Thanks for a great question. For anyone else reading, these verses come from Mark 4. First I'll address your questions about predestination (the idea of being chosen), and then I'll talk about Mark 4.12 in particular. Feel free to ask more questions or make comments about what I've written.
As far as being chosen ("the elect"), unless we grasp all of what the Bible says about the subject, we're going to get the wrong idea. It's true that God has chosen some out from among the whole group to be his people, but we miss the whole point if we stop there. The reason he has chosen those "out from among" is that those elected ones are chosen to take the message to the rest so that all will come to God. It's not a case of the haves and the have-not's, the ins and the outs, the privileged and the damned, but of "these are the ones I have delegated to recruit everybody else."
Bible scholars have often noted that the Bible talks a bunch about people being elected to salvation but it never mentions the obvious other side of the coin—therefore some are also obversely elected to damnation. The reason the Bible never mentions that is because it's not true. It's not a case of "OK, you people on my left have a ticket to heaven, and, oops, you others on my right don't get a ticket, so, um, sorry. You're out." Instead, it's a case of "OK, you people on my left have been given a free ticket to heaven. But I've also given you each an unlimited supply of tickets for others. Give away as many as you can to whomever will take them." The invitation is offered to all. If someone doesn't have a ticket it's not because God didn't offer it or because God didn't elect you, but because you refused to take one.
As far as Bible support for what I'm saying, you can find lots of texts that talk about election and predestination. They tell the first half of the case. But then we have to look at the second half of the case.
Gen. 12.2-3. Why was Abraham chosen? To be a blessing to the nations. So that all nations would know YHWH was the true God.
Gn. 22.18. Why was Israel God's chosen people? So that through them all nations on earth would know God and His blessing.
Mt. 28.19-20. Why were the 23 apostles chosen? To take the gospel to the whole world so that all would come to God and participate in His salvation.
Gal. 1.16. Why was Paul chosen? To bring the Gospel to the whole world, not just the circle of Jews.
2 Cor. 5.11-19: Why are any of us "chosen"? To bring the Gospel to the world, to be ambassadors of reconciliation to anyone who will accept it.
I hope that helps.
But what about Mark 4.12? A "ticket" is being handed to everyone within hearing of Jesus' words (either at the time or through the Gospel writings throughout history). His stories are both simple and profound, and his words are understandable. But some are so dark in their minds, so defiant, and so closed-minded that they refuse to accept the truth. As Confucius said, "I give a pupil one corner of a subject, and if he cannot find the other three corners, I do not want him to be my pupil." Jesus gives the truth in story form. It's understandable by a child, by the uneducated and the uninitiated, but it's also deep enough to engage the scholar and the intellectual. Some accept the truth and grow; others reject it and die (look back to the parable of vv. 3-9). Mark 4.12 is a quote from Isaiah 6.9-10. Look at what the parable teaches: The seed is sown broadly, universally, and graciously. Everyone has access to it. The point of the story is "What are you going to do with the seed that fell on you?" Are you so hard that it doesn't penetrate? Are you so shallow that you can't hang on to it? Are you so conflicted that it can't thrive in you? Or are you receptive and teachable so that the truth can grow in you?
Jesus then quotes Isaiah. It's not the announcement of a divine double-cross by which God is going to trick people into a situation where he can condemn you rather than forgive you. Rather, it's a reflection on the way things are. Jesus is teaching about the obtuseness he sees all around him. It doesn't mean "those outside" are denied the possibility of belief, but that the seed can't grow if they don't let it in and nurture it. It's not that Jesus doesn't want people to understand him. Isaiah 6.9-10 is about people who are capable of understanding but who refuse to see, refuse to hear, and refuse to acknowledge the truth right in front of their eyes.
We have the same kind of principles in our legal system. "
Willful blindness (sometimes called
ignorance of law,
willful ignorance or
contrived ignorance or
Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which an individual seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting his or herself in a position where he or she will be unaware of facts that would render him or her liable. For example, in a number of cases, persons transporting packages containing illegal drugs have asserted that they never asked what the contents of the packages were and so lacked the requisite intent to break the law. Such defenses have not succeeded, as courts have been quick to determine that the defendant should have known what was in the package and exercised criminal recklessness by failing to find out. A famous example of such a defense being denied occurred in
In re Aimster Copyright Litigation, 334 F.3d 643 (7th Cir. 2003), in which the defendants argued that the file-swapping technology was designed in such a way that they had no way of monitoring the content of swapped files. They suggested that their inability to monitor the activities of users meant that they could not be contributing to copyright infringement by the users. The court held that this was willful blindness on the defendant's part and would not constitute a defense to a claim of contributory infringement." (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willful_blindness)
There's an awful lot more that can be said about this, but I don't just want to write a wall of text as if I'm backing up a dump truck on you. I'll give you a chance to respond or to ask more, and we can talk more.
