Mister_T said:This is irrelivent to the topic.
I could see how this would work for your argument. But you should post the whole thing becausethere is a discrepancy "36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." First of all there are 2 distictions of life in this passage. Life and eternal life. "Life" could be refering to this lifetime. The scripture does not say "whoever rejects the son will not see eternal life" It just says life. Jesus was a thing of beauty. People who don't accept him are dissapointing God because they are denying themselves the truth about God and missing the whole point of life through Jesus and his teachings. The wrath of God doesn't necessarly mean eternal damnnation because Christians have also felt the wrath of God for their disobedience (David is a good example)
This passage was directed at the Judaizers who where perverting Christs message (Galatians 2:12). They were perverting it by preaching that one must be circumsized to be saved (2:3. 3:2-5. 5:11-12, 6:13-15) Acts(15:1) Included in this perverted gospel was an obligation to keep the whole law perfectly. Galtaians (3:10, 5:2-3) Paul treats this gospel as cursed because no one is justified before God by law. Galatians (3:11)
When Jesus said "No one can come to the father except through me" How do we know that he wasn't describing his act of sacrifice the only way for us to have our relationship restored with God? After all we will all be "coming to the father" when we die to be judged. No one bypasses this. Jesus would defininatley want to discourage people from not believing in him. But no where does he say believe in me or go to hell. Seeing as how Jesus spoke more about hell than anybody, I'm sure he would have used those exact words. Jesus' 2 greatest commands where to love God and love everyone as you love yourself. People can still love God without believing that Jesus was the son of man. They aren't breaking that 1st command.
Okay, I understand what your saying. For the sake of not giving argument any more glory, I've just got one more thing to say. The major problem I have with this, is how some people can take a scripture here and there and conform it to their own happy feelings. If you take the entire message of the Word of God and use it to judge your individual interpretations, it's hard to see how God could possibly allow anyone a portion of glory that hasn't done the things he said to do. God is the same now as he was in the Old testament. However, for the sake of his son's blood; his hand of wrath can not touch us until the judgement because we are under his grace. God's word is just that. He said it, therefore even he has to comply to his word. If he ever said that we are worthy of death due to sin, than we still are. We either have to die to ourselves, repent of our sins and follow Jesus here; or we will die (be separated from God) at the final judgement. The only way for Christ's atonement to cover us is if we are crucified with him. He died for all who would accept him, not for all period. The most famous verse in the Bible John 3:16 plainly says "...whoever believes in him will not perish.." So simple logic says that whoever doesn't believe in him will perish.
If God is Almighty, righteous, just ,and holy, he will not allow his Word to become void or weak. He will carry it out to the last letter. Your interpretation weakens the power in the blood of Jesus if you accept that it is uneeded to see his kingdom. Do not give the devil a foothold by allowing him to water down the Word of God and endanger your soul. If we believe his word is true we should attempt to live by it as completely as possible. Satan will use every means possible to decieve God's people. God gave man his word in the form of the Bible so we would have something to judge our lives by. Also, it judges all doctrine. If it don't say it, don't believe it.