Predestination and foreordination seem like they would be more or less interchangeable terms, but they are actually completely different. Predestination is the concept that our lives have a predetermined destiny that is fixed and immutable. No matter what we do, we will end up at the place to which we were always meant to go. Predestination is essentially the plan that Lucifer proposed in the Council of Heaven. It is an attractive enough idea that a third of the hosts of heaven bought into it. It's easy to see why we might wish to believe in the concept of predestination. For one thing, it absolves us of any responsibility. We don't need to sweat or worry or try because, no matter what we do, it is our destiny to make it to heaven in the end. There's also a sense of fairness to it. All of us have an equal outcome - we are all saved and not one is lost. Isn't the loss of our own personal freedoms and responsibilities worth making sure that not a single person has to be damned to hell for all eternity? But then again, is it really Heaven if we are forced there against our will with no consideration for our own desires or efforts merits? All of us who choose to side with Jesus Christ and His plan of foreordination didn't think so. Rather than have an enforced equality of outcomes, as was Satan's plan, foreordination provides for each of us an equality of opportunity. We have all been ordained and called to a specific mission in our mortal life. That mission looks different for everybody, but it does give each of us the chance to take responsibility for our own growth and development and each of us have access to the Saving Grace of our Savior's Atonement, to say nothing of the abundance of Heaven’s blessings and all that the Father has. He does not withhold anything from those of us who are earnestly and sincerely and faithfully seeking to carry out and magnify our foreordained callings. We all have the opportunity to set our own course and pick our own destination. This does leave us with the possibility of picking hell as our destination, but the beautiful thing about foreordination is that whether we are eight or one hundred and eight, we can still choose to answer the call and change the course of our life if we do not like where we are headed. I hope none of us feel like our fate is sealed and we have gone forever past the point of no return. The Savior is still calling for us and we have the freedom and the responsibility to answer the call and start to live up to the mission to which we were foreordained.
