If as Many as Were Ordained to Eternal Life Believed, Is It Not Also Correct to Say as Many as Were Not Ordained to Eternal Life Did Not Believe?
1) Direct Answer
No. Scripture never says God ordains anyone to unbelief. It says those ordained to life believe. Those who do not believe “judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life” by rejecting the Light. Their unbelief proves they are not His sheep, but their condemnation is for their refusal—not because God blocked them.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Acts 13:48 states the positive: “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Just two verses earlier, Acts 13:46 says the rejecters “put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.” That’s the cause Scripture gives.
- John 5:40: “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Willful refusal.
- John 3:19: “Light is come… and men loved darkness rather than light.” Love of darkness, not lack of access.
- John 6:37: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” No seeker is barred.
- John 10:26–27: “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep… My sheep hear my voice.” The sheep-believing connection stands; unbelief exposes who they are, it doesn’t make God the author of their unbelief.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12: they “received not the love of the truth… that they all might be damned who believed not the truth.” God gives them over after they refuse.
- Romans 1:20–21: they are “without excuse” for suppressing the truth.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- From God’s side: all He ordained to life will certainly believe (Acts 13:48; John 6:37).
- From man’s side: the lost perish because they reject the light they had (Acts 13:46; John 3:19).
- Therefore, while it is descriptively true that those not ordained to life remain in unbelief, it is wrong to infer that God ordained them to unbelief. Their unbelief is their own choice; God’s judgment confirms what they chose.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, if God were barring willing seekers, why does Jesus promise to receive any who come? He saves by sovereign grace, and He judges for willful unbelief. That’s the mystery—no contradiction in God at all.
Existing Follow-Up Answers
- Is It God That Caused or Made the Believer to Choose to Believe?
1) Direct Answer Yes—God is the author of the believer’s faith. He draws, reveals, and quickens the heart so that the believer willingly chooses
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Voice of the Sign
64-0321E §90
...ll, your kidneys? God bless you, just go right on. I don't heal. I can't heal. I'm not a healer. What'd you think when He said about his back? Do you believe yours got well too? All right. Just go believe it then. Just go believe it with all your heart. Yours also? Do you believe that God makes you well? Go believe it with all your heart. God'll grant it. If you ... you have to believe it, though. Do you believe that God'll make you well too? [Praise the Lord, I sure do.] God bless you. Just move right along, and b...
All Things
62-1124E §63
Man sitting over here in the corner, he's suffering with a stomach trouble; got complications with it. He isn't from here. He's from Texas. Do you believe God knows you? I don't. Would it help you, if the same God could ... that said, "Your name is Simon," Mr. Summons? Now you can return to Texas, and get well of your stomach trouble, if you believe it. There's a man sitting here's bothered with sinus. I don't know him, never seen him. He's from Shreveport. Mr. Wallace, you believe? Is that true? Raise up your hand...
Believest thou this?
50-0115 §18
Now, Jesus, when He was born, He was... I believe that all gifts are foreordained, the foreknowledge of God. You believe that? I believe it. I believe there's nothing that you work yourself up to, or anything that one person could give to another. I do not believe in that. I don't say it couldn't be so. My belief wouldn't change God's program. But I can't see it in the Scriptures. To base it in all that I preach, and believe, must have a... I must have a--something behind it, in other words, to make faith out of it...
What is that in your hand?
55-1120 §99
Come. Do you believe? You got a real nervous condition. It's causing you to have many things wrong. One thing is a gurgitation in your stomach. You got stomach trouble. It's caused from a nervous condition. Your foods, greases and things, certainly doesn't agree with you. That is true. Do you believe now? I'm getting very weak. Would you just come here? Father, I bless the woman who Thou ... doesn't ... do this miracle on. May she be healed in Jesus' name. Amen. Don't doubt; just believe it. Would you come, lady? [...
Why are people so tossed about?
56-0101 §44
See, I believe that you believe unto everlasting life. I believe that your acceptance of the Lord Jesus gives you everlasting eternal life when you believe it. Then I believe, by one Spirit then you're baptized into the body of believers. (We're going to get to it in a few minutes, if God willing.) You believe unto life. Paul said, passing through the upper coast of Ephesus, finding certain disciples, he said, "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you have believed?"