Acts 13:48
Acts 13:44-48 (see also John 1:12-13)
The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. 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. 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.’” 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.
The big picture is that whereas the Jews rejected the Gospel, the Gentiles warmly embraced it, resulting in something worth pointing out, namely, that “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” In other words, the repentant Gentiles were given eternal life and believed. However, Calvinists infer an eternal appointment as the intended meaning, even though the passage doesn’t mention an eternal appointment, nor does it address a unique class of humanity pre-selected for salvation. The Calvinist interpretation has a few significant problems, each of which that are summarized as follows.
Calvinist, James White, explains: “Acts 13:48 shows us how much of a ‘given’ God’s sovereign work of election was to the apostles. Luke did not have to expand the thought or explain the meaning: The person who understands the power of sin that binds the unregenerate heart knows well the necessity of God’s work to ‘open the heart’ and ‘draw’ one to Christ.” (Debating Calvinism, p.381, emphasis mine)
In other words, there’s nothing from the context to support the Calvinist interpretation of the passage. Moreover, not only was the Calvinist interpretation absolutely not a “given,” but it even goes against the first 300 years of early Church teachings. There is a technical term for what White is doing. It is called eisegesis, which is: “An interpretation, especially of Scripture, that expresses the interpreter’s own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text.” (Dictionary.com) Exactly!
James Leonard comments: “Is it really valid to think that Luke is delving into some deep theological issue here, as if he were assuming some great element in the Calvinist-Arminian debate? Why not assume the more mundane statement that these Gentiles were really eager in their hearts to have a share in eternal life, in contrast to the Jews who chafed at the good news?” (Treasures Old & New, emphasis mine)
There’s literally nothing in the passage to suggest that Luke is touching upon a free-will controversy, and for that matter, when Cultists seize upon a particular passage (or clause within a passage), and build an entire theology around it (whether you’re talking about John 10:16 concerning the Mormons or Colossians 1:15 and Revelation 3:14 concerning the Jehovah’s Witnesses), we readily deem it, “taken out of context.” But when a Calvinist does it, that’s called “good exegesis.”
The Gentiles warmly received the Gospel, but when one becomes saved, the new birth (ordination to eternal life) does something more, in accompaning the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who gives converts the ability to actually perceive the kingdom of God, and hence, they “believed,” and Acts 16:30 is a similar example, in which you have the account of the conversion of the Jailor, who when witnessing a miracle, in the face of what otherwise would have meant his certain execution (for allowing the prisoners to escape), he made the following statement to Paul, when learning that he had not escaped after all: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) It’s fair to say that at that point, he warmly embraced the hope which their Gospel offered, but it doesn’t mean that he was yet a “believer” or that he had actually “believed.” Notice the rest of the passage: “They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.” (Acts 16:31-34) He went from initial faith to having “believed,” in the sense of a Born Again believer. Notice that Acts 14:23 relays something similar: “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” Their having “believed” reflected their state as a Christian. So Acts 13:48 can mean that as many as God had ordained to eternal life (in the sense of having made them Born Again), “believed,” and by that, having believed in the sense of completed conversion, such as with the elders of Acts 14:23 and the converted Jailor and his family at Acts 16:34. Initial faith vs. believer’s faith is also seen in the example of a Nobleman’s son who was on his deathbed. The father came to Jesus, believing that He was the only person who could heal him, and when Jesus told him that His son lives, he later confirmed that his son had become well at about that time. The result was the he believed, both he and his whole household: “The royal official said to Him, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son lives.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, ‘Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.’ So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, ‘Your son lives’; and he himself believed and his whole household.” (John 4:49-53) This really mirrors the account of Acts chapter 16, and again, a transition had taken place, from being warm reception of Christ, to having believed. Going back to Acts 13:48, we see the Gentiles being excited about the Gospel, expressed in the form of praising God for the good news that God loved them, and with the result of something happening, some conviction, in which they had gone from a warm reception of Christ, to having believed, just like the Jailor and Nobleman.
John Wesley comments: “As many as were ordained to eternal life. Luke does not say ‘foreordained.’ 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 16:14ff.). 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 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.” (John Wesley’s Commentary on the Bible, p.483, emphasis mine)
This addresses the second point, concerning the Calvinist dilemma at Acts 13:48. There’s nothing in the context to indicate anything other than a present ordination, rather than a foreordination.
