Cheryl Schatz

Robin, You said: John 5:25 only demonstrates that by an act of God’s speaking to a human heart, some will live. It technically does not say if any other necessary element takes place; that is, it does not specify how or why a person hears with acceptance What it does specify is that the person hears while they are DEAD. That is key. For the majority of Calvinists who believe that a person must be resurrected first to have spiritual life, they cannot conceive that a person can be DEAD and hear. This verse is very troubling to them. Other Calvinists do accept that the dead can hear, but seem to have a problem explaining how the dead can hear if they need to be resurrected to have eternal life. You said: If you look at the verse just before, it says “he who hears My word and believes… has everlasting life. The Greek for “has” means “already holds, or possesses.” That is correct. In verse 24 Jesus adds believing to the ones who are hearing. If you hear AND believe you have eternal life. Thus life comes after the believing. Plus, the very next phrase reiterates that by emphasizing again that this person who hears and believes “has passed” (Greek, has already passed) from death into life. Yes, that is correct. Once one believes one “has passed” from death to life. The Greek is in the perfect tense and the emphasis is on the present “state of affairs” resulting from the ongoing believing. So, can verse 25 actually be properly used to confirm that some act of God (let’s play rough here… some “effectual” apparatus) isn’t also in play here? The only thing that we can gain from this verse is that Jesus speaks to the dead person. His speaking is necessary and that it is the dead person themselves that hear is the Greek future active. That means that God is not directly involved in their hearing or else it would be passive. In addition, verse 25 says those who hear will live. Thayer’s cites John 5:25 as an example of how life in this text means in the Messianic sense to enjoy life, to live life to its full, eternally. In other words, it doesn’t specifically refer to the theological act of regeneration or rebirth. Thayer’s is wrong on this one. And RC Sproul’s ministry (a popular Calvinist ministry teaching the heart and soul of Calvinism) teaches that John 5:25 is about the spiritually dead. What the verse specifically does not teach is: how many people are spiritually dead, how many spiritually dead people hear God, how it comes about that they hear God, or how it is that they are born again spiritually. What it does teach is foundational: The Spiritually dead can hear and hearing comes before believing. Verse 24 shows that believing comes after hearing and once a person believes that are said that the result is they have eternal life. I will carry on in the next comment box.