"ordained to eternal life" - retrospective anachronistic nuance

[George Antonios]

Acts 13:48 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.

This is a comprehensive study of Acts 13:48 which deals with:

1) the etymology of ordained
2) the uses of the Greek word (and derived words) behind ordained
3) the context of Acts 13:48
4) the historical context of Acts 13:48
5) the comments of Greek scholars on Acts 13:48, including scholars of the Calvinistic persuasion
6) cross-references

The conclusion is that ordained in Acts 13:48 is used in the sense of "prepared", "readied", "ordered/ranged"; a condition which I believe God achieved in their lives through exclusively external means to which the Gentiles in question positively responded by their libertarian free will.

Enjoy shooting it up.

 

[Brightfame52]

Acts 13:48 clearly sets forth election, or believing in Christ is the result/effect of having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

 

[Revmitchell]

Yea calvie proof texts always miss context

 

[Brightfame52]

Yea calvie proof texts always miss context

When people say that it means they are defeated by the scripture and are so desperate they go down swinging.

 

[Alan Gross]

You didn't have to go to all this trouble to deny any of God's Words.

Instead of, "retrospective anachronistic nuance", you could just say, "I don't believe what that says".

 

[Kai]

Acts 13:48 is an interesting one because scholars do not have a clear consensus on how to translate the verbal form of "ordained" (or appointed).

Here's the context:

Acts 13:48
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.

This is paralleled with what happened right before.

Acts 13:46
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

For the sake of argument, I can accept that the Greek word "tasso" may be translated as a passive verb. This interpretation suggests that God is the one who establishes the appointment for eternal life, which is paid for in advance. However, it is important to note that individuals can miss this appointment through their willful rejection.

In other words, the Jews missed their appointment because they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, and the Gentiles made their appointment because they gladly received the word of the Lord.

However one chooses to understand it, it is crucial to recognize that no Scripture states that anyone is appointed to eternal death.

 

[LaGrange]

Acts 13:48 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.

This is a comprehensive study of Acts 13:48 which deals with:

1) the etymology of ordained
2) the uses of the Greek word (and derived words) behind ordained
3) the context of Acts 13:48
4) the historical context of Acts 13:48
5) the comments of Greek scholars on Acts 13:48, including scholars of the Calvinistic persuasion
6) cross-references

The conclusion is that ordained in Acts 13:48 is used in the sense of "prepared", "readied", "ordered/ranged"; a condition which I believe God achieved in their lives through exclusively external means to which the Gentiles in question positively responded by their libertarian free will.

Enjoy shooting it up.

Hi George,

I agree in general on your understanding of preparation but disagree on libertarian free will. I could be misunderstanding you though.

My Short Answer to your post:

Here is my transliteration of Acts 13:48 “And the Gentiles hearing it were glad and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained (prepared), believed (full regeneration).”
I left out “to life everlasting” on purpose to try to make it more clear. Preparation is part of the order to life everlasting too because it is the initial calling period.

My Longer Answer to your post:

PREPARATION

I agree with you in general on how you look at the term “ordained”. I’m catholic so I’m going to give some of the catholic (thomist) view of predestination. Of course, this is my interpretation of the thomistic view.

St. Augustines’s defintion of predestination:
“This is the predestination of the saints,—nothing else; to wit, the foreknowledge and the preparation of God’s *kindnesses, whereby they are most certainly delivered, whoever they are that are delivered.” (St. Augustine, On the Gift of Perseverance 14.35)

* kindnesses = graces

(Preparation - you can also see this term mentioned at the Council of Trent, Session VI, on Justification, chapters 5 & 6)

Notice the term “Preparation”. I put St. Augustine’s definition here above because he uses this term. I’m retired and have studied justification most of my adult life but this term didn’t seem to mean much to me until recently when I was doing a deeper study into thomistic theology. In Acts 13:48, the term “ordered” sounds strong like compulsion but it isn’t. I think these propositions below will help see that.

Propositions regarding Preparation in logical order would be something like this:

Preparation is the large period of time before Full Regeneration (same as the initial calling period or common grace period)
Preparation is the large period of time after Full Regeneration up to glorification (same as the sanctification period - a continued calling period)
Preparation is an election to grace (Rom 11:5) [Preparation is a universal call (1 Tim 2:4)]
Preparation precedes Full Regeneration
Preparation does not cause Full Regeneration*
Preparation is the period that includes man’s conforming and resisting God’s Grace
Preparation is complete when God elects man to justification (full regeneration)
Preparation then continues until Glorification
Preparation can be sudden but is usually gradual

* or partial regeneration



An example of preparation would be John 9:6-7: “When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and spread the clay upon his eyes, 7 And said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, Sent. He went therefore and washed: and he came seeing.” (DRV)

Clay = Preparation
GAP
Washing = Baptism (cause) = seeing = Regeneration (effect)

There are many places “Preparation” is mentioned or shown in scripture but here’s where I noticed it first: Matt 3:3

LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL

I have to say no on the libertarian free Will, at least, according to how you stated it. You said by “external means” only. You must have prevenient grace (internally) during preparation. Maybe you meant that. All this is easy to make mistakes on too, sometimes unintentionally. It’s hard to put everything into one post. Maybe you said it on your video. We can talk about this and maybe come to an agreement. I appreciate your post and interest. I learn something new all the time.

