I couldn't figure out where to post this question, because it has a flavor of calvinism in it, but it wasn't enough for me to post in that section. However, because it is my friends question, and he is still new to the reformed community as I am too, I thought this would be a more appropriate place to post.

Anyways, here is the question in the format that he asked me:

Emmy,

Ask them: "Since Jesus is God, and God does everything right, why did Christ say 'It would have been better for that man (Judas) if he had not been born?' They need to think about it though. I'm looking for a predestionation perspective; did God predestine him to do this, and if so, why did Christ say 'It would have been better for . . ." Isn't the damnation of the wicked glorifying God's justice? Anyways, that's the flavor of the question. Again, I do have an answer, but I'd like to hear a more satisfying one.

Thanks bro.

Joe

__________________
Claudiu
Reformed Baptist
attending Immanuel Baptist Church
Sacramento, CA

For starters, yes, God did predestine Judas to do everything that he did. There was no act of Judas that was not ultimately decreed by God.

That said, when Christ says, "It would have been better for him if he had never been born," he is not making a statement that should shake your confidence in God's foreordination of all acts, or His being glorified in everything. Rather, Christ is speaking from the perspective of Judas... would you not also agree with Jesus that with Judas's record and the eternity he'll spend in Hell tormented for this and all his sins, it would have been better for him to have never been born? Judas received 30 pieces of silver that he ultimately chucked anyway... all that, plus the "in" he got with the Sanhedrin because he turned Jesus in to them , what's that worth? NOTHING. He is the man who gained a small amount (not even the world) in exchange for his soul. Would he not have been better off never to have been born?

That's all Christ's saying, as I read the text. There's no questioning of predestination or of God's eternal decree in it at all... just a remark about Judas's final end, and how pitiable it was.

__________________
Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://inprincipiodeus.solideogloria.com
http://puritanwisdom.blogspot.com

"As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low."
John Flavel in Keeping the Heart



Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

I was thinking along those lines. There should not be a questioning about the foreordination, but I think Christ was saying that from the perspective of what you mentioned (compared to losing your (Judas) soul, it would have been better that he wasn't born).

Christ is simply making the point that it would have been "better for him" (i.e. Judas), and it would have. But it's not what was best for God's glory.

__________________
Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
Board Rules - Signature Rules - Suggestion Box

It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Oh, Todd said it better (of course).

As an aside (sorry) -- I find this verse also to be a strong argument against Annihilationaism, don't you?

__________________
Jim
1689 LBCF
Independent Bible Church
North Texas, USA