Arminianism - Walking the Line Between Calvinism and Catholicism

I have come to a point in my studies that I suddenly realize there can be no going back to the theologies of Arminianism, though years ago I defended it. The reason is twofold: for one, "Reformed" theology (or Calvinism, if you like) strikes me more and more as being, not a branch of theology per-say, but the theology most plainly taught in Scripture. But setting that aside, were I ever to find reason to doubt this, I still could not return to Arminianism, but would find myself compelled to embrace Catholic theology instead. The reason is this: of the two major branches of Protestant theology (Calvinism and Arminianism), Arminianism strikes me as being the weakest and most ineffectual attempt at maintaining concepts such as free will (as regards Salvation) while still being protestant.  I've heard many people say that Catholic theology is altogether different than "Christian" (by which they mean Protestant) theology because they preach a different means of grace.  I say this is rubbish.  In fact, Catholics preach the same basic theology that the Arminian believer holds, but preaches it more boldly and openly and draws it to its logical conclusions, something the Arminian is unwilling to do.

Catholics teach a melding of God's grace with the works of man.  To be sure, no good Catholic believer will teach that works save anyone; all are saved only by God's grace. But works are the means by which men cooperate with God in salvation, and those works therefore hold significant weight in the process. The Arminian teaches that salvation may be lost or rejected, that a person may lose their salvation if, once being saved, they begin to live in unrepentant sin, cease caring for the things of God, or deliberately choose at some point to reject Him. The Catholic teaches this as well, but with a great deal more sanity.

You see, according to Arminianism, you are saved by grace alone and your works, although of value, do not result in salvation. You cannot commend yourself to God through works, but works DO operate in the negative; you can lose your salvation through persisting in doing what is wrong. It is as thought the Arminian presents the grace of God as a stone which no one else can move, and which cannot be built upon. But this same, immovable rock of grace, which no one can take from you and which cannot be altered, nevertheless may be cast aside like a pebble by the one who holds it.

To the Catholic salvation is more like building a house out of multiple bricks of grace which God provides. As long as you cooperate with God, the master builder, and follow His plan, He provides bricks and instructs you to build up the house. You may cast them away, and you may also repent and pick them back up. Your salvation is a work in progress, only possible through the grace of God, but dependent also upon your works  as you build up the house with Him (or, through sin, tear it all down).

Calvinists, of course, see salvation as a rock which cannot be moved or built upon, neither by yourself nor by others; it is eternal, resting solely upon the action and will of God, paid for and established by Christ, and thus altogether unaffected by your actions, whether good or bad.

I have respect to the Catholic position as, long before Arminianism came to be, they took the basic concepts of it as relates to salvation and boldly carried them out to their conclusions, unafraid to admit that if works may act against salvation, then they must also act in favor of it.  The Calvinist, then, with the same boldness, stood up and said that as salvation cannot be improved or built with works, then certainly they cannot be diminished by them either.  The Arminianist, on the other hand, saw the conflict and attempted to straddle the fence, insisting that whereas works cannot improve or result in salvation, that immovable rock may be carried away by a breeze should man's sin take hold in his life.  In desiring to have it both ways, they make salvation into a peculiar and contradictory beast, one moment unaffected by man's actions, the next, altogether dependent upon them.  A Catholic may urge a man to do good, for in doing so he blesses his soul as he works with God towards his salvation.  A Calvinist may urge a man to be altogether thankful before God, for his salvation is secure from the foundation of the world by the Lord's work on our behalf.  But the Arminianist can only, with any authority, speak in the negative, that a man must keep from sin lest God cast him out of His presence and into eternal damnation, despite the salvation he once bestowed upon him.

Furious Passion - Reflecting the Image of God

When I say (as I have before) that my wife Amanda is the best of all women, I do not say it to be cute, but because in my estimation it is true. You see, I do play favorites, and the woman I have both chosen and won over, I strove for because there was no one greater to be had. In truth I look at her with a sense of pride and triumph over the rest of mankind, as much as with a deep, passionate love. I prefer her to the rest of humanity, and so you will have to excuse me if I choose her above the rest of you in any (and every) way.

