Predestination is the doctrine that God has eternally determined who will be saved (and in Calvin’s double predestination, who will be damned) — not on the basis of any foreseen human merit or faith, but entirely according to God’s sovereign and inscrutable will. Augustine first developed this doctrine in its strong form, against Pelagius. Calvin takes it to its logical extreme in the Institutes: ‘We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is ordained for some, eternal damnation for others.’ The Westminster Confession (1646) codifies double predestination for Reformed orthodoxy. The doctrine generates intense controversy: it seems to make God the author of evil, to undermine human moral responsibility, and to make evangelism pointless. Arminianism (~1610 AD) is the principal theological response.