John 3:16 The most overused verse in the Bible.

I swear to God, I do not know if it is only me who notices this, but people who try to convert others always use this verse, I feel like it is getting played out, it is like listening to a song over and over again to the point where you just get sick of it. I am not bashing anyone here on ATS, but have some variety when it comes to religious arguments. The Bible is a very thick Book, use other verses to support your arguments!

I cant say I have ever encountered anyone trying to use the verse for a "conversion" of faith, but it is a popular verse for a reason.

It has also been called the "Gospel in a nutshell" because it is considered a summary of the central dogma of traditional Christianity:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

reply to post by Unvarnished


You are right, there is never a reason to use a single sentence which eloquently sums up an entire philosophy.

reply to post by Unvarnished


For God so "loved" the world that he sent his only begotten son to be horribly tortured to death to satiate God's blood lust so that whomever believes that this was somehow "loving" would not die when his son comes back to do the same thing to the entire world that he claims to "love" so much.
THAT'S the Gospel in a nutshell.

Originally posted by Unvarnished
I swear to God, I do not know if it is only me who notices this, but people who try to convert others always use this verse, I feel like it is getting played out, it is like listening to a song over and over again to the point where you just get sick of it. I am not bashing anyone here on ATS, but have some variety when it comes to religious arguments. The Bible is a very thick Book, use other verses to support your arguments!

edit on 26-10-2011 by Unvarnished because: (no reason given)

The missionary christians have a bag of tricks, which they play again, and again, and again ....completely independent of whether said trick has been dead as a nail the last 20 years.

It's like a scenario from a really bad horror movie. The mindless zombies with their empty eyes hammering on the doors...the missionary christian repeating him/herself incessantly, because....just maybe...there's some idiot somewhere, who will buy the christian message, if it's constantly repeated.

yet more mystical verses like these are virtually left untouched


Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
John 10:34

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:21


they seem to parallel more Gnostic works like the gospel of Thomas


Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father's) kingdom."

They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) kingdom as babies?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom."

Thomas 22

He didn't really sacrifice his son though did he? His son entered the kingdom of heaven regardless.
Clearly God didn't have enough faith in us to think we'd be completely saved.

reply to post by bogomil

because....just maybe...there's some idiot somewhere, who will buy the christian message, if it's constantly repeated.

Like about a third of the entire current human population?

Don't you think there might be some slightly more productive use of your time? If the rest of your posts are along these lines, I can understand your stat ratio. Misguided or no, the bulk of christians are trying to do what they do for good intentions. Care to share your attempts to benefit your fellow man with us?

Originally posted by ELahrairah


they seem to parallel more Gnostic works like the gospel of Thomas


Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father's) kingdom."

They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) kingdom as babies?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom."

Thomas 22

edit on 26-10-2011 by ELahrairah because: (no reason given)

Could you please explain what that means to the rest of us? I have heard that same verse quoted by a lot of people who believe in the Gnostic gospels as though it were a mantra. Somehow they gloss over other quotes while overusing this one.

What does it mean? Don't just tell us what it says, but tell us what it means.

Click here for more information.

What's a John 3:16?

Originally posted by doom27
What's a John 3:16?

Most likely something to make the doctrine of 'original sin' look less ridiculous.

Originally posted by bogomil

Originally posted by Praetorius
reply to post by bogomil

 

because....just maybe...there's some idiot somewhere, who will buy the christian message, if it's constantly repeated.

Like about a third of the entire current human population?

Don't you think there might be some slightly more productive use of your time? If the rest of your posts are along these lines, I can understand your stat ratio. Misguided or no, the bulk of christians are trying to do what they do for good intentions. Care to share your attempts to benefit your fellow man with us?

I have 'shared' here for two years, but considering that most of my material requires more than an IQ of 80 to understand, it's been beyond the grasp of most of the extremist christians here (whereas practically everybody else understand me and mostly get well along with me).

Grok? You seem slightly better intellectually equipped than the morons who usually fight me with repetitive propaganda clichées, so you may be able to understand, that I target the group of invasive idiots called christian missionaries. And as I can't make them more intelligent (which really would be a blessing), I am experimentally lowering myself to imbecile level, to see if the communication goes better this way.

Apparantly it does. These people really react to rudeness and stupidity, which makes them silent and docile after a while (but then coming from a religion for slaves, that is to be expected).

It is so funny that people can stoop to ad hominem and then cry when it happens back to them. All I can say is that you didn't really have to lower yourself very much.

The saddest thing about people is that they live with such a highly arrogant and self-inflated view of their own intellect that they don't realize how they come off looking to people who are reading their posts.

Now, prove to me beyond cliche why I should believe your point of view.

reply to post by bogomil
Perhaps I'll have to fish for more of your content, but the bit I seem to recall from prior posts (that I've caught, anyway) seemed about as unpleasant. I really feel like you might merely be kicking against the goads in this, so to speak...but I suppose I'll wish you luck in it if you feel it's the best way for you to go.

I'd just rather see more uplifting and educating in the world, instead of continued antagonizing and contributing to unkindness and division. Will get out of your hair now.

reply to post by WarminIndy


I could only give you my interpretation of what it means and you have to take into mind that it is only my opinion
it might mean many different things to different people.

I feel that it refers to non dualism the idea that God is one and one with everything and that there is nothing else.
Yet our perception creates the belief that there are things separate from other things which is only an illusion.
with in that illusion is also an illusion of duality or opposites such as.

birth/ death
I / world
you/me
up/down
past/future

yet through meditation or some form of inner practice a person will come to realize that these are all illusions of the a mind that believes in separation or otherness
and it will eventually dawn on the mind of the person that all is one and whole.

once again these are only "MY" interpretations and other people may see it differently

here is a video on Non Dualism



and another quote from Thomas that I think expresses non dualism

Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.

Split a piece of wood; I am there.

Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
Thomas 77

Click here for more information.

reply to post by knightsofcydonia

all christians would be considered missionaries you nimrod.
I feel sorry for people like you who are so sure of the absence of faith, that they have closed off their minds to any and all truths.
you really are missing out on a huge part of existence.

Name calling isn't really helping on any level, honestly - and Nimrod may actually be a compliment on some levels (he was a mighty hunter before 'the LORD')...and I've got to say that we're going out of his context here, as well as argue that some self-professed christians are such in name only and don't lend themselves to anything that could be considered missionary work, in truth.

Otherwise I agree with most of the rest. Sorry to nitpick, take care.