In like manner, the birth of my daughter Emma has also birthed within me emotions that I did not recognize before. I've never looked at any creature with the same affection that I feel for her. It is quite a different affection than I feel for Amanda; there is pride in it, but also a zealous sense of protection. To put it bluntly, her joy and growth is more preferable to me than the joy and growth of any other child. I can only assume all parents feel the same about their own children. If I were to say that I care for all children equally, as might seem a good, humanitarian thing to say, I would be a liar. I care for her first, and then if there is any joy left for the rest of the world, let those crumbs fall to whom they will. I am jealous of her, and should anyone dare to harm her I cannot conceive of any response beside the fury of a barbarous demigod.

One might argue at this point that these emotions and behaviors are a poor reflection of God, who opens His arms to all; that these are small-minded affections, poorly fitted to God’s character. Should I not equally love and care for all children? Perhaps I should. But one look at Amanda and Emma and everyone else in the world suddenly seems unimportant to me. One might argue that, if these affections are a reflection of God's love, then His love must be a terrible thing indeed.

To that last point I say yes; terrible and wonderful. My affection for Amanda and Emma is small, not because it is altogether zealous for them, but because it is limited in scope. I care for them to the exclusion of the rest of the world. I love my family and would prefer their prosperity to that of anyone else; would protect them with extreme prejudice. Yet in this passion exists a brightly burning ember of the flame of God's love for His family.

As men, we are small creatures. It is easy to love the world when the world is just an idea, but when one is sitting at home having a cup of tea and reading a book, the world had better leave you alone; in moments like that, one is far more concerned with the butter on one's toast than with the state of affairs in China. But as a man, I am not called to preside over the world with the faithfulness of God; I am, however, called to show this faithful love to my family. As men and women, we are the gods and goddesses of our family units, and our "small" love in this corner of our world is indeed a reflection of the greater love of God.

God does not look at His children and see multiple family groups, all requiring his equal love and attention; when God looks at His children, He sees only one single family: His own. He looks at them with a passionate, zealous, jealous and protective love.  It is a love which gives to them the world, even His own life. It is a love that is both terrible and wonderful; wonderful for the child, terrible for the one who would harm the child. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild (so the old song goes) warned that it is better for a man to have a millstone strapped to his neck and to be plunged into the sea than for him to harm one of God's children (Luke 17:2). Indeed, such a fate would mean drowning, the burning pain of lungs filled with saltwater until life is snuffed out, but how much more terrible to stand condemned before God for having harmed one of His children.

We would do well to take this lesson to heart.  Our "small" love as parents may seem brutish, but it is not imperfect before God because of its smallness...God loves more, not because He loves more families, but because He loves His one family with even greater zeal, greater passion, and greater jealousy than we in our imperfect state can bestow upon our own small family units.  How much comfort we as God's children should feel knowing that our God is so passionate about us. At the same time, what awe we should feel at knowing that not all are God's children; that God has created all for His own purpose, and that not all who exist were created for honor (Romans 9:21-22). The consideration of the wrath of God against the wicked cannot be taken lightly, for as God's love burns brighter than the sun in glory, so too does His wrath against those who would harm His family.

His Eye Is On The Sparrow and I Know He Watches Me

“The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers.  But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.” -1 Peter 3:12 NLT

Confronted with passage like this, we often think of the Lord watching over us in the sense of protecting us, and keeping us from harm.  But what do we say when we do come to harm?  Has the Lord looked away?  Has His attention been diverted elsewhere, so that His protection slipped and we fell into misfortune?  Certainly not!  Consider the second part: “his ears are open to their prayers.”  Certainly God hears the prayers of the righteous, and because He hears we know that He will also answer.  But the answer is not always what we expect.  Sometimes we receive the thing we asked for, and sometimes, as James points out, “when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong--you want only what will give you pleasure.” (James 4:3 NLT)  Our requests must always line up with the will of God, and when they do not, we must accept His answer in humility.  In the same fashion we must also consider that sometimes the will of God allows us to experience suffering so that He may bring about some greater good than preventing it would have allowed.

