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If you have not already done so let me refer you to an earlier article in this series that goes into depth concerning the Gospel of Jesus for Salvation and Eternal Life. We want to compare what Jesus, the New Testament "Christ" taught for Salvation and Eternal Life in the earlier article with what supposedly John the Apostle taught concerning Salvation in Jesus' name and see if both Salvation Messages are the same. Theoretically it should be the "same" but as I will show you it is NOT!
Answer for yourself: Why are there again conflicting ways for the salvation of the Soul? Where is this "one faith" we read about in Ephesians? How many "roads" to salvation are there?
Eph 4:5 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, (KJV)
Answer for yourself: What if we have misunderstood the "only" road for salvation for our Soul and read unknowingly corrupted versions of it which were added later to the Sacred texts in our Bibles, salvation messages thousands of years removed from their original meanings?
Well, remembering what the New Testament Christ taught; namely that the true gospel of God is that Eternal Life and Salvation comes to man as the fruit of his belief in God and his earnest attempt to obey the Laws and Commandments of God and live an ordered existence of love and peace, then let us examine the Johannie literature and see for ourselves if John's "gospel" is the same as that taught by the "Jewish Christ" or if it conflicts and contradicts it as does the gospel of Paul and later "pro-Pauline" writers. Let me state right now for those not aware there are "two" different Pauline Gospels in the New Testament; one Gnostic and one "pro-Roman". By the reference above I mean the "pro-Roman" Gospel and not the Gnostic Gospel which is correct. This basic introductory study is only for the purpose of showing the readers on a deeper level the contradictions that are within our New Testament regarding the salvation of the Soul; in time I hope to steer the "truth-seeker" to the only true Gospel and salvation of our Soul which has been taught unchanged from the beginning of time and the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt until the second century where we encounter the Roman "radical reinterpretation" of the ancient Sacred Wisdom and the birth of "Plan B" regarding the salvation of the Soul of mankind.
Biblically and historically, justification through faith in Jesus Christ (or salvation by grace through faith) has been the center of the Christian Gospel. There is a great controversy growing today within our churches and theological schools threatening the unconditional Gospel of grace by compromising faith alone as the condition for salvation. From the beginning of the church, defense of the Faith focused largely on the Paul's explanation, reiteration, and defense of faith alone as the condition of salvation. This is the explicit concern of the epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and it surfaces as well in some other epistles, such as Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and First John. Don't get me wrong "faith" is very important but it is not the "whole" of the salvation process; in fact "faith alone" is deficient. Action upon one's faith is necessary to active faith into a "living" and "creative" faith. More on that later.
John’s Gospel explicitly states that it, the Gospel of John, was written to bring people to salvation and faith. Yet its message and language does not receive preeminent treatment in the Gospel debate. When it does, its simple message is often obscured or tainted by theological baggage or presuppositions. In this article, I will discuss the purpose of John’s Gospel and its message for obtaining Eternal Life and Salvation as contrasted with the opposing message of the Jewish Jesus and "the Christ". We will come to see that the writer of the Gospel of John supports "faith alone" as the one and only condition for salvation where Judaism and the ancient World Religions and Sacred Wisdom of the ancients taught "faith plus works or action" for the Spiritual progression of the Soul that leads to salvation! This is where the Laws of God come in as the "teacher of our Soul" that leads to a higher life ethic and progressive Spiritual evolvement of our Soul into the "fullness and stature of the Christ" of which we read. So to say "Christ is the end of the Law", a statement that nullifies the very purpose of our incarnation, is a blasphemous lie of theology never believed by the real Paul; only the later "Romanized Paul".
A favorable distinctive of John’s Gospel is his unequivocal statement of why he wrote it. He declares in John 20:30-31: And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Three corresponding emphases are evident in this purpose statement; of course here we are referring supposedly to a "literal-historical" person and not the Divine Mind of God, the Mystical and allegorical Christ that indwells "all of mankind".
