The Chosen Choose God: Acts

[@zacharykeeter]

Verse.46. Then Paul and Barnabas speaking boldly, said - Those who hinder others must be publicly reproved. It was necessary - Though ye are not worthy: he shows that he had not preached to them, from any confidence of their believing, but seeing ye judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life - They indeed judged none but themselves worthy of it. Yet their rejecting of the Gospel was the same as saying, "We are unworthy of eternal life." Behold! - A thing now present! An astonishing revolution! We turn to the Gentiles - Not that they left off preaching to the Jews in other places. But they now determined to lose no more time at Antioch on their ungrateful countrymen, but to employ themselves wholly in doing what they could for the conversion of the Gentiles there. Verse.47. For so hath the Lord commanded us - By sending us forth, and giving us an opportunity of fulfilling what he had foretold. I have set thee - The Father speaks to Christ. Isaiah 49:6 . Verse.48. As many as were ordained to eternal life - St. Luke does not say fore - ordained. He is not speaking of what was done from eternity, but of what was then done, through the preaching of the Gospel. He is describing that ordination, and that only, which was at the very time of hearing it. During this sermon those believed, says the apostle, to whom God then gave power to believe. It is as if he had said, "They believed, whose hearts the Lord opened;" as he expresses it in a clearly parallel place, speaking of the same kind of ordination, Acts 16:14 , &c. It is observable, the original word is not once used in Scripture to express eternal predestination of any kind. The sum is, all those and those only, who were now ordained, now believed. Not that God rejected the rest: it was his will that they also should have been saved: but they thrust salvation from them. Nor were they who then believed constrained to believe. But grace was then first copiously offered them. And they did not thrust it away, so that a great multitude even of Gentiles were converted. In a word, the expression properly implies, a present operation of Divine grace working faith in the hearers. Calvinism is a heresy, and I'm surprised it's still being taught in the Church.

[@michaelolayo2063]

Your issue is that the Greek word for "appointed" (τεταγμένοι) is a past perfect, or even a pluperfect. This means the action of appointing was completed in the past with present consequences. It's also a passive tense, meaning that the appointing is done by someone other than the hearers themselves. Just based on this verb construction alone, it tells you that God completed the appointing to eternal life at some time in the past, and the present results of that appointment was the belief of gentiles. This is why the NASB-95 has the most accurate Translation of this verse "as many as HAD BEEN appointed." The very grammar of the greek verb proves your point wrong. But don't just take my word for it, research yourself.

[@joshuajirehsalomon6885]

@@michaelolayo2063 you consider the grammar but not the context. Typical Calvinist

[@samuelaguilar9668]

@@joshuajirehsalomon6885 you did not consider the context.

[@samuelaguilar9668]

​@@joshuajirehsalomon6885it is important to know the grammar and the context.

[@coopsawright7225]

Alleluia . What troubles me is that I was brought up in Uniting Church Aust. from age 0 and was probably preached the Gospel 1000 times but then just sang a hymn and didn't really think about it then drifted away for 30 some years without ever really grasping the importance until I had to know for sure, I even at 1 point sort of denied the Christ as just a marketing scam or something in front of fellow college students ! That bothers me a fair bit. Wanna talk about it ?

[@GroceriaNueva]

So fearful to twist God's Word to suit one's doctrine. Why would the Incarnate God suffer and die the most horrible death for the sins of the world and only to be arbitrary? 2 Peter 3:9 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. John 20:31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 2 Peter 3:16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. ,

[@johnfal1849]

This appears to be Eisegesis. It does not say they believed **because** they were appointed as you suggest at 6:30. You inserted the word "because." It simply says as many who were appointed to eternal life were the same number of those who believed, meaning they go hand in hand. There were none there appointed to eternal life who didn't believe. You must believe to have eternal life in Christ - that is the condition. Nowhere here does it indicate this appointment is unconditional. If you do not believe, you are no longer in Christ and do not inherit the gift of eternal life. John 15:6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." Romans 11:20-21 "Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either."