I recall, when I was a child, riding my bike along the sidewalks in front of my house, that I slipped and fell in such a manner that I skinned much of the side of my leg.  The cuts were shallow but took much of the top layer of skin off, resulting in a broad wound that seeped and stung like an open blister.  I remember my mother cleaning it and taping gauze to the side of my leg to cover the wound.  Now, bikes are wonderful exercise and they are lots of fun to ride, but they are also by their nature dangerous things.  I could have been prevented from these (and all other manner of smaller injuries) had my parents forbade that I ride one at all.  Indeed any parent knows when they give a child a bike, or a pair of skates or some other such device, that it will result in many falls and scrapes and cuts as the child learns to ride, so why permit it at all?  Why not spare the child the pain that will come their way?  There are many reasons.  One is that the joy of riding is generally considered to be greater than the small injuries that may come as a result.  Another is that those same injuries are part of how we learn; doubtless as a child I would not have scrapped the side of my leg so badly had I not been attempting to ride as fast as I could across a bumpy sidewalk, and so it was a hard lesson, but a lesson nonetheless.

Looking back on the experience now, I see the injury but I don’t feel any animosity toward my parents for letting me have that bike.  Indeed, I continued to ride a bike for years afterward.  What I do remember, with a warm feeling in my heart, is my mother dressing the wound and making me feel better.  How many of our good memories of those we love come because they were expressing their love for us in the midst of suffering?  A friend whom you can enjoy an afternoon with is alright, but a friend who will visit in the hospital or hold you while you cry is a friend indeed.

Sometimes there are joys in life that open us up to the possibility of pain and suffering, such as loving someone who will pass away in time.  Sometimes God allows us to go through painful experiences because he wants us to learn a lesson that we may not otherwise receive through more pleasant means, and sometimes He allows us to experience suffering so that others will learn a lesson through our example.  Whatever His reasons, His heart is filled with love for us.  He has never once turned His attention away from you, but is watching over you at every moment.  Sometimes He is watching to protect us from harm, and sometimes He is watching to pick us up when we fall, to clean our wounds, bandage us up, and hold us tightly in His arms until the pain stops.  But whatever His purposes in our lives, we should always take comfort knowing that He watches, He listens, and He cares more deeply than you or I can ever fathom.

Fear and the End of Days

There are a lot of differing views of the end times, what will happen, when and how, and how to interpret the book of Revelation.  People get awfully worked up about this sort of thing, and a thread that seems to run through Evangelical circles is a kind of fear of what we refer to as the “great tribulation”, a period not only of intense persecution of believers, but also of the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth.

I’m not writing this to provide a breakdown or study of Revelation, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind with the book that seem to get lost in many churches today.  First off, there is a tendency among evangelicals to “over-spiritualize” the book.  What I mean by that is that many people read and teach Revelation as though the entire book is one grand spiritual, prophetic allegory, which it is not.  The book opens with Christ asking John to write letters to seven churches.  It is sometimes lost on us that these churches actually existed, and that if you look at each of the cities these letters were addressed to, the manner in which Christ addresses and the imagery he uses connects with important and prominent aspects of the cities in which they lived, as well as the historical struggles being faced by them.  It is true that we can draw spiritual principles from these letters, but they do not exist as pure spiritual metaphor, but were practical letters to real people living at the time of John.

But I think the most important issue to address is the one of fear on the part of believers.  Certainly Revelation details some significant persecution and many incredible judgments that God pours out on the earth.  If these things are to be taken as an indication of what is to come, how do believers deal with it?  For many the answer is to defend the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture of the church.  Now, many can make very good scriptural arguments for this, and for those who do so, bravo.  But in many cases it seems that the idea is often clung to out of a fear lest the end times should occur in their day, and a desire to escape the tribulation described in Revelation.

