I appreciate your answer but you didn’t answer the questions.
“How do you interpret this verse?
“Were they judged before Jesus said “For God so loved the world....?”
John 3:18 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.
Do you agree with Barnes that condemnation is God’s “disapproval” and man’s “feeling of disapprobation”?
Barnes says the unbeliever “Is condemned already. By conscience, by law, and in the judgment of God.” He defines condemnation as God’s disapproval, “of their character, and this feeling of disapprobation, and the expression of it, is the condemnation. There is no condemnation as terrible as this—that God disapproves our conduct, and that he will express his disapprobation.”
Barnes chooses to see God’s condemnation as “disapproval” rather than forensically, as God’s judgment; His wrath. He does not want to give the impression that the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross appeased or placated an angry, settled, intolerance of evil that is contrary to the character of God; the settled hatred by one who could never be good and loving unless He totally hated evil. Thus he translates the word for “atonement” as expiation rather than propitiation.
Barnes was a minor theologian who wrote popular commentaries for Sunday School teachers. His stress was on the sentimental “love of God” over the rational, unselfish, intentional wrath of God. Yet all men are born into the world under the wrath of God. Sentence has already been passed; the whole human race is damned to hell. We are all children of wrath under the judgment of God. Man is born condemned and the effects of God’s wrath are experienced in this world and the next.
God’s wrath is dynamically operative in the world of men. When Adam and Eve sinned, immediately the sentence of death was passed, the earth was cursed and they were expelled from paradise. The whole creation still groans and travails in pain under that judgment of God. This was the world’s first lesson that that God hates sin. His hatred was revealed in the flood when God drowned the whole human race except for Noah and his family. It was revealed in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was revealed in the plagues on Egypt and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. It was revealed in the curse of the law on every transgressor. It was revealed in the institution of the sacrificial system and all of the rituals of the Mosaic Law. It is constantly being revealed, all the time. People live and die. Nations rise and fall. God judges sin.
The greatest manifestation of the wrath of God was given at Calvary. God hates sin so deeply that He allowed His own Son to be put to death. That’s how He hated sin.
God’s condemnation is not His “disapproval” but His judgment; His wrath and those who disbelieve are already, before they disbelieve, under the wrath of God. They were born that way and God knew that.
John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Ah...so here is Calvinism: That God has already judged those who rebel, and already chosen who to save, with no regard for their believing - they are condemned without hope, for God’s pleasure.
In Calvinism, believing is a smokescreen - God gives it to the elect, and withholds it from the condemned. Thus, we are saved by grace thru election. Faith and belief - mentioned nearly 500 times in the New Testament - are just fairy tales for the uninitiated...since, as Dr E has pointed out, she hasn’t met anyone who came to Christ as a Calvinist!
But here is what the Apostle John wrote in scripture - that which is God’s breath:
Jhn 1:7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
Jhn 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Jhn 1:50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
Jhn 2:11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Jhn 2:22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Jhn 2:23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
Jhn 3:12 “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
Jhn 3:15 “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Jhn 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jhn 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Jhn 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Jhn 4:39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”
Jhn 4:41 And many more believed because of his word.
Jhn 4:42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Jhn 4:48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
Jhn 4:50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way...The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.
Jhn 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Jhn 5:38 “and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
Jhn 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Jhn 5:46 “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Jhn 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
Jhn 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Jhn 6:36 “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
Jhn 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jhn 6:47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
Jhn 6:64 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)
Jhn 6:69 “and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jhn 7:5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
Jhn 7:31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
Jhn 7:38 “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Jhn 7:39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Jhn 8:24 “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
Jhn 8:30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
Jhn 9:18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight
Jhn 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
Jhn 9:36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jhn 9:38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jhn 10:25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,
Jhn 10:26 “but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.
Jhn 10:37 “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
Jhn 10:38 “but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Jhn 10:42 And many believed in him there.
Jhn 11:15 “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Jhn 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Jhn 11:26 “and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jhn 11:27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Jhn 11:40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
Jhn 11:42 “I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Jhn 11:45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him,
Jhn 11:48 “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Jhn 12:11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
Jhn 12:36 “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
Jhn 12:37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,
Jhn 12:38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Jhn 12:39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
Jhn 12:42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;
Jhn 12:44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.
Jhn 12:46 “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
Jhn 12:47 “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
Strong’s Numbers VisibleShow Strong’s Help
Jhn 13:19 “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.
Jhn 14:1 Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
Jhn 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
Jhn 14:11 “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Jhn 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Jhn 14:29 “And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
Jhn 16:9 “concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;
Jhn 16:27 “for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
Jhn 16:30 “Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
Jhn 16:31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
Jhn 17:8 “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
Jhn 17:20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
Jhn 17:21 “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Jhn 19:35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.
Jhn 20:8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
Jhn 20:25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Jhn 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
No, I don’t expect Calvinists to read those. Too long, too boring, and John was undoubtedly “a minor theologian who wrote popular commentaries” - not a learned and wise man like John Calvin! Why read scripture when you can simply read The Institutes?
So let me answer your question with a single sentence.
Q: “Were they judged before Jesus said “For God so loved the world....?”
A: We were all judged conditionally, “for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
Or as you quoted, “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
So what must we do? Repent, and believe. Jesus said that is the ‘work’ that God requires of man! But then, what seminary was Jesus President of? What did HE ever do? He died as a common criminal...