The answer to each True/False question is False. Nowhere else in the book of Acts is this expression used. Nowhere in the context of Acts chapter 13 is the meaning revealed, and Luke does not explicitly define when they were ordained. By virtue of each of these things, Acts 13:48 becomes a legitimately difficult passage to interpret. But what often concerns me is when theologians are confronted with a particular theological hurdle, that they want to use their knowledge of the natural languages (Hebrew or Greek), so suggest that the text means something other than what your Bible states, and they justify this by saying that mere men translated Scripture from the Hebrew and Greek into English, which is true (Bible translating committees), and they are merely doing the same. That’s a bit troublesome, and then it becomes a crutch, as any obstacle is solved by retooling the original text. For instance, at Revelation 3:14, “beginning” becomes “Beginner,” and the problem is solved. There’s no need to dig into the context and do any real investigative work. Just use the Greek. Rework it. Problem solved. “Beginner.”
John Calvin comments: “By these same words Luke also teaches that none of the elect can perish, for he says that not just one or two of the elect believed, but all who were elect. Although God’s adoption is unknown to us until we perceive it by faith, there is no uncertainty about it in his secret plan. All those he regards as his own are committed to the Son for safety and for teaching, and he will keep them faithfully to the end.” (Acts: Calvin, Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.229, emphasis mine)
And that’s problem #3 for the Calvinist interpretation of Acts 13:48. Essentially, the Calvinist interpretation means that there couldn’t have been any second chances, insomuch as all of the Calvinistically elect ones believed. So if anyone (from among that group) didn’t believe on that day, and in that setting, must not have been among one of the Calvinistically elect ones. In other words, there’s no one who heard the message and rejected it, but later accepted it and became a Christian, and if they did, you’d need to watch them very carefully because they’d have to be a fake. Of course, that has to raise a red flag, as Shank points out:
Arminian, Robert Shank, explains: “All who assume that tetagmenoi in Acts 13:48 implies that those who believed the Gospel at that particular time and place did so as the consequence of an eternal decree of unconditional particular election unwittingly embrace a second assumption, completely absurd: all present in the synagogue who ever were to believe the Gospel did so at once; there could be no further opportunity to consider the Gospel, and no man who failed to believe that moment could ever subsequently believe. A preposterous assumption! Such a pattern fits neither the case of Paul himself nor the universal experience of the Church through all generations.” (Elect in the Son, p.187, emphasis mine)
The alternative, Arminian conclusion, is that there very well may have been people who heard the message and rejected it, though later repented and became saved. Ultimately, then, those who became saved on this day, believed, testifying to the kind of Christians that resulted from this outreach.
Joseph Benson explains: “For if the reason why these person believed was only, or chiefly this, that they were ordained to believe, and obtain eternal life, then the reason why the rest believed not must be only, or chiefly this, that they were not so ordained by God. And, if so, what necessity could there be, that the word of God should first be preached to them, verse 46. Was it only that their damnation might be greater? This seems to charge that lover of souls, whose tender mercies are over all his works, with the greatest cruelty, as it makes him determine from all eternity, not only that so many souls, as capable of salvation as any others, shall perish everlastingly, but also that the dispensations of his providence shall be such toward them, as shall necessarily tend to the aggravation of their condemnation. And what could even their most malicious enemy do more?” (The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Vol. 1, p.772, emphasis mine)
Benson adds: “Further, the apostle gives this reason, why he turned from the Jews to the Gentiles, that the Jews had thrust the word of God from them, and judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, verse 46; whereas, according to this doctrine, this could be no sufficient reason of his turning from them to the Gentiles; for it was only they among the Jews whom God had not ordained to eternal life, who thus refused to believe, and obey the word of God. And as many among the Gentiles as were not thus ordained must necessarily do the same; and so there could be no sufficient reason why he should turn to the Gentiles on that account. Once more, ‘If as many as [in that assembly] were ordained to eternal life, believed under that sermon of Paul, [when almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God,] it follows, that all who believed not then were eternally shut up in unbelief: and that all the elect believed at once; that they who do not believe at one time, shall not believe at another; and that when Paul returned to Antioch, few souls, if any, could be converted by his ministry; God having at once taken as many as were ordained to eternal life, and left all the rest to Satan.” (The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Vol. 1, p.772, emphasis mine)
