How would a Calvinist interpret Matthew 13:37-40? (37) He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
  (38) The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the
  kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, (39) and the enemy
  who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and
  the reapers are angels. (40) Just as the weeds are gathered and burned
  with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 


Here is my personal interpretation of this passage:
1. Jesus is the one who sows the sons of the kingdom
2. Devil is the one who sows the sons of the evil one
3. God let the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one live together

4. At the end of the age, the sons of the kingdom are sent to heaven and the sons of the evil one are sent to hell.

Assuming that my interpretation above is correct, I am facing a "dead end" in an effort to connect it with the election before the beginning of the age. 

If in the beginning there were already two different beings who sow and two different kinds of seed, how is this consistent with election?

for example like this illustration :

There is a box.
There are two people placing balls in a box, Mr. X and Mr. Y. From Monday to Saturday, Mr. X places white balls in the box while Mr. Y places black balls in the box. Mr. X lets the white and black balls sit together in the same box. On Sunday, Mr. X burns the 90 black balls and play with his 10 white balls. 

I am confused on how to apply a kind of election event before the "filling the box with white balls" event take place, but I can apply it on Sunday ---> On Sunday, Mr. X choose the white balls from all the balls in the box.

Assuming my interpretation above is consistent with Calvinist theology, how do Calvinists reconcile it with unconditional election?



I found a new verse, John 8:44


  You belong to your father, the devil


So Jesus is saying that the devil claimed them before they were created. Jesus informed them that they never came from God and they are certainly going to hell.

Based on my own understanding, the parable in Matthew means something like this :
1. In the beginning there are two beings, God and the Devil. Each of them has their own children. God's children are the sons of the kingdom, the Devil's children are the sons of evil.


After the creation, God "sows" His good seeds (the sons of the kingdom) into the world - and the Devil (God's enemy) also "sows" his weeds (the sons of the evil) into the world. God let the weeds grow together with His good seeds.
At the end, God separates his wheat from the Devil’s weeds. He keeps the wheat and burns the weeds.


I do not see how 1 could have occurred before creation without 2 and 3 also having been planned before creation. 

Let’s go back to the ball illustration. Mr. X puts his white balls into the box for 6 days, but before he began putting balls into the box, he developed his plan:


He determined that Mr. Y will put black balls into the box over the same six days. 
He will allow both kinds of ball to mix together.
On Sunday, he will remove the white balls from the box. 


Is this how the Calvinist thinks of election with regard to the parable in Matthew? Thank you.
The Calvinist understanding is that election occurs before anyone is even created. So, in your ball analogy, before the balls are created, God first determines how many there will be, which ones will be saved, and when they will be saved. He then creates them, and allows their sinful nature and Satan's working to plunge them into damnation. He then saves those He previously decided to save (election). Mr. X decides how many balls will become white on Sunday, then creates all of them white, they become black from their own efforts, and then during the week Mr. X colours some of them white.
The Canons of Dort (a standard Reformed summary of what the Bible teaches on certain subjects) says in Article 7 the following:

Election is God’s unchangeable purpose by which he did the following:
Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, God chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery. God did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their salvation.
And so God decreed to give to Christ those chosen for salvation, and to call and draw them effectively into Christ’s fellowship through the Word and Spirit. In other words, God decreed to grant them true faith in Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of the Son, to glorify them.
God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the praise of the riches of God’s glorious grace.
As Scripture says, “God chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before him with love; he predestined us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, by which he freely made us pleasing to himself in his beloved” (Eph. 1:4-6). And elsewhere, “Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30).

It is worth noting that Matthew 13:37-40 is understood by the Calvinist to be referring to the church. John Calvin in his Commentary on Matthew says the following:

He had formerly said that the kingdom of heaven resembles a man sowing. The mode of expression is unusual, but plainly means, that the same thing happens with the preaching of the Gospel as usually takes place in the sowing of fields; the tares grow, up along with the wheat One peculiarity, however, is pointed out by him, when he says that the sowing of tares in the field was effected by the trick of an enemy. This is intended to inform us that, when many wicked men are mingled with believers, this is no accidental or natural occurrence, as if they were the same seed, but that we must learn to charge the blame of this evil on the devil. Not that, by condemning him, men are acquitted of guilt; but, in the first place, that no blame whatever may be laid on God on account of this fault which arose from the agency of another; and, secondly, that we may not be surprised to find tares frequently growing in the Lord’s field, since Satan is always on the watch to do mischief. Again, when Christ says, not that the ministers of the word sow, but that he alone sows, this is not without meaning; for though this cannot be supposed to be restricted to his person, yet as he makes use of our exertions, and employs us as his instruments, for cultivating his field, so that He alone acts by us and in us, he justly claims for himself what is, in some respects, common to his ministers. Let us, therefore, remember, that the Gospel is preached, not only by Christ’s command, but by his authority. and direction; in short, that we are only his hand, and that He alone is the Author of the work.