Featured John 3:16

Baptists are split on the specifics of John 3:16. When I was young, and the "Bible" was the KJV, we memorized the verse this way: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Now, using the results of word study, the verse can be understood exegetically as God sacrificially loved fallen mankind in this way, He gave His one of a kind Son so that anyone who believes into Christ shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

Thanks JonC for actually addressing the topic. Yes, your understanding of sacrificial love is the same exegetical understanding as mine.

We disagree on monogenes, literally one kind. Begotten is a mistranslation according to the majority of modern scholars.

I expect you too understand "world" to refer to all mankind. However, other Baptists (see post #5) claim Calvinistically that world refers to various subsets of mankind, Jews here, non-Jews there, Elect here, non-Elect there, which in my view is simply manipulating the text to pour man-made doctrine into it.

 

Kosmos (translated as world)?

According to A.W. Pink,

Well, lets look at them carefully and exactly from the NASB:

John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Here the world is used to indicate not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles will be saved. It is unnatural and forced to assert that only the part of the world that will be saved is in view.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Here again, the world includes everybody, those that will be saved and those that will not be saved. God sent Christ into the world to save sinners. Whoever believes in Him will be saved.

John 3:17, “For God did not sent the Son into the World to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”

Another clear verse where world means everybody, and the offer of salvation is extended to everybody that hears the gospel and believes.

John 6:33, “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”

Once again, world includes everybody. The verse does not say gives life to everybody in the world, only that Jesus gives life to anyone in the world that believes in Jesus.

John 12:46, “I have come as a light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness.”

This one is very clear, Jesus is the light of the world which is in darkness.

John 12:47, “And if anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

This is crystal – the world includes both those that will not be saved and those that will be saved.

1 Corinthians 4:9, “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.”

Again, it is unnatural and forced to say something other than saints and sinners are in view. To assert otherwise is to miss the irony of the passage.

2 Corinthians 5:19, “…God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Clearly we see the reconciliation of Christ on the cross as a completed work of reconciliation, available to the world, Jews and Gentiles, but the gift must be received. Therefore, verse 20, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

In summary, the premise that these passages use world to mean only the elect is without merit. The unforced and natural reading –saints and sinners, Jew and Gentiles, all of fallen mankind, fits in every case.

 

Jesus taught it was never right to do wrong to get a chance to do right. We should not mistranslate in order to bolster the case for Christ's divinity.
Stick with John 1:1-3.

 

Hi JonC, yes I think we both strive to be objective and not twist or manipulate the text to support man-made doctrine. One of a kind I think best translates "monogenes" because Jesus is God's one of a kind Son. Not begotten or created but eternal. Does God have other sons? Yes, of course, every born anew person is a "son of God." And of course, Adam was the "son of God." But Jesus is the one of a kind Son of God.

 

Perhaps I was not clear. "Begotten" or the Greek word translated as "begotten" does not appear in John 3:16, the KJV translators mistranslated monogenes. Monogenes appears in John 1:14, John 1:18, John 3:16, John 3:18, and 1 John 4:9.
The modern translations, either in their footnotes or in the main text uniformly translate monogenes as "one and only" or "one of a kind."

Now another Greek word is also sometimes translated as begotten, G1080, gennaō. This word is rendered begat, begotten, born and fathered.

All this confusion and mistaken doctrine is driven by flawed translation choices.

 

Hi Tom, I will agree, one of our views is false.

My view is found in the NASB, HCSB, NIV, NET and others including the WEB. Your view is found in the KJV and its kin.

Note, in my post 18 I said the same word appears in John 3:16 and John 1:14. The word in both places is translated one and only or one of a kind in the listed translations.