If God predestines who is saved, as Augustine and Calvin teach, can human beings be free and morally responsible, and is such a God just?
Component 3 religious concepts of predestination: Augustine on grace and the Fall, Calvin's double predestination, the relation to divine omniscience and human freedom, and the implications for justice and responsibility, with strengths and weaknesses.
An Eduqas Component 3 (Religion and Ethics) guide to religious concepts of predestination. Covers Augustine on original sin and grace, Calvin's double predestination and the elect, the relation to divine omniscience and human freedom, Arminian and free-will responses, and the implications for justice and responsibility, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
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What this dot point is asking
Eduqas Component 3 (Theme 4, Determinism and Free Will) studies religious concepts of predestination: the theological version of determinism, in which God determines who is saved. You learn Augustine on original sin and grace, Calvin's double predestination and the elect, the relation to divine omniscience and human freedom, the Arminian and free-will responses, and the implications for justice and moral responsibility. The exam rewards explaining the doctrine precisely (AO1) and evaluating whether predestination is compatible with free will and divine justice (AO2).
The answer
Augustine: original sin and grace
Calvin: double predestination
Predestination, omniscience and freedom
Justice, responsibility, and the free-will response
The central problem is the conflict with free will and justice. If God unconditionally decides destinies we cannot change, we seem neither free nor responsible, and damning the reprobate for an unavoidable state seems unjust and unloving. Calvinist replies: fallen humans freely choose sin (so damnation is deserved), grace transforms rather than coerces the will, and God's justice exceeds human judgement. The free-will (Arminian) response: rejects double predestination, holding that God predestines on the basis of foreseen faith, so that humans freely accept or reject grace and freedom and justice are preserved. Strengths of predestination: it magnifies grace and God's sovereignty and gives the elect assurance. Weaknesses: the apparent injustice to the reprobate, the loss of human freedom and responsibility, and the moral difficulty of a God who creates people for damnation.
Examples in context
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Q1. Explain Augustine's teaching on grace and the Fall and its relation to predestination. [part (a), AO1, 20 marks]
- What the marker wants. Accurate account of original sin, the bound will, salvation by unmerited grace, and how this grounds later predestination doctrine, organised and using specialist terms. AO1 band.
Q2. "If God predestines the saved, human moral effort is pointless." Evaluate this view. [part (b), AO2, 30 marks]
- Cue. Weigh the worry that unconditional election makes striving futile against the Calvinist reply that the elect are transformed to live good lives (and good works are evidence, not cause, of election), and the Arminian alternative, then judge. AO2 band, the larger 30-mark tariff.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC Eduqas exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Eduqas A120 2019 (style)20 marksExplain Calvin's doctrine of predestination. [part (a), AO1, 20 marks]Show worked answer →
A part (a) AO1 question on the five-band scheme. Explain the doctrine accurately.
Calvin (Institutes) teaches double predestination: before creation God has eternally and unconditionally chosen some (the elect) for salvation and others (the reprobate) for damnation. It is grounded in God's sovereignty and grace, not human merit or foreseen works; humanity, fallen in Adam, is totally depraved and can do nothing to save itself, so salvation is wholly God's gift. The elect cannot lose salvation (perseverance). This builds on Augustine's teaching that, after the Fall, humans are bound by original sin and saved only by unmerited grace. A top band answer explains double predestination, unconditional election, total depravity and the grounding in God's sovereignty, and connects it to Augustine.
Eduqas A120 2021 (style)20 marks"Predestination is incompatible with human free will and divine justice." Evaluate this view. [part (b), AO2, the full Eduqas tariff is 30 marks; the worked answer below is scaled to a 20-mark exemplar.]Show worked answer →
A part (b) AO2 question; the top band rewards balanced argument and a justified conclusion.
For incompatibility: if God unconditionally decides who is saved before they are born and they can do nothing about it, then they are not free and cannot be responsible, and damning the reprobate for a state they could not avoid seems unjust and unloving. Against: Calvinists reply that fallen humans freely choose sin (so damnation is deserved), that grace does not coerce but transforms the will, and that God's justice is beyond human judgement; Arminians and free-will theists reject double predestination, holding God predestines on the basis of foreseen faith, preserving freedom. Weigh whether predestination can be reconciled with freedom and justice, and conclude. Links to determinism and the nature of God.
Related dot points
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- Component 1 the atonement: the models of how Christ's death saves (ransom and Christus Victor, satisfaction and penal substitution, moral exemplar), their biblical roots, and their strengths and weaknesses.
An Eduqas Component 1 (Christianity) guide to the atonement. Covers the models of how Christ's death reconciles humanity to God (ransom and Christus Victor, satisfaction and penal substitution, moral exemplar), their biblical roots, the moral objections to penal substitution, and their strengths and weaknesses, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
Sources & how we know this
- Eduqas A Level Religious Studies specification (A120QS) — WJEC Eduqas (2016)
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion — Project Gutenberg (1536)