Saturday, January 8, 2022

Urban C. Von Wahlde: The Gospel of John Does not Teach Determinism and Strict Predestination

  

Determinism

 

Among some gnostic schools, it was believed that, from its origin, the self was a spark of light entrapped in the material world and in need of awakening in order to be aware of its true source and destiny. This awakening occurs through the redeemer’s revelation. For these Gnostics, one might speak of redemption being ‘determined’.

 

It is true that, in the Gospel of John . . . there are statements that would seem to imply a predestination of the individual by God. At the same time, the Gospel contains other statements that would seem to indicate a kind of determinism with regard to those who will receive the Spirit. In 6.37, Jesus says that only those whom the Father ‘gives’ will come to Jesus (cf. 6.65; 17.2). In 10.26-30, Jesus explains that ‘the Jews’ are not ‘of his sheep’ and that no one is able to take anyone ‘from the hand of the Father’ once that person has been ‘given’. But this is simply the Gospel’s way of affirming that an individual manifests by means of his/her belief or unbelief whether he/she has been given by God. The context . . . makes it clear that all are responsible for their acceptance or rejection of Jesus, but that at the same time even the rejection of Jesus does not take place outside the providence of God. In Jn 6.44, Jesus says, ‘no one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws the person’. This could appear to express a kind of determinism. However, this expression is clarified by the context, where Jesus goes on to say (6.45): ‘it is written in the prophets, “And all will be taught by God”. Everyone listening to the Father and learning comes to me.’ Thus, while no one can come to the Father unless the Father draws the person, it is clear from the Scriptures that all will be taught by God and all that is needed is to listen to the teaching of God the Father. Nowhere does the Gospel present a view of the believer as someone endowed by nature with a destiny. (Urban C. Von Wahlde, Gnosticism, Docetism, and the Judaisms of the First Century: The Search for the Wider Context of the Johannine Literature and Why It Matters [Library of New Testament Studies 517; London: T&T Clark, 2015, 2016], 45-46, italics in original, emphasis in bold added)

 

In a footnote to the above, we read that:

 

Valentinians held to a somewhat different view and understood this divine spark to be at times something freely given to the individual by God even if not possessed by nature. In such a case, it was necessary to conduct oneself properly in order to achieve the final redemption. At one part of the Tripartite Tractate, each person is said to contain elements of the pneumatic, psychic, and hylic (I.5, 104.4-118.14-122.12). Perhaps the meaning here is that the reaction to the coming of the savior causes one or other elements of the individual to predominate. The concluding statement of On the Origin of the World (II.5, 127.16) illustrates the relation of behavior to nature: ‘For each one by his deed and is knowledge will reveal his nature’. (Ibid., 45 n. 58)