[@elijah4606]

The key is that "were appointed" is a past tense, passive verb. The one being appointed is being acted UPON. In a political context, we might say, "as many senators as WERE ELECTED took office upon their inauguration." The election is something that happens to the senator. The senator must still take their oath of office, just as those who are appointed must/will confess Christ. But election/appointment is something that happens to them, not something they do themselves. Furthermore, we know that it is God who "gives grace that leads to repentance" from scripture. Repentance is enabled by the Holy Spirit and man chooses to repent once he is able. Jesus says that a man must be "born again" and we're told we need a new life. Did you bring about your first life or birth? No, but someone else gave you life and birthed you. Just so, we must RECEIVE the new life and second birth just as we received our first. No one who's looking at scripture would deny the truth of Romans 10 "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Man must act. But it is only once God gives him new breath, just as he first breathed into Adam's lifeless body, that man can act in a manner pleasing to God even to repent.

[@andypietrowski6915]

@@elijah4606: perfectly stated

[@sanctuaryrain2010]

This is why I will never understand how some can be Calvanists. God knows who will choose Him, because He is God, I will never believe he designed one human being just so he can be sent to hell. That is a monster, that is not the God of the Bible.

[@johnfal1849]

Agreed!

[@elijah4606]

Does God have the right to send those to Hell whom he decides? Would he be unjust if he did so?

[@mattjacobson5123]

@@elijah4606 Yes, Elijah, he would be unjust if he did so - as the Scriptures teach . . . when we confess our sins, he is faithful (and just) to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1:9. God will never act contrary to his character. This is why ascribing all to God is a monstrous defamation of his character. John Piper expressly proclaims (consistent with his theistic determinism but contrary to Scripture) that God causes child abuse . . . this is Piper's open position. But, the Scriptures says in 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." God is just . . . in all . . . and is not the progenitor of sin anymore than he determines for the vast majority of mankind an eternity in hell and appoints a few for heaven - and why? The determinists say, 'To glorify himself'. Capricious determinism is the provenance of pagan gods, not the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

[@andypietrowski6915]

Paul anticipated your objection. I hope you take a look at Romans 9 in its entirety

[@sanctuaryrain2010]

@@elijah4606 No but he would have to rewrite some oh His Word and that will never happen.

[@zacharykeeter]

If you want to spread your Calvinistic heresy, I would suggest being less condescending in how you make your arguments. You'd probably also like to go somewhere in the Bible that stuff like this is found, because a single verse like this in the middle of Acts does not help your case.

[@elijah4606]

Rather than saying one verse is not enough, even when other verses were cited, why not give us the truth of scripture as you see it? Your words condemn but you offer no alternative and no hope to cling to.

[@andypietrowski6915]

I hope God opens your eyes someday soon and you repent of what you said and realize what God has done for you- sovereignly and without your help

[@idk-cp8qb]

