By Laurence M. Vance
And Jesus said unto them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
Calvinism
Calvinism is the teaching that man is so dead in sin that God has to irresistibly call him and regenerate him against his will before he can exercise faith in Christ. But all men are not eligible, just the elect whom Christ died for. That is the five points of Calvinism in a nutshell. The five points are total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints (TULIP) .
Total depravity is the teaching that the unregenerate man is totally dead in sin to the extent that he has the inability to freely accept Jesus Christ. Unconditional election is the teaching that God, by a sovereign, eternal decree, unconditionally elected a certain number of men to salvation. Limited atonement is the teaching that Jesus Christ, by His death on the cross, only made an atonement for the group of men previously elected to salvation. Irresistible grace is the teaching that God irresistibly overpowers the will of the elect sinner with His grace and regenerates him, granting him faith and repentance to believe on Jesus Christ. Perseverance of the saints is the teaching that all of the elect who have been regenerated by God will persevere in the faith and ultimately die in a state of grace.
Calvinists call their system the “doctrines of grace,” implying that if you don’t believe the system, then you are denying salvation by grace.
Total Depravity
I want to focus on Total Depravity.
I actually agree with Calvinists about the depravity of man. This is certainly a Biblical doctrine. Man is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). David said: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51:5). Because God is holy, man is an “enemy of God” (Rom 5:10), “at enmity with God” (Eph 2:15), and “alienated from God” (Eph 4:18). Man’s first birth is no good. That’s why he must be born again.
But the Calvinist view of total depravity is not about depravity; it is about inability. In fact, some Calvinists call their first point total inability. Total depravity is the result of man’s depravity. Total depravity is one of the three essential points of Calvinism. It is also the foundation of Calvinism. It necessitates the doctrines of unconditional election (UE) and irresistible grace (IG). If men have the inability to come to Christ and believe on him, then it logically follows that if any of them are to be saved, then God must first determine who they are (UE) and then irresistibly overcome their inability (IG) so that they can come to Christ and believe on Him. Calvinists think that for God to get the glory for salvation, man must be unable to accept or reject it. God has to elect people to salvation because they can’t respond and then has to regenerate them against their will so they can respond. In Calvinism, regeneration precedes faith; the offer of salvation is only intended for the elect; and no one has the ability to accept Christ of his own free will.
John 6:35 contradicts Calvinism on total depravity.
John 6:35
And Jesus said unto them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
Jesus had just taken some loaves and fishes and fed over 5,000 men (plus women and children). Many came to Him the next day, not because of the miracle He performed, but because they “did eat of the loaves, and were filled” (John 6:26). When Jesus encouraged them to believe on Him whom God had sent, they asked for a sign that they might believe Him. Then, even after they
had eaten of the bread that Jesus miraculously provided, they had the audacity to mention how God had fed their fathers in the wilderness with manna, and even quoted from the Psalms to
reinforce it. Jesus then shifted the argument from physical bread to spiritual bread. But like the woman at the well (John 4:15), the people were still thinking in purely physical terms. Jesus then
made it perfectly clear that He is the bread of life.
There are three things that we see in John 6:35 that are found throughout the NT: faith precedes regeneration; the offer of salvation is indiscriminate; and salvation is a personal decision.
Faith Precedes Regeneration
Calvinists put the theological cart before the Biblical horse. In Calvinism, believing on Christ is the result of salvation, not the cause of salvation. Here is R.C. Sproul: “The Reformed view of predestination teaches that before a person can choose Christ his heart must be changed. He must be born again” (Chosen By God, p. 72). Sproul again: The maxim “regeneration precedes faith” is “a cardinal point of Reformed theology” (ibid.). And here is Loraine Boettner: “A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved” (Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 101).
John 6:35, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” “Cometh to me shall never hunger” and “believeth on me shall never thirst” show us that faith precedes regeneration.
The coming to Christ and the believing on Him precede the never hungering and the never thirsting. You must partake of the bread of life to get everlasting life. Calvinism turns things around and says that you must get everlasting life so you can partake of the bread of life. But if someone is already regenerated, then why does he have to come to Christ? If someone is already saved, then why does he have to believe on Jesus? Can a man be regenerated without coming to Christ? Can a man be saved without believing? Can a regenerated man go to hell? Can a non-believer go to heaven?
In the Bible, God saves those who believe and condemns those who don’t believe, not those who have the misfortune of not being part of the “elect”:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
John 6:35 contradicts Calvinism on total depravity.
An Indiscriminate Offer
Calvinists maintain that the gospel message is only for the elect. The reprobate have the inability to respond. They may outwardly hear the gospel call, but it is not for them. According to John Gerstner, both the “internal spiritual call” and the “external audible call” are to the regenerate. “This one call to the regenerate is heard by the ears of many unregenerate. But what they hear is not a call to them but to the regenerate” (Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth, p. 120).
John 6:35,
“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
“Jesus said unto them” shows us that the offer of salvation is indiscriminate.
Who is the “them” that Jesus is speaking to? It is certainly not the elect. He was speaking to “a great multitude” (v 2) and “a great company” (v 5). Compare vv 7, 9, 10-12, 14-15, 22, 24-30, 32, and 34. Most of the multitude Jesus was offering salvation to never received Him (cf. John 1:1). And it’s not only “they” who can believe, for we are told in v 33 that the bread of God “giveth life unto the world.” As John said earlier: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God’s offer is indiscriminate: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa 45:22). And God’s offer is genuine: “I said not, seek ye me in vain, I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right” (Isa 45:19).
John 6:35 contradicts Calvinism on total depravity.
A Personal Response
According to Calvinism, since men are dead in sin, they can only do according to their depraved nature; they do not have the free will to come to Christ and believe on Him. Calvinists equate man’s ability to receive Christ with the ability to regenerate oneself.
John 6:35,
And Jesus said unto them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
“He that” shows us that salvation is a personal decision.
This is the universal testimony of Scripture:
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37).
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1).
“Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17).
These verses, and other verses like them, including John 6:35, have no meaning if no one can will to accept Christ.
The Bible does not say: if any man whom God wills thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. The Bible does not say: whomsoever God wills to believe that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The Bible does not say: whomsoever God wills to believe in Him should not perish. The Bible doesn’t say: whomsoever God wills, let him take of the water of life freely.
The Bible is clear that believing or not believing on Christ is a conscious choice. The response to Paul’s preaching was that “some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not” (Acts 28:24). The preaching of the cross is both “foolishness to them that perish and “the power of God” to the saved (1 Cor 1:18). The reason men do not come to Christ and believe on Him to everlasting life is not because of their inability, but because of their unwillingness. As Jesus said: “Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).
John 6:35 contradicts Calvinism on total depravity.
Conclusion
If total depravity is true, then there is absolutely nothing a man can do but hope he is one of the elect and that God will save him. But if total depravity is not true, then men can be saved without the other points of Calvinism, and the whole foundation of Calvinism collapses.
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Laurence M. Vance is the author of The Other Side of Calvinism and many other books.