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.
Christians tout John 3:16 as the most simple verse in the Bible. The revel in the simplicity of the message. It is often the first verse children are taught.
Is John 3:16 really as simple of a verse as most Christians claim it is? What if we looked at John 3:16 through the lens of the plethora of theological beliefs within the Christian Church?
First, we would have to settle who wrote John in general and John 3:16 in particular. (and of course we know that chapter and verse numbers were added centuries after the writing of John.) There is a lot of debate about who wrote John, when it was written, and whether or not it should even be considered a gospel or a part of the canon of Christian scripture.
Once we settle the legitimacy issue we would then have to decide who is actually doing the speaking in John 3:16. The author of John? Jesus? Did the author actually hear Jesus speak these words? In John 3:16 a verbatim quote of what Jesus said?
Now to the verse.
For God
Right away we are forced to decide which God the Bible is talking about. Christianity is hardly unified on the whole God question. Witness a Baptist and a Apostolic fight over whether or not the trinity is taught in the Bible. Is God one? Is God three in one?
So Loved the World
It would seem that this part of the verse is pretty straight forward. God loves the world. World means God loves everyone. However, as millions of Calvinists will quickly tell you, all doesn’t necessarily mean all, and world doesn’t necessarily mean world. First, you have to take the verse and push it through the Calvinist sieve and then you can interpret John 3:16 correctly. World doesn’t mean everyone. It means out of every kindred, tribe and tongue God has people he loves and people he intends to saved. In other words, God doesn’t savingly love everyone. It is right there in the verse can’t YOU see it?
At about this point the Calvinist launches into a discussion about the difference between God’s love for everyone (common grace) and the love he has for those he has chosen, before the foundation of the world, to be saved. Of course, the Arminian screams “I object” . Let the endless debate begin.
That He Gave His only Begotten Son
We will assume that son means Jesus. This raises an issue right away, an issue that many Christians have fumed about over the years. Was Jesus always the son of God? One side adamantly says yes and the other side says he became the son so there was a time when he wasn’t the son.
Then we have to deal with the only son issue. Did God have more sons, or daughters? As Mormonism becomes a mainstream religion in America….what about their teaching that Lucifer (the devil, Satan) is Jesus’s brother?
If we let the liberal Christian in the Christian tent we will also have to deal with the issue of “how” Jesus was begotten. Did Jesus have a sperm donating father? If the Holy Spirit “begat” Jesus how did that happen? Did God have sex with Mary? Virgin birth? What a laugher. Everyone knows a virgin can’t be pregnant. Liberals and fundamentalists battle back and forth on the virgin birth issue.
That Whosoever Believeth in Him
Whosoever. Once again does this refer to everyone? No matter who you are, where you are, if you believe in Jesus you will have everlasting life? What about reprobates? Does whosoever apply to them? The Calvinist, the party of the exception, says whosoever doesn’t mean everyone. Only the elect will savingly believe in Jesus. Everyone else, even if they wanted to, can not savingly believe in Jesus. If you are not elect, predestined, chosen you are bound for an eternity in the Lake of Fire. God decided before you were even born that you would burn forever.
What does it mean to believe? What do we have to believe? Here is where the whole issue becomes every religion for itself. Every flavor of Christian ice cream has its own take on what it means to believe and what it is a person has to believe to be saved. Even among churches of the same denomination there are differences about what it means to believe and what one must believe to be saved? (as I frequently show on this blog)
Should not Perish
What does it mean to perish? Death? First or second death? Hell? Lake of fire? Purgatory? Eternal punishment? Temporary punishment? Annihilation? As the recent Rob Bell fracas shows……….Christians are quite divided on this issue.
But Have Everlasting Life
Now this one everyone agrees on. No matter what road they take, what theology they have, everyone has everlasting life as the prize. Though………I do remember a debate among preachers about the difference between eternal life and everlasting life, It goes something like……………
Here is my point. Even the most simple of verses can be interpreted different ways. Each interpreter believes their interpretation to be the correct one. There is no such thing as Bible truth. All we have is Bible interpreters saying their interpretation is the truth. Armed with a study bible, a concordance, and a dictionary many Christians believe they are ready to tell the world what the Bible teaches.
Imagine a person who has never heard about any of the religions of the world. He has lived his life in isolation. One day he comes upon an inscription on a cave wall. It said:
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.
What conclusions would he come to? Would he naturally come to the conclusions that I mentioned above? Not likely. Perhaps, he would start a religion. What is the likelihood that it would resemble any of the Christian sects? Once again, not likely.
This is why I don’t involve myself in long debates or discussions about the Bible. It becomes like ten students looking at a Monet, each giving their own interpretation. Then the teacher says, NO NO NO you are all wrong. The picture is saying ________________.
After all the Bible does says Let every man be persuaded in his own mind……….