Theological Term of the Week: Supralapsarianism
Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 2:30AM 
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:
- Kevin DeYoung: Theological Primer: Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism
- Monergism.com: What do the terms “supralapsarianism,” and “infralapsarianism” mean…?
- Loraine Boettner: Infralapsarianism and Supralapsarianism
- Louis Berkhof: Supra- and Infralapsarianism
- Herman Bavinck: Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism
- Curt Daniel: The Order of the Decrees (mp3) from The History and Theology of Calvinism
Related terms:
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.
