My Thoughts on Judas Iscariot and Calvinism

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Maundy Thursday would bring thoughts about Judas Iscariot's betrayal and the institution of the Lord's supper as an important sacrament for the Church. It can be argued that Judas Iscariot is an example of for or against monergism. Some can say that for monergism to be true the Judas Iscariot has to be one of the elect. John 6:70 says, "Have I not chose you twelve and one of you is a devil?" Then I decided to retake a section of the late Robert Charles Sproul Sr.'s book "Now That's a Good Question" for reference.

Sproul says the following on the matter of Judas Iscariot as found on pages 106-106:

But the Scripture seems to take a dim view of the future condition of Judas, who, as far as we know, dies without being restored to fellowship with Christ. I think what Jesus is saying there is that He has chosen thsoe twelve to be His disciples. He goes on to say that He knew all along that one of them was the son of perdition. Jesus reveals that He knew very well the state of Judas's soul when He chose him to participate in Jesus' rabinic school of disciples. Remember that a disciple is simply a learner. A disciple in the ancient Jewish community was a person who attached himself to the school of a particular rabbi and became his student. Jesus was a peripatetic rabbi, a rabbi whose school was not in some building, but out-of-doors. He walked around and His disciples literally followed Him. They took notes and memorized the thigns He taught.

Jesus selected Judas to enroll in His school. Obviously, the purpose of that was to fulfill the Scriptures. Jesus indicated that - that this man was a "son of perdition" from the beginning so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, that Jesus would be delivered through a betrayal. Jesus selected one of whom He knew would betray Him and whom He knew was not in a redeemed state in his soul. I don't think there's any conflict or contradictions there between the fact that Jesus said He has chosen Judas  and the fact that the rest of the disciples were presumably not only chosen to be disciples but also chosen to be apostles. They were chosen from all eternity as the pillars of the Kingdom of God and therefore chosen unto eternal salvation.

So the big contrast is that Judas Iscariot (spelled in full to avoid confusing him with Jude who was Judas but not Iscariot) was only selected to be part of the school but he's not of the elect. The others such as Peter, Andrew, John, James the brother of John, James the Lesser (called such since are the two Jameses), Simon the Zealot, Matthew the former publican, Thaddeus, Bartholomew (also known as Nathanael), and Judas not Iscariot (also referred to as Jude) were the ones who were truly saved. Just remember Judas Iscariot was not around when John 15:16 was cited to them. Judas Iscariot already was getting ready to betray Jesus at that very moment. Judas Iscariot was only chosen to fulfill prophecy but not chosen for salvation. 

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