Hey, Hoverfrog...

I still haven't convinced you, I see. ;o) You're right -- when you look at the one line that many Christians quote in John 3:16, it can be misinterpreted:

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

Sure, one might read that and think "him" means God -- not Jesus. Also, you questioned the word "believe." Let me stress that Christians encourage Bible reading for this very reason. It's easy to take a line or two out, pick it apart, question the context and then walk away with a lot of doubt. It wouldn't be any different than pulling out a line or two of a history book and not understanding it, because you didn't read the rest of it.

Let's look at the entire verse from the beginning of John 3:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:1-21)

Then a bit farther down, John (the author of this book or chapter in the Bible), replies to this statement of Christ's:

"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:31-36)

Allow me to highlight two lines here. One from Jesus Christ himself:

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (The bold words are my doing.)

Then the line from John, the witness to Christ's teachings and miracles:

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

I don't think there is any doubt about what the Bible tells us about life and salvation. If there are still readers who doubt, then your heart is truly hardened. My friends, it's very simple: One must be born again of the spirit and believe wholeheartedly in Christ. Sure, the word "believe" can be construed in many ways, but let me make this clear -- you either 100% believe that God Almighty sent his son down to earth to take our punishment and die a ghastly, lowly death on the cross for our sins...

or you don't.

There is no in-between. So you can come up with all kinds of definitions and perceptions of belief and facts, opinions, etc. It doesn't matter. Do you believe? Yes or no? If you do, then you're almost there. You've ordered the ticket to salvation, and now you just have to "accept" it and get it. If you don't believe, then you'll probably continue to soul-search in your life, looking for something that you'll never find because it simply doesn't exist.

Also, let's look at this line that John spoke: "The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful."

He's stating that Jesus, who came from God in Heaven, is above all here on earth. His teachings testify all that he knows from his Father (God), but no one believes him. No one accepts his testimony. If a man does accept his testimony, then it is certified (stamped) that you are a believer and that God is being truthful. Conversely, if you don't accept Christ's testimony -- if you live in this day and age and still doubt, or if you still practice Wicca, or Buddhism, or Islam... and you deny Christ and his testimony, then you don't believe in God. You believe that God is lying. You don't believe that God is truthful.

Truth is the essence and the basis of my blog now. It doesn't get any more raw than this. The truth is, God sent his son down to earth, so that we may be saved and have eternal life in heaven despite the fact that we are corrupt with sin. You have to believe -- as in be "born again" with the understanding of Jesus' words above -- to get that salvation. It's as simple as that. It's not handed out freely to everyone and everyone as some people might think. You've got to believe and be born again. Otherwise, every murderer, rapist, child molester, terrorist, etc. would go to Heaven and get eternal reward, even if they were doing those things up until the very end of their death.

In the Old Testament (before Jesus), God gave man (via Moses) the Ten Commandments -- laws to live by. If you lived by them, then your reward was eternal life in Heaven with the Lord. If you didn't, then you perished in hell. Problem was, there wasn't one man who was able to keep those Ten Commandments. Not a one. I bet that broke God's heart. Therefore, He decided to make it easy for us. He knew that humans would be rife with sin -- it was just our way. We all sin. But in order to give us a way to to have eternal life in Heaven with Him despite our sins, God came up with an easy plan of Salvation for us: He decided to send Jesus -- a being who was his "son" in Heaven -- down to earth in human form. Jesus would teach and pray the message of salvation, and then at the end of his teachings he would take the punishment for all mankind. Jesus would step in, be tortured and beaten to death, spend three days in Hell, and then rise up again in resurrection. The instructions are simple: Allow Jesus to take your punishment away by simply believing and becoming born again of the spirit.

If you are a believer that God sent Christ for us... or if you want to believe and learn more, stay tuned. Tomorrow I will post an entry about being "born again" and help you to understand what that term really means.

God bless!