Does world mean every individual?

I don't think it means (or CAN mean) that we make it certain. How does one make certain that God calls and elects us? Can we direct the mind of God with our works?

As for world:

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

 

'World' means 'World'.

. . . or if now that we do not use world to mean world, does love mean hate?

Just a tho't about semantic range and domains . . .

 

Brother,

It would seem evident to me that 'World' does not mean to them what it means to you. . . .

Semantic domain and range . . . being what they are, me thinks that their context is not your context.

 

world

World does mean world, but as the next verses makes known that only believers will be saved, and non-believers will be condemned.

The non-believers will not be condemned not because they were not chosen, but because they have not believed in the one sent.

I am not a unversalist, calvinist, armanian, or and other religion, for they give me no hope, my only hope is found in Jesus. The invitation is open to the world, but only believers will be saved.

 

Rules and regulations

It is no longer about all these rules and regulation men places before you as a stumbling block, it is about a relationship now.

This regulations have been set aside, so we can draw near to God through Jesus Christ.

The invitation goes out to everyone, since the ones who where invited didn't want to come.

You can put on calvinism, universalism, arminian, or all these other religion and not be dressed for the occasion, only those who put on Christ will be dressed for the wedding banquet. Jesus tells us He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father axcept through Him.

Zephaniah 3:2
She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD, she does not draw near to her God.

Hebrews 7:
18The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

Matthew 22
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

5"But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.


8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.

13"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

14"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

2 Corinthians 5:16
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for [a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

Ezekiel 3: 20 "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself."

James 3:1
[ Taming the Tongue ] Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

 

Yes, it does.

14. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15. so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."


The word world describes both the lost and potentially saved in these verses. Notice that it says "might be saved" of those in the world. He then speaks of the believing ones and the ones that don't believe. In any normal conversation this form of writing would be understood as I have stated. Notice verse 19, "that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light," and then verse 21 speaks of "he who practices the truth". So both groups are address as the ones in the "world". We need to just accept what it says. All this Calvinist and Arminian back and forth seems to leave the Bible for their own seperate interest. The bible speaks clearly. That is enough for me.

 

Not 'zackly sure what 'world' might mean in each and every use of the word in Scripture. But there sure seems to be a "world of difference" in some of the points of view about it. {wry grin} Some of these povs seem to be 'worlds apart'. :laugh:

Ed

 

That's surely "putting the cart before the horse". Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is a spiritual action. Yet the bible says that by nature we were all dead in trespasses and sins. Paul originally wrote those words in Ephesians 2.1 to people who had not yet died physically, so he must have been writing of spiritual death.

Your words ("psalms 109:31") about not needing to be born again to believe, just to enter heaven, seem to imply that there will be genuine believers who won't go to heaven - but perhaps I have misunderstood you.

In Ephesians 2.4-6 we read:

4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

We were "dead in trespasses" but God "made us alive" - another way of saying "gave us a new birth".

Every blessing,

 

dead

Jesus words are the Spirit and life to make the choice to believe or not to believe.

God has given us the ability not to believe, but the ability to make a choice to believe in Christ and be saved or do not and be condemned.

God has set before us life and death so chose Christ and live.

God has not excluded any of you to believe.

It is by our own words that we are acquitted, or by your own words you are condemned.

These men can't understand God's word because mens words have blinded them.

They veil that covers the non- believing Jews eyes to this day is of thier own making, and only Jesus can remove it. Put your trust in Him.

God does want all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

Hello,

I would say rather, "The veil that covers the eyes of all unbelievers (not just unbelieving Jews) is of their own making, and only Jesus can remove it. This is how Paul describes unbelieving gentiles in Ephesians 4.17-19:

17 ¶ This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

How can anyone make a spiritual choice if he or she is spiritually blind?

Incidentally, only after writing my previous reply in this thread, I came across another thread with the title "Ephesians 2:1", in which Bill Brown's replies are far more eloquent on this matter than I am. Do take a look if you haven't seen them already.

May the Lord bless you richly,

 

Who does the blinding? The god of this world.

 

Granted, but allowing and decreeing are separate.

If my son were to drive drunk, me allowing him to borrow the car would not be the cause of him driving drunk.

 

Did I claim to be God? At least I don't try speaking for Him...

This is an analogy. Ever see one?

 

Character assasination is not contending for the faith.