Acts 13:48 presents us with ἦσαν τεταγμένοι. It is a verb + participle periphrasic: a 2 part verb like we find in English "they have heard" or "she was sent" or "I will go". In Acts 13:48 only the participle is medio-passive and that does not mean that the verb is translated as a "passive" like we understand "passive" in English. It is simply a "middle-passive voice" and to demonstrate the problem of translating the medio-pasive designation, compare it to the far more clear use of the verb in Matt 28:16 where it is Jesus who is doing the ordaining or appointing of them (His eleven). That is a "medio-passive there too and no one will argue that Jesus is being appointed in that instance. Keeping in mind that the Holy Spirit inspired the text, we assume He knows what He is doing and we can use the corpus of Scripture & the principles of good hermeneutics (including the "law of first mention") to unpack the meaning in the vocabulary, the grammar and context, not just in the immediate verse of Acts 13:48 but across the chapter and all of Scripture. Based on the other uses of the word "tasso", it's pretty safe to assume the Holy Spirit saw this debate coming: 1) The first mention of tasso is a 3rd person SINGULAR 1aorist middle passive voice, describing Jesus "appointing/or ordering" the eleven in Matt 28:26. It is the exact grammar we would need to see if God had ordained these gentiles before the beginning of the world because "ἐτάξατο" is very precisely a 3rd person SINGULAR 1aorist, completed action in the past. It is interesting too to note that "ἐτάξατο" is also "medio passive" voice of tasso but no one is arguing that Jesus is the one being appointed here... rather, He is the one who doing the verb and ordered/ appointed/ ordained them. 2) The second relevant use of the word tasso refers to "the authority ordained of God" in Romans 13:1. Here, The Holy Spirit demonstrates precisely how it should look if that ordination is of God by His use of a genitive AND the periphrastic: θεοῦ τεταγμέναι εἰσίν to indicate that someone other than the subject was responsible for that "ordination or anointing".. These two simple and clear use of the word tasso put the determinist is in a quandary in Acts 13:48 because the GENTILES are the subject of the verb, GOD is not even mentioned, and of course we have the entire context carried forward from verse 46! Instead of determinism, we see heavy duty grammar and language being used as a literary device contrasting what the Jews do in verse 46 to what the gentiles do in verse 48 and these semantics, though perhaps awkward, in BOTH verse place an UNDENIABLE heavy emphasis on the INDIVIDUAL FREE AGENCY and accountability and ETERNAL consequence of either receiving God's word or rejecting it... and to make this point the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to use language and grammar woven throughout the new testament inside and outside of the context of the point being made in verse 46/48... Determinists do NOT discuss verses 46 &48 as a whole bc when the grammar of verse 48 is put into literary and linguistic context of its contrasting verse 46 it actually KILLS Calvinism, for not only are the "elect" Jews somehow exercising some inexplicable blasphemous sovereignty of "judging themselves unworthy" but the grammar of the periphrastic in verse 48 (2 part verb construct of ἦσαν τεταγμένοι and 3rd person plural IMPERFECT + a perfect participle) very technically makes the Gentiles the subject of the verb doing the appointing... there is a 3rd person plural subject doing that verb, like it or not it is the gentiles doing that verb and because it is in the "imperfect" tense + perfect participle, it expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action I mean WOW! This is a big deal! This grammar is so consistent with the concepts that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ...that when we believe we are saved by grace through faith in Christ and we are elect IN HIM ... it is the a-chronistic ordo salutis of Ephesians 1 all tucked up in a very strange Imperfect-Perfect periphrastic verb reflecting EXACTING how the Scriptures reveal we are in fact saved by grace through faith: Jesus (not us) is the one who was elect before the beginning of the world (PERFECT) and we are being grafted-in in our belief (IMPERFECT) and all our blessings are IN JESUS. That is just what the text says... it is an IMPERFECT ACTIVE 3rd person plural of "they were being" coupled with the PERFECT Medio-Passive participle "having been appointed" Here in verse 48 we see these concepts strangely laid out DIRECTLY in the grammar with the 3rd person PLURAL Imperfect verb tense + Perfect Participle. It is a rich expression... if someone knows French, compare the imperfect conjugation of the verb esan to ils etient (Imperfect) and contrast it to Ils ont ete (Perfect) The MOST important to demonstrate to people is to notice that Acts 13:48 is the incomplete action of a periphrastic verb in time and WHO is doing that verb. Again comparing it to the French (hoping more people know French than Greek) the Calvinists are inaccurately arguing "ils ont ete" to squeeze in their theology as if the action of the verb was completed before the world began but... God is literally saying ils etient. Although we translate both instances into English as "they were"...for this purpose it would be better to just spit out the awkwardness of "they were being having been appointed" bc the imperfect tense of esan is NOT negligible and it is telling us of this ongoing action from the past...and those gentiles were the ones in the middle of doing that verb of having been appointed to eternal life just as much as the Jews were the ones "judging themselves" unworthy of it. ... and finally, one last note, we can also consider that Luke knew how to use the words προτεταγμενοι AND προοπισμενοι so if he meant preordination he could have used those verbs and named God as the One doing them!

