Supralapsarians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Adherents of a strict Calvinist view holding that God determined who would be saved or damned before He decided to permit the fall of humanity
2. Followers of a theological position within Calvinism teaching that God's choice of the elect came logically prior to His decree allowing the fall into sin
3. Those Calvinists who place God's eternal decree of election and reprobation ahead of any decision about the fall of mankind

Etymology: "Supralapsarians" is the plural of "supralapsarian," and the word is built from two parts: the Latin prefix "supra-," meaning "above" or "before," and "lapsarian," which comes from Latin "lapsus," meaning "fall," as in the Fall of Man in Christian theology. A supralapsarian is therefore someone who holds that God's decree to elect some people and reject others came before, or "above," His decree to permit the Fall of Adam and Eve. The word thus names a position in a theological debate rather than a general idea. The contrasting view, infralapsarianism, held that God decreed the Fall first and then chose who would be saved from it. Both labels were coined to sort positions within Reformed Calvinist thought, and the terms carry that controversy inside them: the prefix alone tells you where a theologian placed the divine decree in relation to Adam's sin.

Antonyms: infralapsarian