ACTS 4 : 28 by J. O. Corliss

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 20, 1879

By J. O. Corliss

This text is as follows: “For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” Some have found it difficult to harmonize this language with the idea of man’s free agency, but the difficulty may be readily removed by taking into consideration the particular point aimed at in the united testimony of the apostles. They did not on that occasion render praise because Herod, Pilate, and the Jewish people had taken the life of Jesus; but because in the death of Christ was accomplished that which the hand and counsel of God had before determined,—the opening of a fountain of life to mankind.

This view relieves the text of every apparent difficulty; yet the persistent objector arises and says, “Well, some one had to do that work, and whoever did it was only doing what God designed should be done.” But because God had before determined that Jesus should die for the sins of the world, it does not necessarily follow that those particular persons were fore-ordained to engage in the work of taking his life. Admit that they were, and the Bible immediately becomes a book filled with inconsistencies of the grossest character; since it tells us that sin unrepented of shuts one out of Heaven, and at the same time makes murder one of the most heinous crimes chargeable to mankind.

Now if it be true that those men did just what God ordained that they should do, it must be acknowledged that they were doing his will just as truly as were the followers of Christ, and their conduct was therefore as meritorious as that of the apostles. It would, then, seem very inconsistent for Peter on the day of Pentecost to upbraid them for killing the “Prince of life,” and more so for them to repent of having done the will of God, and in consequence receive baptism at the hands of the apostles.

How, then, shall we account for the part they each acted in the great tragedy, if their course was not fore-ordained, since it was determined that Jesus should die for the sins of the world? They acted out the promptings of their own perverse wills, stimulated by religious enthusiasm. As a teacher and reformer, Jesus exposed the corruptions and reproved the popular errors of the day. Not being able to refute his doctrines, the priests appealed to religious prejudice by misrepresenting his statements, and thus the people were gradually prepared to demand his death at the hands of Pilate and Herod, who, from selfish motives, yielded; and the deed was done. The fact that the deed was committed at that particular time and by that particular people argues nothing, since the same causes would have produced the same results at any other time or with any other people, as is plainly demonstrated by the religious bigotry and intolerance of succeeding generations, the results of which no one would think of attributing to any other cause than to the carrying out of the inclinations of a wilful, unregenerate heart.

J. O. Corliss.

ACTS 4 : 28.