If we can't proclaim the Gospel freely, how do we know to whom we should proclaim the Gospel?You hold to a falsehood friend.
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If we can't proclaim the Gospel freely, how do we know to whom we should proclaim the Gospel?You hold to a falsehood friend.
The Gospel is proclaimed freely.If we can't proclaim the Gospel freely, how do we know to whom we should proclaim the Gospel?
What does it mean then to "believe"?
If we look at James 2:19 it says.... "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder."
If the demons also "believe" then what does this imply? The word translated "believe" ("pisteuō") is the same in both verses.
So "believing" has to involve something more in John 3:16 than it does in James 2:19.....what is it?
Yes.....simply “believing” that Jesus’ death guarantees salvation without living in a way that shows your obedience to Christ’s teachings, is rather pointless.Each of the three Greek words shown above have very different meanings and have been intentionally used by the authors.
The point that you have made is that we can know something, but unless we demonstrate our belief by actions, then we are no better than the demons who also know.
A critically important question which needs to be asked of those who hold to a false understanding of John 3:16, is ‘How is this verse, in particular, to be reconciled with John 17:23 where Jesus, praying to the Father concerning those that were given to Him, says:' “I in THEM, and Thou in Me, that THEY may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast LOVED THEM, as Thou hast loved Me.” Here, Jesus is saying that the unity of love between the Father and the Son, and all those who are of the Father and the Son, would be evidence to the world that the Father has loved all those whom He has given to the Son—those who believed, and those who would believe, in Jesus (see Jn. 17:20). Again, we see a distinction made between those that are of the world, and those whom the Father has loved. If world did mean every individual in John 3:16, this verse in John 17 would have been a prime opportunity for Jesus to re-affirm that popular assumption. Yet Christ says NOTHING in John 17:23 of the Father’s alleged love for the world, but rather distinguishes those He does love from the world! This reaffirms the fact that Christ said nothing in John 3:16 pertaining to any universal love of God for all humanity. There is no explicit reference to any universal love of God, nor can any rightly infer such a love from that verse, or any other Scripture. The truth of God aligns with all Scripture, for all Scripture is the truth of God. The Lord Jesus only speaks of God’s love being FOR THOSE WHOM HE HAS GIVEN TO HIS SON. The Lord speaks voluminously of those whom the Father had given Him throughout the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John (see Jn. 17:2,6,9,11,12,24), but never a word about any alleged love for all individuals without exception is in the least bit traceable.https://www.godsonlygospel.com/for-god-so-lovedwho-part-22
Nicodemus believed that the Messiah’s mission was only for Israel. But here in John 3:16 the Lord says, ‘God so loved the world’. What does ‘world’ mean? Every single individual living on earth, including mountains, trees, rivers, sea, rocks, animals and everything in the world that you see? No. Remember Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, how does a Jew, a ruler of Israel understand the meaning of ‘the world’. TO NICODEMUS ‘THE WORLD’ MEANS GENTILES!” What Nicodemus heard was ‘God so loved Gentiles, as well as Jews’. Was every Gentile intended? No, for John 11:51,52 and Acts 15:14 tell us that only the chosen Gentiles were the children of God, and, therefore, the loved ones chosen of God. The key to the proper, Biblical, understanding of John 3:16 is not to rely on one’s own comprehension of what the word ‘world’ means, not to allow oneself to be moved by a contemporary understanding of it, but to comprehend it, to be cognisant of it, in light of how Nicodemus understood it.https://www.godsonlygospel.com/for-god-so-lovedwho-part-23