunately, Augustine did not have at his disposal. For the Reformers, and especially for Luther, the doctrine of grace constituted the Christian Church - any compromise or deviation on this issue made by a church group led to the loss of that group's status as a Christian Church. The medieval Church lost its “Christian” status, which justified the reformers’ break with it, carried out in order to reaffirm the Gospel.

Augustine, however, developed an ecclesiology, or doctrine of the Church, which denied any such action. In the early fifth century, during the Donatist controversy, Augustine emphasized the unity of the Church, arguing heatedly against the temptation to form schismatic groups when the main line of the Church seemed erroneous. On this issue the reformers felt justified in disregarding Augustine's opinion, believing that his views on grace were much more important than his views on the Church. The Church, they argued, was a product of God's grace - and therefore the latter was of primary importance. Opponents of the Reformation did not agree with this, arguing that the Church itself was the guarantor of the Christian faith. Thus the ground was prepared for the controversy about the nature of the church, to which we will return in ch. 9. We now turn our attention to the second great theme reformation thought: the need to return to Scripture.

For further reading

On the Doctrine of Predestination in General, cm.:

Timothy George, The Theology of the Reformers (Nashville, Tenn., 1988), pp. 73-79; 231-234.

Excellent overviews of Tsingvli's life and work, cm.:

G. R-Potter, Zwingli (Cambridge, 1976).

W. P. Stephans, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli (Oxford, 1986).

Doctrinal development in later Reformed thought, cm.:

Richard A. Muller, Christ and the Decree: Christology and Predestination from Calvin to Perkins (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1988)

Excellent overviews of Calvin's life and work, cm.:

William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (Oxford, 1989).

Alistair E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (Oxford, 1990).

T. H. L. Parker, John Calvin (London, 1976).

Richard Stauffer, "Calvin," in International Calvinism 1541-1715, ed. M. Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), pp. 15-38.

Francois Wendel, Calvin: The Origins and Development of his Religious Thought (New York, 1963).

Notes:

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Chapter 7. Return to Scripture

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1. See the master's collection of studies in Cambridge History of the Bible, eds P. R. Ackroyd et al. (3 vols: Cambridge, 1963-69)

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2. See Alistair E. McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation (Oxford, 1987), pp. 140-51. Two major studies of this topic should be noted: Paul de Vooght, “Les sources de la doctrine chretienne d"apres las Theologiens du XIVsiecle et du debut du XV” (Paris, 1954); Hermann Schuessler, (Herman Schuessler) “Der Primaet der Heiligen Schrift als theologisches und kanonistisches Problem im Spaetmittelalter” (Wiesbaden, 1977).

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3. Heiko A. Oberman (Heiko Oberman), “Quo vadis, Petre! Tradition from Irenaeus to Humani Generis" ("Who are you coming, Peter? Tradition from Irenaeus to Humani Generis"), in "The Dawn of the Reformation: Essays in Late Medieval and Early Reformation Thought" (Edinburgh, 1986). pp. 269-96.

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4.CM. George H. Tavard, “Holy Writ or Holy Church? The Crisis of the Protestant Reformation" (" Holy Scripture or the Holy Church? A crisis Protestant Reformation") (London, 1959)

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5. See J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: Life, Writings and Controversies (London, 1975) Strictly speaking, the term "Vulgate" describes Jerome's translation of the Old Testament (except the Psalter, taken from the Gallican Psalter); the Apocryphal Books (except the Books of the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, 1 and 2 Books of Maccabees and Baruch, taken from the Old Latin Version) and the entire New Testament.

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6. See Raphael Loewe, “The Medieval History of the Latin Vulgate” (“ Medieval history Latin Vulgate"), in Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 2, pp. 102-54

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7. See McGrath, “Intellectual origins,” pp. 124-5 and references therein.

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8. Henry Hargreaves, “The Wycliffite Versions,” in Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 2, pp. 387-415.

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9. See Basil Hall, “Biblical Scholarship: Editions and Commentaries,” in Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 3, pp. 38-93.

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10. See Roland H. Bainton, Erasmus of Christendom (New York, 1969), pp. 168-71.

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11. Roland H. Bainton, “The Bible in the Reformation” in Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 3, pp. 1 - 37; especially pp. 6-9

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12. For further discussion of the problem of the New Testament canon, see Roger H. Beckwith, “The Old Nestament Canon of the New Testament Church.” New Testament Church) (London, 1985).

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13. See Pierre Fraenkel, Testimonia Patrum: The Function of the Patristuic Argumant in the Theology of Philip Melanchton (Geneva, 1961); Alistair E. McGrath, "The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation", pp. 175-90.

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15. G. R. Potter, Zwingli (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 74-96.

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16. See Heiko A. Oberman, Masters of the Reformation: The Emergence of a New Intellectual Climate in Europe (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 187-209.

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1. This passage uses a number of biblical texts, most notably Matt. 2b: 26-8; OK. 22: 19-20; 1 Cor. 11: 24. For details, see: Basil Hall, “Hoc est corpus theit: The Centrality of the Real Presence for Luther,” in “Luther: Theologian for Catholics and Protestants,” ed. George Yule (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 112-44.

Id="note_08_002">

2. For an analysis of the reasons underlying Luther's rejection of Aristotle on this issue, see: Alistair McGrath, Luther's Theology of the Cross: Martin Luther's Theological Breakthrough. Martin Luther") (Oxford, 1985), pp. 136-41.

Id="note_08_003">

3. Other important texts used by Luther include 1 Cor. 10: 16-33; 11:26-34. See David C. Steinmetz, “Scripture and the Lord's Supper in Luther's Theology” in Luther in Context (Bloomington, Ind., 1986 ), pp. 72-84.

Id="note_08_004">

4. See W. P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli (Oxford, 1986), pp. 18093.

Id="note_08_005">

5.CM. Timothy George, "The Presuppositions of Zwingli's Baptismal Theology", in "Prophet, Pastor, Protestant: The Work of Huldrych Zwingli after Five Hundred Years", eds E. J. Furcha and H Wayne Pipkin (Allison Park, PA, 1984), pp. 71-87, especially pp.

Id="note_08_006">

6. On this issue and its political and institutional importance, see Robert C. Walton, “The Institutionalization of the Reformation at Zurich,” Zwingliana 13 (1972), pp. . 297-515.

Id="note_08_007">

7. Pope Clement VII made peace in Barcelona on June 29; The King of France reached an agreement with Charles V on August 3. The Marburg Dispute took place on October 1-5.

Id="note_08_008">

8. For an account of the Marburg Dispute, see G. R. Potter, Zwingli (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 316-42.

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Id="note_09_001">

1. B. B. Warfield, “Calvin and Augustine” (Philadelphia, 1956), p. 322.

Id="note_09_002">

2. See Scott H. Hendrix, Luther and the Papacy: Stages in a Reformation Conflict (Philadelphia, 1981).

Id="note_09_003">

3. Also known as "Ratisbon". For details see: Peter Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg (Oxford, 1972); Dermot Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tredentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter Reformation (Cambridge, 1972).

Id="note_09_004">

4. For a full discussion, see F. H. Littel, Anabaptist View of the Church (Boston, 2nd edn, 1958).

Id="note_09_005">

5. See Geoffrey G. Willis, Saint Augustine and the Donatist Controversy (London, 1950); Gerald Bonner, St Augustine of Hippo: Life and controversies (Norwich, 2nd edn, 1986), pp. 237-311.

Id="note_09_006">

6. Earnst Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches (2 vols: London, 1931), vol. 1, p. 331, for variations on this analysis see Howard Becker, Systematic Sociology (Gary, Ind., 1950, pp. 624-42; Joachim Wach, Types of Religious Experience: Christian and Non-Christian (Chicago, 1951), pp. 190-6.

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Chapter 10. Political thought of the Reformation

Id="note_10_001">

1. This is illustrated by the fate of Thomas Munzer: see Gordon Rupp, Patterns of Reformation (London, 1969), pp. 157-353. More generally, the development of radical reformation in the Netherlands should be pointed out: W. E. Keeney, Dutch Anabaptist Thought and Practice, 1539-1564 (Nieuwkoop, 1968).

Id="note_10_002">

2. See W. Ullmann, Medieval Papalism: Political Theories of the Medieval Canonists (London, 1949). M. J. Wilks, The Problem of Sovereignty: The Papal Monarchy with Augustus Triumph us and the Publicists (Cambridge, 1963)

Id="note_10_003">

3. There is a considerable degree of ambiguity in Luther's use of the terms "kingdom" and "government": CM. W.D-J. Cargill Thompson (W. D. J. Cargill Thompson) “The Two Kingdoms” and the “Two Regimants”: Some Problems of Luther’s Zwei - Reiche - Lehre” (“Two Kingdoms” or “Two Reigns”: some problems of the doctrine Luther's Two Kingdoms), in Studies in the Reformation: Luther to Hooker (London, 1908), pp. 42-59.

Id="note_10_004">

4. For a complete analysis of this issue, see F. Edward Cranz, “An Essay on the development of Luther’s Thought on Justice, Law and Society.” society") (Cambridge, Mass., 1959)

Id="note_10_005">

5. See David C. Steinmetz, “Luther and the Two Kingdoms,” in Luther in Context (Bloomington, Ind., 1986), pp. 112-25.

Id="note_10_006">

6. See Karl Barth's famous letter (1939), in which he states that "the German people are suffering... because of Martin Luther's error in the relationship between law and gospel, temporal and spiritual order and government": cited in Helmut Thielicke, Theological Ethics (3 vols: Grand Rapids, 1979), vol. 1, p. 368.

