1. the act of predestining or the condition of being predestined.
2. theology the doctrine that god has foreordained all things, especially that god has elected certain souls to eternal salvation.
3. theology the divine decree foreordaining all souls to either salvation or damnation.
4. theology the act of god foreordaining all things gone before and to come.
5. destiny; fate.

1. the doctrine that everything has been foreordained by a god, especially that certain people have been elected for salvation, and sometimes also that others are destined for reprobation.
2. destiny or fate.

1. the act of predestinating.
2. the purpose of good from eternity respecting all events; especially, the preordination of men to everlasting happiness or misery. see calvinism.

1. the act of predestinating, or the state of being predestinated; fate; specifically, in theology, the decree or purpose of god, by which he has from eternity immutably determined whatever comes to pass; in a more restricted sense, the decree by which men are destined to everlasting happiness or misery; in the most restricted sense, predestination to eternal life, or election (the correlative doctrine that god has predestined some to everlasting death is termed reprobation). see predestinate, v. t.
2.

1. (theology) being determined in advance; especially the doctrine (usually associated with calvin) that god has foreordained every event throughout eternity (including the final salvation of mankind)
2. previous determination as if by destiny or fate