READING TIME: 2-4 MINUTES
April 6, 2020
Appointed to eternal life in Acts 13:48?
Part 1
Acts 13:46-48. 46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us,
‘I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES,
THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (NASB).
The Calvinists use Acts 13:48 to try to prove God elected only certain people for salvation. Let’s look at the context. Verse 26 says some “rejected” the gospel, thus forfeiting an opportunity for everlasting life. This verse, however, does not say rejection was all they could do. Acts 13:48 says, as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Two questions are vital here:
1. When were they appointed?
2. By whom were they appointed?
The Calvinists’ point of view is that people can believe only if God had appointed them to eternal life in eternity past. Therefore, a person’s ability to believe is conditioned on a divine appointment (election). Also, Reformed theologians emphasize that since God is sovereign, if He appointed certain people to believe, they will all believe.
God has decided to save mankind and He has determined that the reception of this salvation is conditioned upon faith in His Son.
As I mentioned above, in this case, Reformed theologians wrongly make two assumptions. (1) that God was the one who appointed the ones to believe, and (2) He appointed them to believe in eternity past. The text doesn’t teach either of those two things. This is another excellent example of what happens when you force your theology into the text, as opposed to getting your theology from the text.
In 13:45-46, Paul gave them a genuine offer of eternal life and he gave them enough evidential and scriptural reasons why they should believe. The Jews opposed the things spoken by Paul, leading the apostle to announce, “since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” Their problem was self-judgment: judge yourselves unworthy indicates that in effect they appointed themselves, not to eternal life, but its opposite, eternal or second death. They in effect then appointed themselves to eternal death when they rejected Paul’s message.
I think it’s very interesting that the Reformed theologians quote verse 48, but they very rarely ever quote verse 46, which doesn’t say the hearers were appointed to eternal death, but they appointed themselves.
The Calvinist interpretation is difficult to support. It makes the rejection of the unbelieving Jews the result of God’s lack of a saving interest in them and His choice beforehand to unconditionally reject them. The Calvinists would have us believe that the Gentiles only believed the gospel because they had been unconditionally appointed or ordained to eternal life. This is not in harmony with the Scripture.
Verse 48 does not support total inability, as many Calvinists teach. On the contrary, it shows unbelievers happily seeking (they begged that Paul’s preaching might be preached to them) the Lord. In this verse, it was the Gentiles who were appointed to eternal life (we’ll see below that there is another way this phrase can be translated) and they glorified the Lord’s word. These unbelievers positioned or appointed themselves to receive gladly the truth which resulted in eternal life.
Even if we do translate the phrase in verse 48 as “had been appointed,” it doesn’t say that they believed because they were appointed to eternal life. Nothing is said in this verse or anywhere in the Scripture that says or suggests that an appointment to eternal life causes faith. The key question here is not when they were ordained or appointed to eternal life (i.e., eternity versus time), but why they were ordained or appointed to eternal life.
The Bible teaches that everyone that is appointed or ordained to eternal life is appointed or ordained to eternal life because God in Christ provides and offers salvation to all who through faith turn to Christ for salvation.