To those people I am compelled to point out two things: first, the persecutions described by John are nothing new.  Remember that Jesus told us that “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).  From the time of the early church until now, God’s people have suffered violence at the hand of unbelievers.  The Apostles knew full-well the sting of persecution, being hunted, beaten, imprisoned and put to death.  Today in many corners of the world the persecution against our brothers and sisters in Christ is severe, and identifying oneself as a believer can be a death sentence.  Consider Iran and North Korea.  Will the “great tribulation” make matters worse for believers in these countries?  There is only so much that man can do, and recognizing this the psalmist writes “The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.  What can mere people do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).

Let us consider then the judgments of God poured out on the Earth in Revelation.  When God pours out His wrath, who will be able to stand?  God’s children, that is who.  Brothers and sisters, if you are fearful because the wrath of God will be poured out on the world, take heart, because that wrath is not for you.  Paul says in Romans 8:1 that “now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”  Whatever believers may be on the earth at the time God pours out His judgment, it will not be for them.  Indeed, Jesus Himself spoke to His disciples about the day when God would pour out His wrath, and to them He said “So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!” (Luke 21:28)  Jesus knew these things were frightening, and the persecutions from man hard to endure, but He encouraged His disciples telling them that not only will they be blessed when persecuted, but that when they see the signs of the end of days, they should look up in hope, because Jesus is returning to take them.  What is judgment for the world is a sign of the impending, eternal and permanent salvation of the believer.

To that end I encourage you all to bear in mind that, whether in the normal course of life or because the end is drawing nigh, persecutions will come in this life, but no persecutions will come that have not been born by your brothers and sisters from the beginning of the church until now, and God will bless us through them.   Jesus said in Luke 6:22, “What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man.”  As for the judgments of God, it is a terrible and frightening thing to consider the wrath of God that will be poured out on the unbelieving world.  But as God’s child, you are not subject to God’s wrath.  As God pours out judgment on the world, He will bring out His salvation for His children.  The words that God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, when he prophesied God’s salvation and judgment against enemies that would march against Israel, ring as true for us today: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

"I Never Knew You"

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’" -Matthew 7:21-23

Note that Jesus answers those who protest that they have done ministry, even signs and wonders, in His name, and who refer to Him as Lord, "I never knew you."  He does not say that they turned away, or fell from His grace; no, He states that they were never His at all.  This is significant.  At no point do the scriptures indicate that one who was saved by Christ's blood, forgiven, redeemed, made new, will ever cease to be redeemed.  Those who turn from God prove that God never indwelt them to begin with.  The Apostle John notes this clearly, saying of those who join with the church and then turn away from God that "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us." (1 John 2:19)

These are the ones whom Jesus refers to in the Parable of the Sower (see Matthew 13), those who "spring up quickly", embracing the message of Christ outwardly, but fall away as soon as persecution or hardship arises.  Likewise they are the seed who spring up, but are choked and become unfruitful because of the cares of this world.  Those who fall away and die are not redeemed, though they seem for a time to rejoice in God.  Likewise those who are unfruitful, who embrace the world and its temptations, though they appear at the first to have accepted Christ, are not redeemed, because God cannot indwell a soul without that soul bearing fruit.  "You can identify them by their fruit" Jesus said in Matthew 7:16. What is the fruit of a true believer? "the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)

This is not to say that the believer cannot sin; he can, and when he does, God will bring discipline, as a father disciplines his child (Hebrews 12:7).  But the believer never ceases to be God's child, and God will produce fruit in the child's life.  Jesus indicates that some will produce more fruit than others (see Matthew 13:8), but fruit they will produce.  A life that is unchanged by the Gospel is a life that has not embraced it, a life that has not been redeemed.  A true child of God may bear fruit slowly, but it is not possible that he will not bear any.

Thus it becomes clear that those who embrace God solely out of a desire to escape Hell, yet live how they please, are presumptuous, thinking that they are cleverly taking advantage of the grace of God.  Take heed, God is not mocked.  It is not possible that a child of God, be he ever so rebellious, can be indwelt by the Spirit of God and yet show no love for God, and there is no love in the heart of one who presumes upon God's grace, all the while caring nothing for God's commands.  Jesus said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15).  Those who care nothing for the commandments of God prove that they have no love for Him in their heart.  The true believer will be repentant of his sins, not arrogant and presumptuous.