[@idk-cp8qb]

God's offer of salvation to the Gentiles taught in Acts 13 is ALSO taught all over the place in the bible, starting in Genesis 18:18 and 22:18, all the way through Revelation 15:4 and Rev 22:2. So even if the entire page of Acts 13 was totally lost to humanity, nothing would be lost in what is taught about God, our salvation in Jesus Christ and His love and provision for ALL men to be saved by their simply believing Jesus laid down His life for the forgiveness of sins and in our faith that He rose from the dead, we are saved by His life !! Nothing God wants us to know in the bible is anchored in only a few proof texts... if you can not find multiple expressions of all doctrines, they are not biblical doctrines. In other words, it does NOT matter how you translate specific words a much as it is how you arrive at your doctrines: The bigger problem here is holding men in admiration and using these men as the miners of Scripture to arrive at doctrine. Whenever you use the teachings of men as the lens through which you understand the bible, you are going to fall into the problems of the cults and false teachings.. it is unavoidable. Sadly, Calvinism is a club and Calvinists trade books of other Calvinists among themselves like children trade pokemon cards! It is a self-perpetuating series of errors left uninterrupted by bible study bc they are so busy studying other Calvinists! The ultimate recipe for error is universal: 1. hold men (or women) in admiration 2. use the writings of those admired men/ women as the lens through which you see the bible 3. you end up with Matt 15:9 and Mark 7:7... Bible + Ellen G White= 7th Day Advent ism Bible + Joseph Smith= Mormon -sim Bible + John Calvin= Calvin ism Bible + Rabbis= Juda ism Bible + Magesterium= Catholic ism Bible + Luther= Luther ism Bible + Watch Tower Tract Society= Cult of Jehovah Witnesses They are ALL false teachings! God has ALREADY given us His chosen vessels (John17:20, Acts 9:15) to be the authors of the New Testament as the interpreters of the Scriptures that Testify of Jesus (John 5:39, 2 Tim 3:16 & 2 Peter 3:16).. so, as long as you guys just follow Jesus according to how Jesus defined what makes someone His disciple in John 8:31-32 and John 17:17, continue in His word you will know the truth and that truth will set you free because you are sanctified by the word of God, then you will be fine... BECAUSE God promised us in Deut 4:29, Proverbs 8:17, Isaiah 30:20, Jeremiah 29:13, Isaiah 55... and Jesus CONFIRMED those promises in Matt 7:7-8, Luke 11:9-10, and John 8:31-32.. if you or anyone in the whole world seek Him YOU WILL FIND HIM ... no mater what those damned Calvinists are telling you!! The condemnation of us is NOT that we do not value God's sovereignty! It is that "Light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than light bc their deeds are evil" and so they do not come to the LIGHT... it NOT that some men were chosen to be saved or damned before the beginning of the world to glorify God..but bc men love darkness rather than light!! (see ALL of John 3) so, LEARN about, BELIEVE and OBEY Jesus, lay up for yourself treasure in heaven for where you decide to put your treasure is where your HEART will be!! AGAIN, no matter what those Calvinists are trying to tell you... you actually have a choice and you need to make it! Everything I am telling you Calvinists and non-Calvinists here is biblical..these are easy to find truths woven all over the bible no matter how you translate Acts 13.... put down your John Piper books and pick up the bible: GOD LOVES YOU only the DEVIL HIMSELF is trying to convince otherwise Throw yourself into God's care, He cares for you. Surrender to HIM, be humble, TRUST GOD ... He promises to save you.. He DIED for you while you were still a sinner so most importantly: If you do NOT know with 100% certainty that Jesus SAVED YOU and that you are elect in HIM (not because of a choice God made about YOU from before the beginning of the world but because of a choice God made about JESUS from before the beginning of the world) then you are NOT SAVED! The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance... Just go learn of Jesus, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light you just need to believe Him....go sanctify God in your heart (John 17:17) and study that bible so you will be ready to give Jesus/ the WORD made flesh (logos) as the defense (apologia) of your HOPE to ALL (God HIMSELF if necessary) to show yourselves approved and believe that Jesus saved YOU (John5:24) because He did.

[@coopsawright7225]

@@idk-cp8qb That's amazing. Are you even human , bc that's like something an angel would say ?

[@coopsawright7225]

I wish I was as good at linguistics as you, that's full on man !