Theological Term of the Week: Supralapsarianism

supralapsarianism
The theological position that in the plan made by God in eternity, his decree of election was logically prior to his decree to create and permit the fall; or to put it another way, the position that in eternity past, when God chose some people to save, he contemplated them as not yet created and fallen.

• Scripture used to support supralapsarianism:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? (Romans 9:17, 19-21 ESV)

• From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham:

The lapsarian debate concerns the order of decrees in the mind of God in eternity. It is not a question of the relation of election to its historical outworking… . The question relates to whether, in election, God contemplated humans as already fallen, which was the infralapsarian claim … or whether he considered them as not yet created and fallen.

In many ways, this is a highly abtruse question. The inner workings of the mind of God are beyond us. However, it indicates ultimate priorities in God’s plan and has quite extensive ramifications. 

• From  The Plan of Salvation by B. B. Warfield:

Some are so zealous for particularism that they place discrimination at the root of all God’s dealings with his creatures. That he has any creatures at all they suppose to be in the interest of discrimination, and all that he decrees concerning his creatures they suppose he decrees only that he may discriminate between them. They therefore place the decree of “election” by which men are made to differ, in the order of decrees, logically prior to the decree of creation itself, or at any rate prior to all that is decreed concerning man as man; that is to say, since man’s history begins with the fall, prior to the decree of the fall itself. They are therefore called Supralapsarians, that is, those who place the decree of election in the order of thought prior to the decree of the fall.

Learn more:

1. Kevin DeYoung: Theological Primer: Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism
2. Monergism.com: What do the terms “supralapsarianism,” and “infralapsarianism” mean…? 
3. Loraine Boettner: Infralapsarianism and Supralapsarianism
4. Louis Berkhof: Supra- and Infralapsarianism 
5. Herman Bavinck: Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism
6. Curt Daniel: The Order of the Decrees (mp3) from The History and Theology of Calvinism

Related terms: 

• order of the decrees
• infralapsarianism

Filed under Reformed Theology

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Sunday's Hymn: We Praise Thee, O God, Our Redeemer, Creator

We praise thee, O God, our Redeemer, Creator,
In grateful devotion our tribute we bring.
We lay it before thee, we kneel and adore thee,
We bless thy holy name, glad praises we sing.

We worship thee, God of our fathers, we bless thee;
Through life’s storm and tempest our guide hast thou been.
When perils o’ertake us, escape thou wilt make us,
And with thy help, O Lord, our battles we win.

With voices united our praises we offer,
To thee, great Jehovah, glad anthems we raise.
Thy strong arm will guide us, our God is beside us,
To thee, our great Redeemer, for ever be praise.

—Ju­lia B. Co­ry

Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• I Am His, and He Is Mine at The Happy Wonderer

Theological Term of the Week: Synergism

synergism
The view that salvation is attained through a cooperative process between God and human beings;1 any soteriology that employs an independent free will to “work together” with God’s activity of grace in regeneration.2

• From The Century Dictionary:

Synergism is “…the doctrine that there are two efficient agents in regeneration, namely the human will and the divine Spirit, which, in the strict sense of the term, cooperate. This theory accordingly holds that the soul has not lost in the fall all inclination toward holiness, nor all power to seek for it under the influence of ordinary motives. To put it simply, synergism is the belief that faith is produced by our unregenerated human nature.

• From the Five Articles of Remonstrance, Article 1 (This is a synergistic document.):

… God, by an eternal and unchangeable purpose in Jesus Christ his Son, before the foundation of the world, hath determined, out of the fallen, sinful race of men, to save in Christ, for Christ’s sake, and through Christ, those who, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, shall believe on this his son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith, through this grace, even to the end… .

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Monergism vs. synergism - which view is correct?
2. John Hendryx: Two Views on Regeneration
3. Charlie Martin: Salvation: Synergism or Sola Gratia? (pdf)
4. Ligonier.org: Sovereign Regeneration

Related terms: 

• monergism
• regeneration

1 From The Christian Faith by Michael Horton.

2 From Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition by Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt

Filed under Salvation

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.