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!
In John 14 we read a scene of Jesus instructing His closest friends. In this scene JESUS answers your poorly framed question with a simple Physics lesson:
John 14:5 Thomas saith to him, ‘Sir, we have not known whither thou goest away, and how are we able to know the way?’6 Jesus saith to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one doth come unto the Father, if not through me;
7 if ye had known me, my Father also ye would have known, and from this time ye have known Him, and have seen Him.’
8 Philip saith to him, ‘Sir, shew to us the Father, and it is enough for us;’
9 Jesus saith to him, ‘So long time am I with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? he who hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how dost thou say, Shew to us the Father? 10 Believest thou not that I [am] in the Father, and the Father is in me? the sayings that I speak to you, from myself I speak not, and the Father who is abiding in me, Himself doth the works; 11believe me, that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me; and if not, because of the works themselves, believe me
I have come to realize that many catholics will refuse to hear anything of teaching from a non-Catholic. I suppose it is a strong defensive mechanism helping top keep catholics sewn up in catholiciism. But here is what Jesus was teaching His disciples about the nature of Him and God the Father Almighty:
When Jesus says 'I am in the Father and the Father is in me', when Jesus tells them 'if they have seen Him they have seen The Father', Jesus is saying that all they can see of The Father is what they see IN JESUS. Because of their spacetime dimensional limits, they cannot see more of GOD than where He, GOD, enters/intersects their limits, as JESUS, God with us.
So, when someone keeps badgering someone else to say Jesus IS God, they reveal an agenda which is aimed at trapping someone intot he false syllogism which elevates Mary the Mother of Jesus, to a status far beyond her station. MARY was alive under the exact same spacetime limitations that the disciples had when they asked Jesus to show them The Father. They were mortal, only mortals. Jesus standing in their midst or gestating in Mary's womb, was all of God any of them was going to be able to experience in their limited state. What do you think the BIBLE means when it states that He made Himself a little lower than the Angels, for a season, for us?
Mary is The Mother of Jesus, the man. Just as Paul says there is only One mediator, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.
So the answer to your badgering is found in the passage where Jesus taught His disciples a Physics lesson. Why don't you read it a couple of times through and see what GOD'S Spirit explains to you through His Word?
And before you respond, remember that the mother builds exactly ZERO of the body in her body attached to her through an umbilicus made by the new life, along with the amniotic sac made by the new life, and the physical body for life in the air world, build solely by the new life following the DNA directions GOD coded into our existence.
Your comment: “And we see catholics still do not understand the Mass is against the New Testament”
How so?
Read the post again. I’m not going to re-post it....again.
Are you sure that you are not one who betrayed Jesus?
You persist in blaspheming God by insisting that you eat GOD in the catholic Mass and you have the nerve to ask if someone else is betraying Jesus? Astonishing disconnect, that.
It is how I understand, and explain .. syllogism
Thank You
See post #495
I have accepted the Truth as Jesus said (“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54Whoever eats* my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”)
How am I blaspheming (the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God) by accepting the Truth.
Perhaps you have been drinking the protestant kool-aid to back up your accusations. She called me Satan, so I good naturally stated perhaps she was the betrayer!
You are right you didn’t say anything that indicates that “the Mass is against the New testament”.
Elsie, you rascal you. You roped in another one who thinks you're a female. Doesn't that just give you the warm fuzzies? 😀😂😄😆
The New Testament is clear Jesus is the one time sacrifice for sin.
No further sacrifice is needed.
| Biblical Position on the Sacrifice of Christ | Roman Catholic Mass from Rev. John O’Brien, a Catholic Priest* | |
| How many times must Christ be sacrificed for our sins? | but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. Hebrews 9:12-13. | the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man – not once but a thousand times! |
| Jesus is currently in Heaven. When does He return to Earth? | so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Hebrews 9:28 | When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne |
| What role does Mary play in this? | The Word ascribes no power to Mary in regards to Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross or in any other capacity. | Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. |
| Is there any further offering for sin other than Christ? | Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Hebrews 10:18. | …and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man – not once but a thousand times!. |
*The Faith of Millions: The Credentials of the Catholic Religion, O’Brien, John Anthony Rev, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc, Huntington, Indiana, Nihil obstat: Rev. Lawrence Gollner, Censor Librorum, Imprimatur: Leo A Pursley, Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, pages 255-256 The Faith of Millions: The Credentials of the Catholic Religion
So; you state that Mary DID give birth to GOD.
Ok then.
So you do not believe or accept the words of Jesus?
Just as you have.
It appears you are confused.
In more ways than one.
Is Jesus Christ GOD? Was there a time when Jesus Christ wasn't GOD? Did Mary give birth to Jesus Christ? The first two questions aren't rhetorical, the third one is. I really don't know what you believe and I'm convinced that metmom doesn't believe Jesus Christ is God because she appeared to go way out of her way to say that Scripture doesn't require belief in Jesus Christ as God.
Ealgeone offered the defense that I was only trying to get metmom to admit that Mary is the Mother of God, but that really was the last thing on my mind. It would have been very easy to write "I believe Jesus Christ is God but it does not follow that Mary is the Mother of God". Ealgeone has stated he believes in the Trinity but I'm beginning to wonder if some of the rest of you aren't oneness Pentecostals or something equally as weird.
Again, your post may list your beliefs , but proves nothing about the Mass.
You have not responded to questions about the forgiveness of sins.
Please explain why Jesus told the Apostles:
John 20:21-23
21* [Jesus] said to them again,l “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22* And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,m “Receive the holy Spirit. 23* n Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
If all sins are forgiven, then why did Jesus give the ability to the Apostles and their successors to forgive sins and to retain sins (some sins that are not forgiven)?
Explain why only one of the thieves on the cross was saved.?
If all sins were forgiven on the cross, then why does Jesus and Catholic Church require Baptism and protestants/evangelicals require “being Born again” to forgive sins?
Sounds like a warped sense of humor. Do you use the female bathrooms too?
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