Predestination: John 6

Introduction

I wish to address the doctrine of predestination as it is currently perceived. I have decided to present this in the form of a paper, which can be accessed via our CAEA website. I encourage your patience and attentiveness as this is a very technical subject that deserves our greatest attention. It is the deference to casualness that has led to great misunderstanding, and only the slow and steady approach of studying will remove the misunderstanding that has developed as a result of our fast and eager habits of biblical interpretation.

There has been many debates over what expositors such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, and St. Augustine must have meant when using terms such as “predestined”, “election”, and “chosen.” While all of these things seem to be relevant to today’s conversation, it is not the issue most pressing in my mind. For, what matters most is the definition that we have given to such terms and how they impact the current understanding of biblical truth. This is the grand issue of modern scholarship and the role of research—to understand what any of the things written in the ancient document known as Scripture means to us today. Yet, this cannot be the ultimate end. Rather, the goal is to understand what is the meaning established as absolute truth and how does that aid our current understanding in the world we now live in.

According to the Lexham Survey of Theology, predestination is God’s predetermination of all things. This definition means nothing in the world simply happens on its own accord. Rather, God...sends whatever happens. God is the motivator and determiner of all that happens in the world. Everything from a woman’s inability to have a child to the coming of a rain storm is all the manifestation of God’s predetermined will. The idea is that if God created all things, He must, therefore, rule all things.

Due to this premise of God’s sovereignty and His right to control His created order, ideas of election and salvation are often connected to the biblical doctrine of predestination. And there are several proof texts dedicated to substantiating the idea that every single event in world history is a ramification of God’s predetermined will. However, this very incredible method of interpreting the Bible is a result of a tremendous flaw in biblical interpretation.

The only way to substantiate the doctrine of predestination in the way we understand it through theological systems such as Calvinism, is by a terrible mis-contextualized reading of Scripture. You see, those who suggest that God predetermines everything down to the bag of potato chips you select from a vending machine has broke nearly every rule of biblical interpretation that is widely accepted by any serious seminary, Bible student, scholar and theologian. The lack of attention to the biblical context permits for this very popular idea. Furthermore, the only way to correct this unfaithful reading of Scripture is to take each passage that is used to justify the doctrine of predestination to determine if it contextually suggests a doctrine of predestination as proposed in today’s scholarship. By asking questions like who, what when, where and how? we will discover that there’s no passage that presents the idea that God is predestined every single thing that would happen in the world. Rather, God predestined specific things that which would happen as a means of manifested His mysterious plan.

Today, we will look at John 6:36-37, 44-45 and discover it is a specific reference to the apostles who were chosen or elected for the purpose of going out into the world to spread the message of Christ as a foundational activity that would launch the kingdom of God and the foundation of the church. We will also demonstrate the apostles’ election was not simply a soteriological matter, but an ecclesiological one. That is, they were chosen to labor in the grand plan of the Father for creation—to spread the testimony of His Son, Jesus Christ.

John 6:36–37 CSB

36 But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. 37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

John 6:44–45 CSB

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me—

If we read the entire context, we will find that John 6:36-37, 44-45 is actually a response to a group of followers who requested to do the works of God (John 6:28). From this question, Jesus explains that they cannot do the works of God, because they don’t believe. Here, we make this an issue of soteriology…as a matter of how one gets to heaven or receives salvation. Yet, Jesus demonstrates the contrast between the apostles and the rest, by showing that the apostles were given to Jesus to do the works of God. Literally, their belief is for the purpose of doing the works of God. That is, not everyone can do the “works of God” except they be appointed by God.

Literally, Jesus’ point is that the crowd was trying to do the works of God without believing in Jesus. This was essentially the entire lot of most of the individuals during this time. Most wanted the power of Christ without being believers of Christ. And if it were up to humanity, this would have been the state of all people. Yet, God chose those for the purpose of forwarding His mission in the world.

Supporting Texts

There are several passages that demonstrates the election of the apostles was ecclesiastical. In addition to John 6:36-37, 44-45 each of the following passages demonstrate that the apostles were the elected individuals chosen to follow Jesus while on earth as a means of fulfilling the human responsibility needed to spread the message about Christ and His kingdom throughout the world. Moreover, the election or predestined nature of the apostles is collective as to say, all of them and not simply one in particular, are chosen to serve a particular mission.

John 15:16-17; John 13:1

In John 15:16-17, we find that this verse is exclusively speaking of the apostles. We know this because the conversation actually begins in John 13. John 13:5 specifically references who’s at the table with Jesus, and this conversation continues throughout John 16 and flows into a prayer greatly concerned with the apostles and then the rest of the world. The motif in John 6 of Jesus using the disciples in an extraordinary way continues. The point is to mimic the example given through the 12 tribes of Israel. As there were 12 tribes chosen throughout the entire world, so there are 12 men chosen to do the same thing Israel was chosen for—not to go to heaven, but to participate in God’s bringing of heaven on earth.

Jesus is teaching His disciples the importance of abiding in Him. The reference to