Chosen Children - Answering an Objection to Irresistible Grace

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” –Proverbs 16:9

It is interesting that when you bring up the topic of predestination, people assume that if God determines whether or not to give you saving faith, then He has therefore created robots.  This is a very emotionally charged statement as we immediately consider stiff, cold, metal machines incapable of free thought and not worth our affections.  However, this doctrine doesn't teach that we are robots at all; it teaches us that we are children.

The individual whom God chose to save, chose, I say, before time began; that blessed man or woman to whom God said “I will pour out my grace upon you”: that is the individual God treats as a true son or a daughter.  He does not forcibly compel, but grants faith as a gift, and the child receives it as though it had been given a wonderful present at Christmas.  Once gifted with faith, our eyes are open to the majesty and glory of God, the wondrous love He has for us, and our journey of salvation has not only begun, but it is secure.  Those spiritual eyes, once granted the sight of faith, can never be blinded again.  God has not compelled a servant, no; He has taken his sick child in His arms, held it close, applied the cure, and made it well.  It shall never be sick again.

As I write this, I have a daughter who is just about to turn three months old.  She is quite helpless and needs to be waited on constantly as she cannot meet any of her many needs herself.  As a parent, I do not compel her to serve me; rather I serve her every day, feeding her, cleaning her, clothing her, comforting her.  I absolutely delight in doing all of these things for her, because I love her dearly, even though sometimes she smells, spits up, cries and fusses.  None of these things diminish my love for her, and I would certainly give my life for hers.  Isn't this precisely how God treats us?  Indeed, He did give His life for us, and He feeds us, cleans us, clothes us and comforts us, not just physically, but spiritually also.  We are truly His children.

Yet when it comes to salvation, we do not wish to be children; we wish to be adults, purely autonomous beings who make their own decisions for themselves without any outside influence compelling them this way or that.  Yet the Bible doesn't refer to us, in relation to God, as though we are adults.  In relation to God we are children: “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)  As any parent can tell you, children are often disobedient, often stubborn, often in need of discipline.  However, the parent is not compelled to bend to the will of the child, but by the very order of things guides and directs the child as he or she grows.  The child may be a free spirit, but that freedom does not give it autonomy; throughout its young life it is subject to the guiding hand of the parent.  A good parent does not enslave the child, controlling its every thought and movement, but neither does a good parent simply let the child go.  No, a good parent sets boundaries, applies rules, and pushes and directs the child in a positive direction, always moving it forward for its own good, protecting the child, not only from the world, but from its own foolishness as well.

When God chooses to save an individual, it is not a spur-of-the-moment decision, a question that was hanging in the balance until that point in time when someone got down on their knees to cry out to Him.  No, God always knew those on whom He would pour out His saving grace: “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5).  He knew them because they were made to be His own, and because they are His own He guides and directs, disciplines, protects and instructs them.  Are they free?  Certainly, but they are free as a child is free, subject always to the oversight of a loving Father who will always be watching over them, protecting them and keeping them.  A little child cannot disown the parent, though he may throw a tantrum now and then.  Neither can we, who were adopted by the grace and choice of God, disown our heavenly Father.  We are children, not robots, because we are chosen, cared for, protected and kept by His almighty will, grace, and love.

Divine Foreknowledge and Irresistible Grace: A Look at Romans 8:29,30

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." -Romans 8:29,30

This verse is often used by those who subscribe to Arminianism (or just generally reject the doctrine of predestination, or what Calvinists refer to as "Unconditional Election") as an argument that ultimately, whether an individual comes to Christ or not rests solely on that individual, acting freely and without compulsion.  Their reasoning goes that when the text says that those God "foreknew" he predestined, what is meant is that God saw ahead of time which individuals would, entirely of their own will, choose to accept Him, and those individuals God then "predestined" to be made like His Son.  Human choice comes first, and then God sets the stage.