Id="note_10_007">

7. See Steinmetz, Luther and the Two Kingdoms, p. 114.

Id="note_10_008">

8. See useful study by W. D. J. Cargill Thompson, “Luther and the Right of Resistance to the Emperor,” in Studies in the Reformation, pp. 3-41.

Id="note_10_009">

9. CM.: R. N. C. Hunt, “ZwingU's Theory of Church and State,” Church Quarterly Review 112 (1931), pp. 20 - 36 ; Robert C. Walton, “Zwibgli's Theocracy” (Toronto, 1967); W. P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldiych ZwingU (Oxford, 1986), pp. 282 - 310.

Id="note_10_010">

10.CM. W. P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldiych Zwingi (Oxford, 1986), pp. 303, no. 87

Id="note_10_011">

11. W. P. Stephans, The Holy Spirit in the Theology of Martin Bucer (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 167 - 72. On Booker's political theology in general, see T. R. Togtapse (T. F. Torrance), Kingdom an Church: A Study in the Theology of the Reformation. ") (Edinburgh, 1956), pp. 73-89.

Id="note_10_012">

12. For a thorough study, see Harro Hoepfl, The Christian Polity of John Calvin. Christian state John Calvin" (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 152-206. Additional information can be found in Gillian Lewis, “Calvinism in Geneva in the Time of Calvin and Beza,” in International Calvinism 1541-1715, ed. Menna Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), pp. 39-70.

Id="note_10_013">

13. K. R. Davis, “Wo Discipline, no Church: An Anabaptist Contribution to the Reformed Tradition,” Sixteenth Century Journal 13 (1982) , pp. 45-9.

Id="note_10_014">

14. It should be mentioned that Calvin was also in the habit of dedicating his works to European monarchs, hoping to gain their support in the cause of the Reformation. Among those to whom Calvin dedicated his works were Edward VI and Elizabeth I of England and Christopher III of Denmark.

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Chapter 11. The influence of reformation thought on history

Id="note_11_001">

1. Robert M. Kingdom (Robert M. Kingdom) “The Deacons of the Reformed Church in Calvin's Geneva” (“Deacons of the Reformed Church in Calvin’s Geneva”), in Melanges d’histoire du XVIe siecle (Geneva, 1970), pp. 81-9.

Id="note_11_002">

2. Franziska Conrad, “Reformation in - der baeuerlichen Gesellschaft: Zur Rezeption reformatorischer Theologie im Elsass” (Stuttgart, 1984), p. 14

Id="note_06_001">

1. W. P. Stephans, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli (Oxford, 1986), pp. 86-106.

2. On this work, see Harry J. McSorley, Luther - Right by Wrong (Minneapolis, 1969).

3. Although Calvin's role in composing Nicholas Cope's All Saints' Day speech has been questioned, new manuscript evidence points to his participation. See Jean Rott, “Documents strasbourgeois concemant Calvin. Un manuscrit autographe: la harangue du recteur Nicolas Cop,” in “Regards contemporains sur Jean Calvin” (Paris, 1966), pp. 28-43.

4. See, for example, Naggo Hoepfl, The Christian Polity of John Calvin (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 219-26. Alistair E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (Oxford/Cambridge, Mass., 1990), pp. 69-78.

5. For details of this important change and an analysis of its consequences, see McGrath, Life of John Calvin, pp. 69-78.

6. On Calvinism in England and America during this period, see Patrick Collinson, “England and International Calvinism, 1558-1640,” in International Calvinism . 1541-1715". ed. Menna Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), pp. 197-223; W. A. ​​Speck and L-Billington, “Calvinism in Colonial North America,” in International Calvinism, ed. Prestwich, pp. 257-83.

7. B. B. Warfield, “Calvin and Augustine” (Philadelphia, 1956), p. 322.

(Foreknowledge of God)

Predestination There is foreknowledge of God and the preparation of God's benefits, by which all those who are saved are immutably saved, election to grace and glory, predestination is the combination together of divine grace and human will, the grace of God, which calls, and the human will, which follows the calling
(St. Elijah Minyatiy).

St. Feofan the Recluse:

With two actions - foreknowledge and predestination, coming together, exhausts God’s eternal destiny for those being saved.

Orthodox confession:

"Foreknowledge, predestination and providence differ in God in their actions. Providence refers to creation. But foreknowledge and predestination were in God before the existence of the world, although they were different from each other. There is foreknowledge one leading the future, without defining it in particular, that is, it does not determine the existence of this or that thing. A predestination is determination private, that is, it determines what should be. But defines only good, not evil, for if it also defined evil, then it would be contrary to the natural property of God - goodness.

So, it is fair to say, in our opinion, that foreknowledge in God precedes, predestination follows, and after creation, providence for what was created also arises. The apostle teaches this: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son... And whom He predestined, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Rom. 8). , 29-30). However, these words should apply only to man, since other creations (except for angels, who are in a solid and unchanging state) are not subject to predestination, since they do not have freedom, and therefore there cannot be any sin in them. And everything they do is done by nature, and therefore they are neither punished nor rewarded."

Rev. John of Damascus:

It should be borne in mind that God foresees everything, but does not predetermine everything. Thus, He foresees what is in our power, but does not predetermine it; for He does not want vice to appear, but He does not force us to virtue. Thus, predestination is a matter of Divine command based on foreknowledge. God, according to His foreknowledge, predetermines what is not in our power; for God has already predetermined everything according to His foreknowledge, as His goodness and justice require.

(Judaism, Christianity, Islam) the idea of ​​the predestination of all events of human life and history, emanating from God. That is, everything that happened, is happening and will happen in the lives of all people and an individual is determined, on the one hand, by the will of God, and on the other, by the free will of the individual. Let us emphasize that human freedom is not limited by anything, although everything is done according to the will of God.

What theologian and historian Leonid Matsikh said about God

Leonid Aleksandrovich in his lecture “Methods of Religious Knowledge” suggested not to confuse three concepts: God, religion and church. He defined God as a supreme personal being, separate from the world he created. God, in his opinion, having created our world (and many others about which we have no idea), observes the development of life on earth, only occasionally interfering with the course of history, only in those cases when everything goes absolutely wrong for people .

In creating our world, he staged an “experiment” with consequences that were unclear to him. Thus, we conclude: predestination is a complex theological dogma to which there is no clear answer. But we will look at it below. All theology is filled with it.

What is religion, according to L. A. Matsikh

Religion is a system of dogmas and doctrines, more or less understandable. Mostly there are few understandable ones. She proposes to consider those things that are far from most people, and tries to describe the entire set of phenomena that exist in the world. In practice this is unrealistic, because for our consciousness the world is deep and vast. There is too much that modern scientists still have to discover.

The ancient terminology is dark and confusing, and the word “predestination” is a predetermined human life, the salvation or condemnation of a person by God. Basic religious texts cannot reconcile their messages, which originated thousands of years ago, with constantly emerging discoveries and technological advances. The last thing worth emphasizing: any religion considers only itself. Everything else is a delusion.

Hellas and ancient Rome

This concept already appeared in the ancient world. The Olympian gods and people submitted to inevitability, to their fate, which was woven by the Moirai of the Greeks and the Parks of the Romans.

One of them, Clotho, weaved the thread of life, the other, Lachesa, weaved accidents, the third, Atropa, determined the inevitability of what was happening. They determined the life expectancy of each person and at the moment of death they cut off the thread of fate. According to Sophocles, predestination is man's opposition to the power of the gods and his invariable loss. From here the concepts of fate and fate logically follow.

Christianity in general

Divine predestination is one of the most difficult questions in the philosophy of religion. It has to do with divine properties, the essence and manifestation of evil, and how grace relates to freedom.

People, as moral and free beings, can prefer evil to good; the presence of some in evil is an obvious fact. But since everything that exists is accomplished according to the will of God, it means that the existence of some people in evil and their subsequent death is also a manifestation of the will of God.

To resolve this contradiction, several local councils were held, at which the Orthodox teaching was more precisely defined: God wants everyone to be saved, but does not want to abolish moral freedom. Therefore, to save everyone, God uses all means, except those that deprive a person of this freedom. Consequently, people who consciously reject the help of grace for salvation cannot be saved and, according to the omniscience of God, are predestined to destruction.

Teachings of the Apostle Paul

St. Paul writes in his writings that predestination is a person’s free choice of salvation. In full agreement with Christian doctrine, the Apostle Paul writes about those who are foreknown and predestined by God to eternal glory. St. John Chrysostom, interpreting this aspect, writes that everyone was called, but not everyone obeyed. The next theologian, Theophan the Recluse, explains that divine predestination does not restrict freedom. God gives to each individual and foresees the overall outcome of all his actions. This theme was developed by St. Augustine.

Life of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

St. Augustine was born and lived in IV in Tagaste in North Africa. His parents were baptized. The mother was particularly pious. The child was, according to the custom of that time, only announced, but not baptized.

He received his education in his hometown, and then continued to study grammar and rhetoric in the city of Madaure, and then in the capital, Carthage. The young man led a wild life. He had an illegitimate son, Adeodate. Later, a treatise “On the Teacher” would be written for him.

At this time, Aurelius Augustine became interested in the works of Cicero and became interested in philosophy. He changes places of residence. For ten years, Augustine taught rhetoric and grammar in his native Tagaste, then moved to Carthage, then to Rome.

And now he is already in Mediolan, where he becomes the official rhetorician. Here he meets the great theologian Saint Ambrose, listens to his sermons and turns to Christianity. He is baptized and withdraws from the light. Having given all his property to the church of his hometown, Augustine comes to asceticism. His fame as a learned theologian begins to grow.