Benson concludes: “The sum is: All those, and only those, now believed, who yield to, instead of resisting the convictions produced in their minds by the preaching of the truth, and the influence of the grace of God, which truth was preached with equal clearness to others, and which grace, in a similar way, visited and strove with others: for God had not reprobated the rest. It was his will that they also should have been saved, but by yielding to inclinations, affections, and passions, which they themselves knew to be sinful, and to which they were under no necessity of yielding, they rejected the counsel of God against themselves, and thrust salvation from them. For they who then repented and believed were not constrained so to do, but grace and mercy were then freely and copiously offered to them, and pressed upon them, and they did not put it away, but yielded to its influence. So that a great multitude, even of such as, it seems, had been idolatrous Gentiles, were converted.” (The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Vol. 1, p.773, emphasis mine)
Although “disposed to eternal life, believed” may be a grammatically possible construction, especially in lieu of 1st Corinthians 16:15, I do not believe that it is the correct interpretation. There are two other passages that are similar to the expression: “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”
Acts 2:46-47: “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
This is why I believe that being “ordained to eternal life” means being “saved.” In the next expression, we see the result of salvation:
Acts 11:19-21: “So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”
Those who believed (and were saved) became believers, in the sense of having “turned to the Lord.” One thing that is clear is that there is no eternal “decree” in these expressions. In my opinion, Luke is simply looking back and saying that as many as were “saved” on that day, or from that sermon, had become devout (that is, they “turned to the Lord” as per Acts 11:21). So when these Gentiles had glorified the word of the Lord, I infer that they had opened their hearts to Christ (Revelation 3:20), with the result that they had thus received eternal life, and with this new life “believed,” that is, in the sense of having turned to the Lord. Is it a stretch? Each version has its challenges, solely because the expression at Acts 13:48 is not expanded upon, and thus our reliance upon context, and also parallel expressions, is absolutely crucial to an accurate interpretation.
George Bryson writes: “...if you show me someone ordained to eternal life, I will show you a believer.” (The Darkside of Calvinism, p.133)
Bryson also writes: “Faith is a characterization of being a Christian. In other words, if you were a Christian or one of Christ’s disciples, you would believe in Christ. No matter what else may be said of a Christian, a disciple of Christ, or one of Christ’s sheep, it can be said that they believe.” (The Darkside of Calvinism, p.360)
I believe that Acts 13:48 is an illustration of John 1:12: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” As many as had received Christ, that is, as many as had glorified the word of the Lord, the Holy Spirit thus ordained to eternal life, in the sense of sealing them in Christ and making them Born Again. Thus I infer that these “believed” in the sense of having been converted. Therefore, I see this passage as also being similar to Acts 2:37-47, in that the legacy of those saved on that day, in which 3,000 souls were added to the kingdom of God (v.41), were a group of sold-out believers who “turned to the Lord.” (Acts 11:21)
Being “ordained to eternal life” requires an Ordainer and an Ordination. The Ordainer is the Holy Spirit. The Ordination is God’s act of indwelling, sanctifying and sealing a person with the Holy Spirit in the new birth. That is how one becomes in Christ. Ephesians 1:13-14 states: “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” Jesus stated: “Whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” (John 3:15) The ordination to eternal life is an ordination that occurs upon opening the door to Christ (Revelation 3:20) and the Spirit of Christ comes in to sanctify you. (1st Peter 1:2-3) You are made Born Again with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1st Corinthians 3:16), and are made into a new creature. (2nd Corinthians 5:17)
John Calvin writes: “...all those who are preordained to life believe.” (Acts: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.279, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “...only those are illumed to faith who were predestined to life according to the eternal good pleasure of God.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.158, emphasis mine)
This gets right back to the idea of a fore-ordination.
Calvinist, John MacArthur, states: “The only people who believe are those who’d been appointed to eternal life. God only grants the gift of faith to those who are predestined to salvation. He chose us. And to those He has chosen, He gives the power to believe.” (Understanding Election, emphasis mine)
Again, this gets right back to the idea of a fore-ordination.
