John 6:64
“But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.
John 6:70
“Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’”
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “God can providentially put people into certain positions because He knows how they will act, without causing them to act that way, and so accomplish His plan.”
The prophecy concerning Judas did not cause Judas to be evil, but rather foretold that Judas would be evil, and if God had not used Judas, then Judas would have just been another unbeliever in Israel. So the main point is that God did not create the monster that is Judas, but rather used the monster that is Judas.
John 17:12 states: “While I was with them, I
was keeping them in Your name which You
have given Me; and I guarded them and not
one of them perished but the son of perdition,
so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”
John 6:64 and John 17:12 refers to Judas, and
which raises questions, in terms of whether he
was predestined for Hell.
John Calvin: “At this point in particular the flesh rages when it hears that the predestination to death of those who perish is referred to the will of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, p.208, emphasis mine)
Question: Was Judas predestined for Hell?
Answer: That depends. Is the reason why Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas did not believe, the result of an alleged “decree” (i.e. Calvinistic Determinism), or is the reason why Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas did not believe because He foreknew Judas’ own free choice, independent of any “decree” (i.e. Arminian free-will)? However, even accepting the Arminian position, another issue still looms.
John Calvin: “But in case anyone should think that God’s eternal election was overthrown by Judas’ destruction, he immediately adds that he was ‘the one doomed to destruction’ -- meaning that his ruin, which to human view was sudden, had long been known to God.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.397, emphasis mine)
That still doesn’t answer the question of who doomed him. The common mistake of Calvinists is to assume that prophecy determines action, rather than prophecy revealing actions. Thankfully, Calvin correctly states that Judas cannot state, “prophecy made me do it”:
John Calvin: “Judas fell so that the Scripture might be ‘fulfilled.’ But it would be wrong for anyone to infer from this that Judas’ fall should be ascribed to God rather than to himself because the prophecy made him do it. The course of events should not be ascribed to prophecies just because it was predicted in them. And, indeed, the prophets only threatened what would have happened even if they had not mentioned it. The cause of things must not, therefore, be sought in them.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.397, emphasis mine)
Did you hear that? According to John Calvin,
prophecy did not cause the unbelief of Judas.
Matthew 26:34 states: “Jesus said to him [Peter],
‘Truly I say to you that this very night, before a
rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.’”
If prophesy causes action, then why would Peter
feel remorse over something that he otherwise had
no control over? Peter’s own remorse shows that
prophesy didn’t make him do it.
While John Calvin may agree that prophecy didn’t make Judas do betray Christ, Calvin’s deterministic theology provides Judas plenty of room to say that an alleged decree had indeed made him do it:
John Calvin: “I acknowledge that nothing happens but what but has been ordained by God, but the only question now is whether their being foretold or prophesied makes people do things, and I have already shown this is not so.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.397, emphasis mine)
So even John Calvin rejected the notion that prophecy and determinism is the same, or that prophecy makes someone do something.
Question: Having foreknown what Judas would freely have done, and having prophesied the knowledge of it, why did God allow him to be born? We might also ask the same question regarding Lucifer. Knowing how they would turn out, why didn’t God just prevent them from being born, or just not create Lucifer altogether, or create a different angel in his place?
Answer: First of all, God didn’t create Satan. God created Lucifer, and the issue is not so much that God created him, but that God placed him in a position as an archangel. The same goes for Judas. Had Judas not been chosen to be a disciple, then he would have just been another unbeliever. The same goes for Pilate. Had God not given him authority (John 19:11), he would have just been another lost Roman citizen: “Jesus answered, ‘You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.’” So the issue is why does God use sinners? God used the Babylonians, for instance, to motivate Israel to repentance, and there is your answer. Ultimately, however, the question reduces to: why didn’t God prevent the birth of anyone that He foreknew would remain unrepentant? The answer, as seen with the Babylonians, is that one person’s unrepentance, can become another person’s repentance. It’s not that God doesn’t desire the repentance of both. He certainly does. The issue is that God uses people who are already perishing to save others. It’s not that God passes by the perishing, since the purpose of the Gospel is to reach the world.
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer: “Scripture explicitly teaches that God actually ordains the evil choices of men. In the case of Judas, for example, God allowed (or used) Satan to put the idea of the betrayal in his heart. ‘The devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon to betray Him’ (John 13:2). That Judas had to betray Christ is clear from repeated statements that say this happened that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Even in such cases, however, it is reasonable to suppose that Judas had made many prior deceitful decisions so that the activity of Satan was quite compatible with his own inclination and desires. The same applies to the many instances in the Bible in which God says the wicked do what he predetermined would happen.” (The Doctrines That Divide, pp.190-191, emphasis mine)
Calvinists can be tricky. What Lutzer left out is that Calvinists also insist that God predetermined the “many prior deceitful decisions” as well, meticulously scripting every one of them. Therefore, the Compatibilism argument simply doesn’t tell the whole story.
Question: Was Judas a fallen Believer, or was he never a true Believer in Christ?
Answer: Here is an article which addresses this point.
