Originally Posted by kennethcadwell
They do say that and you only make them contradict by still not going by the actual context and meaning of the Greek words pisteuo and echo. Which both are continuation words, and have a meaning of assurance and expectation of receiving eternal life.
Just like in John 3:16 the believe here is those who continue to believe (pisteuo).................
Well, Kenneth, I have finally figured out your problem.
You don't KNOW GREEK!!
You copy and paste from some internet sites, not having a clue that you are copying the lexical form, not the form used in the verse. You have doctrines based on a total ignorance of what the Greek is saying.
"Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλὰ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον." John 3:16 Greek
Here in this phrase
πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων we find the verb pisteuo which in the lexical form means "I believe, I trust, I have faith in." This is the infinitive, which in English, we would say "to believe, to trust, to have faith." But in Greek, they use the first person singular indicative.
It is important to note this is a phrase "Pas ho pisteuone" because the "believe" verb is a participle, and there are different kinds of participles, including adverbial and adjectival.
In this case, because it has the word "the" or "ho" in the phrase, it tells us it is adjectival. Because it is in a phrase with "pas" which means "all" in Greek, we know from our studies of Greek that it is a generic utterance, which is gnomic or universal or timeless aspect.
Thus, if we go back to John 3:16, we can conclusively say that "All the ones believing" or
πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων applies to "anyone who believes." And if they believe, they will not be destroyed or perish μὴ ἀπόληται. This negation shows conclusively that it is a timeless fact, that anyone who believes has eternal life. In fact, because this is a gnomic, timeless adjectival participle we can definitely say that it is not "continuation" word, but the exact opposite.
We are saved once for all, and that means forever, not contingent upon works! And certainly not in our own power!