Calvinist, John Piper, comments: “Notice, it does not say that as many believed were chosen to be ordained to eternal life. The prior election of God is the reason some believed while others did not.” (What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism, emphasis mine)
Calvinists are fixed on inferring an eternal aspect to the ordination.
John Calvin writes: “...before the beginning of the world we were both ordained to faith and also elected to the inheritance of heavenly life. Hence arises impregnable security. The Father who gave us to the Son as His peculiar possession is stronger than all, and will not suffer us to be plucked out of His hand.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.57, emphasis mine)
If the ordination of Acts 13:48 really means a fore-ordination, in that the elect [in the Father] have been pre-ordained from before the foundation of the world to become saved, then why doesn’t it say so? When the Bible intends to convey the meaning of a fore-ordination, it either says so directly (1st Peter 1:20), or inserts the word “before.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Since Acts 13:48 did not reference a “before” ordination (Ephesians 2:10), or an “of old” ordination (Jude 4), or a “foreordination” (1st Peter 1:20), it is reasonable to conclude that this very well may have been a present-working of the Holy Spirit.
Calvinist, James White, writes: “Acts 13:48 uses a construction that indicates that the action had been taken in the past and was completed in the past.” (Debating Calvinism, p.96, emphasis mine)
However, as has been shown, when the writer intends to suggest an eternal foreordination, they use the methods found at 1st Peter 1:20, Ephesians 2:10 and Jude 4. Therefore, you may ask the Calvinist: Why were such methods not similarly employed at Acts 13:48, if that was what Luke had intended?
John Calvin writes: “Why was the same doctrine not received by the minds of all? Luke draws the line of definition: Because not all were ordained to life. Whence comes this disposition, but of God alone? Those who suggest that they were ordained by the motion of their own hearts deserve no more refutation than those who say the world was created by itself.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.104, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, James White, adds: “Sinful men do not ‘ordain’ themselves to eternal life. God alone chooses His sheep.” (Debating Calvinism, p.380, emphasis mine)
No, because that is the work of the Holy Spirit, when He seals the believer. (Ephesians 1:13)
Calvinistic, James White, comments: “This divine appointment obviously precedes and brings about the act of faith. God has appointed them to eternal life, and they believe. Obviously, this statement touches upon not only unconditional election, but upon irresistible grace as well.” (Debating Calvinism, p.96, emphasis mine)
An alternative Arminian interpretation is that as many as were saved, believed, speaking of the fruit of the New Birth.
John Calvin comments: “Note the limitation. It is not the people who were well-disposed to the Gospel who believed, but those God had appointed in his eternal plan. And Luke does not say that they were appointed for faith but for eternal life. This verse teaches that faith depends on God’s choice. Since the whole human race is blind and stubborn, those faults remain fixed in our nature until they are corrected by the grace of the Spirit, and that comes only from election. Two people may hear the same teaching together; yet one is willing to learn, and the other persists in his obstinacy. They do not differ in nature, but God illumines one and not the other. We are, indeed, made God’s children by faith--faith is for us the door and beginning of salvation; but there is something deeper with God. He does not begin to choose us after we believe, but by the gift of faith he seals the adoption that was hidden in our hearts and makes it manifest and sure.” (Acts: Calvin, Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.229, emphasis mine)
Thus you have Calvinism, in that the alleged “deeper” thing, is that you were already saved, such that faith simply makes you aware of a “hidden” eternal adoption.
Here is a Blog discussion on this verse.
Question: When it says that they “heard this,” what did they hear?
Answer: The whole city assembled to “hear the word of the Lord.” (v.44)
Question: What supernatural thing happens when a person hears “the word of Christ”?
Answer: They receive “faith.” Romans 10:17 states: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Question: So what did the Holy Spirit do?
Answer: He made them into believers, and filled them with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, ordained as Born Again, new creatures in Christ (2nd Corinthians 5:17), by sealing them in Christ through the ordination to eternal life, just as Ephesians 1:13 states: “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
Question: What happens to people when they are saved?
Answer: Among other things, the Holy Spirit gives them a measure of faith. Romans 12:3 states: “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
Question: What did these people do with the faith received from the new birth?
Answer: They “believed.”
