Matthew 26:34
Matthew 26:30-35 (see also Luke 22:31)
After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too.
John Calvin: “It is amazing that the rest of the disciples, after Peter’s rebuke, still rush into the same folly: it is obvious how little notice they took. We learn from this example to dare nothing except as far as the reach of God’s Hand. Nothing falls faster or vanishes sooner than zeal which is inconsiderate. The disciples saw that there was nothing more shameful or unspeakable than deserting the Master. They are right to detest such a sin, but without the support of belief in the promise, without prayers, they mistakenly fly off into vaunting a steadiness, which they did not possess.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Matthew, Mark and Luke Vol. III, and James and Jude, p.143, emphasis mine)
Question: If Peter believed that everything was deterministicly predetermined, then why did he mourn so bitterly, as if he had a choice?
Answer: Obviously Peter thought that he had a choice.
Question: Did Jesus’ prophetic statement mean that Peter did not have the power of contrary choice?
Answer: Notice that Jesus didn’t simply say that Peter would deny Him once or twice, but was precise, by stating “three times.” This precise knowledge seems to come from a precise knowledge of the future. If Peter had chosen differently in the future, then God’s precise knowledge would reflect it.
Jerry Vines: “God’s knowledge of the future doesn’t determine the future any more than man’s knowledge of the past determines the past.” (Calvinism – A Baptist and his election, emphasis mine)
Jesus knew Peter’s short-comings, so what Jesus told Peter was not something that he was forced to do, but what Peter would do all on his own. So if Peter had asked Jesus what he could do, so that he wouldn’t deny Him, Jesus would have told him to pray: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:40) The Deterministic alternative is to say that there was nothing that Peter could do, prayer or otherwise, because his choices were scripted.
Jesus: “You will.”
Peter: “I will not.”
