Do Calvinist Doctrines Logically Follow from John Chapter 6?

A Refutation of Fallacious Reasoning

Calvinists are major proponents of two major doctrines known as “Irresistible Grace,” and “The Perseverance of the Saints.” Generally speaking, “Irresistible Grace” is defined as:

Whenever God is gracious towards a sinner, that sinner will always and inevitably come to Jesus Christ. Essentially, God’s grace cannot be rejected

The doctrine of “Perseverance of the Saints” is generally defined as:

Whenever God brings someone into a state of salvation, that person cannot be lost to damnation. He will always persevere to the end.

There are many different scriptures used to prove the above doctrines and this article will focus on one passage in particular Calvinists believe prove these doctrines. This passage is found in the Gospel of John, Chapter six, verses 37 through 44 (typically). I will examine this passage and point out the relevant data and determine if Calvinist conclusions are logically required from this text alone. The reader will note that it is not my aim in this article to prove these doctrines to be false or otherwise contrary to scripture (in this passage or elsewhere). I will concede that there is nothing in the passage (John 6:37–44) that directly contradicts these Calvinist doctrines. My sole aim is to examine the logical validity of using this passage as a proof text for said doctrines. And so without further ado…

In John 6:37–38, Jesus states:

All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not come to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.

In the first statement of Jesus, we are told that all who are given to Jesus by the Father, will come to Jesus. The first question we should answer is what does Jesus mean when He says “All that the Father gives me?” There is a strong tradition in the Catholic Church and in other Christian communities that Jesus here speaks of those who are given to Him by the Father in eternal predestination. This will become clear shortly. The next question is why will Jesus not cast out those who come to Him? Jesus gives the answer in verse 38. He came not to do His own will, but the Father’s will. And in verse 39, Jesus tells us the Father’s will saying:

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.

St. Thomas Aquinas comments on John 6:39 saying the following:

Therefore he says that it is the will of the Father that of all that he, the Father, has given me I should lose nothing, i.e., that I should lose nothing until the time of the resurrection. At this time some will be lost, the wicked; but none of those given to Christ through eternal predestination will be among them: “The way of the wicked will perish” (Ps 1:7). Those, on the other hand, who are preserved until then, will not be lost. [Emphasis added].

Thus we can see how Aquinas viewed those who are “given” to Jesus by the Father as those who were predestined to heaven from before the foundation of the world. In the Catholic Tradition, this view of predestination is known appropriately as Thomism. This is also my view. None of those who are “given” in this way to Jesus by the Father, can be lost to damnation but will be the Blessed Saints in Heaven with God for all eternity. This group is also occasionally referred to as the “elect.”

Aquinas comments further saying:

What John later reports Christ as saying seems to conflict with this: “None of them,” that is, of those you have given me, “have been lost except the son of perdition” (below 17:12). Thus, some of those given to Christ through eternal predestination are lost. Accordingly, what he says here, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, is not true. We must say to this that some are lost from among those given to Christ through a present justification; but none are lost from among those given to him through eternal predestination. (Emphasis added).

We can see here that Aquinas makes a distinction between being given to Christ in a “present justification,” and being given to Christ through “eternal predestination.” It is Aquinas’s understanding that it is possible to attain to a state of justification, even though one is not a member of the predestined. There are scriptures to be given in support of this position but that is not the point of this article. Examining the text of verses 37–39, we can draw the following logical conclusions:

1. If the Father gives someone to Jesus, they will come to Jesus. (If G, then C)

2. If the Father gives someone to Jesus, Jesus will raise that person up at the last day assuming Jesus fulfills the Father’s will, with which both Catholics and Calvinists will agree. (If G, then R).

