He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
Many people in the world say that belief is needed before you can ever be regenerated. I’m going to try and point out some verses that are clearly contrary to that belief. Starting with John 3:36. John 3:36 states that he who believes has eternal life. Hath is a past tense verb. Stating that everlasting life is possessed by those who believe. If this verse was stating that belief was necessary in order to receive eternal life then it would have to say, “will have.” It doesn’t say that it says, “already has.” I would like to say that belief and faith is very similar in meaning and most people use them hand in hand as will I. So I would like to point out that faith is a fruit of the Spirit. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. So if faith is a fruit of the Spirit, would not you have to have the Spirit in order to bear that fruit. I have never seen an apple borne without the tree and I’m sure that same principle would have to apply here.
Another verse I would like to talk about is John 5:24 which says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Now again most people would use this verse to say that you must hear the gospel and believe on Jesus in order to have everlasting life. Well lets look at what this verse does not say. It doesn’t say, “You must hear my word, and believe on Him that sent Me, to have everlasting life, and to pass from death unto life.” It is in a completely different tense than that. The result of the hearing of the word, and believing is once again in past tense. It is saying that the hearing and belief is a sign that you have everlasting life, not a requirement.
Now I believe that all of God’s children will at some point in there life be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and that faith will be placed in there hearts. The fact that He will do that is not in any way left up to man. Man’s will, will not get him any where because the natural man can not please God. If ye have the Spirit of God in you, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. The Spirit of God being in us is what gives man the ability to seek after God. Romans 8:6-9
So how does man believe, “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” I say once again that faith is a fruit, an affirmative, not something that man must do. Eternal salvation is the work of Christ, it was finished on the cross of Calvary. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. The death of Christ was sufficient enough to save all that He died for. He only died for those that the Father gave Him.
oldbaptist, 
Nick, 
Jones, and 2 others are discussing. 
radchel 5:02 am on April 17, 2007 Permalink |
Are you saying that believing in Jesus is not necessary to get to heaven?
The second part of John 3:36 (KJV) says this: “…and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.”
From what I gather, that states pretty clearly that belief is necessary.
Also, can we even base such an assumption on an English version of the Bible? Would it not take more research into the original languages in order to find out what exactly was being said, rather than just looking at the past tense of “hath”?
Just a few thoughts on your post.
Good day,
Rads
oldbaptist 1:58 am on April 18, 2007 Permalink |
That is exactly what it says. But it does not change that it says that if a man believes he already has everlasting life. How does a man come to believe? Only by the Spirit being placed in him. I believe that all of God’s children will have the Spirit placed in them and have faith of some sort in there savior. But faith does not come by the work of man in any way. It is the work of God. All those that do not believe do not have the Spirit in them, and there is nothing they can do to change that only God can change that. All the Human race after Adam and Eve was born a sinner condemned to Hell. Every man is destined to sin because we are sinners. If the decision was left to man then we would choose Sin. Just as Adam and Eve did. There is nowhere in the Bible that any one begs anyone else to beieve in Christ. Either they do or they go on there way. The Gospel was and is preached to tell people of the good news of what the Savior has done for his people. Read about the goats that he talks about in John. I do believe that all of God’s children will believe, but not of themselves it is the gift of God.
Philip
Mike Ratliff 2:34 am on April 19, 2007 Permalink |
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8 ESV
That is my answer to explaining how a person comes to believe because it is work of the Spirit who we have no control over.
oldbaptist 2:45 am on April 19, 2007 Permalink |
Amen!!!
All that believe, believe because the Spirit was placed in them first. Faith/belief comes immediately there after. I don’t believe that all will hear the gospel though.
Philip
Jones 8:13 pm on October 27, 2007 Permalink |
I have to differ on your notion that “faith” is a fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5:22 says that “faithfulness” is a fruit of the Spirit and clearly faithfulness is not the same as faith. They are related, but faithfulness is more like trustworthy than “belief” and so no, faith in Christ does not come from just the Spirit.
That being said, when a person hears the word of God and chooses to accept it, the keyword being “chooses”, then the Spirit will come to him and help his believe and faith. But its a human choice. God created us different from Angels in that we have a choice to sin/live as we please. Angels do not have that choice. Therefore, what you are saying cannot be true because if everyone would eventually automatically have “faith” and then everlasting life… what makes us different from the angels?
God created man to WILLING Choose and worship him. So man, the sinful creature, when he chooses to believe in his master and creator, the master is more than ready to bring the man into his glory and eternal life. But if the man doesnt want it, why would God force him?? After all, we were created with free will….
oldbaptist 4:05 am on November 11, 2007 Permalink |
Thomas,
I would first like to apologize for the length of time it has taken me to reply to your comment.
Even if we took your view on this particular verse, you would still have to say that the other verses used would say that if you believe you already have. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” I do believe that we have a free will in this life. I do not believe that I had a choice in whether or not I was created. I was created whether I liked it or not. You could say I was forced to be created. I didn’t choose who my parents are, you could say I was forced to be born of my parents. There are many things that we are “forced” to do. On the other hand since I was born and I do have parents, I choose to love them. I chose to get married and have kids. I choose to worship God. My eternal home was not chosen by me. If it was by my choosing, a work I might add, then I would be damned to hell. There is none righteous no not one. If it was up to our choosing we would do the same as Adam did, he chose wrong. I believe that there is joy in hearing the gospel of our salvation, knowing the work that was done on the cross. Knowing that someone loved me enough to die on that cross and take away my sin’s. I worship him because he first loved me. I didn’t chose him he chose me. I just choose to worship him while I’m he on this sin cursed earth. Read Romans9:11-13. Jacob have I loved Esau have I hated. For the children being not yet born, having done no good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calleth. Choose is a verb, verb is an action, action is a work. To tell me that someone must hear the the good news of their salvation in order for them to have salvation makes no sense at all. Let me tell you what the Lord has done for you, but he only did it if you accept it. He either did it or He didn’t, which is it?
I greatly appreciate your comments and hope that my explanation is clear. We have good and gracious God. He did what had to be done to save those that He loves. May God bless you!!!
Philip
Nick 12:52 am on May 9, 2008 Permalink |
Philip i wrote a long thing on why i believe u might be misinformed despite your genuine love for the Lord i can see theres a misunderstanding here so instead of writing a long thing of why your teachings were contrary to the bible ill just throw down some concrete bible verses that show u must accept salvation to be saved.
the audience hears the news that Jesus Christ is messiah and Lord and they ask Peter “What shall we do”(Acts 2:37) Peter replies with “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
There we can see it takes action to receive. If someone gives you a gift u must accept it from them or else how is that gift inherited???
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household. . . .” Heb 11:7
As we can see noah had to take action to save his household from the flood. This verse is mainly to show that God has always demanded that men obey his word to be saved.
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” (James 2:24).
Jesus says, “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3).
oldbaptist 5:18 am on December 30, 2009 Permalink |
If you accept salvation who does the saving? I believe there is salvation in accepting what the Lord has done for us. But to say to believe something makes it true is contrary to all logic. Jesus died to take away your sins. If you believe that it’s true. Just like saying if you don’t believe something it didn’t happen, just because you didn’t believe it. I don’t believe man eve landed on the moon does that make it untrue no. So why would beleiveing that Jesus did something change the fact of whether he did it or not. All those text you gave are wonderful text taken out of context. They are timely in context and not eternal.
Thanks for you comment and sorry about the delay in returning. I was without internet for about a year.