The community of the city of Hippo, where he happened to be passing through, insisted on his ordination to the rank of presbyter. At the same time, he founded the first monastery in Numidia and interpreted the Holy Scriptures. In the city of Hippo he received the bishop's chair, which he held for 35 years until his death. His activities can be divided into three parts: polemics with the Manichaeans, the fight against the schism and with the teachings of the monk Pelagius. As part of the polemic directed against the works of Pelagius and his followers, St. Augustine creates the doctrine of predestination.

Bishop of Hippo and his teaching. Early Christianity

St. Augustine in the 4th century, in his teaching on grace, fell, as the theologians of his time believed, into a serious error. In his opinion, predestination is only God's decision about who can be saved and who will certainly perish. This is undeniable and immutable. This position has led to numerous discussions over the course of centuries.

The concept of predestination was associated with how a person himself, by his own will, participates in salvation, or is only able to accept the grace of the Lord. According to his views, original sin so distorted human nature that the individual now cannot overcome evil without the help of God. In the matter of salvation, human free will does not play not only a significant, but also any role at all. Free will in people after original sin doesn't exist at all. Salvation is possible only for some - those whom God has chosen, to whom he has decided to give faith and save. The rest will die. That is, salvation is only the action of the omnipotent grace of God.

The teachings of Augustine the Blessed were accepted by the Western Church at the Council of Arossio in 529. At that time, the Western Church struggled with the teachings of the monk Pelagius, who denied the heredity of original sin and believed that a person could achieve holiness without the help of God's grace. His teaching was declared heresy.

Protestantism

The Reformation in Germany began under the influence of Martin Luther, Ph.D. He put forward a new religious doctrine, according to which secular state does not depend on the church, and the person himself does not need intermediaries between him and God.

Martin Luther initially approved of the teachings of Pelagius, but those around him were strongly opposed, and Luther changed his mind. The doctrine of predestination was not included in Lutheran teaching.

Theologian and lawyer John Calvin formed his teaching on the basis of Lutheranism, making changes to it. He believed that the state with its power should be completely subordinate to the church. He also wrote that man is completely corrupt, and believed that Divine grace is the basis for man's salvation. And faith in God alone is not enough for the remission of sins.

According to Calvin, predestination is the inscrutable providence of God. He denied the existence of free will in humans and imposed a lot of prohibitions on luxury and entertainment on his followers. Calvin considered his teaching to be a development of the views of the Bishop of Hippo. He firmly believed that Christ died for the sins of only those “predestined to salvation,” and not of all mankind.

God's Foresight

There is no need to confuse God's foreknowledge and predestination. If God foresaw events, he did not thereby predetermine them. He gave man freedom of choice, and if a person decided to sin, he thereby darkened his future. Divine foreknowledge is not predestination. God does not violate human freedom, otherwise He would not be God. Human freedom is an image of Divine freedom. God foretells, but does not predetermine. He only puts a person in such conditions so that he determines his direction: he will move towards sins, towards evil, or towards good, towards light. A person’s control over himself is important here.

Fate and its predestination

The word "fate" can mean:

• The divine purpose is heavenly, that is, the full disclosure of the image and likeness of God - life in the Kingdom of God.
• Earthly realization of God-given powers for the glory of God.
• Fulfillment or non-fulfillment of Divine destiny.
• Life circumstances (God's providence).
• Rock, fate. (This is a confluence of life circumstances that cannot be avoided).

Belief in fate as inevitability, instead of communication with God, is contrary to Christian teaching. Instead of such an understanding of fate, there is the concept of fate as providence, God's providence. It is not blind fate that controls a person’s life, but the All-Wise Creator.

Each person chooses his own fate: good - to end up in heaven, or evil - to go down to hell. In this sense, everyone has their own destiny. So what does “predetermination of fate” mean? As we wrote above, God foresaw (but did not predetermine!) even before the creation of the world who would be saved and who would lose their soul. But He tries to guide man on the path of salvation. Man's predestination is to follow God's will.

Islam and predestination

This teaching took a lot from Christianity, changing its basic concepts in its own way. The result was a rather original work by Muhammad - the Koran. It, as the Prophet himself said, was dictated to him in the desert by Allah. Whether it was so or not, now no one will know. But legends talk about this.

The traditions of the Prophet say that one of the Israelis fought for a thousand months (when calculated, a fantastic number is obtained - more than 83 years) under the banner of Allah. This was a completely extraordinary service, since in those days human life was short. All the companions of Muhammad were saddened that they could not repeat such a feat.

Immediately after the meeting with the Israeli, Archangel Jibril arrived to the Prophet. He announced that in honor of such a long service of the son of Israel, Allah would grant the Prophet and his companions a night that was better than a thousand months. He then dictated the 97th chapter of the Qur'an, which is called "Power".

It said that Allah sends the Quran to His Prophet on the night of predestination or greatness. This night is more beautiful than the thousand months that the Israelite served. This night all the angels descend to earth and greet all believers. On this holy night, Allah forgives sins and fulfills all the requests of believers. This night comes and repeats several times during the last ten nights of Ramadan. These are the odd hours of the night when the Prophet indulged in especially intense meditation and reflection and worship of Allah. Here are their dates - 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th nights. Which one will be a night of greatness?

In the Koran, everything is clear to believers and ministers and there is no confusion. But, however, there were and continue to be disputes between the three schools of theologians about the doctrine of predestination.

In addition, Islam also has the concept of “fate”. Even before the creation of the world, the omniscient Allah knew what would happen in nature and society, what a person or animal would do good or bad. A person who believes in Allah knows well what he will approve of and what may cause him displeasure or even anger. But a person is weak and makes a mistake in his choice, and therefore he must repent after a bad deed.

Modern views

Theologians have not come to a consensus on this issue. But almost one and a half millennia have passed. This shows how slowly and gradually, without daring to draw cardinal conclusions, the church approaches its dogmas, which are difficult to understand. No, if you ask a theologian, he will smoothly present the doctrine as he understands it. The question is different: there is no single answer. But the dogma of predestination is one of the main postulates of theology.

Lyrics by F. I. Tyutchev

The deeply religious poet-philosopher F.I. Tyutchev undoubtedly knew what “predestination” means in Orthodoxy. It is no coincidence that Tyutchev gave such a name to his short and bitter poem. If predestination is given by God and fate, then no matter how hard you fight, a sinful person will not escape it.

F. Tyutchev's love did not appear on the basis of an instant glance. The witty, cheerful, elegant beauty gradually entered first his house, to visit his daughters, and then into the poet’s heart. They explained exactly in mid-June 1850. F.I. Tyutchev did not forget this date even after Elena Ivanovna passed away. He called this day “blissfully fatal.” His love for the young student of the Smolny Institute, Elena Deniseva, turned into evil. They loved each other with all their souls. As Tyutchev wrote fifteen years later, she breathed her whole soul into him. The result was a sinful relationship and E. A. Denisyeva was rejected by the world and her parents for 14 years.

Tyutchev created the poem “Predestination” at the very beginning of their acquaintance, 13 years before the death of Elena Alexandrovna. But the drama of the situation, when one person loves and another allows himself to be loved, is fully reflected in it.

We begin to analyze Tyutchev's poem "Predestination". In the fifties it becomes especially gloomy and difficult. During his connection with Elena Alexandrovna, the poet goes deeper into a dark and hopeless state. All the poems that make up the Denisyev cycle are full of despair and self-condemnation. Already in 1851, he admitted that he loves murderously and destroys what is dearest to his heart. His love brought undeserved shame upon the young woman. Tyutchev would write “Predestination” in the same year, 1851, when he discovered that he was destroying the woman he loved and could not help himself.

Two families

The poet was torn. His soul was attached to two women. Both idolized him. With one of them, Ernestina Fedorovna, he lived, as expected, in marriage. This was his warm and dear home. Ernestina Fedorovna made every effort to save the family, without expressing any reproaches. But his soul was also yearning for another home.

The poem "Predestination" was written at the beginning of the connection. It celebrated the kinship of souls and their fatal duel. The poet had a presentiment that the immensity of love could only be interrupted when a woman’s heart wears out in pain. We begin the analysis of the poem “Predestination”. What did Fyodor Ivanovich see at the very beginning of his alliance with Elena Alexandrovna? An unequal struggle of hearts, when one will inevitably love and suffer. Indeed, Denisyeva, who considered herself the real, true wife of Fyodor Ivanovich, fell into loneliness, which was brightened up only by children. They were recorded in the metrics as the Tyutchevs, but not as nobles, but as petty bourgeois.

A little from the biography of E. Deniseva

Elena Alexandrovna came from a poor noble family. She lost her mother early, and her father remarried. She was raised by her aunt, who worked as a teacher at the Smolny Institute. Naturally, the girl received an education there, acquired secular manners and could make a good match. The life story of Elena Alexandrovna anticipates the analysis of the poem “Predestination.” It was clear not only to Tyutchev, but also to her that such meetings would not end well. After all, the girl, who had already left and began to shine in the world, should have simply gotten married and become a good wife and mother. Divine predestination swept away all human plans and good intentions.

Adultery, a disgrace for the family - she lived with these stigmas for fourteen years, pouring all of herself into the poet. The poem "Predestination" shows the tender hopelessness of this relationship, which cannot have a legitimate continuation. However, it was durable and did not tear. Whose credit is this? We think that the woman who became more and more attached to Fyodor Ivanovich. He was her light in the window, the thread that connected the hermit with the world. Breaking off the relationship meant not only ruining his reputation, but also killing the mother of his three children.

