Expert: Sal - 2/15/2004

Question
Hi Sal,

I finally confessed my sins.  I have to admit it was difficult, and it's the only time I can recall sweating in confession, but I'm glad I did it.  My question is regarding predestination.  Of course the Catholic church believes in free will and rejects the doctrine formulated by John Calvin.  However, is it possible that God predestines certain individuals to sainthood?  Is it possible that he creates great individuals for the faith when they are needed most, or does the Catholic church reject the idea of predestination entirely?  I believe in predestination to the extent that God knows what we will do with our lives before we are even born, but every Christian accepts that, right?

Thank you.  

Answer
Hi Les:

Congratulations on making your Confession, there is great joy in heaven. “I tell you, there will be the same kind of joy before the angels of God over one repentant sinner” (Luke 15:10, see vv.4-10).

The Catholic Church does teach predestination to heaven, but not hell. Calvin taught a perversion of the correct understanding of this. Calvin (and Luther) taught that no matter how one lives one's life one is already predestined to heaven or hell. God does not care what good or evil one does in this life. This is called “Blind Predestination”. This, of course, is opposed by many Scriptures. For example,  “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Why? What does it matter if one is already saved or lost?

“I assure you, as often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me! These will go off to eternal punishment and the just to eternal life” (Matthew 25:45-46).

Why does Jesus emphasize doing good works if one is saved or lost no matter what one does?

The Catholic Church teaches that God desires all men to be saved (see I Timothy 2:4). Therefore, if man cooperates with God's graces he is capable of attaining salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ. God gives everyone sufficient grace in order to obtain heaven. However, not all people receive the same amount of graces. For example, the Blessed Virgin Mary received the singular grace of the Immaculate Conception. St. Paul received the grace of conversion. “To me, the least of all believers, was given the grace to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).

The Church has not defined every aspect of predestination. Therefore, she allows liberty of interpretation within the boarders it has established. In order to be an acceptable form of predestination, one's theory must contain the following:
1) an emphasis on the Free Will of man
2) note that man must cooperate with God's graces
3) Jesus' sacrifice having the potential to save all people
4) that man, born in sin, must be called by God in order to  be able to accept Him
5) an affirmation that God predestines no one to hell

To me, the idea that God could send someone to hell without looking at his life is the most ridiculous idea of Calvinism. Pope Blessed Pius IX rightly condemned this idea.
“God… in His supreme goodness and clemency, by no means allows anyone to be punished who does not have the guilt of voluntary fault” (8/10/1863). Now, that makes much more sense than Calvin or Luther.

Calvinists believe that everything that happens, even evil, is God's will. In reality God does not cause evil to happen, He merely allows the consequences of our actions to occur.

“God therefore delivered them up to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and the men gave up natural intercourse with women and burned with lust for one another. Man did shameful things with men, and thus received in their own persons the penalty for their perversity. They did not see fit to acknowledge God, so God delivered them up to their own depraved sense to do what is unseemingly” (Romans 1:26-28).

God did not cause their sinfulness, but simply allowed them to receive “in their own persons the penalty for their own perversity.” God desires all to be saved, but not all accept His invitation. “To his own he came, yet his own did not accept him” (John 1:11). God is not neutral or indifferent to our salvation. “I did not come to condemn the world, but to save it” (John 12:47; cf. 3:17). Man, in his Free Will, can, and all too often does, reject God's wishes for us.

Sometimes Calvinists will attempt to use certain passages to “prove” blind predestination. Usually these are found in Romans and Ephesians.

“Those he foreknew he predestined to share the image of his Son, that the Son might be the first-born of many brothers. Those he predestined he likewise called; those he called he also justified; and those he justified he in turn glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

This passage and one in Ephesians (1:11-14) speak of predestination into full membership in the Catholic Church! The fullness of Christ is the Church.
“He has put all things under Christ's feet and has made him thus exalted, head of the Church, which is his body: the fullness of him who fills the universe in all its parts” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

I do believe that God raises up special persons to help His people throughout history. For example, Moses (see Exodus 3:4-10), Peter (see Luke 5:8-10), and Paul (see Acts 9:1-6). I also believe that God sent Pope John Paul II at a crucial time in history.

Yes, God knows all things before they happen. God is omniscient, that is, all-knowing.

God Bless You,
Sal