Predestined vs Foreordained

 

If you look in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, you will find these words listed as synonyms, i.e., meaning the same or almost the same thing.  However to the Latter-day Saints, each has a different connotation.  Here is my understanding of the words:

• Predestined means predetermined:  God determines exactly what each individual will do.  In this connotation, predestination takes away the agency of the individual, who must do what he is chosen to do with no choice to say yes or no to the assignment.  An early Protestant leader, John Calvin believed firmly that we are predestined to do whatever it is we do.  Some churches even today teach that certain people were predestined to go to Heaven when they die and some to Hell.  It wouldn't matter what the person did; if he was predestined for Hell he'd never achieve Heaven.  I personally do not believe in a God who is so arbitrary with His children.

  

  
  

• Foreordination means chosen and yet free to choose.  God chooses certain individuals and ordains them to their callings.  However, the difference in connotation is that the individual may choose to ignore that calling.  We have one prime example of this in the story of Jonah in the Old Testament.  Jonah was called by God to preach His word of repentance to the people of Nineveh (near present day Mosel, Iraq.)  Because these were the feared Assyrians, terrorists in every interpretation of the word, Jonah refused his calling and set out to hide from God.  Of course, we all know the story and how the logical consequences of his actions brought him to a point where he accepted his pre-ordained calling.  We don't know how many others, through their own will, rejected God because we don't have a written record.

One of the Church manuals teaches this about the concept of foreordination:  In the premortal spirit world, God appointed certain spirits to fulfill specific missions during their mortal lives. This is called foreordination. Foreordination does not guarantee that individuals will receive certain callings or responsibilities. Such opportunities come in this life as a result of the righteous exercise of agency, just as foreordination came as a result of righteousness in the premortal existence.

 

Jesus Himself was foreordained as the Savior of the world.  Other prophets, such as Jeremiah, and other great men and women were likewise called before they were born.  However, as much as we talk about prophets and other great leaders as having been foreordained, foreordination applies to all.  From that same manual we read:  The doctrine of foreordination applies to all members of the Church, not just to the Savior and His prophets. Before the creation of the earth, faithful women were given certain responsibilities and faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood duties. As people prove themselves worthy, they will be given opportunities to fulfill the assignments they then received.

 

Predestination would rob man of his agency.  Foreordination leaves man free to choose.  Agency if central to the Father's Plan.  That is why we must discriminate between the words and operate our lives under the doctrine of foreordination rather than predestination.

 © Gebara Education, 2016