The usage in verse 28 above does not refer to individual
salvation at all, and therefore is not relevant to our discussion. I will,
however, point out that the word does not mean the decisions of Herod
and Pilate were causally determined. What occurred was determined, but
the decisions that led to what occurred were not. God knew what those decisions
would be, and he used them to accomplish his objectives. In other words, the
scriptures never tell us that Herod and Pilate could not have made other
choices. God can determine specific outcomes without determining the choices
that led to those outcomes. (Phil Bair, Calvin’s Desperation: How John Calvin’s Unbiblical
Divine Determinism Destroys the Credibility of the Christian Faith [2023], 120)
