American Unitarian Conference Forum

As we all know...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life".

I was intrigued by this when I noticed that Christian inspirational author Max Lucado's latest book is centered around this very verse. Lucado was once a favorite of mine but since I have rejected some of the more traditional doctrines of Christianity his works no longer speak to me at anywhere near the same level they used to. In any case, Lucado has a chapter where he focuses on the Deity of Christ, attempting to use the reference of Christ's divinity. He references a number of passages that suggest Christ is of the same essence as God. Like most Christians his emphasis is that Christ claimed the Divine title and that as God's 'only Son' he is the only way to Heaven (a typical evangelical claim).

I'm curious to see what a Unitarian/progressive response to John 3:16 would be other than the "Maybe Jesus didn't say it" or the Jesus Seminar version of the Gospel of John not accurately recording the words of Christ. David M, any thoughts? Just curious to see what we think...

This is a theological claim of the author of John.....read the Skeptics Annotated Bible section on John 3:16.

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/jn/3.html

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/sons.html

God has only one son (Jesus).

He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. -- John 3:18

God sent his only begotten son into the world. -- 1 John 4:9

Adam was also God's son.

Adam, which was the son of God. Luke 3:38

Some of God's sons had sex with women producing a race of giants.

That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ... There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them. -- Genesis 6:2-4

Satan and his companions were sons of God.

The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. Job 1:6

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. -- Job 2:1

God's sons were present when the universe was created.

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? -- Job 38:6-7

Christians are God's sons.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. -- John 1:12

Personally, this is one of those verses that prevents me from calling myself Christian; it seems that the way it has been understood for 2000 years is the way it was meant to be understood. It is, in my opinion, a strange and disturbing concept.

Interesting perspective...I can definitely resect your point Nathan. For me I'd have to second euronen in attributing John 3:16 as a theological opinion to whomever wrote the Gospel (John or whoever). While these words are allegedly being quoted from Jesus himself it is very possible that the words may not in fact actually be his own.

David...as our resident scholar...help!

Thanks to 'God online' (Wikipedia) perhaps this may help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_3:16

Translations

The verse in the original Greek is as follows (associated Strong's Number in superscript):

Οὕτως3779 γὰρ1063 ἠγάπησεν25 ὁ3588 Θεὸς2316 τὸν3588 κόσμον2889, ὥστε5620 τὸν3588 Υἱὸν5207 τὸν3588 μονογενῆ3439 ἔδωκεν1325, ἵνα2443 πᾶς3956 ὁ3588 πιστεύων4100 εἰς1519 Αὐτὸν846[2] μὴ3361 ἀπόληται622 ἀλλ᾽235 ἔχῃ2192 ζωὴν2222 αἰώνιον166

Which could be translated literally to mean:

For in this way God loved the world: that he gave the unique[1] son, so that all the ones trusting in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.

Takes on a slightly diferent meaning in its literal translation...

Completely off topic, but I love the Greek alphabet...

The "everlasting life" spoken of in the Gospel of John appears to be a present condition. It doesn't simply mean to live forever. "Eternal" is probably a better translation, since it can mean more than just time.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24)

David M. posted :

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24)

John 3.16 is one of the verses in the Bible that seems to negate many of the other good sayings of Jesus such as:  If I seek my own glory, I am a liar: The words I speak are not mine but his who sent me:  I do not seek glory from man, but to glorify the Father; When we pray, pray to the Father, etc.  (Paraphrases on my part).

Combined with John 5:24 that David posted a much better translation of the verse might have been:

Because God loved the world, he sent another son, as he did Moses, to lead and teach the people.  That whosoever would accept His instruction and teachings and live by them would pass from death to life.

We are to believe in the One who sent Jesus.  Jesus told us to test the teachings to see if they are true, to glorify the Father, and to follow true instruction even if we did not believe in him.  He further informed us that we would know what was true by the fruits it produced.  In another place it is written that whoever is doing good is doing God's work.  

With love,

Rev Dorris