Arminianism is like the tail wagging the dog 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.'
"WHOSOEVER believeth in him . . . HAVE everlasting life."
Is the grammar correct? WRONG! Or worse yet . . .
"WHOSOEVER believeth in him SHOULD . . . HAS everlasting life."
Is the grammar correct? WRONG!
To be declarative the verse should read -
"WHOSOEVER believeth in him . . . HAS everlasting life."
Is the grammar correct? Absolutely yes!
The only problem is "HAVE" is used in the verse and not "HAS."
This is what the verse actually says:
"WHOSOEVER believeth in him SHOULD . . . HAVE everlasting life." Is the grammar correct? Absolutely yes!. The last part of the verse, therefore, is clearly CONDITIONAL.
Ben inquired:
I would like to hear what you have to say on this. Grammatically, it seems accurate and right, but I would like to get your inputs.
Sing F Lau
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.
Armi raised some points worthy of attention.
Let me make some observations.
It actually reads:
1. 'whosoever believeth in him should not perish'
2. 'whosoever believeth in him have everlasting life'
'Whosoever' is not necessarily singular. 'Whosoever' is often used collectively, meaning 'some of all types' or 'all'. That explains why it is followed by the verb 'have' and not 'has'.
3. 'believeth' is present active PARTICIPLE, i.e the believing, functioning like a verbal noun. 'Whosoever believeth' means 'all the believing'... therefore followed by 'have' and not 'has'. The inspired 'have' proves the point.
4. 'Should' is a modal verb associated with 'not perish', indicating the consequence of believing.
- '... formal, expressing the conditional mood... indicating the consequence of an... event'
The consequence of believing is, 'should not perish'.
The consequence of believing is not 'have everlasting life.'
To insist that everlasting life is a consequence of believing is simply a complete nonsense, and irrational and illogical for the simple and obvious reason that life must precede any activity of that life. An act of life cannot precede that life.
Christ has already repeated earlier in the chapter... 'except a man be born again, he CANNOT...' declaring the divine act of bestowing everlasting life must precede any spiritual act of seeing and entering the kingdom of God.
Possession of everlasting life by God's free and sovereign grace is the reason there are believing ones. Believing is an evidence of the possession of everlasting life.
Believing is OBVIOUSLY an activity of the everlasting life already bestowed by free grace.
ONLY an insane man denies that life must precede the activities of that life. Believing is an activity of spiritual life.
Ben inquired further:
Is it not that "BELIEVETH" is a singular verb which stands for the modern form "believes" ?
Sing F Lau
'believeth' is a participle.
Parsing information for 'believeth'
Tense: Present
Voice: Active
Mood: Participle
participle |ˈpärtəˌsipəl|
noun Grammar
a word formed from a verb (e.g., going, gone, being, been) and used as an adjective (e.g., working woman, burned toast) or a noun (e.g., good breeding).
So 'whosoever believeth' has the meaning of 'all believing ones.'
All believing ones have everlasting life.
Just my understanding.