Artistic means of the author

The theme of the poem “Predestination” (analysis shows this) is hopeless, unpromising love. She, strong and passionate, cannot be overcome by two hearts. First, in the first quatrain there is a meeting, then a fatal merging of souls and their fatal duel (culmination), and then the poet foresees the death of the weak and tender. When we talk about the poem “Predestination,” we conduct an analysis of the topic. Now let's talk about the structure of the verse

What artistic means did the poet use when writing “Predestination”? Tyutchev wrote a verse This is a joyful meter. But since the poet’s soul was torn by anxiety and confusion, he introduces pyrrhichs and clauses into it. Thanks to these techniques, in the work “Predestination” the verse becomes minor. The poet also uses metaphors, anaphors, lexical repetitions, and inversion. Tyutchev writes the poem “Predestination” as an expression of his views on love and fatal fate. The short form of the poem, only eight lines, contained not only the meeting, but also a prophetic future about the demise of love.

In May 1864, the sick Elena Alexandrovna gave birth to a son. She already had a daughter, Elena, and a son, Fyodor. The baby and daughter would die in 1865. Fyodor Ivanovich took these tragedies extremely hard. He felt as if his heart had been torn out and his head cut off, and he cried continuously. Son Fedor Fedorovich will grow up, become an officer and die in a hospital during the First World War.

Later, throughout the entire “Denisiev” cycle, the leitmotif will be the thought of death, annihilation, destruction, for which the poet blames himself. He bitterly regretted that he had not published a book dedicated to her during Elena Alexandrovna’s lifetime. We looked at the poem “Predestination” (Tyutchev). The analysis is given as complete as possible.

The doctrine of predestination in the works of St. Theophan the Recluse

How to understand the words of the Apostle Paul: “Whom He predestined, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30)? Where were Calvin, Luther and even St. Augustine mistaken when speaking about predestination to hell and heaven? Saint Theophan the Recluse wrote about this in his writings.

For whom He foreknew
and predestined to be like that
the image of His Son.

(Rom. 8:29)

The grace of God and the will of man

2015 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great teacher of the Russian Church, a remarkable ascetic, one of the most brilliant and influential spiritual writers of the 19th century, St. Theophan the Recluse. The saint was not a theologian in the narrow sense of the word, not a theoretician of armchair scholarship, but spoke in an open language accessible to everyone, without lowering the dogmatic accuracy and truth of the teaching he expounded. The theological commission of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy noted that he was a theologian who found “such exact formulas as Russian Orthodox dogmatics had never had before.”

The saint’s works acquire particular significance in the 21st century, during the period of the revival of the Russian Church, Orthodox culture and Christian life in Russia. In his works, Saint Theophan also touches on issues that we have to face today when catechesising people with already established religious views under the influence of para-church or non-Orthodox teachings. One of these difficult topics is the question of God’s predestination, which “is a combination together of Divine grace and human will, the grace of God that calls, and the human will that follows the call,” extending to all humanity, “the existence of which is testified by the Holy Scriptures, misunderstanding of which leads many into the disastrous abyss of error.”

Today, people who were previously interested in Orthodoxy are also turning to Orthodoxy. Protestant creed, wherein “For many, the concept of “Calvinist” is almost identical to the definition of “a person who pays great attention to the doctrine of predestination””.

Without correctly resolving for themselves the question of the relationship between grace and freedom, such people (unexpectedly for others) express extremely incorrect thoughts about predestination. That is why during catechesis this topic must be given Special attention. At the same time, it is important to understand the reasons and essence of the misconception being overcome. Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon, pointing out the importance of preparedness and competence to refute false knowledge, writes: “My predecessors, and much better than me, could not, however, satisfactorily refute the followers of Valentinus, because they did not know their teaching.” At the same time, in the process of catechesis, it is important to consistently and correctly reveal the positive teaching of the faith in accordance with the mind of the Holy Orthodox Church. Therefore, overcoming the erroneous views of people who deviate from the truth, according to Saint Theophan, consists “in an objective, impartial study of their errors and, most importantly, in a firm knowledge of the Orthodox faith.”

If you succeed in the world, will you be saved?

Let us consider the reasons and essence of the mentioned misconception. Indeed, the Swiss theologian of the late Reformation period, Jean Calvin, who acquired such significant authority in Europe that he began to be called the “Pope of Geneva,” characterizes predestination How " God's eternal command by which He determines what He wants to do with every person. For He does not create everyone in the same conditions, but He ordains eternal life for some and eternal damnation for others.”(The founder of the Reformation, Martin Luther, and another figure of the Swiss Reformation, Ulrich Zwingli, also taught about the unconditional pre-established determination of life and, therefore, the salvation or destruction of a person.)

Calvin believed that God “ordains eternal life to some and eternal damnation to others.”

Moreover, within the framework of Calvinism, a person could indirectly judge his predestination for salvation by worldly prosperity: the Lord blesses those elected to heavenly salvation with prosperity in their earthly life, and the achievement of material well-being has come to be considered a very important sign of a person’s proximity to salvation.

In developing his doctrine of predestination, Calvin, considering biblical story, argues that even Adam’s fall occurred not as a result of God’s permission, but according to His absolute predestination, and since then great amount people, including children, are sent to hell by God. Calvin himself called this point of his teaching “ a terrifying establishment", insisting that God not only allows, but wills and commands, that all the wicked who are not predestined to salvation should perish. In his compendium of faith, Instructions for the Christian Life, the Genevan Reformer states:

“Some speak here of the difference between “will” and “permission,” arguing that the wicked will perish because God allows it, but not because He wills. But why does He allow it, if not because He wishes? The statement that God only allowed, but did not command, that man should perish is in itself implausible: as if He did not determine in what state He would like to see His highest and noblest creation... The first man fell because God decreed it necessary.” ; “When they ask why God did this, they must answer: because He wanted it.”

Obviously, according to this point of view on predestination, “man himself... remains only a passive spectator of his own salvation or condemnation,” his spiritual and moral responsibility for his actions disappears, since the most important attribute of responsibility is human freedom. “If all human actions are necessary and inevitable as predetermined by God Himself,” Prof. rightly notes. T. Butkevich, how can you put responsibility for them on people. If all actions, both good and evil, are necessary; if some people are predestined by God to salvation, and others to eternal damnation, then it is obvious that the culprit of the evil that dominates the world is God alone.” If God Himself predetermined the fall of man by virtue of His desire, why did He bring His Only Begotten Son as a propitiation sacrifice? The famous Orthodox exegete prof. N. Glubokovsky, explaining this issue, emphasizes: “The evangelist does not at all attribute the fate of those who are perishing to Divine predestination and rather emphasizes their personal guilt.”

In fact, freedom is a property of man’s Godlikeness, and “the question of the relationship of grace to human nature and freedom is a question of the very essence of the Church” (E. Trubetskoy). It is interesting to note that Calvin's theological views are traced by scholars of the history of the Reformation to St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Thus, H. Henry Meeter, professor of biblical studies at Calvin College, in his work “Basic Ideas of Calvinism” notes: “The theological views of Calvin and other figures of the Reformation are considered a revival of Augustinianism ... But it was Calvin in modern times who systematized such views and justified their practical application ". John Calvin himself, discussing predestination, directly writes in his confession: “I, without any doubt, with Saint Augustine I confess that the will of God is necessary for all things and that everything that God has decreed and willed inevitably happens.”

In this regard, it is necessary to touch upon some provisions of the teaching of St. Augustine, to whom the Genevan reformer refers and who, of course, had a great influence on the development of theological thought in the West.

Augustine: Man is incapable of loving God

In his work “Historical Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church » Saint Philaret of Chernigov, considering the teaching of Blessed Augustine, notes: “Relying on own experience difficult rebirth by grace, breathing a feeling of reverence for grace, he was carried away by a feeling beyond what was proper. Thus, as the accuser of Pelagius, Augustine is, without a doubt, a great teacher of the Church, but, while defending the Truth, he himself was not entirely and not always faithful to the Truth.”

In his statement of doctrine, the Bishop of Ipponia proceeds from the fact that humanity is called to replenish the angels who have fallen from God (perhaps even in greater numbers):

“It was the will of the Creator and Provider of the universe that the lost part of the angels (since not all of their multitude perished, leaving God) would remain in eternal destruction, while those who at that very time were invariably with God would rejoice in their most certain, always known bliss . Another rational creation, humanity, perishing in sins and disasters, both hereditary and personal, had to, as it was restored to its previous state, make up for the loss in the host of angels that had formed since the time of the devil’s destruction. For the resurrected saints are promised that they will be equal to the angels of God (Luke 20:36). Thus, the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother, the city of God, will not lose any of its many citizens, or perhaps will own even more.”

However, according to the views of Blessed Augustine, after the Fall, man is not able to free himself from the shackles of evil, sin and vice and does not even have the free will to love God. Thus, in one of his letters, Blessed Augustine points out: “Through the severity of the first sin, we lost our free will to love God.” Original sin is the cause of man's complete inability to do good. The direct desire for good in man is possible only through omnipotent action God's grace, “grace is a consequence of predestination itself,” which directs the will of man, due to its superiority over it:

“When God wants something to happen that cannot happen otherwise than by human desire, then the hearts of people are inclined to desire it (1 Sam. 10:26; 1 Chron. 12:18). Moreover, He inclines them, Who miraculously produces both desire and accomplishment.”

