“If you think it is more than that , is John 3:16 a lie? Is it an ERROR?”
Neither. It is merely a verse misunderstood by Protestants. That’s why so many Protestants struggle with the obvious meaning of 1 Peter 3:21.
The obvious meaning of 1 Peter 3:21 is that water baptism is analogous in “saving us” to how the waters of the Flood “saved” Noah. The Flood did not give Noah life, but it DID separate him from the evil world in which he lived. As Peter said in Acts 2: “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
Water baptism has an important place in salvation, but it isn’t in giving life. Why folks struggle with 1 Peter 3:21 is hard to understand, since Peter was pretty specific.
Protestants do not misunderstand 1 Peter.....But it is interesting that you would accuse them of misunderstanding the clear words of John 3 as well
And matthew 16:18
CC
CONTEXT! CONTEXT!
I think 1 Peter 3:21 is better understood within the context of the extended thought of the person of Jesus Christ and how and why each of us are to view or “sanctify him.”..(set a special place for him) in our hearts”. I urge all of you to view this verse in light of its context in this chapter. Without spiritual renewal...water baptism outside of the renewal of the spirit means nothing. Just look at the fruits of the lives who count on their infant baptisms to “save them”(Mainline protestant churches do infant baptisms as do Catholics) as opposed to the fruits of the lives who have been spiritually regenerated and have then followed Jesus example and were water baptized. I think lots of Catholics are saved and I think lots of Protestants are saved....the rest are like the tares that shall be gathered up at the end and be burned.
1Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”
We quote John 3:16 a lot but looking at the entire chapter, we note Christ speaking to Nicodemus who came to him by night...starting with Nicodemus...
John 3:”There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
If you read the first 15 verses it sets up the money quotes of John3:16-21
“16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
I know there has been an argument that the “water” Christ spoke of was the physical act of water baptism and indeed all Christians are commanded to be baptized when they have been saved spiritually as a first act of obedience and as a way of making a public demonstration of their new found faith.
Yet in the context of John, Nicodemus was trying to grasp the notion of the 2 births of a man....we don’t know the emotional context of the conversation...perhaps Nicodemus was being somewhat jestful or mildly sarcastic...perhaps he was truly confused but curious. “Can a man when he is old enter the womb of his mother?” At that point Christ says...”a man is born of water and he is born of spirit”.
Each person when he is physically born breaks open his amniotic sack and a gushing of fluids occurs. A pregnant woman may yelp in surprise...”MY WATERS just broke!” A man thusly is “born of water”! Yet having a sin nature, a man must come to a place in his life where the Spirit of God must regenerate him so that he becomes “a new creature in Christ”. “That which is born of Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit”
When context is considered when viewing the “old chestnut verses” of the faith, context and the Spirit can lead to deeper appreciation of the faith and of the great love that the Father has extended to men thru the proffering of the Son so that we might have life “and life more abundantly”!
CONTEXT! CONTEXT!
Lotsa error strugglin' goin' on these days...
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”