Is John 3:16 Prescriptive or Descriptive?

1Co 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion,
but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

 Is John 3:16 Prescriptive or Descriptive?
Do you understand the question?
Do you understand the distinction between what is prescriptive and what is descriptive? 

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10212580149714189
October 24, 2018 
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A Greek Scholar and a Village Bumpkin on John 3:16

A Village Bumpkin inquires:
Dear brethren, someone who is proficient in Greek, could you please parse the various verbs used in John 3:16. I am also wondering is John 3:16 a declarative statement about salvation or a proposal or invitation or offer for salvation?

Desiring to learn.

A Greek Scholar replies:
Dear Brother, there are five Aorist verbs and one present tense participle in this verse. Among the verbs, there are three indicative moods and two subjunctive moods. The active subject of the first two Aorist verbs is God. God loved, God gave His Son. God's love for the world is the cause for God giving. The subject of the third Aorist verb is the believer (the one believing HE shall not perish).

The indicative mood verbs state a completed act in the past by God - God loved, God gave. The Greek preposition "hina" indicates a purpose clause that grammatically defines the purpose for God's actions. Hence, what God did was for a stated purpose. The subjunctive mood verbs define the purposes "might not perish" but "might have eternal life." Grammatically, the present tense participle introduced by the "hina" preposition defines the single condition for obtaining the two subjunctive verb purposes for God's action.

John 3:16 is a PROVISIONAL ACTION taken by God for the purpose to obtain one positive and one negative stated purposes CONDITIONED upon one action by man - believing.  If you think this is poor exegesis then consider the statement Jesus uses to introduce verse 16. Verse 15 is intended by Christ to be used as a basis for what he is saying in verse 16.  God PROVIDED Israel with the brazen serpent so that if anyone looked upon it they MIGHT NOT perish. Again this text indicates PROVISIONAL ACTION by God based upon one condition (LOOK) in order to possess life and avoid death.

The following verses (vv. 17-21) list reasons why men will NEVER of their own accord partake of this provision.  This determined resistance is the reason Jesus opens up this section by the need of the NEW BIRTH (vv. 3-7) and the Sovereign work of the Holy Spirit (v. 8).

I personally believe that John 3:16 states God's purpose for giving His Son as a PROVISION for the world conditioned upon believing IN ORDER to obtain life and avoid death. I use it as an invitation without reserve and yet at the same time I point out the fact that those listening will never partake of that provision due to their sinful nature which God must first deal with by the new birth according to His sovereign will.

There is no such thing as unregenerated believers nor regenerated unbelievers. The Greek Grammar in I John 5:1 demands that the new birth and believing are simultaneous actions in regard to chronology but that new birth precedes belief in regard to logic.

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Village Bumpkin replies:

John 3:16
"For God so loved (aorist active indicative) the world, that he gave (aorist active indicative) his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (present active participle) in him should not perish (aorist middle subjunctive), but have (present active subjunctive) everlasting life."

I checked the information here: https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jhn/3/16/t_conc_1000016

I may not be Greek proficient, but I am endowed with a fair share of common sense. Consider your statement:

"John 3:16 is a PROVISIONAL ACTION taken by God for the purpose to obtain one positive and one negative stated purposes CONDITIONED upon one action by man - believing."

What is the use of God making such a great provision of eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ for those dead in trespasses and sins, who are in enmity against God, and completely incapable of believing? Didn't Christ state categorically, "Except a man be born again, he CANNOT... he CANNOT...?" Life precedes the activities of that life; the giving of eternal life must precede the act of believing." You don't need any Koine Greek or Classical Chinese to know that, do you?

Common sense tells me that John 3:16 is a declaration of "God so loved..." that He gives eternal life to sinners dead in trespasses and sins, and the evidence/manifestation of God having "so loved" is the believing ones in Jesus Christ.

If God had only offered eternal life, OBVIOUSLY to those don't have eternal life yet, to those dead in trespasses and sins, calling them to believe in order to have eternal life, THEN God had NOT loved at all, much less "so loved." It is the reverse, offering life to the dead on the condition that the dead perform an act to get that life IS A WICKED DEED, it is mocking the dead, it is taunting the dead, it is not loving, it is cruel.

What if I tell you, "whoever eats have life," will you take it as a statement of fact about the whoever eats, or will you take it as an offer of life to the dead on the condition that he, the dead, eats?

HOW STUPID [i.e. lacking common sense] CAN ONE GETS!

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Ante Zivkovic
Lol. Now no longer can they even determine is something is prescriptive or descriptive, but rather, it’s both. They do this with everything. New birth precedes believing, yet it is simultaneous. But I see this stupidity outside Christianity too.