Question: What did these people do after receiving faith from the Gospel?
Answer: They were “glad, and glorified the word of the Lord.”
Question: What is it that they “believed”?
Answer: It doesn’t say.
Question: Why doesn’t it say?
Answer: Perhaps because it implies what they had become, that is, believers.
Acts 14:23: “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” (perpetual state)
Acts 4:32: “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.” (perpetual state of believing)
Acts 15:5: “But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.’” (perpetual state of believing)
Acts 19:18: “Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.” (perpetual state of believing)
Acts 21:25: “And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.” (perpetual state of believing)
Acts 22:19: “And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.’” (perpetual state of believing)
Question: What did God the Father decree at John 3:16 for all who believe in His Son?
Answer: “Eternal life.” God did what He said He would do, and appointed them to eternal life.
Question: Is this saying that those who were “ordained to eternal life” believed and then became saved?
Answer: In order make Acts 13:48 teach Calvinism, here is how it would need to read, or at least be understood: “...and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed [and became saved].” Arminianism teaches that they were saved when they first heard and “glorified the word of the Lord,” and by becoming ordained to eternal life through new birth, by the Holy Spirit, they believed, meaning that they became believers. These were not theologians. They were idol-worshipping Gentiles, who wholeheartedly received the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus were given “eternal life” by being sealed in Christ through the new birth, and from that time forward, they believed.
According to Calvinism, the world is made up of eternally elect sheep and eternally reprobate goats, and that Acts 13:48 reveals that the sole reason why the “sheep” believe is because they were eternally decreed to believe. However, the Calvinist interpretation of Acts 13:48 forces a rather odd conclusion, which is that there could not have been anyone who disbelieved on that day, but who later repented and became saved.
Question: When the Bible intends to infer an eternal ordination, how is it expressed?
Answer: By pre-fixing “fore,” “before” or “before of old”
1st Peter 1:20: “Who [Jesus] verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” [KJV]
Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” [KJV] (God’s eternal plan for Christians)
Jude 4: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” [KJV]
Therefore, if Luke had wished to make it clear that Acts 13:48 had a pre-ordination in mind, he could have said: 1) foreordained to eternal life, 2) ordained of old unto eternal life, or 3) before ordained to eternal life. If Luke had intended an eternal ordination at Luke 13:48, why didn’t he use any of the aforementioned methods?
Calvinists sometimes give the impression that there is only one kind of ordination: fore-ordination. But what about present tense ordinations, such as ordaining a minister to the ministry? Acts 14:23 which states: “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” A present-tense ordination is what I gather from Acts 13:48, of the Holy Spirit ordaining people in the body of Christ.
At Acts 13:48, most Calvinists read “ordained” but see fore-ordained.
True or False: Luke uses the expression “ordained to eternal life,” in one other passage in the book of Acts.
Answer: ?
True or False: Luke explained what he meant by the expression, “ordained to eternal life” in the context of the passage?
Answer: ?
True or False: Luke defines when they were “ordained to eternal life”?
Answer: ?
I do not believe that the passage means “disposed to eternal life.”
I do not believe that it means “predestined to eternal life,” either.
I do not believe foreknowledge is a subject matter in this text.
I do not believe that this passage refers to any kind of “decree.”
Hence, the Calvinistic paraphrase: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and honored the word of the Lord: and as many as were [elect] believed [and became saved].”
Acts 2:47: Adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Acts 11:21: A large number who believed turned to the Lord.
Acts 13:48: As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Here is the sequence that I infer from Acts 13:48:
1) The Jews rejected the Gospel (i.e. judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, as per Acts 13:46).
2) The Gentiles instead received the Gospel (i.e. “glorifying the word of the Lord,” Acts 13:46, and thus were conversely, worthy of eternal life, and by worthy, I mean solely by imputed righteousness, which comes through faith in Christ, and results in being able to come boldly to the throne of God).
3) The Holy Spirit thus sealed these Gentiles in Christ (i.e. present tense ordination to eternal life where the Holy Spirit gives them New Birth as Born Again). I’m inferring that being “ordained to eternal life” means being made Born Again.
