Think Wink.

This is the final entry on the retranslation of John 3:16, that famous and beautiful verse that I feel that is often overlooked in serious study because it is so familiar to us. Everyone knows of John 3:16 and most Christians have at least this one verse memorized. Luther called it the little gospel. But I wanted to give this some serious study. Thus far, after four posts, we have the following, “Thus in this manner God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone that is believing in him…” I want to conclude this with the last of the verse. The ESV reads “…should not perish but have eternal life.” The Greek reads me apoletai all’ eche zoen aionion.

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James White on John 3:16-17

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John 3:16 Part 2

Today I was reading through Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, God’s Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men taken from Romans 9:18. I want to quote two paragraphs from this sermon is which Edwards argues that God’s sovereign, unconditional election of sinners to salvation and his predestination to eternal life of his elect people is completely fair and that God’s mercy does not have to be applied to every man equally. Edwards writes,

God may deny salvation to any natural person without any injury to the honour of his righteousness. If he does so, there is no injustice nor unfairness in it. There is no natural man living, let his case be what it will, but God may deny him salvation, and cast him down to hell, and yet not be chargeable with the least unrighteous or unfair dealing in any respect whatsoever. This is evident, because they all have deserved hell: and it is no injustice for a proper judge to inflict on any man what he deserves. And as he has deserved condemnation, so he has never done any thing to remove the liability, or to atone for the sin. He never has done any thing whereby he has laid any obligations on God not to punish him as he deserved.

God may deny salvation to any unconverted person whatever without any prejudice to the honour of his goodness. Sinners are sometimes ready to flatter themselves, that though it may not be contrary to the justice of God to condemn them, yet it will not consist with the glory of his mercy. They think it will be dishonourable to God’s mercy to cast them into hell, and have no pity or compassion upon them. They think it will be very hard and severe, and not becoming a God of infinite grace and tender compassion. But God can deny salvation to any natural person without any disparagement to his mercy and goodness. That, which is not contrary to God’s justice, is not contrary to his mercy. If damnation be justice, then mercy may choose its own object. They mistake the nature of the mercy of God, who think that it is an attribute, which, in some cases, is contrary to justice. Nay, God’s mercy is illustrated by it, as in the twenty-third verse of the context. “That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.”

A taste of My Friday Morning

Timothy and Esther’s Prayer

Problems with the Sovereignty of God?

If you ever read a sermon, ever; if you ever read an evangelistic sermon; if you ever read a sermon about the wrath of God; if you ever read a sermon by the great Jonathan Edwards; the sermon to read is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards’ view of the terribleness of God’s wrath and the horrors of hell will just baffle you and scare you and literally put the fear of God in you. www.ccel.org has a link to this incredible sermon. Please read it and enjoy this piece of literature and let it bless you as it has blessed me. For you preachers, take notes from this sermon and try to incorporate them into your sermons. You’re preaching might profit from it. Here is the link: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Voddie Baucham and Sardis

This Is Horrible

My New Favorite Site

We have been studying in recent weeks the Greek behind Jesus famous words in John 3:16 and I have been offering a new translation based on these findings. Our new translation goes like this, “Thus in this manner God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” Today I want to focus on the ESV’s translation of “that whoever believes in him.” The final and fifth post on this verse will focus on “should not perish but have eternal life.” The Greek text behind our five English words is: hina pan ho pisteuon eis autov. So lets go.

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James White on John 3:16-17

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John 3:16 Part 2

In recent weeks, I have been studying John 3:16 and preaching my studies to my church. It has been very facinating and enlightening for me to look at a verse that is so taken for widely known and memorized that we hardly ever take the time to actually study it. Also in recent weeks, I was hired at the United Parcel Service, UPS, to load the brown trucks that deliver your mail from 4:00 am to 9:00 am. In studying John 3:16, I saw an illustration of “whoever believes in him” in my hiring process.

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Debunking Bad Arguments

Is God obligated to give mercy to all in any way?

Timothy and Esther’s Prayer

Last week I finished watching the second season of 24 on DVD. I really loved the season and the development of the characters between season 1 and 2 were very well done. Personally, I didn’t like the Kim story line in season 2 because it had no real impact on the main plot lines. However, my favorite storyline was that of President Palmer. He was portrayed very well and his story was vital to the main line and was more emotionally engaging for me than even the Jack Bauer story line.

