Supralapsarianism is a view concerning the logical order of God’s eternal decrees, holding that in the divine mind the decree of election and reprobation logically precedes the decree to create and to permit the Fall—that God first purposed to glorify Himself in the salvation of some and the condemnation of others, and then decreed creation and the Fall as the means to that end. The name means “before the lapse” (the Fall). It is contrasted with infralapsarianism (“after the lapse”), which places the decree of election logically after the decree to permit the Fall, so that God chooses the elect out of a mass of already-fallen humanity. The dispute concerns only the logical, not the temporal, order of the decrees, since all agree the decree is one eternal act; it is an attempt to discern the conceptual priority of God’s purposes. Supralapsarians stress that the end God intends (His glory in election and reprobation) is, in the order of intention, first, even though last in the order of execution—as a builder conceives the finished house before laying the foundation. They appeal to God’s ultimate purpose to display both His mercy and His justice. Critics object that supralapsarianism seems to make God decree reprobation of men considered merely as creatable, not yet as sinners, raising the danger of making Him the author of the sin for which they are condemned. Infralapsarianism, the more common Reformed position, is thought by many to guard better the justice of reprobation, since the reprobate are passed by as already fallen and guilty. Both are held within Reformed orthodoxy; the matter is a refinement among those who agree on the great substance of unconditional election, and is to be handled with the reverence due to mysteries that touch the hidden counsel of God.