you know john 3.16
Joh 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
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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. 7 For GOD sent not HIS Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of GOD. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world. And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
The proper understanding of these verses depends, first of all, upon the meaning ascribed to the word “world”. May I submit that this word means Adam and all his children? I think that this is in accord with the Greek, as Mr. Vine(#23) states: (the Greek word)
“Kosmos is used to denote, by metonymy, the human race, mankind.”
And does GOD love just some of mankind, viz., only the ones living since Jesus came that have heard the gospel? No, HE loves the BC ones too. (Believe it!) Therefore the “world” must include everyone since Adam.
Secondly, proper understanding depends upon the meaning we ascribe to the words “condemned already”. I believe that we must consider the condemnation as being already present before they heard the gospel, which means that they would be under condemnation even before Jesus incarnated.
In other words, Jesus' incarnation did not result in the condemnation of unbelieving men: they were condemned already, viz., they loved the darkness before He came. He came to save them from the condemnation they were under.
Now in verse 18 John says that the reason for the condemnation that was present before He incarnated was unbelief in the Name of the only begotten Son of GOD, that is,
unbelief in the Person of Jesus and all that He stands for. Now in regard to this unbelief, something we have to establish is why they do not believe? What is the nature of their faithlessness?
For instance, should we read the verse,
“those that believeth not on account of their ignorance in that they have never heard about the Son, are condemned already because they have omitted believing in the Name of the only begotten Son of GOD?” Or should we read the verse,
“they that have refused to believe are condemned already because they have refused to believe in the revealed Name of the only begotten Son?”
Now, the first interpretation seems to give an explanation for the condemnation of all those who have never heard about Jesus in this life, that is, their sin is a sin of omission. They have failed to do that which is expected of them and necessary for their salvation. This seems somewhat reasonable but, to believe that some people perish for lack of the knowledge of salvation, one must first deny either the sovereignty of GOD or the infiniteness of HIS love.
Their condemnation on account of their ignorance means that if He loves them and is trying to get the message of HIS Son to them, HE is failing in what HE is attempting to do. Or it means that if HE is able to get HIS message to them, HE does not love them enough to send it.
Therefore, it seems that this idea of their condemnation on account of their ignorant omission of faith is untenable with the revealed attributes of GOD, and we should not interpret Scripture in a way that denies the character of GOD should we?
Well, since the first interpretation is untenable with the attributes of GOD, then we are left with only the second, that is, that the entire unbelieving world is condemned because they have
refused (by their choice) to believe in the Name or Person of the Son of GOD.
Now this conclusion regarding the nature of their unbelief leads us to another conclusion:
that for there to be a refusal to believe in His Name, there must have been a prior revelation of His Name. In other words, for there to be a rebellion, there must first be a known authority (revealed God) to rebel against.
Now, two things show that there was such a self-attesting revelation given to all men.
First, it is shown by what John says in
John 3:19, that the Light has been shown to the world (viz., to Adam and his children) but some men preferred darkness to Him, that is, disbelief to belief, disobedience to obedience as we find in
Rom 1. The men he is talking about all refused to believe in the Son. Their sin was not a sin of omission. They had received the self-attesting revelation of the Light, that is, of the Son.
Second, that every unbelieving man in history is included in this rebellious group, that is, that the revelation is universal, is proven by
John 1:9 the true Light, which lighteth every man.
From this verse, we can see that every person on Earth has received or seen the Light, that is, Jesus, even those who lived before He came and the gospel was proclaimed.
Now, having established these facts of the universal revelation of His Name and the rebellion of all unbelieving men, we are faced with the question as to when each and every person received the revelation of the Name of the only begotten Son of GOD? Once again so far as this apology is concerned, this question boils down to whether this revelation was received before this life began or whether it was received during this life.
I believe that there are two things that bear witness that this revelation is received before this life begins (and is subsequently forgotten,
Rom 1).
The first is the complete absence, before He incarnated, of any unscriptural testimony regarding the name of YHWH's Son. I think that if every BC person received the revelation of His Name in this life, someone would have written “it” down, or at least remembered “it” and talked about “it” to someone else. In other words, I think that the truth about Him would have been fairly well known before He came.
Secondly, I think that John also gives us a fairly strong indication that this revelation was given before life began in
John 1:9[/B That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
If every man comes into the world, then every man must exist before he comes into the world. Therefore, I believe that these two things bear witness that the revelation of the name of YHWH's Son that is given to every person, was given before life began.
Well, as you no doubt noticed, this is a fairly drawn out argument. Therefore perhaps a short summary would be of some profit.
First, we saw that the entire unbelieving world was condemned already, that is, even before He came.
Second, we saw that the unbelievers are under condemnation for faithlessness in His Name.
Third, we saw that the sin of omission is untenable with the revealed attributes of GOD and that John 1:9 bears witness that the entire world has received the revelation of His Name.
For these reasons we concluded that the unbelievers' sin was a sin of rebellion rather than a sin of omission, which universal rebellion necessitates a previous universal revelation of His Name.
Finally, in regard to the time of the universal revelation of His Name, we felt first, that the lack of knowledge regarding His name in all of history prior to His incarnation hints strongly at a pre-life revelation, and second, that John 1:9, which says that every man comes into the world, being that it connotes every man's preconception existence, also hints strongly at a pre-life revelation of the name of YHWH's Son.
