For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
—John 6:40 NIV (emphasis mine)
Does the bold text above refer to:
A. all the elect who have lived since the creation of Adam?
B. all the elect who have lived since Jesus's time. This theory would mean that no elect lived prior to Jesus's time?
If A is true, then there is a question, how is it that Adam looks to Jesus and believes in Jesus while Jesus had not yet lived?
If B is true, what is God's plan for everyone who lived before Jesus time?
Is there a third explanation I haven't thought of?
Why I propose like A and B, because I read from the internet like this : Reformed theology, also known as Calvinism, teaches that Jesus only bore the sins of the elect
And assuming that I'm not wrong, the process for the elect something like this :
1. there is an info about Jesus story
2. the elect regenerated
3. the elect hear that story about Jesus
4. from that knowledge - the elect look to Jesus
5. and the elect believe in Jesus
I don't understand, what does it mean of this article if it's not talking about the doctrine of election ?
The careful reader, however, will note that 6:40 follows 6:35-39. Hence, if the flow of thought means anything, we already have the identity of those who will come, behold, and believe, established in these preceding verses. Remembering that Jesus is explaining the unbelief of those who have seen Him work miracles, we have the identification of those who do come to Christ as those who are given to the Son by the Father (6:37); the same ones who will be infallibly raised up by the Son as per the Father’s will (6:38-39). We have already been told in 6:37 that those the Father gives to the Son come to the Son: coming is active. Believers believe. Saving faith is a gift of God, given to His elect people.