April 14, 2010 - Acts 13:26-13:52

I couldn’t think of anything to write about for this reading so I took a closer look at it verse by verse. I tried seeing if there was anything that jumped out at me. Verse 48 ends with “All who were destined for eternal life came to believe.” That sounds a lot like something that could be quoted in argument of a predestination theology. I have never heard it used in that way so I cut and pasted that into goggle. Guess what. The first result is an entire study on this verse by a convert to Calvinism who says his conversion started with this verse. I don’t know what to think of this verse, or this section of this verse. The footnotes don’t give any aid and I don’t have a Bible in front of me so I am relying on the internet version. So, I have kept digging around and I didn’t get much help. I came across a blog that was criticizing Dave Hunt’s interpretation of this verse. Dave Hunt is a Christian who has written entire books about the Catholic Church being the whore of Babylon. But the blog itself, at least the part that interested me, on its top heading had the following phrases. Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide. I guess I can see how Bible alone and Faith alone may work, but how do grace alone and faith alone work. You can have two things alone. Looking for some discussion on this one. I don’t think the idea of predestination makes any sense when looking at Jesus’ teachings as a whole. I know God knows what is going to happen, but that does not affect our free will. How does this particular verse fit into that idea and what would be your response to a person who believes in predestination over the idea of free will.