In the mid-1500s, John Calvin taught that humans could not change their fate through prayer, faith, or good deeds. This philosophy became known as predestination.
John Calvin taught that salvation was entirely by God's grace, but his emphasis was on what that meant to our understanding of God. He made the key factor all about God's glory. As summarized by Evangelical Focus, "The real marvel of justification in Calvin’s thought was not that a sinner found himself (herself) pardoned from all iniquity but rather that God was being glorified through the salvation of such a transgressor. " So Calvin's emphasis in his teaching regarding salvation was as much about the glory of God as it was about the grace of God.
Calvin's central emphasis was on the sovereignty of God. Sovereignty means God is in charge and whatever he determines is final. This showed itself especially in Calvin's teaching on predestination -- meaning that God decided in advance which persons would be saved and which would not. Calvin taught that God chose from eternity the persons he would bring to heaven and the persons he would condemn to hell. He saw this as a testimony to God's sovereign power. In Calvin's theology, only God has freedom of choice; human beings do not.
