Was God caught off base when Israel crucified the Messiah?
No. The crucifixion of the Messiah was not an unforeseen event or a divine miscalculation; it unfolded according to God's eternal purpose and His predetermining counsel. Scripture presents these things as having happened within God's own will and purpose, not outside it.
Les teaches that God was not caught off base when Israel crucified the Messiah; rather, it was all in the eternal purposes. He connects this to Ephesians 3:11 and to the statement that God works all things after the counsel of His own will. He also points back to Acts 2, where these things happened according to the predetermining counsel of God. Then in II Timothy 1:8-9, the text says God hath saved us, and called us, tying salvation and calling to God's own purpose.
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
More Questions
Was God caught off guard by the rejection and opposition to Christ?
God was not caught by surprise when the rulers and peoples gathered against His Christ.
How could God plan the crucifixion and still hold the Jews responsible for killing Jesus?
The crucifixion of Jesus did not take God by surprise; it was decided by His counsel and foreknowledge before it happened, yet those who did it acted with wicked hands, so their responsibility was not cancelled.