“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” (Acts 13:48 ESV)

At least 25 Bible versions, produced over a period of almost 400 years, either use the word appointed, ordained, destined, pre-destined, marked out by God, or chosen. Bible versions examined translations from the Greek, formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence, expanded, and paraphrase type of versions, and were produced by Protestants, Catholics, conservatives, and liberals. Every possible type of English translation/version of the Bible is represented.

Since “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. . .” (2 Tim 2:4), and since this short verse is part of ALL scripture, it would be good to examine it a bit further. Rather than include the results of a lot of study here, I would like ask two questions:

1) What does this verse tell us about the sovereignty of God in salvation?

2) How does a person’s decision to trust Christ as Lord and Savior relate to God’s sovereignty?

This is not a personal ‘position statement’ other than to assert that God is sovereign and man is responsible. Assuming those two assertions as fact, how do they mesh, and preserve the integrity of scripture?