Augustine believes that human free will does not play a significant role in the matter of salvation, and projects his personal experience for all humanity

A strict ascetic and zealous Christian, Blessed Augustine, after an era of stormy youth, having experienced the full brunt of the struggle with overwhelming passions, was convinced from the experience of his life that “neither pagan philosophy, nor even Christian teaching, without the special internally active power of God, can lead him to salvation ". In developing these thoughts, he comes to the conclusion that human free will does not play any significant role in the matter of salvation, while the Latin thinker projects his personal experience onto all of humanity. The most important thing in the teaching of Blessed Augustine is the position that with the general damage to human nature, salvation is achieved solely by the irresistible action of God's grace.

Considering the apostolic words about God, “Who wants all people to be saved” (1 Tim. 2: 4), Blessed Augustine rejects their literal understanding, arguing that God wants to save only the predestined, for if he wanted to save everyone, then all would find salvation. He's writing:

“The Apostle very rightly remarked about God: “Who wants all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). But since a much larger proportion of people are not saved, it seems that God’s desire is not fulfilled and that it is the human will that limits the will of God. After all, when they ask why not everyone is saved, they usually answer: “Because they themselves do not want it.” Of course, this cannot be said about children: it is not in their nature to desire or not to desire. For, although at baptism they sometimes resist, yet we say that they are saved, even without wanting to. But in the Gospel, the Lord, denouncing the wicked city, speaks more clearly: “How often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to!” (Matthew 13: 37), as if the will of God was exceeded by the will of man and, due to the resistance of the weakest, the Strongest was unable to do what he wanted. And where is that omnipotence with which He did everything He wanted in heaven and on earth, if He wanted to gather the children of Jerusalem and did not? Don’t you believe that Jerusalem did not want her children to be gathered by Him, but even with her unwillingness, He gathered those of her children whom He wanted, because “in heaven and on earth” He did not want and do one thing, but another wanted and did not do it, but “does whatever he wants” (Ps. 113:11).”

Thus, Blessed Augustine elevates the salvation of people to the desire and determination of God Himself regarding the elect, completely denying the desire of the Creator to save all people. “Worse than that,” notes Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), “the logical consistency in his thought leads St. Augustine to the point that he even teaches (albeit in a few places) about “negative” predestination - predestination to eternal damnation, which is completely alien to Scripture. He clearly speaks of “the category of people who are predestined to destruction,” thus professing the extreme doctrine of double predestination. According to this, God created those whose destruction He foresaw then “to show His wrath and demonstrate His power. Human history serves for this as an arena in which “two communities of people” are predetermined: one to reign eternally with God, and the other to undergo eternal suffering with the devil. But double predestination applies not only to the city of God and the city of earth, but also to individual people. Some are predestined to eternal life, others to eternal death, and among the latter are infants who died without Baptism. Therefore, “the doctrine of double predestination to heaven and hell has ... the last word in Augustine’s theology.” This inevitable consequence his view of God the Creator as the autocratic God of grace."

At the same time, paradoxically, God does not determine the commission of evil, He does not want the angels to sin or the first people in Paradise to break the commandment given to them, but, in accordance with the teachings of St. Augustine, they themselves wished for this: “when the angels and people sinned, that is, they committed not what He wanted, but what they themselves wanted.” Man was originally created by God able not to sin and not to die, although not incapable of sinning and dying. Adam “lived in Paradise as he wanted as long as he wanted what God commanded. He lived without any lack, having in his power to live like this always,” and, as St. Augustine asserts: “it is not sin that belongs to God, but judgment.”

From the writings of the Latin theologian it is clear that “he created a theory about how Divine action achieves its goal without the consent of man... that is, the theory of autocratic grace,” and bases predestination not on the foreknowledge of God, but, according to the remark of St. Philaret of Chernigov, “so that to be true to his thoughts about human nature, he had to admit unconditional predestination.” Thus, predestination in the teaching of St. Augustine is unconditional, that is, it is not based on God’s foreknowledge of future destinies, as he himself explains:

“Foreknowledge without predestination can exist. After all, God, by predestination, foreknows what He Himself is going to do. Therefore it is said: “He who created the future” (Isaiah 45; Sept.). However, He can also foreknow what He Himself does not do, such as, for example, any sins... Therefore, God’s predestination, relating to good, is, as I said, a preparation of grace, while grace is a consequence of predestination itself... He does not say: predict; He does not say: “to foreknow,” for He can also predict and foreknow the deeds of others, but he said: “he is able to do it,” which means not the deeds of others, but His own.”

According to the views of the largest representative of Western patristics, the predestined, due to the omnipotent Divine desire, can no longer lose salvation: “in the system of St. Augustine... those predestined to salvation can go astray and lead a bad life, but grace can always direct them to the path of salvation. They cannot perish: sooner or later, grace will lead them to salvation."

God not only wants us to be saved, but also saves us

Many people have devoted their works to the topic of God’s predestination. outstanding thinkers Christian times, St. Theophan (Gorov) also touches on this topic, setting out the essence of the subject according to the teaching Eastern Church. The reason for the fall of angels and primordial people was not the pre-eternal predestination that deprived them of freedom, but the abuse of the will with which these creatures were endowed. Nevertheless, both angels and people after the fall are left in existence and are not removed from the chain of creation according to the action of grace determined from eternity, explains the Vyshensky Recluse:

“This grace has entered into the plans of the world. The angels fell and were left in their fall due to their extreme persistence in evil and resistance to God. If they all fell, this link would fall out of the chain of creation and the system of the world would be upset. But since not all fell, but a part, a link of them remained and the harmony of the world remained indestructible. Man was created alone with his wife in order to give birth to the entire number of persons who could form a human link in the system of the world. When he fell, this link fell out and the world lost its order. As this link is necessary in the order of the world, it was necessary, either by putting to death, as defined, the fallen, to create new ancestors, or thereby provide a reliable way of restoration to the first rank. Since the fall occurred not due to, let’s say, the failure of the first creation, but because created freedom, especially the freedom of the spirit physically united with the body, combined within itself the possibility of a fall, then, having begun to repeat creation, it would perhaps be necessary to repeat it without end. Therefore, the wisdom of God, guided by boundless goodness, decided to arrange a different way for the fallen to revolt.”

Revealing the Orthodox faith, Saint Theophan pays special attention to the truth that God does not want the fall and destruction of anyone, and for humanity who has fallen away from the truth he has established a single path to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, thus desiring and giving salvation to everyone.

“God is our “Savior” not only because he desires salvation, but because he created the image of salvation and saves all those who are saved in this way, actively helping them to use it. Desiring salvation for everyone, God wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth about salvation, namely, that it is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an urgent condition for salvation."

In Vyshensky’s explanation of the Holy Scriptures, “where necessary, interpretation is carried out together with an apology against the understanding of them by heterodox faiths.” In a comment on famous words of the Apostolic Epistle, he repeats that God desires salvation for those who are not chosen only and determined by this election, which is why the apostle calls it Savior of all. Having opened for everyone the blessed path to achieving salvation and providing the necessary gracious means to follow this path, the Lord calls on everyone to take advantage of this priceless gift:

“God not only wants everyone to be saved, but also created a wondrous image of salvation, open to everyone and powerful to save everyone.”

“God is the Savior of all men,” because “he wants to be saved by all men and to come into the understanding of truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) - and not only wants to be saved by everyone, but also created a wondrous image of salvation, open to everyone and always strong to save anyone who wants to use it.”

Revealing the essence of Orthodox teaching, Saint Theophan explains that, desiring and giving salvation to everyone, God leaves everyone the freedom to voluntarily choose the good part, without acting forcibly against the desire of the person himself:

“God the Savior wants everyone to be saved. Why is it that not everyone is saved and not everyone is being saved? “Because God, who wants everyone to be saved, does not bring about their salvation by His omnipotent power, but, having arranged and offered everyone a wondrous and unique way of salvation, wants everyone to be saved, willingly approaching this way of salvation and using it wisely”; “This whole path is the path of free, rational will, which is accompanied by grace, confirming its movements.”

The Lord calls everyone, but not everyone responds to this call, as the Savior Himself says about this: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Luke 14:24). The all-merciful God does not want to deprive anyone of salvation, but those who perish, rejecting grace, doom themselves to spiritual death. The kingdom is acquired by the faithful, who have accepted the grace-given means given by God and who live by the law of spirit and faith.

“Not everyone is saved, because not everyone heeds the word of truth, not everyone is inclined to it, not everyone follows it - in a word, not everyone wants to” ; “God’s saving will, God’s saving power and God’s saving dispensation (the economy of salvation) extend to everyone and are sufficient for the salvation of everyone; but in fact, only the faithful are saved or made partakers of these salvations, that is, only those who believe in the gospel and, after receiving grace, live in the spirit of faith. So God, who is always willing and always strong to save everyone, is in reality the Savior only of the faithful.”

According to Orthodox soteriology, God saves a person, but not without the person himself, for he does not violate the will of people. However, if in the matter of salvation everything depended solely on God, explains Saint Theophan, then, of course, there would be no perishing and everyone would find salvation:

“God does not force anyone to be saved, but offers a choice and saves only the one who chooses salvation. If our will were not required, God would have made everyone saved in an instant, for He wants everyone to be saved. And then there would be no people dying at all”; “If everything depended on God, then in an instant everyone would become holy. One moment of God - and everyone would change. But such is the law that a person must desire and seek for it himself - and then grace will no longer abandon him, as long as he remains faithful to it.” .

