Central to predestination is the belief that God is sovereign over everything that He creates, including the final end of all men. There are two formulations of predestination, predestination proper and "double" predestination. In the former view, God elects who He will give faith to (and subsequently be saved), and leaves the rest to receive justice for their rebellion against God. Double predestination also affirms that God elects who will come to saving faith, but also holds that God also elects those who will be judged for their sins and thereby condemned to Hell. In the first position, God actively chooses who he will save and is passive towards the reprobate, in the second position, God actively chooses who will be counted among the righteous and who will be among the reprobate.
Related to the issue of predestination is the role of the human will in [[salvation]]. Some critics of predestination believe that it is incomensurable incommensurable with the belief that man has libertarian free will. Proponents of predestination typically agree that the views do not work together, and propose an alternate description of free will. The human will, because of [[Original Sin]], is corrupted and fallen. Often Ephesians 2:1, which states that men are "dead in their trespasses," is cited in justification of this. The result is that the will is incapable of choosing to love God over things below. This does not remove the ability of human beings to choose between two options, but it does remove one option, the choice to love God or not, from the kinds of choices that humans can make. The will can only choose to love God if it receives the grace of God. According to the doctrine of predestination, God chooses those to whom He will give the grace to believe in, and love, him. Thus, when a person chooses to place his faith in [[Christ]], he has recieved received the grace of God and is numbered among God's elect. This understanding of predestination excludes the possibility that someone could put their faith in Christ and not be saved. The fact that one does believe that [[Christ]] died for his sins ]] is sufficient evidence for his election.
Predestination is also called ''unconditional election,'' the U in the ''TULIP'' mnemonic for five of the doctrines affirmed at the Synod of Dort (1619), which have now come to be called the "Five Points of [[Calvinism]]."