Acts 4:23-31
…to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (v. 28) Every time I run into some “predestination” item I wonder about predestination and choice and free will. My Study Bible, not a fan of absolute predestination, argued against any notion that the Lord had put it into the leaders’ minds to do what they did, but that he allowed them to undertake their “freely chosen acts to accomplish His chosen purpose”. So I went to other translations. Here is the NIV, a better understanding, I think, of what the text actually means: They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. So the “predestined” notion in this verse first quoted above refers to the outcome, Jesus’ crucifixion, not to the means to that outcome. That is, God had preordained that His Son would die on our behalf, but that men acting on their own free will brought it about.
I’ll end on a happier note: …and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (v. 31b)
Slava Bohu!