The gospel has been revealed to the whole world, but not all people follow God’s calling, and even those who have followed, that is, those who have been called, notes Saint Theophan, “not all make good use of freedom in the world.” narrow path"to salvation, not everyone remains faithful, while the elect remain faithful to the end:

“Everyone is called; but from called not everyone will follow the calling - not everyone becomes called. Called one should be named who has already accepted the Gospel and believed. But even this number is not all favorites, not all are predestined to be conformed to the Son in right and glory. For many do not remain faithful to the calling and either sin in faith, or in life “they are both blasphemers” (1 Kings 18:21). But those chosen and appointed remain faithful to the end.”

Not everyone, having heard the gracious call, embarks on the path of salvation, and not everyone who comes here to the Church of God achieves the blessed goal, but, according to the Word of God, only the faithful unto death (Rev. 2:10), why, given that the Lord is called Savior of all, for he calls everyone to salvation, only a few gain the Kingdom - this chosenness is determined not only by grace, but also by the desire of the person himself:

“Some of them are predestined to salvation and glory, while others are not predestined. And if this needs to be distinguished, it is necessary to make a distinction between vocation and vocation. Those chosen and appointed in a special way undergo the act of calling, although the word of calling announces the same to everyone. Having begun here, this distinction of the chosen ones continues later and in all subsequent acts on the path of salvation, or approach to God, and brings them to the blessed end. What exactly this difference is cannot be determined; but not in the grace alone that accompanies the word of calling, but also in the mood and acceptability of those called, which is a matter of their will.”

Of course, the economy of our salvation is a great mystery, but this salvation is directly related to our desire and decision, and is not accomplished mechanically against the will of people:

“Nothing happens mechanically, but everything is done with the participation of the morally free determination of the person himself”; “In a state of grace it is given to him (the sinner. – Auth.) to taste the sweetness of good, then it begins to attract him to itself as something already known, known and felt. The scales are equal, in the hands of a person there is complete freedom of action."

In the Orthodox teaching on salvation, therefore, special attention is paid to the need for intentional willpower on the part of the believer: “The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force,” says the Savior, “and those who use force take it by force” (Matthew 11:12) - in this work, the highest effort of strength is required from the person being saved. It is impossible to acquire the Kingdom without the complete conscious aspiration of man himself, since, according to the patristic word, where there is no will, there is no virtue. “In freedom, a certain independence is given to a person,” explains the Vyshensky Recluse, “but not so that he is self-willed, but so that he freely submits himself to the will of God. Voluntary submission of freedom to the will of God is the only true and only blessed use of freedom.” Success on the path to salvation is the fruit of free effort throughout the life of a Christian who has entered this field. Revealing in detail the essence of the beginning of spiritual life, Saint Theophan points out what is expected of each person for his grace-filled rebirth:

“What exactly is expected of us. We are expected to 1) recognize the presence of the gift of grace within ourselves; 2) we understood its preciousness for us, so great that it is more precious than life, so that without it life is not life; 3) they desired with all their desire to assimilate this grace to themselves, and themselves to it, or, what is the same, to be imbued with it in their entire nature, to be enlightened and sanctified; 4) they decided to achieve this by deed and then 5) they brought this determination into fulfillment, leaving everything or detaching their heart from everything and betraying it all to the all-effects of God’s grace. When these five acts are completed in us, then the beginning of our internal rebirth begins, after which, if we relentlessly continue to act in the same spirit, internal rebirth and insight will increase - quickly or slowly, judging by our work, and most importantly - by self-forgetfulness and selflessness" .

Become one of the predestined

The teaching of the Eastern Church affirms the need for collaboration (synergy) of Divine grace and human freedom, since only in the unity of human consent with the will of God and voluntary following along the path of salvation is the acquisition of the Kingdom achieved by those who “seek grace and freely submit to it.” A person is not able to achieve perfection and salvation on his own, since he does not have the forces necessary for this, and only with the assistance of God does this become possible and feasible. The actual renewal of man, thus, takes place in inextricable interaction with the grace of God. At the same time, both the enlightening and saving action of grace does not deprive the meaning of human freedom and the need for self-determination:

“The truly Christian life is arranged mutually - by grace and by one’s desire and freedom, so that grace, without the free inclination of the will, will not do anything with us, nor can one’s desire, without strengthening it by grace, succeed in anything. Both of them agree on one matter of organizing Christian life; and what in every deed belongs to grace and what to one’s desire is difficult to discern in subtlety, and there is no need. Know that grace never forces free will and never leaves it alone, without its help, when it is worthy of it, has a need and asks for it.”

The building of spiritual life is created on the basis of the regenerating action of grace and the active determination of the believer, “the tension of a person’s strength is a condition for their grace-filled strengthening of the joint action of grace with him, but the condition is again only, so to speak, logical, and not temporarily preceding. This can be seen from the words of Bishop Theophan, which categorically affirm the joint and inseparable nature of the action of freedom and grace.” The relationship of predestination to Divine foreknowledge is indicated in the apostolic letter with the following words: “Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son... And whom He predestined, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29–30). Commenting on this letter of the Apostle Paul, the incorrect understanding of which was the basis for the false doctrine of predestination, Saint Theophan explains that Orthodox understanding God's omniscience, including His foreknowledge of the destinies of people, never rejects the free will of man and his conscious participation in his salvation. Predestination is the incomprehensible action of the beginningless God, and it is determined by the harmony of the eternal Divine properties and perfections. The omniscient God foreknows and predetermines accordingly. Possessing knowledge of all things, God knows the past, present, and future as a single whole, and as He knows, He determines how it will be. Because of this, the cause of predestination is the free actions of man, not limited by the foreknowledge of God, since man himself realizes his personal choice. God, foreseeing the result of this choice and subsequent actions, determines according to this, that is, predestination itself is a logical consequence of the free actions of man, and not vice versa:

"He (God. – Auth.) knows the beginning, the continuation, and the end of everything that exists and happens - he also knows his final determination of the fate of everyone, as well as the entire human race; He knows who will be touched by His last “come” and who will be touched by “depart.” And as he knows, so he determines it to be. But just as, knowing in advance, He foretells, so, determining in advance, He predetermines. And since the knowledge or foreknowledge of God is by no means true and true, His definition is unchangeable. But, touching free creatures, it does not restrict their freedom and does not make them involuntary executors of its definitions. God foresees free actions as free, sees the entire course of a free person and the general result of all his actions. And, seeing it, he determines as if it had already happened. For he does not simply predetermine, but predetermines by foreknowing. We determine whether a person is good or bad by seeing the deeds he has done before us. And God predetermines according to deeds - but to deeds foreseen, as if they had already been done. It is not the actions of free persons that are the consequence of predestination, but predestination itself is the consequence of free deeds.”

God, explains Saint Theophan, by virtue of this foreknowledge, predetermines the chosen ones to be such and, accordingly, to receive a part in eternity. “God’s predestination embraces both the temporal and the eternal. The Apostle indicates what those who were foreordained were predestined to do, namely, that they should “be conformed to the image of His Son.”

These two converging actions - foreknowledge and predestination - exhaust the eternal destiny of God about the people being saved. Everything said above applies to everyone. Salvation, according to Orthodox teaching, notes Saint Theophan, is a free moral action, although it is possible only with the help of God’s grace. Everyone is called by God, and everyone who wishes can be among the predestined:

“God foresaw what we would desire and what we would strive for, and accordingly he made a decree about us. Therefore, it's all about our mood. Maintain a good mood - and you will find yourself among the chosen ones... Put in effort and jealousy - and you will win your election. However, this means that you are one of the chosen ones, for the non-elected one will not be jealous.”

Thus, for rebirth, a person himself must relentlessly strive for the Source of salvation, and in case of a fall, hasten to rise through repentance, so as not to lose his calling, for grace is not a self-acting force, alienatingly forcing people to virtue.

“Be faithful and bless God, who called you to be conformed to His Son apart from you. If you remain like this until the end, then have no doubt that God’s boundless mercy will meet you there too. If you fall, do not fall into despair, but hasten through repentance to return to the rank from which you fell, like Peter. Even if you fall many times, get up, believing that, having stood up, you will again enter the host of those called according to providence. Only unrepentant sinners and hardened unbelievers can be excluded from this host, but even then not decisively. The thief, already on the cross, in the last minutes of his life, was captured and taken by the Son of God to paradise.”

According to the summing up and precise statement of Archimandrite Sergius (Stragorodsky), later Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', “it is very instructive, we say, to get acquainted with the disclosure of this side in the writings ... of the Right Reverend Theophan, so deeply imbued with paternal teaching ... According to the presentation of the Right Reverend Theophan, the inner essence of the mysterious man's renewal constitutes his voluntary and final determination of himself to please God. “This decision,” says Bishop Theophan, “is the main point in the matter of conversion.” As we see, the Right Reverend Theophan, in this description of the true content of dogmatic concepts concerning the question of salvation, completely correctly expresses the teaching of the holy fathers of the Church,” in contrast to heterodox scholasticism, which teaches about “self-propelled righteousness, which is established in a person and begins to act in him in addition to and even almost contrary to his consciousness and will."

Wealth does not indicate predestination to salvation, just as tribulation does not indicate the opposite.

It is also important to note that, according to the Vyshensky Recluse, external success and wealth, of course, do not indicate a person’s predestination to salvation, just as sorrows do not indicate the opposite determination.

“Everything that happens to them (to the faithful. – Auth.), even the most regrettable, (God. – Auth.) turns them to their benefit, writes Saint Theophan, “...patience already requires support, because it does not quickly turn out what you want - the most luminous and blessed; but the need for such support is greatly increased by the fact that the external situation of those waiting is extremely deplorable... God, seeing how they completely surrender themselves to Him and thereby testify to their great love for Him, arranges their lives in such a way that everything that happens to them turns out to be for their good , spiritual good, that is, in the purification of the heart, in the strengthening of good character, in the case of self-sacrifice for the Lord's sake, highly valued by the truth of God and preparing an invaluable reward. How natural is the conclusion from here: therefore, do not be embarrassed when you encounter sorrow, and do not weaken your hopeful mood! .

