Posted on 04/08/2016 7:34:38 AM PDT by Salvation
The Gospel proclaimed on Wednesday of this week included the familiar John 3:16. So familiar is this verse, that many hold up signs or have bumper stickers that simply say, “John 3:16.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life (John 3:16).
It is indeed a beautiful verse, but I would argue that many use it inauthentically by pulling it out from its place within a longer passage. The fuller segment is John 3:16-21, which is as much a passage of warning as it is of consolation and assurance.
Here it is again, along with the remainder of that longer passage:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God (John 3:16-21).
This fuller context has somewhat of a different tone. It sets forth a great drama in which our lives are cast. It amounts to sober assessment of the obtuseness of many human hearts and of the urgent need for us to decide well in life.
Those who merely quote the first verse run the risk of presenting this text as a kind of a freewheeling assurance that all is well and that salvation is largely in the bag, that judgment and condemnation are not a significant factor since “God so loved the world.” And while the concept of faith is included in this first verse, without the larger context the tendency is to soft-pedal the need for repentance and for the obedience of faith. In so doing, the true drama and sober teaching of the fuller text are lost.
The longer passage fleshes the message out and has a balance that the shortened text does not. Here is what Jesus is in effect saying, expressed in more modern language:
As I live, I and my Father do not desire that any should die in their sins or be lost. I have not currently come as your judge but as your savior. I will come one day as the judge of all, but now is a time of grace and mercy extended to you.
But you need to know that you have a decision to make, a decision that will determine where you will spend eternity.
So please listen to me! Open the door to me and let me draw you to the obedience of faith and the beauty of holiness. If you do this, light will dawn for you, for I am the Light and your life will grow ever brighter.
But if you will not repent and come to a lifesaving obedience of faith, your heart will begin to despise me and the light of my glory. You will become accustomed to the darkness and begin to consider the Light (which I am) to be obnoxious, harsh, judgmental, and even cruel. Yes, you will begin to hate me, for I am the Light. You will prefer the darkness because you love your sins more.
Come to your senses and don’t let this happen. You have a decision to make: for the light or for the darkness, for me or for the prince of this world, Satan. Be sober and understand the dramatic choice before you. Your salvation depends on your choice to come to obedient faith in me or to reject me.
And know this: on the day of your judgment, the verdict will not be rendered by me so much as by you. For by then, you will either love the Light or hate it. And I will not force you to live in a light you detest. You will be free to go your own way. It will not be I who reject you. It will be you who reject me.
Be sober. Don’t let this happen. Don’t marginalize or ignore me. Don’t prefer the world and its twisted values and passing pleasures. Your sins will make you hate the light and prefer the darkness. You have a decision to make.
This message is much more complex than that contained in the popular, abbreviated text known as John 3:16. God’s mercy is offered, but the final verdict will center on whether or not we accept it. This message may be less consoling but it is true nonetheless, and only the truth can set us free.
There is a tendency by many to pull out certain verses and isolate them from their context and from the fuller message of the Gospel. The full and authentic Gospel echoes the opening call of the Lord Jesus: “Repent and believe the Good News.”
So yes, John 3:16! But please continue reading. The whole Gospel, please!
Actually, you didn’t answer the question because the points you gave did not address the belief about the eucharist. It danced around it answering something I never asked.
Specifically, is belief in the eucharist required for salvation? Does the Catholic church teach that?
I'm of the opinion that the real problem is their conflating their 'other religion' institution with the actual ekklesia that Jesus is authoring during this ending soon church age. By insisting that they are the true Christianity, they turn their rituals, which violate God's Laws, into blasphemies.
And yet, in the passage they like to quote, Jesus says nothing about eating His divinity.
But they keep moving the goal posts.
Would you please stop telling me what is strong with me, what I want to pridefully believe, and what I want to ignore? You cannot possibly know all that is in my heart and in my mind.
Especially the part about who I want to petition to work my way to God’s ear. I have already posted that when I pray, I enter into the presence of God. Not St. George, not St. Helena, not Mary. They may all be part of the body of Christ, but my focus when I pray is on God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
May the peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you.
Rich
Thanks for the clarification. Was Innocent III writing about Weslayans?
This coming from someone who believes that ‘searching the Scriptures’ is NOT enough!
I do not recall ever posting that I believe that searching the Scriptures is not enough. In fact, I do believe that what we need to know to achieve Salvation can be found in Scripture.
Obviously, your mindset clealy misses the point. I both Know Him, and follow Him, because He came, like Lochinvar, and carried me out of and away from Sin as a master and the burdens of sinfulness as the reward. My life verse is Psalm 107:2 --
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He hat redeemed from the hand of the Enemy."
I do meet with others every Lord's Day, summoned to reverence and remembrance, shewing the Lord's death til He come, and by command seeking others who will thus worship Him in Spirit and in truth, and rejoicing in their salvation by a Faithful and Gracious Savior.
In this forum, considering this challenge to discover "The Whole Gospel," the Lord has sent His True Agents to call you away from the emblems of Cain's Table, Agents who are commissioned to earnestly contend for The Faith once delivered to them, the hagioi, ones being made holy by the Lord Jesus Messiah. Their desire to see you convicted of your need for His Real Presence in your life, conferred only by once and for all time allowing Him to assume your sin account in exchange for being credited with His Righteousness.
