predestination
2 antonyms and opposites of predestination, grouped by meaning.
Noun — The Christian doctrine that God has decided in advance who will be saved, so that a person's eternal fate is settled by divine choice rather than earned by their own actions.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
The Christian doctrine that God has decided in advance who will be saved, so that a person's eternal fate is settled by divine choice rather than earned by their own actions.
“Calvin's account of predestination split the Reformation church.”
2. noun
More broadly, the belief that everything that happens has been fixed in advance by God or by fate.
“He treats every coincidence as evidence of predestination.”
Opposites
Antonyms
How to use predestination
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Theological and formal; outside religion it appears mainly in philosophical discussion of free will.
Etymology
From Latin praedestinare meaning 'to determine beforehand', from prae 'before' and destinare 'to appoint'.
Full origin of predestination →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between predestination and free will?
Predestination holds that outcomes, especially salvation, are settled in advance by God. Free will holds that people genuinely choose their own actions. Many theologians argue the two are compatible — that God's foreknowledge does not force the choice — but the tension between them is one of the oldest debates in Christian thought.
What is the difference between predestination and determinism?
Predestination is a religious doctrine: a personal God has decreed what will happen. Determinism is a philosophical or scientific claim: every event follows necessarily from prior causes and physical laws, with no divine agent required.
What is double predestination?
Double predestination is the stricter version of the doctrine, holding that God actively chooses both those who will be saved and those who will be damned. Single predestination holds that God elects the saved while simply passing over the rest rather than condemning them by decree.