What does John 3:16 mean?

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Oblio

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After receiving the sentence of death, if they ate from the tree of life, who knows what could've happened? They may have exploded like a watermelon dropped from Letterman's office window! That would've made quite the mess!
 

Gideon300

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Mar 18, 2021
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After receiving the sentence of death, if they ate from the tree of life, who knows what could've happened? They may have exploded like a watermelon dropped from Letterman's office window! That would've made quite the mess!
Or they could have lived forever, as God said would have happened.
 

Magenta

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Jul 3, 2015
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Or they could have lived forever, as God said would have happened.
Yes... and it seems to be generally accepted that God definitely did not want man living forever in a sinful state. Hmmm, come to think of it, that speaks against ECT. Anyways, there are those too who claim A&E did already eat from the Tree of Life, as if they could not have life aside from having done that already, but that strikes me as being a very misguided view. And we also know that Jesus was not a plan B, since He was purposed from before the foundation of the world, as a means for people to escape death, and attain to life ever after.
 
Mar 4, 2020
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Do you know the difference between soul and spirit? Do you know how people are conceived? Lord Jesus had brothers. They were were conceived by Joseph's sperm. Lord Jesus was not. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Physically, He had a human body that needed to eat, drink, could bleed and even be killed. His nature was God, not man. Lord Jesus had life in himself. No one else could claim that, including Adam. The life that Jesus has is the uncreated life of God.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Romans 8:3
3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Adam was called the son of God because he was directly formed by God and not descended from any other being. Sorry about that, evolutionists. Adam was not sinful, but neither was he righteous. He had natural life, not spiritual life. God gave Adam the opportunity to receive spiritual life, but of course he chose to rebel instead.
Okay, well Adam and Eve were created perfect. Doesn't perfect God create perfect things? Yet they sinned anyway. Jesus Christ, in the flesh, had the capacity to sin, hence why He was able to be tempted in the desert by Satan, hence why He prayed for the "cup to pass from me", because Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh according to Romans 8:3.

Of course Christ never sinned, but He was tempted in every way.

Hebrews 4:15
15For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

God can't be tempted with evil, but flesh can be tempted with evil.

My point is that if flesh can sin, and Christ never sinned even as a baby, then no babies sin.

There are three words in Greek that English translates "life". They are "bio", "Pseuche" and "Zoe". Pseuche refers to the realm of the soul, where we derive our word psychology. Bio refers to the physical. Zoe refers to spiritual life, the uncreated life that is God Himself. Lord Jesus came that we might have "zoe" life. He said, "He who seeks to save his pseuche will lose it". What we gain when we lose the soul-life is God's eternal life instead.
I haven't really studied those Greek words but that seems to jive well with what I believe.
 

Gardenias

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Oct 27, 2020
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How did this thread go from Jn 3:16 to Annilation vs Eternal Conscious Torment?
There is a new one on damnation amongst the threads!
 

Gideon300

Well-known member
Mar 18, 2021
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Yes... and it seems to be generally accepted that God definitely did not want man living forever in a sinful state. Hmmm, come to think of it, that speaks against ECT. Anyways, there are those too who claim A&E did already eat from the Tree of Life, as if they could not have life aside from having done that already, but that strikes me as being a very misguided view. And we also know that Jesus was not a plan B, since He was purposed from before the foundation of the world, as a means for people to escape death, and attain to life ever after.
Man became a living being when God breathed the breath of life into him. However, it was natural life, not spiritual. Hence the need for the tree of life. God knew in advance what Adam would do. That does not means that God intended for Adam to sin. It does mean that God was going to have His plan for man fulfilled no matter how badly we mess up!
 

BroTan

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Sep 16, 2021
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yes and those who don’t believe that (?which I myself do believe that the second death is an eternal state of torment )

but those who don’t agree will have several scriptures that support thier thinking also that’s all I was saying they also will put verses together to make thier point just as you did there I only say this because this subject has come up before and I quoted all those same verses plus more that support them and thre response was others quoted thier scriotires that seem to support total destruction

I’ve even went through ot prophecy quotes that support eternal torment and suffering for the wicked but it seems that others are convicted of a different view me they also have scripture that supports that view

it’s one of those constant conflict argument and scripture wars subject no one ever moves on and honestly we should not want to either die forever or be tormented forever

we should instead look to the truth of the gospel and escape the second death either way we should look to the life and light and let God convince us of the things we don’t yet grasp

I agree and I strongly believe that there is a spiritual blindness among those who can't see. Because it's also other subject matters that share the same miss understanding that can proving, without a show of a doubt. But Paul says something interesting in Ephesians 4: 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

There are other things that causes spiritual blindness, but this one was interesting.