Do you, like the noble Berean saints, have an open mind to His offer for your soul as laid out in the Holy Scriptures? Here's the offer:
"In fact not one has completely ascended into Heaven except
The One Who descended out of Heaven, namely The Son of Man
Who continually exists in the Heaven. And according as
Moses lifted high the serpent in the desert, in this way it
is absolutely necessary for The Son of Man to be lifted
high in order that eveyone who is persistently committing
trust unto Him not perish, but continually have eternal
absolute life.
For The God so loved the world, so that He gave His Only Begotten Son, in order that everyone persistently committing trust unto Him not perish, but have Eternal Absolute Life. For The God did not send His Son into the world in order that He judge the world, but in order that the world be saved through Him. The one persistently committing trust unto Him is not being judged. But the one not persistently committing trust already has been permanently judged because he has not permanently committed trust unto the Name of The Only Begotten Son of The God" (John 3:13-18, A Precise Translation, freely available from Happy Heralds, Inc. (click here)).
This verse promises that the Gift of Salvation of The God is permanent, from the moment you trust Him and He takes over and keeps you.
Your religious system does not and cannot promise that. You need to come out of it and be saved, with an ewternal security starting now, if perchance God will open the eyes of your understanding.
—Bereans; noble folk I’m TOLD.
Are you referring to the Bereans (also called Beroeans, Barclayans or Barclayites) founded in Edinburgh in 1773 who merged with the Congregationalists in 1798; the group that began in the 1850s and called themselves Christadelphians, or the group that split with them and call themselves Berean Christadelphians? And do you agree with them that the idea of the Trinity is nowhere to be found in Scripture?
No, he's talking about the bereans.
Happy Heralds, Inc.
The volume "The Gospels: A Precise Translation" is displayed on the home page of this site, with an invitation for you to obtain a copy of it.
"And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by
night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the
synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those In Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readiness of mind,
and searched the scriptures daily, whther these things were so.
Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women
which were Greeks, and of men, not a few" (Acts 17:10-12 AV).
Also typing corrections:
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readiness of mind,
and searched the scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
The Bereans were more noble in that their minds were open to receive and be instructed in the Scriptures by Paul. The Jews of Thessalonica stirred up the people against Paul, threatening his life. There is a parallel here, eh? With the unwavering opposition that the statist church has continually attacked the People of The Way, persecuting them, burning their Bibles, frying them in autos da fe, and rejecting the translations from the Masoretic and Byzatine/Majority textform without even checking the truths therein. Neither do they have salvation to offer, only a purgatory figment of the imagination by which somehow those that fail Heaven will have a second chance.
By all means, think it through, all the way, and perceive the WHOLE Gospel. You can't earn your way to Heaven. Ever.
If you mean that showing them leavened bread, artos, and giving them the fruit of the vine in a cup, whas absolutely seen and verified by those present that Jesus did not chop off a finger and give it to them. The bred He gave them represented the Word of God, which was written by His direction, and represents His Will. Obvious to them, they were not zombies trying to eat someone's face.
Likewise, the fluid in the cup was pressed liquor of the grape, because of its color reminding them of the blood he was yet to shed during His Passion. He could not possibly have cut his arm and bled into the cup. And he said that the next time he shared it with them it would be the new wine: "I will drink it with you new in the Kingdom."
Your interpretation violates every rule of hermeneutics, the science of interpretation of what the words you hear or read really mean. It also throws plain scientific observation right out the window, and no one has yet been able to define what might have happened if your theory is correct (and it cannot be). What the disciples saw made plain sense that what he shared was bread and wine, and to them it made common sense, therefore in their later teaching of churches, they taught no other sense. Show me wherever in the scriptures it ever plainly shows that the bread or wine became something else, or acquired some heretofore never-seen qualities offending the power of seeing and reasoning that God gave us.
My mind is open to see if there is a unifying literal interpretation of Scripture that you can find supporting your claim.
They, the Bereans, searched the Scriptures daily to see if it be so. Will you approach this issue with an open mind to the counsel of Scripture alone?
Which claim is essentially no different or valid that it is when cults hold to the like, which also fundamentally hold to the premise of ensured magisterial veracity. Thus the question is what your basis for assurance of Truth is. Therefore some questions need to be answered:
It seems that the RC argument is that an assuredly (if conditionally) infallible magisterium is essential for determination and assurance of Truth (including writings and men being of God) and to fulfill promises of Divine presence, providence of Truth, and preservation of faith, and authority. (Jn. 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:13; Mt. 16:18; Lk. 10:16)
And that being the historical instruments and stewards of Divine revelation (oral and written) means that this entity is that assuredly infallible magisterium. Thus any who knowingly dissent from the latter must be in rebellion to God.
Does this fairly represent what you hold to or in what way does it differ?
Therefore; the Catholic church IS God!
AHHhh...
The old Hand in the Cookie Jar scenario.
In economics; this is known as a monopoly.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 NIV
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward...
Well; Jesus said, "Lazarus; come forth."
HE did not mention the soul; IIRC.
I suppose it could; but without evidence; I'll not make an assessment.
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