John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. ASV

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone believing into Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. LITV

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  NKJV
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                                                                                        Commentary

The verse no way proves God loves the reprobate. All we have to do is find one person in the Bible who God did not love to show God does not love everybody. Try Romans 9:11-13. There it says God hated Esau long before he was ever born or did anything.

Just about everybody, including so-called "reformed" people, get to this verse & acquire amnesia over verses 3 & 5!

Everyone including "reformed" people who believe in the "dok-trines of grace" will make every attempt to try and convince people to "believe" in exactly the manner as if it were entirely possible for any unregenerate person to do so when this very passage teaches that it is Impossible to do anything toward salvation unless God regenerates the person First! Messiah said unless one is born from above he CANNOT! Yet these people present the Gospel in such a way as to say that they CAN!

Also this shows that Messiah was speaking of Regenerate believers because here he's talking about the acquisition of eternal life which is what Salvation is all about. Gainsayers employ their Arminian hermeneutic and say ALL who believe are Regenerate, not realizing that they are saying belief is the ~cause~ of Regeneration which is Arminian Heresy. So they take vss that say "Whosoever" and give them the Arminian hermeneutic that 'whosoever' means All without Exception and end up denying the verses that show clearly Unregenerate believers; Luke 8:13 e.g.

The "Sufficient/Efficient" argument.
>The Atonement was 'sufficient' to save the entire world, or even a 1000 worlds; but it is only "efficient" for those who believe.

The only way it can be "sufficient" for anybody is if He fully satisfied Divine Justice for their sin. But if He satisfies Divine Justice for -any- bodies sin then God is under Divine Obligation to bring that person to salvation. He -cannot- send that person to Hell. But if Christ did -not- fully satisfy Divine Justice for a person's sins then the Atonement is  -Not-  "sufficient" to save that person.

Now... the question to the Reformed  Calvinist is... *What is it that makes the Atonement  "Efficient"  for the elect?
If they say -His sufferings- then they are forced to say that the Atonement is also Efficient for the reprobate; unless they are prepared to say Christ suffered for the sins of the reprobate in some sort of 'different way' than He did for the Elect. IOW if it's Christ's Suffering that makes the Atonement Efficient for the Elect then it must of necessity be Equally Efficient for the Reprobate because He suffered for the sins of the reprobate as well. But gents... that's Universal Atonement which is the Arminian false gospel!
 
On the other hand, if he did -not- suffer for the reprobate's sins then how is the Atonement "sufficient" to save them? If he did not suffer for their sins then that means there is no provision for their salvation which destroys any notion of "sufficiency" for the reprobate.

But if they say -Faith- makes the Atonement  "Efficient"  for the elect then they are Arminians and not Reformed/Calvinists. Arminians believe in the Sufficient/Efficient argument. They say their jesus died for ~E-e-v-v-reeebuddy~ which is "sufficiency" but now you gotta crank up your free will and cast your vote for g-zuz; then you're saved. That means salvation is grounded in the activity of the sinner -Believing- by the power of his free will. That's an Arminian works salvation. But in order to maintain this view it is once again -Necessary- to hold that he suffered for the sins of everybody in the whole human race. Therefore there's  ~no difference~  between Arminianism and the  Sufficient/Efficient  argument; they are one and the same. Reformed/Calvinists who hold to and preach  Sufficient/Efficient  are unwittingly preaching an Arminian False Gospel folks! This is why you will almost always hear an Arminian appeal at the end of a Reformed, Calvinistic message by a man who chants 'Dok-trines of Grace'. They all end with an emotional appeal for unregenerate dead sinners to./.. "Come to Christ... Close with Christ" or whatever in its various forms. You will rarely if ever hear them tell people they are completely dead in their sins and are unable to "Come to Christ" unless God has mercy on them. You will rarely hear them say... "God commands you to do something you are totally unable to do... Repent and believe the Gospel." Why not? Because... despite their lip service to Reformed Doctrines of Grace they are themselves in the final analysis.... Arminians.

Further any notion of Free Will totally destroys the context because Free Willers usually hold that free will is powerful enough to respond to the Gospel ~before~ regeneration but Messiah says right here in this passage in plain language that unless a man is regenerated he is totally unable to even see, much less enter into the Kingdom of God.                                                                          

John

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