Editing Predestination (section)

==== Pre-Nicene period ====
[[Origen]], writing in the third century, taught that God's providence extends to every individual.{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=38}} He believed God's predestination was based on God's foreknowledge of every individual's merits, whether in their current life or a [[pre-existence|previous life]].{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=39–40}}

Gill and Gregg Alisson argued that Clement of Rome held to a predestinarian view of salvation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murrell |first=Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pq1JAwAAQBAJ&dq=predestination+Clement+of+Rome&pg=PT32 |title=Predestined to Believe: Common Objections to the Reformed Faith Answered, Second Edition |date=2009 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-175-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Allison |first=Gregg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZH8oAfw-bHMC&dq=predestination+Clement+of+Rome&pg=PT832 |title=Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine |date=2011 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |isbn=978-0-310-41041-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Some verses in the [[Odes of Solomon]], which was made by an Essene convert into Christianity, might possibly suggest a predestinarian worldview, where God chooses who are saved and go into heaven, although there is controversy about what it teaches.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Carson |first1=D. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3UFAJ4zmxF8C&dq=predestination+odes+of+solomon&pg=PA54 |title=Justification and Variegated Nomism |last2=O'Brien |first2=Peter Thomas |last3=Seifrid |first3=Mark A. |date=2001 |publisher=Isd |isbn=978-3-16-146994-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Denzer |first=Pam |title=Odes of Solomon: Early Hymns of the Jewish Christian Mystical Tradition |url=https://www.academia.edu/4440268}}</ref>{{sps|certain=yes|date=April 2022}}<ref name="DeConick">{{Cite book |last=DeConick |first=April |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-p5DwAAQBAJ&dq=predestination+odes+of+solomon&pg=PA88 |title=Seek to See Him: Ascent and Vision Mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas |date=2015|publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-31300-2 |language=en}}</ref> The Odes of Solomon talks about God "imprinting a seal on the face of the elect before they existed".<ref name="DeConick" /> The [[Thomasines]] saw themselves as children of the light, but the ones who were not part of the elect community were sons of darkness. The Thomasines thus had a belief in a type of election or predestination, they saw themselves as elect because they were born from the light.<ref name="DeConick"/>

[[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] believed in a form of predestination, in his view humans are born into one of three natures, depending on which elements prevail in the person. In the views of Valentinus, a person born with a bad nature can never be saved because they are too inclined into evil, some people have a nature which is a mixture of good and evil, thus they can choose salvation, and others have a good nature, who will be saved, because they will be inclined into good.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karamanolis |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91cmEAAAQBAJ&dq=predestination+Valentinus&pg=PT153 |title=The Philosophy of Early Christianity |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-62823-8 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Irenaeus]] also attacked the doctrine of predestination set out by Valentinus, arguing that it is unfair. For Irenaeus, humans were free to choose salvation or not.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfT_DwAAQBAJ&dq=Free+will+irenaeus&pg=PA220 |title=Fate, Providence and Free Will: Philosophy and Religion in Dialogue in the Early Imperial Age |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-43638-1 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Justin Martyr]] attacked predestinarian views held by some Greek philosophers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knell |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNLYDwAAQBAJ&dq=free+will+justin+martyr&pg=PT37 |title=Sin, Grace and Free Will: A Historical Survey of Christian Thought (Volume 1): The Apostolic Fathers to Augustine |date=2017 |publisher=ISD LLC |isbn=978-0-227-90567-8 |language=en}}</ref>