Sublapsarians

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Those who hold the theological view that God permitted the Fall before deciding which people to save, a Calvinist position within predestination debates
2. Followers of a Calvinist doctrine in which divine permission of humanity's fall came logically before the choice of the elect
3. Adherents of the Reformed teaching that God allowed the Fall prior to electing some people to salvation, within the wider predestination controversy

Etymology: "Sublapsarians" is the plural of "sublapsarian," which names a follower of a particular position within Calvinist theology on predestination. The word is built from Latin "sub," meaning "under" or "after," and "lapsus," the past participle of "labi," "to fall," from the same root as "lapse." The combined sense is roughly "after the Fall," or "below the Fall," and it is the key to the whole distinction. The label was set against "supralapsarian," where "supra" means "above" or "before." Supralapsarians held that God decreed who would be saved and damned before he decided to permit the Fall of Adam and Eve, so the choice of the elect preceded the fall into sin. Sublapsarians placed the decree after the Fall, holding that God looked at humanity already fallen and then chose some for salvation. The argument is about the logical order of God's decrees, not about the outcome itself, which both camps accepted.

Antonyms: supralapsarian