I have a concern with season 6. Having just watched season 2, I am noticing too many parallels. Islamic extremist terrorists attempting to detonate a nuclear bomb on American soil; the president’s staff is secretly plotting to remove him from power. I really don’t like this. I am hoping that the show gets away from de ja vu and gets more original. I am becoming more and more disappointed with season 6 the more and more I feel like I’m watching season 2. Fox, please help me stop seeing this de ja vu.

No related posts

I was skimming through some blogs and Dr. Ben Witherington III, whom I had the distinct honor of hearing at SBU about a year ago, wrote the following about denominations in his post,

We Are the Light of the World– But Who Changed the Bulb?

How many Presbyterians does it take to change a
light bulb? None. God has pre-ordained when the lights will be on and
when they will be off.

How many Catholics does it take to change a
light bulb? None. They always use candles.

How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb??
Ten. One to actually change the bulb, and nine to say
how much better they liked the old one.

How many Methodists does it take to change a light bulb??
“We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light
bulb. However, if in your own journey, you have found that a light bulb
works for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose
a modern dance about your personal relationship to your light bulb and
present it next month at our annual light bulb Sunday service, in which
we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including
incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which
are equally valid paths to luminescence through Jesus Christ.”

How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb???? CHANGE ????????????

Israel, John Hagee, and Eschatology

Are God’s glory and love at odds with each other?

Intelligent Design

My fellow blogger at Theology for the Masses, Henry Michael Imler, posted a response to my post, My Comfort in Romans 9, that I posted back in early January. In his post, he made the case that a non-calvinistic approach to Romans 9 can raise the same questions that Paul fends off. In that post, he makes mention of Romans 9:13, “As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” Paul is quoting Malachi 1:2-3 in that text. Henry mentions that the terms “loved” and “hated” are not to be taken as “loved” and “hated” but that it should be taken as “loved more” and “loved less.” I have been thinking long and hard about this and my eagerness to put my thoughts down about Malachi 1:2-3 and the meaning of “loved” and “hated” so that I what I am going to do here in this post. Does Malachi mean for us to understand him to be saying “loved/hated” or “loved more/loved less?” My contention is that it is as it is translated, “loved/hated.” I am going to base this upon how the Bible uses the Hebrew term sane’ and the immediate context of Malachi 1:2-5.

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Does God Love All Men Equally?

Musical Roots

Are God’s glory and love at odds with each other?

Here is a story I heard from R. C. Sproul about justice and mercy and gratitude.

One semester, “Dr. Charles” was giving the beginning syllabus for the start of the class of 250 freshman at the seminary he taught at. He told the class that on September 30, October 30, and November 30, they had a paper due at 12:00 pm. Failure to have the paper turned in on time would result in an automatic F for the assignment. The prof. asked if the class understood the assignment deadlines and consequences for late work and they said yes.

When September 30 came, 225 of the 250 students turned in their assignment. Dr. Charles asked the remaining 25, standing at the back of the classroom, why they didn’t have their homework. They said they failed to properly make the transition from high school to college and utterly failed. The professor decided to be gracious because he remembered what it was like to be a freshman in college. When they asked for one more day, he gave them two. But he warned the whole class not to push him on this issue.

On October 30, only 200 of the 250 students had a paper to turn in at the deadline. Dr. Charles asked the 50 students why they didn’t do the homework and they said they had too much going on with other classes having mid-terms and papers due all at the same time. Again, Dr. Charles gave them two more days but warned not to test him on this issue again.

November 30 came around and only 100 of 250 students had a paper to turn in. The professor began to ask individual students why they didn’t have a paper. The firs student he asked, we shall call him John, said, “Come on professor, I’ll have it for you in two days.” He asked the next student, we shall call him Chris, and he said, “I don’t have it.” So Dr. Charles pulled out his grade book and began to give every person who did not turn in their paper an F on the assignment. John protested, “That’s not fair!” Dr. Charles asked, “You want justice? Did you turn in your October paper on time?” John answered, “No.” Dr. Charles then marked out the grade he had given him and put an F for the October paper grade.

The point of this story is manifold. One point is that the students took grace for granted. They counted on Dr. Charles to let them have the extra two days. Second, grace is owed to no one and justice is owed to everyone. The professor said if you don’t have your paper in on time, you fail. At no time did the professor have to give a single student the extension without a penalty. All he had to do is give him an F.

Edwards, Mercy, Fairness, and Predestination

Is God obligated to give mercy to all in any way?

Justice and equality.

Continuing in my post series on John 3:16 and my new translation of the verse, I want to keep up looking into the Greek. Today I will look at the following Greek: hoste ton huion ton monogene edoken. Read more

James White on John 3:16-17

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John 3:16 Part 2