Does God Appoint People to Believe (Acts 13:48)?

Calvinists say that God appoints people to believe the gospel. They base this on Acts 13:48, which says:

“Now when the Gentiles heard this [the gospel], they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

According to Calvinists, this passage shows that the reason people believe the gospel is because God appointed them to believe. And what happens to the rest? Well, they perish. But is this really what this passage is teaching…or is there something more going on here? I think it’s clearly the latter.

The Context

In Acts 13, Paul was preaching to the Jews of his day, and they “became filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 13:45). Then Paul said:

“It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you [Jews] first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth’” (Acts 13:46-47).

Then the passage goes on to say: “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

The Meaning

I think the point is simply this: Since the Jews rejected the gospel—as it says in v. 46—the apostles turned to the Gentiles because (1) the gospel had been prophesied to go out to the Gentiles, as it says in v. 47; and (2) there were plenty of Gentiles around with hearts open to the gospel.

The Gentile Cornelius was one of these people. Four chapters earlier, Peter had described Cornelius, who was not a Jew—or a Christian yet—as “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:1-2). And Cornelius’ prayers were heard (Acts 10:31). Keep in mind, God does not hear the prayers of the unrighteous (John 9:31, James 5:16). Peter then said about such Gentiles:

“In every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10:35).

Therefore, it was Gentiles like Cornelius—who were already accepted by God (as the passage says) and thus already appointed to eternal life—who believed the gospel when they heard it.

So Acts 13:48 is not about God appointing totally depraved people to believe, rather, it’s about those Gentiles who were already appointed to eternal life—people like Cornelius—believing the gospel when they heard it.

By Alex Polyak, Answering Calvinism, 12/24/25