Does Galatians 1:15-16 Necessitate Strict Predestinarian Theology?

In Gal 1:15-16, Paul says that he was “set apart” and called before his birth. Nancy Elizabeth Bedford suggests that understanding this as a statement about predestination is a less compelling reading than seeing it as a statement about vocation. The statement is about God’s call being one of grace, and by moving it to Paul’s birth no more would confuse Gods’ calling with the idea that Paul earned his vocation. See Nancy Elizabeth Bedford, Galatians (Louisville, BY: Westminster John Knox, 2016), 34. Even if Paul meant this literally, this does not mean God preordained Paul’s entire life or that God ordained and approved of Paul’s persecution of Christians prior to the Damascus road experience. In fact, this may even further show God’s faith, in that God set him apart from this ministry, and despite Paul’s persecution of Christians, God still risked entrusting him with this calling. (Wm. Curtis Holtzen, The God Who Trusts: A Relational Theology of Divine Faith, Hope, and Love [Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2019], 118 n. 49)