Acts 4:
26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

This important text teaches that the crucifixion of Christ was an event predetermined by God. It seems many Bible teachers become very guarded when explaining this text, even to the point of apologizing for it. Their fear is that the text will leave the impression God is the author of sin. In consequence of this fear, many have offered explanations for the text which simply do not accommodate the clear language of the scriptures.

It is important we accept this text exactly for what it says. It does not say the wicked Jews were gathered together to do "no more" than His hand and counsel had determined. Nor does it say they were gathered together to do what He determined to permit (though this is certainly true in a sense). The language is much stronger than this: They were gathered together to do whatsoever His hand and counsel had determined before to be done.

This does not mean God was the author of their sin, nor does it mean they were any less culpable for their actions, but at the same time, we must accept the fact that their actions were in fulfillment of what God had determined before to be done. This truth seems a contradiction to some people, but there is no logical conflict once one recognizes that the wicked actions of these Jews were in "reaction" to the goodness and mercy of God.

Man is so utterly depraved that any good thing God might do will surely incite some wicked reaction on man's part. What then is God to do? Is He to sit in heaven and do nothing for fear of how man might react to His goodness? Surely not! Is He to administer His goodness and then frantically repair the mess man will make of it? This is ridiculous also. The truth must be that the administration of God's goodness is precisely calculated in His infinite wisdom such that all consequences of it, both good and evil, will fulfill God's purpose. This purpose includes the salvation of His people and the destruction of the wicked.

Even so, God in His greatest act of goodness, sent Jesus into the world knowing that wicked men would seek His destruction even from birth. God gave words of truth for Jesus to speak, and these words of truth included righteous denunciations of man's corruption and of the apostate religion of the Jews. These righteous acts of Divine intervention were purposed and planned while fully knowing that both good and evil consequences would follow, and these acts of Divine intervention were precisely calculated so that all their consequences would work to accomplish God's righteous objectives; namely, the salvation of His people and the overthrow of Satan's wicked empire.

So Acts 4:28 does precisely the opposite of making God the author of sin. That God would extend His goodness, while knowing that man would despise and reject it, only serves to accentuate His goodness, and that man's evil is largely in reaction to God's goodness only serves to accentuate man's wickedness.

One very important fact about Acts 4:28 is that the words determined before were translated from the Greek word proorizo. This same word is translated as predestinate and predestinated in Rom 8:29 and Eph 1:5,11. In the latter verses, the term is used in reference to God's chosen people and their final destiny. It is a strange thing that nearly all Christians today acknowledge that the sending of Christ into the world to die for the sins of man was a predetermined event, yet they generally deny that God has predetermined the destiny of a chosen people. These texts clearly affirm that God has predetermined the salvation of specific individuals; furthermore, the Bible explains this with precisely the same word used to explain the crucifixion of Christ. It is proorizo in either case.