Q: Are there certain people in this world who are just never destined to know God?

In John 6:44, it says that people can't go to Jesus unless God has drawn them near to Him. Maybe I'm interpreting this Scripture incorrectly.

I've answered various forms of this question before. Please read this previous post. In it, I quote from the GotQuestions ministry website, which states:

If God is choosing who is saved, doesn’t that undermine our free will to chose and believe in Christ? The Bible says that we have the choice—all who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). The Bible never describes God rejecting anyone who believes in Him or turning away anyone who is seeking Him (Deuteronomy 4:29). Somehow, in the mystery of God, predestination works hand-in-hand with a person being drawn by God (John 6:44) and believing unto salvation (Romans 1:16). God predestines who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. Both facts are equally true. Romans 11:33 proclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

Please also read our post on this very issue. Here is an excerpt:

If God doesn't choose, then you don't have the ability to turn to Him. Salvation only comes when God chooses us and works in our heart so that we have the ability to respond to Him. Listen to what theologian Donald Bloesch (Essentials of Evangelical Theology, Volume I: God, Authority and Salvation. Peabody, MA: Prince Press, 1978) says:

'To give all the glory to God in the accomplishing of our salvation is not to reduce man to nothing. Yet we must also not say that man gets some of the credit for his salvation, that man can help in the procuring of his salvation... Our position is that we must affirm both the sovereignty of grace and the responsibility of believers. The two errors to be avoided are the following: that one is saved exclusively by the work of grace upon him thereby not including or allow for personal faith and decision in the salvific process...the second error gives man a determinative role in his justification so that he virtually becomes a co-redeemer with Christ...Only the person who is transformed by divine grace can make a positive response to God's gracious invitation, but only the one who does make such a response is indeed transformed by grace.'

Summarily, there are certainly people in this world who are just never destined to know God. As it states in John 6:44, God must draw a person to Himself in order for that person to be saved (i.e. we cannot come to salvation on our own). However, this does not mean human beings do not have free will. We must embrace and accept this salvation by faith and in trust.

[Answered by Pastor HM]