Given John’s clear purpose, we would expect to see a clear condition for receiving Eternal life, and we do. That condition is most frequently expressed by the verb "pisteu") "believe," which is used 98 times in John (compared to 34 times in the 3 Synoptic Gospels and 16 times in the rest of the NT). Now put your "thinking hats on" and ask yourself why this "theme" of "believing" is not stressed equally throughout the New Testament if it is the very core of "salvation". It should strike you rather strange that only one Gospel, the Gospel of John stresses believing 98 times when 3 other whole Gospels only stress this same "dogmas" ten times each let alone only 16 times in the whole of the non-Gospel writings that make up the whole of the New Testament. Surely this is out of balance to say the least; it is almost crying out that someone has an "agenda" in the writing of the Gospel of John not found in the rest of the New Testament.
Another pattern we see is the consistent effect of believing, which is salvation. Though sometimes faith is underdeveloped, faulty, weak, or minimal, it is always sufficient for Eternal life according to the writer of the Gospel of John. Faith alone is sufficient for Eternal Life apart from "works". According to this writer Jesus said that whoever believes "has" (present tense) eternal life and "has passed" (perfect tense) from death into life (5:24).
John 5:24 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (KJV)
This is the present possession of the believer. The blind man who was given sight was able to declare "Lord, I believe!" (9:38), though it took him some time to come to that point of faith. In John, salvation is not conditioned on how one believes, but whom one believes "in", or not the kind of faith, but the object of one's faith; in particular this "Jesus only".
This is more than convenient for a church who is developing at the same time a dogma that there is "no salvation" outside of the Roman Church where one can find "Jesus only". If you think that I am not stating the truth of the exclusive salvation of Christianity obtained only through the Roman Church and their dogmas then read this:
Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke in an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said: "We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge" There are many such pronouncements.
This dogmatic position only leads to others like the notion of feeding on Christ (John 6:57),
John 6:57 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (KJV)
including eating his flesh and drinking his blood (6:54) (the Eucharist or Communion),
John 6:54 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (KJV)
is another analogy of the faith that supposedly obtains Eternal Life, as is clear in 6:35 and 6:47.
John 6:35 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (KJV)
John 6:47 47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (KJV)
This is similar to the drink of living water (eternal life) offered to the Samaritan woman (4:10, 14).
John 4:10 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (KJV)
John 4:14 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (KJV)
To eat and drink is to appropriate or receive something upon which life depends. Notice please that there is no work or merit associated with these activities, there is no "training of the Soul" and no progressive Spiritual development and perfection of our Soul in such activities; in other words there are "no works" or "deeds" that elevate our Soul to a higher righteousness. Rather, the benefit is from what is appropriated, which corresponds to the object of faith, which is Christ.
John’s Gospel is distinguished from the Synoptic Gospels by its unique selection of material not found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is commonly observed that 92% of its material is unique when compared to the Synoptics. It is also commonly agreed that this material presents a more doctrinal reflection in contrast to the more historical approaches of the Synoptic accounts. This can be clearly seen when John’s prologue is compared to those of the Synoptics.
A fortunate distinctive of John’s Gospel is his unequivocal statement of why he wrote it. He declares in John 20:30-31:
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Three corresponding emphases are evident in this purpose statement. First, it declares Jesus is the divine Son, the revelation of God: "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." This merely continues the obvious emphasis on Jesus’ deity in the Gospel. Here a man is made God. This my friends is idolatry according to Laws of Moses and the Laws of Noah and this blasphemy is treated as a Divine revelation in the Gospel of John worthy of man's acceptance and reverence.
This opening purpose statement also explains why John declares in v 30 that only certain miracles were recorded. Besides the explicit statements, it is commonly observed that deity is revealed through the selection of miraculous signs that Jesus performs (cf. 10:37-38; 14:10-11)
John 10:37-38 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. (KJV)
John 14:10-11 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (KJV)
Consider as well the "I am" statements He makes. In short, the book begins and ends with Christ’s deity. The evangelistic intent is obvious. It is hardly necessary to show that Christ’s deity revealed by word or miracle in this Gospel is typically followed by someone believing or by an appeal to believe. Furthering the argument for evangelistic intent is the third emphasis that presents Eternal Life as the result of belief: "that believing you may have life in His name." John’s purpose was to induce and foster faith in this supposed "literal" and "historical" Jesus as "the Son of God" for Eternal Life and in so doing guarantee the dominance of the Roman Church as a world power. One commentator expressed John’s purpose as the "birth, growth, and completing of faith in the disciples." The church at large has always taken John’s purpose in 20:31 at face value and understood this Gospel’s intent to lead people to faith and a full life that comes only through the organized Church. Through the ages, believers have probably used John more than any other piece of literature to confront people with the Gospel. A modern illustration of this is the millions of pocket Gospels of John that have been distributed for over a century to share the Good News.
