Calvinist- "Calvin defined predestination as God’s eternal decree by which He determined by Himself whatever He willed to happen with every person, creating some persons for eternal life and others for eternal damnation. Calvin held to an infralapsarian model of predestination, in which God first understands humans as fallen and therefore lacking the mental faculty to accomplish spiritual good. Then God actively decrees to save some and damn others in a double predestination."
"God is said to set apart those whom he adopts for salvation. It were most absurd to say, that he admits others fortuitously, or that they by their industry acquire what election alone confers on a few. Those, therefore, whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children."
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. III, Sec 23, 1.
Arminian- "Arminius affirmed that election is based on God’s foreknowledge of those who would believe in Christ and persevere in faith throughout their lifetimes. Arminius expressed his own understanding of predestination under four divine decrees.
1. God decreed to create the world and to appoint Christ as Redeemer, Mediator, and Savior to pay for the sins of the world.
2. God decreed to save everyone who would receive Christ and continue in their belief.
3. God decreed to give all future persons the means (i.e., the Word, sacraments, and so forth) to believe in Christ, making grace available to all.
4. God decreed to save particular persons based on His foreknowledge of who would believe and persevere."
Kirk R. MacGregor, “Predestination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
"PREDESTINE"- proorizō-
“to limit in advance” -Strong's #4309
“to limit or mark out beforehand; to design definitely beforehand, ordain beforehand, predestine” (1)
" to come to a decision beforehand—‘to decide beforehand, to determine ahead of time, to decide upon ahead of time’" (2)
This is a word that is derived from two Greek words:
“Pro”- Strong’s# 4253 meaning “fore, in front of, prior, before”
“horizō”- Strong’s# 3724 meaning “to mark out or bound, to appoint, decree, or specify.”
We get the English word "horizon" from this word.
Gordon Olson notes that “this is a very rare word, and there is a serious question as to how it should actually be translated. It never occurred in the Septuagint Old Testament and is found only once in classical Greek literature before the New Testament (Demosthenes) and a few times in secular Greek from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD.”
C. Gordon Olson, Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism: An Inductive Mediate Theology of Salvation, 3rd Edition (Cedar Knolls, NJ: Global Gospel Publishers, 2002), 330.
“You will note that there is no reference in these four verses (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5,11) to Heaven or Hell, but to Christlikeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ.”
H.A. Ironside, Full Assurance (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1937), 93-94.
“God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, ‘What doest thou?’ Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.”
A.W. Tozer, The Best of A.W. Tozer Book Two (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007), 32.