We've got a question here, Brother Trey, we're very thankful to have found this station.
We've enjoyed the in-depth studies.
My question is, does Galatians 1:15 hint at predestination?
A Calvinist friend of ours used this verse to try to prove their position, saying that God predestined the apostle Paul by separating and choosing him before he was born.
We don't think so, but would like clarification.
Okay, Galatians 1:15, But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, this is Paul speaking, and called me by his grace.
So, the Calvinist is saying Paul was predestined from his mother's womb.
However, this is not a literal description of his mother's womb.
The woman, the mother here, represents Jerusalem.
God separated Paul from his position as a pharisaical Jew.
Paul was separated, or Saul, I should say, was separated from the one nation, Israel's dispensation of law, and put into the ALL nations, dispensation of grace.
We can know this by reading the entire chapter.
When it's read in context, this verse becomes clear.
This sneaky Calvinist has removed it from its context.
Look at the verse that follows.
Verse 16, To reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen immediately.
See that?
So Paul said God separated him from his mother's womb, and the next verse tells us what followed that separation.
He says, I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia.
Now, if verse 15 is speaking of the literal womb of Paul's mother, then Paul came straight out the womb and went straight into Arabia, and then returned unto Damascus.
No logic whatsoever.
No, this is speaking of being separated from his former religion.
Something many have trouble doing today, by the way.
Even those in grace circles.
My wife and I have been complaining about this for years.
And it's not getting better.
It's getting worse, actually.
Those who are having trouble separating themselves from their former way of thinking.
Now, watch what Paul says here in verse 13, For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it.
This is what God separated Paul from, the Jews religion.
And in verse 14, Paul said that he profited in the Jews religion.
That too is happening today.
Those who have come to understand grace, to a degree, but still desire to prosper.
God separated Paul from all his former prophets.
Saul was famous in the Jews religion.
He was feared, revered, and most likely well off financially.
But was willing to give up his popularity that came with his former religion and counted it as BS, bulldung, as he called it in Philippians chapter 3.
So, then we come to the verse in question here, verse 15 in Paul says, "but."
So, all that we just read followed by, "but," but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace.
So, everything before the, "but," helps to set up the context of verse 15.
And this clearly is speaking of being separated from his Jewish religion and not the literal womb of his mother.
And finally, for the nail in the coffin, in chapter 4 of this same book, verse 26, he says, Jerusalem, which is above is free, which is the mother, which is the mother of us all.
So this is the mother he was referring to just three chapters earlier, Jerusalem.
Now if you turn back to chapter 1 and read verse 17, he said, Neither went I up to Jerusalem, there it is, Neither I went up to Jerusalem to them, which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus.
Now watch, verse 18, Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days.
How long was Paul separated from Jerusalem, his mother's womb?
Three years.
So there's the answer.
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