Does Psalm 139:16 teach Calvinism?
An emailer asks whether David's words about being formed in the womb, and God writing his days before they came to be, support Calvinist predestination.
Answer
No, it does not teach Calvinism. David is talking about how God formed him in the womb of his mother: my frame was not hidden from thee when I was being made in secret, thy eyes beheld my unformed substance, in thy book were written every one of them. David is saying that before he was born, God had him in view and made all his parts. The writer of the email thinks this means God has everything planned out, which is what John Calvin believed. But before John Calvin ever came along, the Catholics had the same understanding. The Catholics were the first ones to talk about predestination, a thousand years before Calvin, so it is not John Calvin's idea. God knows all things from the beginning to the end of his creation, before it was ever made, and he knew you personally before you were ever made. Nothing escapes God's knowledge; the more difficult question is what he does with it. But to answer your question, no, it is not Calvinism, it is Catholicism, and it is Scripture even before Catholicism came along.