At the same time, Vyshinsky the Recluse points out that the success and comforts of this world can lead away from God even more than sorrow and oppression: “Aren’t the charms of the world strong? Don’t they even take away more from God and loyalty to Him?” .

This is the doctrine of God’s predestination, the deep knowledge of which, in full agreement with the teaching of the Orthodox Church, was shown in his works by Saint Theophan the Recluse, which became a stumbling block for supporters of the false idea of ​​predestination as an unconditional predestination in the life of every person.

Predestination(lat. praedestinatio, from prae – before, before and destinare – determine, assign) – predestination.

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Glubokovsky N.N. The teaching of the Holy Apostle Paul on predestination in comparison with the views of the book of the Wisdom of Solomon // Christian Reading. St. Petersburg, 1904. No. 7. P. 30.

Trubetskoy E.N. The religious and social ideal of Western Christianity in the 5th century. Part 1. Worldview of St. Augustine. M., 1892. P. 162.

Within the Calvinists, a division soon occurred into infralapsarians and supralapsarians, the first of whom assumed that God decided to select the worthy only from the time of the Fall he foresaw; supralapsarians considered the Fall to be concluded in the predetermination of God. “Supralapsarians and infralapsarians are two directions in Calvinism that differ in their interpretation of the doctrine of predestination. According to the infralapsarians, God made the decision to save one part of humanity without any merit on the part of these people and to condemn the other without any guilt only after the fall of Adam (infra lapsum). The supralapsarians believed that the divine decision to condemn some and save others existed from eternity, so that God foresaw (supra lapsum) and predetermined the very fall of Adam.” – Leibniz G.V. Description and deep analysis of your life and conversion of the blessed one. Augustine gives in the first nine chapters of the Confessions.

“Augustine is imbued with the conviction that from the first days of infancy until the moment when grace touched him, all his actions were an expression of his sinfulness... Thus, Augustine’s entire past life seems to be one continuous insult to God, a time of darkness, sin, ignorance and lust, when the very attempts to resist sin were in vain and did not lead to anything, because, trying to get up, he invariably fell and sank deeper into the sucking mud of vice.” – Popov I.V. Proceedings on patrolology. T. 2. The personality and teaching of St. Augustine. Publication of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 2005. pp. 183–184.

Sergius (Stragorodsky), archimandrite. The teaching of St. Augustine on predestination in connection with the circumstances of his life and work // Readings in the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment. 1887. No. 2. Part 1. P. 447.

“But although human nature is distorted and corrupted, it is not completely damaged. God, says the blessed one. Augustine did not completely withdraw His graces, otherwise we would simply cease to exist.” – Armstrong Arthur H. The Origins of Christian Theology: An Introduction to ancient philosophy. St. Petersburg, 2006. P. 236.

The formation of the doctrine of the relationship between grace and freedom, up to the approval of the theory of the autocratic action of grace, occurs in the views of the blessed. Augustine step by step. Cm.: Fokin A.R. Brief essay teachings of Blessed Augustine on the relationship between free human action and Divine grace in salvation (according to the works of 386–397) // Augustine, blissful. Treatises on various issues. M., 2005. P. 8–40.

Augustine, blissful. Creations: In 4 volumes. T. 2: Theological treatises. St. Petersburg; Kyiv, 2000. P. 58.

Seraphim (Rose), hierom. The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church. Platina, CA: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1983. P. 18.

Pelican Ya. Christian tradition. History of the development of religious doctrine. T. 1: The emergence of the Catholic tradition. M., 2007. P. 284.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. Interpretations of the messages of St. Apostle Paul. Epistle to the Romans. M., 1996. P. 535.

Right there. P. 536.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. Interpretation of the first eight chapters of the Epistle of St. Apostle Paul to the Romans. Quote From: Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. 1980. No. 3. P. 67.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. The path to salvation. Quote By: Khondzinsky Pavel, archpriest. The teaching of St. Theophan about grace and “pure love” in the context of the ideas of Blessed Augustine // Bulletin of PSTGU: Theology. Philosophy. 2012. Issue. 6 (44). P. 26.

“God does not force us, He gave us the power to choose good and bad, so that we could be good freely. The soul, as a queen over itself and free in its actions, does not always submit to God, and He does not want to forcefully and against the will to make the soul virtuous and holy. For where there is no will, there is no virtue. It is necessary to convince the soul so that it becomes good of its own free will.” – John Chrysostom, saint. Conversation on the words: “And we saw His glory...” (John 1: 14) // Christian reading. 1835. Part 2. P. 33.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. Outline of Christian moral teaching. M., 2002. P. 52.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it. P. 125.

Message from the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church on Orthodox faith// Dogmatic messages Orthodox hierarchs XVII-XIX centuries about the Orthodox faith. Publication of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1995. P. 149.

Feofan, saint. Letters on the Christian Life. M., 2007. pp. 190–191.

Zarin S.M. Asceticism according to Orthodox Christian teaching. T. 1. St. Petersburg, 1907. P. 12.

“Avoiding any polemics with Western interpretations of the negative direction, the saint offers only a complete doctrine of faith and moral teaching in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul. On the positive side, he explains the text according to the wisdom of the Holy Orthodox Church, and pays great attention to the edification of readers.” – Krutikov I.A. Saint Theophan, Recluse and Ascetic of the Vyshensk Hermitage. M., 1905. P. 145.

Rev. John of Damascus in " Exact presentation Orthodox Faith" writes: "God foresees everything, but does not predetermine everything. Thus, He foresees what is in our power, but does not predetermine it; for He does not want vice to appear, but He does not force us to virtue.” – TIPV. 2.30.

St. Gregory Palamas about the predestination of God: “Predestination and Divine will and foreknowledge coexist from eternity with the essence of God, and are without beginning and uncreated. But none of this is the essence of God, as stated above. And all this is so far from being the essence of God for him that great Vasily in the Antirritics, God’s foreknowledge of something is called “not having a beginning, but [having] an end when what was foreknown reaches [its fulfillment].” (Against Eunomius, 4 // PG. 29. 680 B). – Gregory Palamas, saint. Treatises (Patristics: texts and studies). Krasnodar, 2007. P. 47.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. Interpretations of the messages of St. Apostle Paul. Epistle to the Romans. pp. 531–532.

Right there. P. 532.

Right there. pp. 537–538.

Right there. P. 537.

Sergius (Stragorodsky), archbishop. Orthodox teaching on salvation. M., 1991. P. 184.

Right there. P. 197.

In the “Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs on the Orthodox Faith” of 1723, against the false understanding of predestination, it is said: “We believe that the All-Good God predestined to glory those whom He chose from eternity, and whom He rejected, condemned, not because He did not want to justify some in this way, and leave others and condemn without reason, for this is not characteristic of God, the common and impartial Father, “Who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2: 4), but since He foresaw that some would use their free will well, and others poorly, therefore He predestined some to glory, and condemned others... But what the blasphemous heretics say, that God predestines or condemns, without regard in the least to the deeds of those who are predestined or condemned, is we consider it madness and wickedness... We never dare to believe, teach and think in this way... and we anathematize those who say and think like this forever and recognize them as the worst of all infidels.” – Message of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church on the Orthodox faith // Dogmatic messages of Orthodox hierarchs of the 17th–19th centuries on the Orthodox faith. pp. 148–151.

Feofan the Recluse, saint. Interpretations of the messages of St. Apostle Paul. Epistle to the Romans. pp. 526–527.

“For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; and those whom he predestined he also glorified.”

What is predestination?

This is one of the articles of faith that some movements adhere to. Christian Church. According to this dogma, the Omniscient GOD has already predestined some people to good and others to EVIL; some - to eternal bliss, and others - to eternal condemnation. From here, only those whom God chose “before the foundation of the world” will be saved; all other people will perish.

The doctrine of predestination, in the most general sense of the word, is not far from fatalism, which asserts that everything destined by fate is inevitable and inevitable. People cannot, are powerless and helpless to change their fate, their fate. What is destined to be will certainly be; and what is not destined will never happen. Fatalism, determinism and “predeterminism” are similar precisely in their idea of ​​hopelessness and doom.

The doctrine of predestination, oddly enough, was first developed by Augustine the Blessed (354-439). This Father of the Church and Christian philosopher taught that God's decision: who to save and who to destroy is not subject to any doubt, change or violation, since it is undeniable and immutable. He taught that there is nothing in the sinful nature of man that would dispose him to a holy life and attract him to God. He argued that at the moment of the Fall, man lost not only “the image of God and likeness,” but also free will. Augustine's teachings were approved and accepted by the Western Church at a council held in Arossio in 529.

This decision of the Council was dictated by the need to combat another theological extreme preached in Africa by the British monk Pelagius. The Pelagians denied the heredity of original sin. Being himself a strict ascetic and having met other ascetics, Pelagius taught that man has free will and is capable of improving and reaching the heights of holiness without external influence and the help of God's grace. This heresy of Pelagius was condemned by the Church Ecumenical Council in Ephesus (431).

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was initially inclined towards this idea of ​​“predestination” and even wrote something in its defense, but his employees and inner circle strongly opposed it and Luther was forced to give up and change his mind. Later, the Council of the Lutheran Church, which formulated the Lutheran doctrine, refused to introduce the doctrine of predestination into this doctrine.