The problem, and it is a significant one, is that this does not fit the flow of thought in this verse at all.  Had Paul left this passage in that spot, foreknowledge then predestination, there would be ground for this argument.  But He goes on and builds from that same starting point, and as he extends his reasoning it ought to become clear to us that Paul is not referring to foreknowledge in this light at all.  I must admit, however, that I myself never considered this point until it was shown to me by John Piper.  Consider the flow of the verse:

Those He foreknew He predestined, those He predestined He called, those He called He justified, those He justified He glorified.

Each point leads directly into the next.  It's on the second point, where Paul states that those whom God predestined He called, that Arminianism’s position breaks down.  Arminianism argues that the call of God is that the Gospel is preached to all without prejudice, and then it lies in the heart of the individual how to respond to it.  The Calvinist agrees with this position, but insists that this "general" call will always be rejected, and thereby lead to the condemnation of the hearers, unless God directly intervenes in the lives of some to cause them to positively respond to it.  This is the Calvinist doctrine of "Irresistible Grace": the call of God is always rejected by sinful man unless God first changes the heart...and once the heart has been changed, redemption has already taken place.  For this reason Calvinists insist upon what we might call the "effective” call of God.  This is not just a general presentation of the Gospel, or a general tug on the heart of men and women, but it is God effectively, irresistibly calling His own (the predestined) to faith in Christ.

As a Calvinist, the above progression makes sense.  Those God predestined He calls, and those He calls He also justifies; in other words, their sins are wiped clean and they are declared guiltless before God on account of the atoning sacrifice of His Son.

According to Paul's line of thought, the call follows after predestination and leads directly to justification.  Those who are predestined are then called, and those who are called are then justified.  This creates a significant difficulty for Arminianism, but for the Calvinist, there is no issue.  It is because you were predestined that God, at some point in your life, intervenes and calls to you with an irresistible call to grace.  On the other hand, the Arminianist can argue that this is just a simple timeline...naturally the call follows predestination, but it's not a particular, irresistible call, it is the same call the rest of the world receives, the same general pronouncement of the Gospel message.  Fair enough, until you reach the next point: "those whom he called he also justified".  Clearly, the whole world, which receives the same general Gospel message, is not justified.  Paul does not say that SOME who are called are justified, but links the call directly to justification.  You are predestined, therefore called, therefore justified.  Driving the point even further home, Paul continues that those who God justified "he also glorified", i.e., they are with God forever in eternity.

The problem that Arminianism has at this point cannot be understated.  If the call here is the same general call, then all those called should be justified, and all of those justified are glorified.  If this is so, then Paul is proclaiming Universalism.  But unless you want to take that third road, we are left with few options.  Those called ARE justified, and those justified ARE glorified.  It's ironic, but this whole passage, which Arminianism has long used as an argument against Calvinism, is instead Calvinism in a nutshell, providing the process of salvation, even a nod to eternal security, in simple fashion.

So what of the beginning of the passage, where Paul speaks of God's foreknowledge?  Foreknowledge has never been an argument against predestination, indeed, predestination depends on God's foreknowledge.  The fact is, God has been aware of the plan of salvation from the beginning of creation, when He foreshadowed Christ in Genesis 3:15, telling Satan that the woman would bear offspring and that "he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel".  He was aware of each of us as individuals, having purposefully pieced us together, as evidenced when God told the prophet Jeremiah "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5).  Jesus Himself, confronted with the unbelief of the Pharisees said, in John 10:26-28, "you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."  He did not say they did not believe because they were stubborn, but because they were not His sheep.  Those who are God's sheep hear his voice and respond.  God knows those who are His, knew them before they were born, purposefully created them, and predestined their salvation through Jesus' sacrifice.

To the Arminianists out there, I urge you to come up with another argument.  To the Calvinists out there, I urge you to start using this verse to explain your position.  Finally, to the Universalists out there, I urge you to keep studying the rest of scripture as a whole, which indeed I urge us all to do regardless of our present theological leaning.