Reprobation

Reprobation, in Christian theology, is a corollary to the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election which derives that since (in this view) some of mankind (the elect) are predestined by God for salvation, the remainder are necessarily pre-ordained to condemnation, i.e. reprobation. In Calvinist terminology, the non-elect are often referred to as the reprobate. Similarly, when a sinner is so hardened as to feel no remorse or misgiving of conscience, it is considered as a sign of reprobation.
The word "reprobation" comes from the Latin reprobatus (reproved or condemned), which is the opposite of approbatus (commended or approved).
==The Calvinist concept of the doctrine of reprobation==
* As stated in the Canons of Dort, First Head (Chapter 1) Article 15 :
:Moreover, Holy Scripture most especially highlights this eternal and undeserved grace of our election and brings it out more clearly for us, in that it further bears witness that not all people have been chosen but that some have not been chosen or have been passed by in God's eternal election-- those, that is, concerning whom God, on the basis of his entirely free, most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure, made the following decision: to leave them in the common misery into which, by their own fault, they have plunged themselves; not to grant them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but finally to condemn and eternally punish them (having been left in their own ways and under his just judgment), not only for their unbelief but also for all their other sins, in order to display his justice. And this is the decision of reprobation, which does not at all make God the author of sin (a blasphemous thought!) but rather its fearful, irreproachable, just judge and avenger. 
* As explained by Loraine Boettner in The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Eerdmans, 1932):
:The doctrine of absolute Predestination of course logically holds that some are foreordained to death as truly as others are foreordained to life. The very terms “elect” and “election” imply the terms “non-elect” and “reprobation.” When some are chosen out others are left not chosen. The high privileges and glorious destiny of the former are not shared with the latter. This, too, is of God. We believe that from all eternity God has intended to leave some of Adam’s posterity in their sins, and that the decisive factor in the life of each is to be found only in God’s will. As Mozley has said, the whole race after the fall was “one mass of perdition,” and “it pleased God of His sovereign mercy to rescue some and to leave others where they were; to raise some to glory, giving them such grace as necessarily qualified them for it, and abandon the rest, from whom He withheld such grace, to eternal punishment.”
:The chief difficulty with the doctrine of Election of course arises in regard to the unsaved; and the Scriptures have given us no extended explanation of their state. Since the mission of Jesus in the world was to save the world rather than to judge it, this side of the matter is less dwelt upon.
:In all of the Reformed creeds in which the doctrine of Reprobation is dealt with at all it is treated as an essential part of the doctrine of Predestination. The Westminster Confession, after stating the doctrine of election, adds: “The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the inscrutable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy as He pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice.” 
== Relation to double predestination==
The term "double predestination" has been used to refer to the dual concepts of election and reprobation in Reformed theology. This is largely a pejorative term which leads to misconceptions of the Calvinist (or Reformed) doctrine. See main discussion in Predestination.
== Criticism ==
==See also==
*Predestination
*Unconditional election
==External links==
===Pro===
*Loraine Boettner's view
*John Bunyan's view
*The Canons of Dordrecht
*A. W. Pink's view
*Gise J. Van Baren's view
*Jerome Zanchius' view
*Vincent Cheung's view (PDF)
===Con===
*Thomas Aquinas' view (from the Summa Theologiae)
*James Arminius' view
*T.W. Brent's view
*Randolph Foster's view
*Richard Watson's view
Category:Calvinism