John 5
[24] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
According to Jesus, the one who keeps on hearing and keeps on believing has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from spiritual death unto spiritual life.
The one who does not keep on hearing and keep on believing forfeits eternal life, shall come into condemnation, and will pass from spiritual life unto spiritual death. Only the one who endures to the end shall be finally saved.
The term "passed" is Indicative in mode and perfect in tense and refers to the precise point IN TIME when a spiritual dead person became a spiritually alive person. You cannot deny this is the force of the perfect tense as indicative of TIME and ACTION simply because regeneration is not an incompleted progressive action. Thus you cannot wiggle out of the perfect tense.
Second, the Perfect tense verb proves that "eternal life" is not due to or dependent upon a future judgment because it is derived from a past tense completed action "passed from death unto life" and that is why it is a PRESENT possession "hath everlasting life." These two facts alone destroy your interpretation.
Finally, the participles modify the main verb and the indicative action of the main verb determines the cause of life just as the consequential language demands "passed FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE." Regeneration is the cause and it is a completed action in past time and therefore is in present possession.
Many would argue that the present tense participles are preceded in action by the past tense completed action of the main verb just as a past tense action precedes a present tense action and we have proven that regeneration is a past tense completed action rather than a progressive incompleted action. The imperfect and present tense convey either a past tense incompleted action or a present tense completed action but Jesus uses the Perfect indicative not an imperfect or present.
However, one may argue grammatically that the present tense participles convey SIMELTANEOUS action with the action of the main verb. Thus when regeneration occurred so did hearing and believing and as the completed action stands complete up to the present time so does hearing and believing.
However, there is no conditional clauses nor use of the subjunctive mode and therefore, there is no grounds to argue that regeneration or the completed action of having passed from death to life" is conditioned in the present upon continuing to hear and believe in Christ.
Indeed, the participle actions are presented as evidence of having been passed from death to life and thus the reason for PRESENT possession of eternal life rather than eternal life being contingent upon a future judgement. Indeed, the natural reading of the text is that no future judgement shall come to make that determination becuase it has been determined in a completed action in the past and the present possession of eternal life is not only proof of it but the fact that the person is hearing and believing is proof of regeneration.
