John 3:16 What does it really mean?
How can we know anything about anything
To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald
Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?
NO!
That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.
Take science as an example.
How can we know anything about the created material world around us?
How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?
We all see the same things in the material world,
but we don't come to the same answers.
Why is that?
How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches?
Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.
Why is that?
Same scientific facts. Different answers.
Same Bible. Different answers.
Why is that?
The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get
from what we can see through science
or what we can read in the Bible?
How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?
How do we analyze what we have seen and read?
How do we interpret what we have seen and read?
We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock.
That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation.
There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.
An example might help.
Question: Why do you believe in evolution?
Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.
Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?
Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.
Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.
If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.
When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered.
So where to the foundations come from?
There are three possibilities.
- things that we make up, pulled from the air
- demonic lies
- divine revelation
Question: Why do you believe in creation?
Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith
so that I could believe Him.
See how quickly we got to the foundation.
This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.
In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air,
are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan.
So these are one and the same.
Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ.
So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices?
Because God has revealed this truth to us.
The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God
and the lies of Satan?
The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.
Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"
The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem.
It is a moral problem.
Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:
For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened."
*
Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
Matthew 7:7-11 *
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe
those things that they don't want to submit to.
They have to want to obey God.
How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver
Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)
"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"
Lies appear to have no price upon them.
They seem cheap and they abound everywhere.
But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.
"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness.
And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him.
God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).
"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words;
that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)
That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus.
When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject.
Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.
"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)
Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university.
On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before
who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them,
but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.
In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning,
the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.
They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air.
When asked why he believed his basic assumption,
the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out,
"I guess I'm making the whole thing up."
It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions.
However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.
God so loved the world, that is the cosmos, the universe and its order, that He gave His unique Son so that whoever believes into Him should not die but should have the life of the coming age, an uncreated life that does not end. And how do we believe into Him? It is "into" in the original language.
Well, who is Christ? Christ is the Head of the Body in Heaven, yes. Christ is also a many-membered Body here on Earth. When we serve each other, we do serve Him. When we build up each other, as you are doing, we build Him up. ! Corinthians 12::12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. Paul is comparing the physical body to the Church, the members of the physical body and the members of the Church. Then he calls the Church, Christ. And it is Christ. It is the Body of Christ in a very real sense.
To believe into Christ, a person must first be born again. From that point, this person begins to believe Christ rather than believing all the teachings of men and evil spirits. As the Holy Spirit unfolds His revelation, the orders that are so clearly shown in the Bible become real and understandable to the believer. God speaks to every person all the time. We were created to be directed, as God utters His Word to us, and powered by the Holy Spirit from moment to moment. Most people don't listen at all. A remnant, a small company of believers, are beginning to learn to listen and respond in God's faith which comes as God utters His Word to us.
Believing into Christ is a process of:
- discerning what is and what is not the Body of Christ,
- and discerning what is and what is not your own particular place of service within this Body of Christ,
- and finally to become what God created you to become in the Body of Christ.
See, sayeth He, that you build all things according to the pattern. God is speaking to us about the pattern that He has given in Scripture. The foundation of the Church must be laid first. First Christ, then the apostles built on Christ as foundation of the Church. These apostles were restored to the Church in the late 1940s. God has been restoring His Church to its original glory and purpose since it left God's pattern in the early centuries after Jesus ascended and gave gifts unto men. May God bless you in this work.
John 3:16 commented: For God so loved the cosmos[2889 kosmos], that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes into [1519 eis] Him should not perish, but have eonian [166 aionios] life.
Definitions:
859 αφεσις aphesis af’-es-is
from 863; TDNT-1:50 9,88; n f
1) release from bondage or imprisonment
2) forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty
1519 εις eis ice a primary preposition
In the translation known as the Authorized Version, this has been translated as into 573 times, to 281 times, unto 207 times, for 140 times, in 138 times, on 58 times, toward 29 times, against 26 times, and as other words 322 times. The word appears a total of 1,774 in the original text of the Bible.
1) into, unto, to, towards, for, among
Where eis is translated as "for" it would sometimes be better translated as "into." For example, in Acts 2:38, the Authorized Version says: 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent , and be baptized <907> every one of you <5216> in <1909> the name <3686> of Jesus <2424> Christ <5547> for <1519 would be better as "into"> the remission <859 forgiveness and release from bondage> of sins <266>, and ye shall receive the gift <1431> of the Holy <40> Ghost <4151>.
3340 μετανοεω metanoeo met-an-o-eh’-o
1) to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent
2) to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins
907 βαπτιζω baptizo bap-tid’-zo
1) to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk)
2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, bathe
3) to overwhelm
++++
Not to be confused with 911, bapto. The clearest example that shows
the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is helpful because it uses both words. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptised’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change.
When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism. e.g. #Mr 16:16. ‘He that believes and is baptised shall be saved’. Christ is saying that mere intellectual assent is not enough. There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle!
(Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 1989).
3686 ονομα onoma on’-om-ah
1) name: univ. of proper names
2) the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one’s rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.
3) persons reckoned up by name
4) the cause or reason named: on this account, because he suffers as a Christian, for this reason
2424 Iησους Iesous ee-ay-sooce’
Jesus =" Jehovah is salvation" or completely translated, "I AM that I AM saves"
- Dictionary.com: 1200–50; Middle English < Late Latin Iēsus < Greek Iēsoűs < Hebrew Yēshūaʿ, syncopated variant of Yəhōshūaʿ God is help; in Early Modern English, the distinction (lost in Middle English ) between Jesus (nominative) and Jesu (oblique, especially vocative; see Jesu below) was revived on the model of Latin and Gk sources; Jesus gradually supplanted the older form in both nominative and oblique
Jesu (ˈdʒiːzjuː) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide] — n a poetic name for or vocative form of Jesus
- World English Dictionary: [via Latin from Greek Iēsous, from Hebrew Yeshūa`, shortened from Yehōshūa` God is help, Joshua ]
1431 δωρεα dorea do-reh-ah’
1) a gift
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Apostles and the 5-fold Ministries In the Bible (Go)
Author/Compiler
Last updated: Jun, 2011
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There is so much more for you.
This is what you have been missing.
Don't let anyone deceptively keep you from fulfilling your destiny and God's purpose for your life.
God has established the pattern of Scripture, for life and for the Church.
You can feel free to use the Contact Form further down on this page to ask any question regarding this pattern of Scripture.
The Church, the Body of Christ, and discernment of this Body, is the method that God is using to finish the work in His Body.
The Body of Christ, God's Temple, is built up by that which every joint supplies, building each other up in love,
and the Temple must be built according to the pattern of Scripture.
We believe the Holy Scriptures teach:
- The 5 apostolic ministries (Ephesians 4:11)
- The nine gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)
- Local congregations overseen by elders and deacons (Titus 1:5)
- Every member having and being a ministry in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:11)
- Being led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14)
- The gathering together of the Body of Christ (Genesis 49:10, John 17:21)
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