But four centuries later, captured by this doctrine, John Calvin (1509-1564) became the leader of its adherents, who from then on began to be called by his name: “Calvinists.”

Calvin himself was a theological student who served Catholic priest, but having encountered this teaching, he abandoned theology and the priesthood and became a lawyer, which gave him the opportunity to preach his teaching in various capitals of Europe and in the salons of high-ranking officials. Subjected to constant persecution by the Catholic Church, Calvin had to flee from France to Switzerland (to Basel), where he soon published a book: “The Christian Rule,” in which he outlined his teaching.

According to the teachings of Calvin, the dogma of predestination should be considered the main dogma of Christianity. He recognized the complete corruption of human nature and the irresistibility of Divine grace, which was Alpha and Omega in the matter of human salvation. He recognized that Christ died on Calvary only for the sins of those “predestined” for salvation, but not for the sins of the entire human race. In addition, Calvin categorically denied the existence of free will in man.

Calvin's heresy was not slow to provoke protest from the Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius (Harmensen) (1560-1609). Condemning Calvinism, Harmensen went to the other extreme. He taught that in the matter of saving the human soul, the dominant role is not played by grace, but only by the free will of man.

From then to the present day, the issue of free will, grace and predestination has been the subject of incessant theological disputes, polemics and bickering.

Let us briefly touch on the main theses of this controversial doctrine.

Providence of God

Preaching the doctrine of “predestination,” its proponents like to refer to the following words of St. Paul: “For whom God foreknew, He also predestined”... Explaining the word “foreknew”, they confuse it with the word “foreknew” - he foresaw that this would happen and this is how it happened...

But the word “foreknew” means - knew in advance, in advance. In this case, “foreknowledge” is more significant than “foresight”. In the word "foreseen" there is some element of foretelling what is to happen in the future; whereas the word “foreknew” means that God used His Divine omniscience, or “foreknowledge,” covering prehistoric eternity and posthistorical eternity, including everything between these eternities, time: past, present and future, as it is written: “Known to God from eternity all His works" ... (D. Ap. 15.18).

Speaking about foreknowledge or foreknowledge of God, it is very important to know and constantly remember that Eternal God- out of time. It is not bound or limited by any dates or calendars. We, mortal beings, had our beginning and will have our end, but Bot is beginningless and endless. Ap. Peter writes: “One thing must not be hidden from you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet. 3.8). “In the beginning, O Lord, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; They will perish, but You will remain; and they will all wear out like a garment, and You will fold them like a garment, and they will change; but You are the same, and Your years will not end.” ... (Heb. 1.11-12).

For us humans, time is divided into past, present and future. And what we did not know yesterday, we suddenly learned today or can find out tomorrow, but for the All-Knowing God there is no such gradual, progressive knowledge. The bot has absolute knowledge. With God everything is “perfect.” For us, people limited by time, mind, knowledge, it is necessary to wait until this or that future event takes place, but for the All-Knowing God, it has already happened. What does not exist for us or will exist in 20-30 years, already exists for God. The Word of God says that “God calls things that are not as if they are”... (Rom. 4.17). God says to Abraham: “I have (already) made you a father of many nations.” God saw Abraham as the “father of multitudes” when Abraham himself was still childless and without hope of ever having an heir. In the person of Abraham, God saw the entire future history of Israel and the role of this people in the matter of the Incarnation of God and the appearance into the world of the “Savior of the world.”

According to His Divine foreknowledge, God saw the entire history of the Church before the creation of the world, before the Incarnation of God, Golgotha ​​and Pentecost. God already sees absolutely accurate results preaching the Gospel on earth from the first person who believed through the preaching of Peter to the last person who believed before the rapture of the Church. The bot sees every person who has not yet believed as if he had already believed. And this is His foreknowledge - infallible, immutable, inapplicable.

At first glance, this thought may seem strange, but, after some reflection, it becomes obvious to everyone that in the Eyes of the Almighty and All-Knowing God, our foreknowledge, election, calling, our eternal glory or eternal shame is a fact that has already happened.

That's how God is. This is the language of eternity. The book of the Apocalypse was written in this language, in which John the Theologian contemplates with the eyes of God the entire coming process and the completion of “time” and the earthly history of mankind.

With the same language of eternity, the apostles remind us, believers, that we already “have salvation”, “have passed from death to life”, “our life is hidden with Christ in God”, that God has already “seated us in heaven”...

Bearing this in mind, it would be absurd to admit that God, (“Eternal Father,” “His Eternal Power and Divinity,” Most Perfect Wisdom and Reason), would not have the most perfect Plan for created man and the entire universe, having submitted “all things” to the will blind fate. On the contrary it is written: “In Him we live, and move, and have our being”... (D. Ap. 17.28). “The Lord looks down from heaven, sees all the sons of men; from the throne on which He sits, He looks down on all those who live on earth; He created the hearts of them all and delves into all their affairs” (Ps. 33:15).

But equally absurd is the idea that God’s foreknowledge and omniscience formed the basis of God’s “predestination”: some people to Salvation, and others to destruction.

God's Predestination

There is a great gulf between the predestination of God as it is revealed to people in Holy Scripture and by that “predestination” that arose in the human imagination and does not correspond to the Truth.

This is the passage of Scripture that adherents of the “theory of predestination” refer to: “For whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”... (Rom. 8.29).

First, we clearly see that this verse is talking about predestination, but it has nothing to do with predestination of someone to eternal destruction. Just as it is not said that God predestined someone to salvation. Although, when quoting this verse, “predestinationists” like to emphasize: “You see, even the Apostle Paul taught about predestination!”

Yes, we do not deny that Paul used this word, but in what sense? - we ask.

In the sense in which this word is given by the apostle, in the verse we are examining: “Whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

The predestination that Paul speaks of does not relate to the salvation or destruction of people, but to the sanctification of the lives of those already saved, to their likeness to God, to their eternal glory. Those whom God, according to His foreknowledge, saw already saved, “HIM (not those) He determined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” God loves His Only Begotten Son so much that He wanted everyone redeemed by Him to be like the Son, to “be like” this image.

Man was created “in the image and likeness of God,” but fell into sin and lost this image. Christ became incarnate in order to restore this image. Taking upon Himself human flesh, “Christ had to become like the brethren in everything,” to become the “Son of Man.” So the “sons of men,” saved by His grace and “made partakers of the Divine nature,” must become “sons of God.” Therefore, “to all those who received Him, to those who believed on His name, He gave power to become children of God.” (John 1.12). For those “who were born of God,” precisely to those, God predestined to “grow in the stature of God,” to grow “in the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ”... (Eph. 4:13).

For this purpose God gave His Holy Spirit to the redeemed. “For the will of God is our illumination!” - writes the app. Paul This is how the believers of the ancient Apostolic Church understood predestination. They could say: “But we all, with open face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18).

This progressive God-likeness will come to its completion at our personal meeting with the coming Christ. As it is written: “Beloved, we are now children of God; but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.” (1 John 3.2). This is what the Lord has prepared for all those who loved His appearance.

This is what predestination the Apostle Paul taught about. So that we would be like Christ in our spiritual essence, “as we bore the image of earthly things, so that we may also bear the image of heavenly things.” So that we would be like Him in our relationship with the Heavenly Father, so that “the Spirit of God would bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” So that we would be like Him in our service. Just as He is the “faithful and true Witness,” so should we be “His witnesses.” Especially, they are similar in His life and character; so that we may “do as He did”... (1 John 2:6).

False Predestination

The main representative of false predestination is, as we have already mentioned, the Frenchman John Calvin. This “dropout theologian” and the same “dropout lawyer” became known among his contemporaries as a very narrow, bilious and overly fanatical sectarian. Being personally persecuted by the Catholic Church, Calvin managed to mercilessly persecute dissenters and deal with opponents.

Calvin went down in history by establishing theocratic order in Geneva and acting there with great power. It was at his insistence that Michel Servento (Servais) was burned at the stake for denying some of the tenets of Christianity. This doctor and young scientist who discovered the “pulmonary circulation” died at the stake when he was only 42 years old.

All this and, probably, much more, did not in the least prevent this fanatic from preaching that God predestined some people to heaven and others to hell... A person chosen by God and “predestined” for salvation, no matter what he does, no matter how he lives will certainly be saved, and a person predestined by God to eternal destruction, no matter how hard he tries to save himself, will inevitably perish. Calvin himself, as the creator of this theory, counted himself, of course, “among the ranks of those predestined to salvation”...

We have no authority to be its judges. Calvin, like the thief on the cross, could have been pardoned by God at the last minute. But despite all this, it does not hurt to remember the words of the Savior: “By their fruits you will know them.” “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves”... (Matthew 7).

Among the many misconceptions that are generously scattered in the Field of Christ, the misconception about predestination should be considered the most pernicious.

The theory of predestination of man to eternal destruction, as some kind of soulless object that does not have the right to choose in this matter, makes God the culprit of the existence of evil, destroys his moral difference in man and declares all our efforts and hopes for salvation useless and empty.

Even St. Augustine, confused in his philosophical and theological reasoning about predestination, still comes to the same clarity that God could not be the author of such a cruel and unjust predestination. “It is a sin even to say that God has ordained anything other than good,” writes Augustine.

“For God has not appointed us to receive wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him.” (1 Thess. 5:9).

God did not predestine any person to perish. Each person dies not through the fault of God, but through his own fault.

God chose Israel for a great cause, for lofty purposes: “You are My servant, O Israel, in You I will be glorified,” says the Lord. But the day came and the Lord had to say: “You have destroyed yourself, Israel!” (Isa. 49.3; Hos. 13.9). "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" (Am. 4.12).

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