Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. For the Lord gave us this command when he said, ‘I have made You a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.'” When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.
Acts 13:46-48
Now we come to the juicy part that many of you asked about: “those chosen for eternal life became believers.”
Most of those who asked, asked the following questions:
- Does this refer to predestination?
- How does predestination work?
- I really don’t understand how God can give us free will and yet predestine us to be Christians.
- Does that mean we have no responsibility to chose Jesus as our personal Saviour?
- After all predestination seems to mean its a done deal from the start so why do I have to do anything?
I will come to all these questions and more as we work our way through this difficult, tricky issue.
We will deal with the first question today: Does “all who were chosen for eternal life became believers” refer to predestination?
The experts are divided over this question. There are those who think this is indeed a clear reference to predestination; there are those who disagree. That’s typical of the experts isn’t it? If they can’t agree, how do we mere mortals stand a chance?
Let’s look at the versions, a true Deeper Bible approach:
καὶ ἐπίστευσαν ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον·
and believed {as many as} were appointed {to / into} life eternal
- (AMP) and as many as were destined (appointed and ordained) to eternal life believed (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Jesus as the Christ and their Savior).
- (ASV) and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
- (BBE) and those marked out by God for eternal life had faith.
- (CEV) Everyone who had been chosen for eternal life then put their faith in the Lord.
- (EMTV) And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- (ERV) These were the ones chosen to have eternal life.
- (ESV) and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- (GNB) and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.
- (GW) Everyone who had been prepared for everlasting life believed.
- (ISV) Meanwhile, all who had been destined to eternal life believed,
- (JUB) and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
- (KJV) and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
- (LEB) And all those who were designated for eternal life believed.
- (LITV) And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- (MKJV) And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
- (MSG) All who were marked out for real life put their trust in God–they honoured God’s Word by receiving that life.
- (Murdock) And those believed, who were appointed to life eternal.
- (NASB) and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
- (NLT) and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.
- (RV) and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
- (TLV) and as many as had been inscribed for eternal life believed.
- (WEB) As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- (Webster) and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.
- (WNT) and all who were predestined to the Life of the Ages believed.
- (YLT) and did believe–as many as were appointed to life age-during;
Well look at that. All of the versions with the exception of one have the notion of appointed clearly stated. It is overwhelming clear. Or is it? And I am not even sure what the TLV is meaning when it translates this as those “having been inscribed for eternal life.” Perhaps this will usher in the First Church of the Holy Tattoo.
There are a number of commentators who see a balance between the two concepts “the Jews judged themselves unworthy of eternal life” vs “as many as were disposed toward eternal life”. Those who think this verse doesn’t contain the idea of predestination believe to force this verse to mean predestination is to force both the word and the context to mean something Luke did not intend. Adam Clarke, a good E-Sword commentator, believes the verb [tetagmenoi] implies disposition or readiness of mind to accept the message of eternal salvation. Clarke says there is no evidence to suggest Luke had in mind the notion of “absolutum decretum” – I.e. an absolute decree from God as to who would be Christian and who wouldn’t. Thus the idea is that there is a predisposition among these people to accept eternal life just as in these Jews there was a predisposition to reject the very thing they were waiting for having made themselves unworthy of eternal by their own hardness of heart. Hence on the other side of the coin the Gentiles are seeking God and because of their faith they predispose or pre-position themselves to accept the preaching and the offer of eternal life.
[tetagmenoi] is a middle passive which implies personal action. It comes from a military setting suggesting the Gentiles had set themselves in place (by faith) for eternal life. Even the word “ordained” is not necessarily to be interpreted in a Calvinistic way. These words can be interpreted from the point of view of the doctrine of predestination or not. Luke may perhaps be referring to the classes of Jew and Gentile in which case the Gentiles can’t possibly be interpreted as being predestined. Is this being viewed from the human side or God’s side? We need to investigate it further. We need to have a good look at this word [tetagmenoi]. I will not do that now but will give you space to do your investigation.God preordained a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.
John Calvin
This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will versus predestination.
Neal Stephenson
God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries or election predestination and divine sovereignty. These things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience.
A W Tozer
Praying into them may make theologians but it will never make saints.
A W Tozer