 

[Kai]

I'd also like to point out that I don't think you can make a grammatical case that the Greek term for ordained or appointed (tasso) must necessarily be interpreted through a deterministic framework.

 

[Van]

I'd also like to point out that I don't think you can make a grammatical case that the Greek term for ordained or appointed (tasso) must necessarily be interpreted through a deterministic framework.

If you look at each and every usage of "tasso" in the NT, you find it always refers to an arrangement by mutual consent. Paul provided the direction, the requirement of the gospel to believe, and as many as agreed with the direction to eternal life believed. Whether you consider the verb to be passive or middle voice does not matter in the slightest, as receiving the direction is passive, and taking the direction is middle. The grammar ploy is just a smokescreed to hide the actual message of the verse.

 

[LaGrange]

Here’s a little more:

Acts 13:48 And the Gentiles hearing it were glad and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to life everlasting believed. (DRV)

5021. τάσσω tassō, tas´-so; a prol. form of a prim. verb (which latter appears only in certain tenses); to arrange in an orderly manner, i.e. assign or dispose (to a certain position or lot):—addict, appoint, determine, ordain, set.

“The words mean, that such as were disposed and divinely directed under the influence of God’s preventing graces, inspiring and strengthening them, to aspire after life everlasting, freely embraced the faith, “believed”—as one of the most essential means of attaining the object they had in view.” (MacEvilly’s Commentary)

My Comment: I still say this is part of preparation BEFORE full regeneration. We are “disposed” (Tasso) before full regeneration. I think “disposed” is the best word to use here. This is all part of God preparing us. In MacEvilly’s Commentary (above), “Preventing” graces means the same as “Prevenient” graces. “Disposed” means God bringing us to the point of being prepared to be fully regenerated. Then you are baptized (elected to justification).

In Acts 13:48, it says “hearing”. I bring this up because I am aware that most of you think “hearing”, with God’s grace, causes full or partial regeneration. This plays into how calvinists interpret “ordain” so that’s why I’m bringing it up. It takes more than hearing to be fully regenerated. We don’t believe there is such a thing as partial regeneration either. Hearing scripture doesn’t cause regeneration. Baptism does. Talk on that later. I know some will quote Rom 10:17 to support that but I would disagree with that interpretation.

Here’s my critique in the form of propositions:*

Arminians are right in that “hearing” with the heart* comes before full regeneration
Arminians are wrong in that “hearing” with the heart causes partial regeneration
Calvinists are wrong in that “hearing” with the heart cannot occur before full regeneration

* I list propositions because I think they can help make things more clear
* Hearing with the heart - all Hearing with the Heart really means is that something internal is going on with God’s Grace. You’re not just hearing audibly. It doesn’t mean you are necessarily regenerated.


EXAMPLE

Let me reason here a little:
Let’s say you are a Calvinist (reformed) and you are going to church on Sunday, you are not one of the elect so you are under common grace. Let’s also say you have been going to church on Sunday for a long time. Something had to get you to want to get up early every Sunday and go to church.* Something had to get you to go to church before you went even the first time. That had to be something internal, not external. This is Prevenient Grace. It precedes your willingness to go and frees your Will to want to do it. This Grace aids your Will. It disposed you to want to go to church. You can still resist. This is part of what we call preparation. Preparation begins even before you get to church the first time and hear any preaching. Calvinists say hearing with the heart saves at the point of full regeneration but does not prepare before. They say there is no internal grace before full regeneration. We disagree. There is Prevenient grace. We call this kind of grace actual grace most of the time.

* example: funny story - I knew a guy who’s wife went to church on Sunday but she couldn’t get her husband to go. She begged our priest to stay on him. Our priest kept after him but each time he would say, “Nothing is ever going to get in the way of my fishing on Sunday morning!”. Lol Finally, grace prevailed and he became one of the best Christian men I ever knew. My point is this: There are a lot more fun places people would rather go than sitting in a church early on Sunday mornings. Something has to be going on inside them!