In order for Calvinists to maintain their theory of unconditional election, they must violate the Apostle John’s stated purpose for writing his gospel and his clear emphasis upon salvation by believing alone, which is available to every person, rather than Calvinism’s supposed unconditional election of chosen ones.
I will look at the following two failures of the Calvinist narrative in two articles.
Part I: Calvinists Undermine John’s Purpose for Writing His Gospel
Part II: Calvinists Undermine John’s Clear Emphasis on Salvation by Believing Only
Part I: Calvinists Undermine John’s Purpose for Writing His Gospel
John writes, Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30–31).
This is John’s purpose statement for writing his gospel, and being inspired, it is also, and primarily, God’s purpose statement. As stated clearly, and I will further explain, any interpretation of John’s call, drawing, and offer of salvation must include everyone to remain faithful to the book’s stated purpose. So that and that in verse 31 are the same Greek word hina. They introduce the purpose statements for why John wrote his gospel.
The two verbs in John’s purpose statement, verse 31, are plural (believe and believing), which means they speak to everyone or anyone who reads or hears John’s gospel. I am from Arkansas, and in the proper and sophisticated Arkansas dialect, the Greek pronoun you would be translated as “y’all” to capture the Greek. Believing is the present active participle; that believing (continuous action) can signify being a believer in Jesus, and you may have life in His name. This is the non-exclusive provision and appeal of the gospel throughout John’s gospel (John 1:7–13, 29; 3 & 3:16; 6, 12, 20:30–31).
This clarity of John’s purpose makes D.A. Carson’s comments even more problematic. In The Gospel According to John, from pages 87 to 95[1], D.A. Carson explores various scholarly theories for why different scholars, including himself, argue for “The Purpose of The Gospel of John.” He opens this section with these words, “This topic, too, has generated highly diverse conclusions.”[2] My simple, and I think biblical, response is that they read and believe in the sufficiency of John’s purpose statement in John 20:30-31. John’s meaning of his gospel being for everyone is deepened by its context. Allow me to demonstrate.
Jesus’s first resurrection appearance was to Mary Magdalen (Mary of Magdala; 20:11-18—esp. vs. 14-18).
14 “When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”’
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher).
17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her (John 20:13–18).
Notice that in vs. 14-15, she saw Jesus but did not recognize him, thinking he was a gardener. In vs. 16-17, she saw him, immediately recognized him, grabbed him, and would not let go. What changed was that she may have recognized His voice (John 10:2), and that she had seen the Lord (vs. 18), which would have most assuredly included seeing the unique and irrefutable distinguishing marks of the holes in His hands and side from the crucifixion. So, Jesus’ first resurrection appearance was to Mary of Magdala, out of whom He had cast seven demons (Luke 8:2).[3]
That he would have appeared to a woman, rather than a man, or a person of known significance like Pilate or Caiaphas, or even to one of His disciples, is significant. I think this is, in and of itself, a testimony that salvation is for all!
Edwin A Blum comments, “No Jewish author in the ancient world would have invented a story with a woman as the first witness to this most important event. Furthermore, Jesus may have introduced Himself to Mary first because she had so earnestly sought Him. She was at the cross while He was dying (John 19:25), and she went to His tomb early on Sunday morning (20:1).”[4]
Knowing she had genuinely and unmistakably seen Jesus, she went and told the disciples that she had seen Jesus, and he spoke to her (20:18). Jesus’s first appearance to Mary was followed by His second appearance to the disciples.
19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord (John 20:19–20).
Like Mary, when they saw the holes in His hands and side, they knew they had objectively seen Jesus; of this there could be no doubt. Then Jesus made His third appearance to Thomas because he was not with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them.
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:24–28).
When the disciples said, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas told them he would not believe unless he saw and felt the holes in His hands and side. Thomas was not asking for any evidence that Jesus did not make available to Mary or the rest of the disciples. This does not create the popular idea of a “doubting Thomas” any more than the rest of the disciples. He simply wanted to see the evidence that Mary and the other eleven disciples had seen and based their belief on, rather than hearsay from others.
Verse 26 says that eight days later, Thomas was with the other disciples, saw and felt the holes in Jesus’ hands and side, and based on that evidence, Thomas believed (20:26-28). Following Thomas and the rest of the disciples’ belief in Jesus, vs. 29, Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed (John 20:29).
Jesus’ response was addressed directly to Thomas, but it was equally applicable to the other disciples and even to Mary, who all believed after hearing and seeing the objective evidence of the holes in Jesus’ hands and side. Those three events precede Jesus’s response to their exercise of believing based on objective physical evidence, vs. 29, which immediately precedes John’s purpose statement (vs. 30-31). In verse 29, Jesus speaks of the rest of the world, including us, who, in this space called time, following the apostles’ experiences, will see Jesus only with spiritual eyes, exercising faith in what John has written, according to his declaration (vs. 30-31). Unlike the apostles and Mary, we cannot see Jesus physically, with natural eyes, but with spiritual eyes, believing John’s gospel unto salvation.