4) As a result of having been made Born Again (ordained to eternal life), they believed, that is, believed from the sense of having become believers (i.e. the NLT paraphrase: “and all who were appointed to eternal life became believers”). Concerning the effects of New Birth, Jerry Vines explains: “the new-birth experience puts into our heart a desire really and actually to do what God wants.” (Exploring 1-2-3 John, p.49) Thus, those who opened their hearts to Christ and glorified the Gospel message, were given eternal life, and were instilled with the new nature of a believer, with the result that there emerged from that day, a throng of devout proselytes for the Lord.
Question: Who does the Ordination to Eternal life?
Answer: The Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:13)
Question: What does being “ordained to eternal life” mean, and what does it mean that these “believed”?
So what does this passage really mean? What is it talking about?
The King James Version states: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
Question: What does it mean to be “appointed” or “ordained to eternal life”?
Answer: I understand Acts 13:48 to mean: As many as had been made Born Again, believed, in the sense of having been converted as believers.
To summarize, there are 4 main problems with the Calvinistic interpretation of Acts 13:48:
1. The context isn’t teaching Calvinism at Acts 13:48. The Calvinist has to presume that the latter portion of v.48 is simply a passing remark, alluding to a secret group, and assuming that the readers understood it perfectly and without controversy. James White writes: “Acts 13:48 shows us how much of a ‘given’ God’s sovereign work of election was to the apostles. Luke did not have to expand the thought or explain the meaning: The person who understands the power of sin that binds the unregenerate heart knows well the necessity of God’s work to ‘open the heart’ and ‘draw’ one to Christ.” (Debating Calvinism, p.381, emphasis mine) This would be particularly odd, since the first 300 years of early Church history was absent of the ideals of Calvinism (being pre-Augustine). John Calvin credited Augustine for his ideals, but who did Augustine credit? John Calvin stated that if you wished to give a summary of his beliefs on predestination, he could simply quote Augustine. Yet, who could Augustine quote? In other words, there was no one teaching this in the first 300 years of early Church history, and yet according to James White, it was the natural understanding. So things don’t add up there.
2. Arminians such as John Wesley made note of the fact that the text does not mention an eternal ordination. Calvinists will counter-argue that the Greek construction indicates a past event, but it remains that any mention of an eternal activity is simply missing from the text. The Calvinist simply has to infer it.
3. The Calvinist interpretation would not be indicative of any known event in the history of the Church, in which certain people had no hope of salvation when presented with the Gospel. Even those who crucified Jesus had a second chance to be saved. (Acts 2:37-39) But according to the Calvinist interpretation of Acts 13:48, no one who left that sermon on that day, as an unbeliever, had any hope of ever being saved, because according to the Calvinist interpretation of Acts 13:48, all of the elect believed that day, not one, not two, but all of them, in that setting, hearing that message. So I would challenge the Calvinists to produce another example of that, in the entire span of Church history. Moreover, Calvinists would have to assume that the author had a special revelation from the Holy Spirit of this absolutely unique glimpse into the mystery of secret election. Otherwise, how would the author know who the Calvinistically elect were? Even Calvinists admit that they don’t know who the Calvinistically elect are. So how did the author know it, apart from special revelation, and why wouldn’t there have been a bigger deal made of it? After all, if it’s a unique moment in all of Church history, when the Calvinistically elect all simultaneously believed, then why mention it in passing, as if it was just some innocuous statement? Imagine if you were in the audience that day, in the Acts 13:48 sermon, and didn’t believe, but later did come to saving faith. What would you have to conclude about yourself? You’d have to conclude that you weren’t really one of the secret elect. Now of course, Calvinists would insist that this is an unrealistic hypothetical, but it goes to show what an oddity it would be, that in this instance, there could be no second chances for those who left that day, unbelieving. What significance would it be that all of the alleged, secret elect being present, had come to faith from that sermon? So a lot doesn’t add up there.
4. The fact that “as many as been ordained to eternal life believed” is given without any clarification from the author as to what that meant, and given how otherwise controversial it would be, lends support to the notion that the author had a much simpler and innocent intention for understanding these words, and one such simple understanding is that those whom God ordained to eternal life, that is, those that He made Born Again, believed, and believed in the sense of what comes with being a Christian, that is, receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a desire to do God’s will. In other words, it was a fruitful conversion.
