Hard Determinism Question

[Tyler35]

Question, does anyone know what % of Christians are Calvinists? Also, what percentage of Christians are Hard Determinists?

My main curiosity is around Hard Determinism: when did this belief really work its way into the church, and again, what percentage of Christians believe in this?

 

[HTacianas]

Question, does anyone know what % of Christians are Calvinists? Also, what percentage of Christians are Hard Determinists?

My main curiosity is around Hard Determinism: when did this belief really work its way into the church, and again, what percentage of Christians believe in this?

If by Hard Determinism you mean what is sometimes called Double Predestination or Absolute Predestination (also monergists, it goes by many names) there aren't a lot. Not as far as all who claim to be Christian. And then among some of the early Hard Determinists many groups separated themselves in favor of something else. You'll often see signs on churches that say "Free Will Baptist". Those are professing Baptists that left determinism in favor of free will.

As with anything new, those who founded it attempted to apply it retroactively to St. Paul mainly. If I remember right St. Augustine was a proponent of it but not as as solidly as Calvin was. So the idea came about during the Protestant Reformation, circa 1550 or so. There is mistake made by the followers of predestination that has to do with first century language among some Jewish groups, primarily the Essenes. You can see the development of the idea originating in the old testament.

 

[zippy2006]

Question, does anyone know what % of Christians are Calvinists? Also, what percentage of Christians are Hard Determinists?

(801 million Protestants * 0.07 Reformed/Presbyterian) / 2.18 billion Christians = 2.57% Reformed/Presbyterian

The next question is: how many Reformed/Presbyterians hold to "hard determinism"? I have no idea, but certainly not all of them.

My main curiosity is around Hard Determinism: when did this belief really work its way into the church, and again, what percentage of Christians believe in this?

"Hard determinism" is a philosophical belief, not a theological one. Of course there are theological beliefs found among Calvinists which entail hard determinism, but it is hard to know exactly what you are talking about when you use the term "hard determinism," just as it is hard to know how to map this to Calvinism.

But the larger point is that Calvinism constitutes a tiny percentage of Christianity today, and it didn't even exist prior to the 16th century. Unless you have personal ties to Calvinism, I wouldn't be too worried about what Calvinists think.

 

[timothyu]

The better question might be when did any of this find it's way into a church built upon truth from God, not man. where the only requirements was we put the will of God before the will of man in recognition of the coming time God would replace man with Himself as government over all mankind and in the meantime commanding that we love all as self and care for all as we would be cared for in times of need rather than pursue this life of self interest. All else is man's philosophies that worked their ways into God's church.

 

[Tyler35]

(801 million Protestants * 0.07 Reformed/Presbyterian) / 2.18 billion Christians = 2.57% Reformed/Presbyterian

The next question is: how many Reformed/Presbyterians hold to "hard determinism"? I have no idea, but certainly not all of them.


"Hard determinism" is a philosophical belief, not a theological one. Of course there are theological beliefs found among Calvinists which entail hard determinism, but it is hard to know exactly what you are talking about when you use the term "hard determinism," just as it is hard to know how to map this to Calvinism.

But the larger point is that Calvinism constitutes a tiny percentage of Christianity today, and it didn't even exist prior to the 16th century. Unless you have personal ties to Calvinism, I wouldn't be too worried about what Calvinists think.

Thank you @zippy2006 this is exactly what I was looking for. I think a better term would be Divine Determinism. Are you familiar with this terminology? My understanding is that this would fall into hyper Calvinism, which there aren’t many of. Curious though if other Christian sects have a divine deterministic belief, or are Calvinists, and hyper Calvinists at that, the only ones?

 

[zippy2006]

Thank you @zippy2006 this is exactly what I was looking for. I think a better term would be Divine Determinism. Are you familiar with this terminology? My understanding is that this would fall into hyper Calvinism, which there aren’t many of. Curious though if other Christian sects have a divine deterministic belief, or are Calvinists, and hyper Calvinists at that, the only ones?

You're welcome. I have heard that term and I think I understand what you are asking about, but since I am not Reformed I have no real way of knowing how many Calvinists hold to such a belief. I suspect not very many, although the numbers are probably overrepresented on theology forums.

There have been groups in the past that held to "divine determinism" or something close to it, but most of them have died out. I don't know of any existing Christians groups who hold to such a doctrine except for the hyper-Calvinists. Sorry - good luck finding more precise answers to your questions.