Did God predestine some people to disobey him? 1 Peter 2:8 seems to sound that way: “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” Let’s begin by looking at the context of this verse.
God’s Plan for Those Who Believe in Jesus
Going back to verse 4, Peter first writes about what happens when people come to Jesus: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up to be a spiritual house.” Jesus is the precious cornerstone which God has chosen to be the foundation of his people—his living temple. Therefore, those who come to him are securely established in him, as stones built upon a firm cornerstone.
Peter then cites Isaiah 28:16 to show that it has always been God’s plan to securely establish everyone who believes in his Son: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So in verses 4 to 6, Peter is clearly focused on what God has planned to do for believers in relation to his Son. God predestined (decided in advance) that his Son would be the cornerstone, and he predestined to spare from shame “whoever believes in him” (Isa. 28:16). Peter wants the believers to whom he is writing to understand that this is the result of their coming to Jesus.
Believers are honored and protected from shame because they trust in Christ, and this is what God always planned to do for all who believe in his Son.
In verse 7, Peter adds, “So the honor is for you who believe.” Believers are honored and protected from shame because they trust in Christ, and this is what God always planned to do for all who believe in his Son.
God’s Plan for Those Who Do Not Believe in Jesus
In the rest of the passage, Peter contrasts the fate of those who have believed in Christ with the fate of those who do not believe: “The honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe…”
Peter begins by citing two more Old Testament verses: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22); “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” (Isaiah 8:14). By putting these verses side-by-side, Peter is saying, “God planned in advance that his Son Jesus Christ would be rejected, but God also planned to then exalt his Son to be the source of destruction for the very people who reject him!” It’s a sad irony—the builders discarded Christ as an unfit cornerstone, only to stumble over him and be destroyed!
It is a divinely ordained irony that after rejecting Christ as the Rock of Salvation, the disobedient are destroyed by Christ as the Rock of Stumbling.
Peter’s point is that it is a divinely ordained irony that after rejecting Christ as the Rock of Salvation, the disobedient are destroyed by Christ as the Rock of Stumbling. God does not wish for any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9), and often desired to gather the Jews as a hen gathers her brood under her wings (Mt. 22:37). However, when people are “not willing” (Mt. 22:37) because they “always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51), it pleases God for them to stumble over the very same Rock whom they have rejected.
This brings us to the verse in question: “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” In context, Peter does not mean that the disobedient were destined to disobey, or that their disobedience was inevitable because it was God’s will. Rather, Peter means that the disobedient were destined to stumble (over Christ), because God ordained that Christ would be the Rock of stumbling for whoever disobeys.
Destined To Do… What?
One reason why people come to 1 Peter 2:8 and stumble (pun intended) is that the grammar in many English Bible translations is ambiguous (unclear, allowing for various interpretations). Consider three popular Bible translations:
- CSB, “They stumble because they disobey the word; they were destined for this.”
- NASB, “they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this they were also appointed.”
- ESV, “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”
Destined for… what? Appointed to… what? Destined to do… what? Many people assume that the answer is “disobey” simply because it is closest to “destined” in the word order of the sentence. However, the grammar actually allows for three possible readings:
- “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to disobey.”
- “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to stumble.”
- “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to stumble because they disobey the word.”
In other words, the phrase “as they were destined to do” could modify (1) “disobey,” (2) “stumble,” or (3) the entire preceding thought (they stumble because they disobey).
Some English translations clearly prefer Option 2: God destined the stumbling. For example, the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) says, “They stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this stumbling they were also appointed.” Bill Mounce (the New Testament chair of the ESV translation committee) also seems to take this approach in his own translation: “They stumble, as they were destined to do, since they do not obey the word” (MOUNCE).
My personal view is that Option 3 is best: the final phrase modifies the entire preceding thought (as allowed for in the ESV). In the context of 1 Peter 2, where the emphasis is on God’s plan for Christ to be a rock of security to whoever believes in him, and to be a rock of stumbling to whoever rejects him, Peter seems to be saying that what God has destined is that those who are disobedient would stumble over Christ. The New Living Translation (NLT) points us in this direction: “They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.” God has planned that the fate of those who disobey would be to stumble over Christ the Rock and be destroyed.
What God has destined is that those who are disobedient would stumble over Christ.
In his commentary on 1 Peter, Paul J. Achtemeier argues,
The antecedent of the (εἰς) ὅ with which the final phrase begins is probably best understood as including the entire preceding thought, namely, that unbelievers stumble over the stone they have rejected through unbelief (vv. 7b–8a*), rather than limiting it to the action implied in οἱ προσκόπτουσιν (“they stumble”).
Achtemeier then highlights the major point of the whole passage:
The point therefore, not only of vv. 7b–8* but of 5–7a* as well, is that one’s fate, in our author’s view, is determined by one’s relation to Christ. Either one builds on him as a precious cornerstone and thus belongs to God’s people, or one stumbles over him and rejects him and is not a member of that people.
Conclusion
While 1 Peter 2:8 sounds like a Calvinistic or deterministic verse to the untrained ear, it is fully consistent with the Arminian doctrine of predestination. Arminians emphasize that predestination is most fundamentally about:
- God’s eternal purpose to send his Son to be the Savior of humanity;
- God’s decree to save whoever believes in Christ by his grace (believers as a class) and to condemn everyone who rejects Christ because they resist his grace (unbelievers as a class).
The key question is this: Have you believed in Christ and obeyed him? If so, you can be confident that you are secure in Christ and will not be put to shame at the judgment. If not, be warned: The one whom you have resisted will be your undoing. God has destined that it be so.
