Cheryl Schatz

Peter, welcome! You wrote: The point that I have made in that regard, is that the ones that the Father gave Jesus were the Jews who were believers prior to the cross. I would add that the ones given to Jesus were all believers in the Father, whether they were Jews or Gentiles. Cornelius would be an example. He was a God-fearing Gentile. By being given to Jesus, they were given a revelation of the Father about His Son, thus they were brought to faith in the Son by the God that they have trusted in. Cornelius did not know about Jesus or have faith in Him until he was given the gospel. He easily believed because he was already a believer in the Father. It appears that Cornelius was not given to Jesus until after the death of Jesus as he did not believe in Jesus while Jesus was alive. However, the disciples were given to Jesus and none of them were lost except for Judas. I have a link for John 6:39 below: https://mmoutreach.org/tg/fathers-will/ You wrote: In John 6, Jesus said He would lose none of them. There is a change of grammar from John 6:37 to John 6:39. One is present tense with a continued giving and the other is a past tense. Only the verse with the past tense has Jesus saying He will lose none of them. The present tense (verse 37) shows that the one who comes (present tense – continues to come) will not be cast out and will be raised up (verse 40). It is important that John 6:37 is in the present tense with the action in process or a state of being with no assessment of the action’s completion. This implies continued faith and continued giving. The past tense involves a giving that has ended. In John 17 Jesus is specifically and only talking about His disciples. The giving that is past tense is the giving of a specific group of individuals who believed. Judas did not put his faith in Jesus. I would love to continue dialog. If you look at the categories pull down on this blog, you can look at what I have written for each verse or each section. You wrote: The universal, corporate drawing of Jesus in 12:32 is more about a universal atonement and is not individual-specific. Correct. It is universal. You wrote: I am most interested in your thoughts re what I say about the temporary nature of the “Father’s drawing”. In my careful thinking about this, I came to realize that all my Christian life, I read this through a Calvinistic lens – taking this verse as a universal, absolute teaching of Jesus to the church. The nature of the drawing of Jesus is universal while the drawing of the Father is specific. The question would be did the specific drawing of the Father end at the cross? If a person in a pagan nation without access to the Word of God receives revelation about Jesus would that be the drawing of the Father? There are multiple witnesses of visions and dreams being given to those of the Muslim faith in which they see a revelation of Jesus and they have come to faith in Him. They have the general revelation of God that is given to all, but they are also given a specific revelation about the Saviour. Who is the One who is revealing Jesus to them? What are your thoughts on this?