Moving onto verse 40 in which Jesus says:

For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

There are several important points to make concerning this verse. The first question to answer is whether we are referring to the Father’s antecedent will or His consequent will. Aquinas makes a distinction between the two in the Summa Theologica (First part, Question 19, article 6). Long story short, it’s the consequent will of God that is always fulfilled. It seems to be the consequent will of God that is at play in verse 40 because of Christ’s statement: “and I will raise him up at the last day.” A Calvinist shouldn’t celebrate too soon though, because two preconditions are given here. They are:

1. “Seeing” the Son and

2. Believing in the Son.

The Greek verbs for both words are present active participles. While “seeing” the Son most likely refers to the physical sight of Jesus during His earthly ministry (due to verse 36), “believing” is most definitely an ongoing affair. It is not a few fleeting moments of elation, but a faith that endures to the end (see John 3:16). The reason a Calvinist cannot celebrate is that no one can possibly know if they have the faith that persists to the end until…well…they have reached the end! Thus even if a verse like Matthew 24:13 (He who endures to the end shall be saved) is merely a description of the elect (those who persevere to the end), there is no one alive who fits this description because no one reading this article has reached the end.

Furthermore the fact that the verse mentions “seeing” the Son (physically) means that Jesus was most likely referring to His disciples during His earthly ministry so in principle, only those who have physically seen the Son AND believed to the end would qualify from this verse to be raised up at the last day. Leaving that aside however, let’s suppose we generously say that only this enduring kind of faith is all that’s needed. Well, no one can know for certain right now if they have that kind of faith because we do not have infallible knowledge of the future. The only exception to this would be if God privately/personally revealed to us whether or not we would hold firm our faith to the end.

Now, to all this, a Calvinist might respond “Well sure the faith being spoken of in John 6:40 is enduring faith, but that is the only kind of faith that exists! A faith that fails is not faith at all.” Not only does this response seem to contradict both the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:20–21) and the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:23–35) but it is also a textbook definition of the No True Scotsman fallacy. Or in this case, No True Believer.

And so, the logical information we gain from verse 40 is this: If one believes in Jesus and holds firm that faith to the end, they will be raised up at the last day (If B, then R).

The next logically relevant statement from Jesus occurs in verse 44 where Jesus says:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent be draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

This verse is the verse Calvinists often use as their trump card. Do they have reason to do so? Let’s investigate. First an analogy: If I told you that no one could collect my garbage unless it is Wednesday, that statement would be logically equivalent to saying that if it is not Wednesday, no one can collect my garbage. Therefore, we can logically view Jesus’s first statement as saying; “If the father does not draw someone to me, they cannot come to me.” If ~D, then ~C (~is a symbol for negation). We can assume that being drawn to Jesus by the Father is a necessary precondition for being raised up at the last day (both Catholics and Calvinists agree). Therefore we can also say that if someone isn’t drawn, they aren’t raised (ie if ~D, then ~R).

What the Calvinist needs in order for their doctrines to follow is the following: If Drawn, then Raised (if D, then R). But there’s a problem, nothing we have seen can logically lead to that conclusion. We do know If ~D, then ~R. But to conclude “If D, then R” from that fact is the logical fallacy of denying the antecedent.

We should ask ourselves the question “Who exactly is being drawn in verse 44?” If one reads the verse carefully, he will discover that the answer is actually nobody. The verse does not explicitly state that anyone is drawn. Calvinists like to point out that the pronoun “auton” in Greek is in both 44a and 44b and is therefore the same person. But so what? The passage says that person is being raised, not drawn. Therefore the only way we can know that “auton” is drawn to Jesus is from the fact that “auton” is being raised. We can then logically conclude that if someone is Raised up at the last day, they were drawn to Jesus by the Father (If R, then D). But from that, it still does not follow that if someone is drawn, they are raised (If D, then R). That is the logical fallacy of affirming the consequent.

So in conclusion, no matter how we slice up this passage of John 6:37–44, a Calvinist simply does not have what they need to prove their doctrines. To reiterate again, this fact does not prove these doctrines false, but only that they do not logically follow from the passage in question and thus will not do as a proof text for them. I look forward to examining more Scriptures that Calvinists attempt to use as proof texts for their doctrines in subsequent articles.

The quotes from Thomas Aquinas are from his commentary on the Gospel of John, the entirety of which can be found here.

Until then, this is Matthew Paolantonio signing off.

May God be with you all.