Athiest, Muslim, Jesish and Christians: What do you get out of this verse? John 6:65?

Question

Jesus says: " No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

I think it means you can tell all the people you want about Jesus but they will not accept unless God has allowed their heart to receive it.

Thoughts? I'm a pretty new Christian so easy on me if i'm not correct, please....

thanks

Answer 1

I think that verse reveals a lot of modern evanglicalism to be out of step with Scripture. We have a very friendly, easy gospel preached in America where salvation is all up to us. John 6 teaches its not up to us at all in fact we contribute nothing to our own salvation including the will to believe. We are so totally depraved in our sin that we cannot even worship God unless he makes us worshippers. Very humbling.

Answer 2

Well, if you are atheist, Muslim, Jewish, or any non-Christian for that matter, what John says is irrelevant.

It sounds to me that only God (the Father) will let you be a Christian. Yet if you require someone to accept Jesus to go to Heaven, you have a theological problem. Essentially, what this says is God determines who will and who will not accept Jesus (and thus enter heaven), which means there cannot be free will. In short, sounds like predestination is the only solution. Jacobus Arminius (17th Century) took that argument one step further: if God uses predestination, then God is the originator of evil. Sounds kind of blasphemous to me.

Answer 3

David,
Yes. If you are drawn to God, that's Him doing it.

The ones that don't even want to come to God, are not even interested. You see them all the time trashing Christianity and denying the whole story. Preaching the current religion; Evolution.

So the question arises, do you want to come to Him/ I know that you said that you were a new Christian. Are you settling in okay?

Answer 4

Welcome to the faith. No one can come to Christ unless he is of the elect, the called, the Church of Christ. Man, in his flesh, will not seek after God nor acknowledge his depraved condition. God, through His grace and total sovereignty, chooses who He will call, their salvation being determined before the foundation of the earth. At a certain time, the Holy Spirit will indwell the called person and he will be aware of his condition in the flesh, his need for a savior and who that savior is. It is then that he becomes aware of his position in Christ. He is forgiven, justified and made righteous through Christ. When God looks at you, He sees Christ, not you in your sinful state.

Check out this sight if you have more questions:
http://www.salvationbygrace.org/default.aspx

Answer 5

Yes: You are correct.
The Holy Spirit gives spiritual life; without the work of the Holy Spirit, we cannot even see our need for new life (14-17). All spiritual renewal begins and ends with God. He reveals truth to us, lives within us, and then enables us to respond to that truth.
Blessings: Kaitlynn

Answer 6

Yes I agree. This should further support that:

Ephesians 2:8-9 (English Standard Version)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Answer 7

You are exactly right.
Unless the Father draws them by his spirit,
You see God knows who will serve him and who will reject him
He loves all men, but some will never come they are too involved into making their own religion, and their own Gods
One scripture says that man's knowledge has preverted him
It is really sad that they will not believe and choose to go into eternity without God

Answer 8

You have the right idea. We are in need of a savior so much that we are even blessed with the faith to believe. Accepting the fact that we are unable to save ourselves and seeking God's forgiveness in repentance paves the way for that faith.

Answer 9

I believe it means that unless Allah (God) opens someones heart, then he cannot be guided. This is a concept we believe in Islam:
"We have indeed sent down signs that make things manifest: and Allah guides whom He wills to a way that is straight."
Quran 4:46

Answer 10

I actually agree with you, in addendum, I would add that if their heart is hardened it will be impossible for the Holy Spirt to move upon them to receive their salvation...The spirit of the Lord would never force Himself upon some one who is not willing...So, for the Lord to move upon their spirit they must be willing to accept it and thus allowing for the impartation of the Spirit of God into their and thus, again, enabling them to receive that which the Lord has for them.

I hope that you can understand that. I tried not to be too convoluted.

By the way, thanks for the 10 points from when I answered your question the last time...