In reference to John 20:24-31, under the category “The Aim of The Gospel,” Stephen S. Smally, who was an English Anglican clergyman and scholar, was Dean of Chester (head cleric of the historic Cathedral of in the city of Chester), in Cheshire, England, writes about the purpose that John gives for his gospel, as well as the discussion between Thomas and Jesus about seeing and believing. He writes, “Happy are those, Jesus goes on, who have not seen physically, and yet believe—that is, ‘see’ or understand—spiritually (vs. 29). In other words, with or without sight of the figure of Jesus on earth, faith is supremely a matter of spiritual perception. Furthermore, the fourth evangelist comments, the present Gospel is written with precisely such an aim in mind: that, on the basis of the evidence marshalled, his readers may have eyes to see that Jesus is the life-giving Messiah and Son of God (vs. 31).”[5]
In conjunction with believe, pisteuo, The Complete Biblical Library says, “The word zoe [life] appears more than 130 times in the New Testament, and about half of those occurrences are in the writings of John (his gospel, his epistles, and the Book of Revelation. In addition, the expression zoe aionios (“eternal life”) appears nearly 20 times in John’s Gospel. With these recurrent references to life, or eternal life in John’s writings, it is understandable that this book has been called the Gospel of Life.” That is, by any measure that is faithful to Scripture, what John’s gospel is about, precisely what John said!
John’s repeated emphasis on eternal life in this gospel bolsters with clarity that John’s stated purpose here is his reason, purpose, and theme of the gospel, which is clearly known by his use of plural verbs (requiring plural pronouns “ya’ll”) in his simple and straightforward declaration but these have been written so that [purpose or hina clause] [all of] you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that [purpose or hina] believing [all of] you may have life in His name.
Therefore, the purpose John gives for writing his gospel is so that anyone and everyone can read his words and believe in Jesus Christ, resulting in eternal salvation by believing alone. To limit in any way those to whom salvation by believing is actually available, e.g. the elect, or to categorize some as predetermined by God to not be able to believe, e.g. the nonelect, is violently against everything in John’s gospel, as expressed in his purpose statement for writing it, and is therefore monstrously deceptive, egregiously Christ dishonoring, delightful to the Devil, and in absolute contradiction to John’s gospel and the purpose for which he wrote it.
By my count, John uses hina so that, 13 times, to refer specifically to including all people in the salvation plan (uses words such as all John 1:7 or plural pronouns you John 5:40, etc.), and 10 times to indicate that God’s salvation plan is for everyone, (uses words such as whoever in John 3:15, and world in John 3:16) clearly appearing to make it available to all.[6] All 23 occurrences are limitless in scope.
Just before this forceful declaration of John in 20:30-31, and the preceding appearances to Mary Magdelen, the disciples, and Thomas, John prefaced these with another equally commanding affirmation as an eyewitness testimonial of what he saw with his own eyes (John 19:32-35).
32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him;
33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:32–34).
That is, the guards broke the legs of the other two being crucified beside Jesus, but did not break His. Thereby fulfilling two prophesies, first that no bone would be broken (Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12; Ps. 34:20) and that the Jews in the future will look on the pierced One (Zech. 12:10; cf. Rev. 1:7). John says of that event, And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, [hina] so that you [plural, you all] also may believe [plural verb] (John 19:35).
There is disagreement over whether John recorded this, whether he is referring to another eyewitness, or whether he is referring to himself as the eyewitness. In the latter case, he would be speaking in the third person, as Paul did when he spoke of his being caught up into the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2). I believe John is referring to himself as the eyewitness to the physical evidence of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. He speaks of the physical evidence he saw in concert with Mary Magdalene, the disciples, and Thomas. All of which serves as an introduction to John’s purpose statement for the reason he wrote his gospel, found in John 20:30-31. Here, as in 20:30-31, John confirms he is telling the truth so that you also may believe. Again, you (being plural) includes everyone and anyone who hears or reads this gospel, or the truth of this gospel. Salvation by believing the gospel is accessible to everyone, but it is not forced upon anyone.
Therefore, when scholars, commentators, or others deem their authority sufficient to present interpretations of John’s gospel that are in conflict with John’s unmistakable purpose or even undermine, alter, or limit his unambiguous purpose in any fashion, their interpretations are at that point unbiblical and should be utterly and soundly rejected. Because when honestly measured with the standard of the Word of God, they are objectively wrong! This makes the salvation plan in Calvinism damnably wrong and, therefore, should be rejected in totality.
[1] D.A Carson, INTER-VARSITY PRESS, Leicester, England, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, 1991, 87.
[2] D.A Carson, INTER-VARSITY PRESS, Leicester, England, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, 1991, 87.
[3] Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 342.
[4] Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 342.
[5] Stephen S. Smalley, John: Evangelist and Interpreter, second edition, Paternoster Press, Carlisle, Cumbria, printed by Guernsey, Press Co Ltd., Guernsey, Channel Islands, 1998, 175.
[6] The first 10 -1:7; 5:40; 6:27-29; 9:35-38; 11:42; 12:35 & 36; 13:19; 14:29 (last two evidence); 17:21; 17:23; 19:35; 20:31. The second 10 – 3:15, 16, 17; 5:34; 6:33; 6:50; 9:39; 10:10; 11:15; 12:46, 47.