Given John’s clear purpose, we would expect to see a clear condition for receiving eternal life, and this of course is "belief". Belief in Jesus as the Son of God is the expected and hoped for response to the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and this again comes from the texts which declare it so. Had the texts had a different message then of course I hope you understand that that people would have believed "otherwise".
The doctrines of the deity of Christ and the atonement are existing religious teachings coming from false "literalizations" applied to the Mystery Religions which all non-Jews would have been familiar long before Paul. These teachings were only reinforced later by a Romanized Paul which further was made to look at he supported a "literalized Jesus Christ"; no so when you begin to study and see for yourself the Gnostic Paul beside the Romanized Paul in the New Testament.
Answer for yourself: Were these doctrines something Paul made up or borrowed? What did Jesus teach regarding the atonement? Did Jesus teach a different atonement than Paul and later "pro-Pauline" writers? He sure did and the above set of studies will show clearly that the New Testament depiction of atonement is false.
The writer of the Gospel of John uses the word "come" in a rather interesting way. Another metaphor for "faith" is his use of the word "come" with has connotations with both eating and believing. Coming, drinking, and believing are used synonymously in 7:37-38 as the condition for salvation.
John 7:37-38 37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (KJV)
To come is to trustingly approach Christ for help. Again, please notice, that such an response by a person entails no human merit or effort as would doing "good works" or "practicing righteousness" or "righteous deeds" which are laid out in the Commandments of the Torah and other ancient Sacred Books.
Another word that may represent faith is word often used by John as "receive". The promise that any who receive Christ will become children of God is closely linked to believing in 1:12.
John 1:12 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (KJV)
"Believe" appears to be in close proximity to "receive" here in order to explain it. In 1:12 to receive is to welcome or accept as true the person or words of Jesus Christ (3:11, 32-33; 5:43).
John 3:11 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. (KJV)
John 3:32-33 32 And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. 33 He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (KJV)
John 5:43 43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. (KJV)
This is in contrast to those who "did not know" and "did not receive" Jesus as the Christ in 1:10-11. Not only in the earliest centuries would accept this Roman "radical reinterpretation" of the ancient Sacred Religion and scholarly estimates indicate around 18 million of these "true believers" were slaughtered over the course of the Dark Ages by the vicars of Christ and Roman Church.
These pictures of "faith" in the Gospel of John all denote "receptivity, agreement, or trust".
Answer for yourself: What do all of these responses to the dogmas in the Gospel of John have in common?
They are all essentially simple activities and essentially passive. None communicates the idea of merit, work, effort, or achievement. They require the "believer" to do "nothing". Neither do they communicate an exchange of one’s life or the ongoing submission of one’s life to Jesus as Master in order to obtain eternal life. When we observe the clear statements in John about the condition for salvation, the effect of this condition, and the pictures of this condition, we conclude that John presents "faith alone in Christ alone" or the "dogmas created around him" as the only condition for salvation. One only needs to believe the "dogmas" of Christ; few are aware that these dogmas of Christ were in a perpetual state of "flux" and "creation" over the earliest centuries of the Roman Church and their Church Counsels.
Answer for yourself: Have you read the article on "Jesus" and "the Christ" and their message of "Salvation"? If you have then you see clearly that this message in the Gospel of John concerning "obtaining Salvation" is 180 degrees opposite to what is taught in all 3 of the Synoptic Gospels concerning obtaining "Eternal Life" and "Salvation". Please read this and see this for yourself! This presents a real problem for the "thinking" believer and it should because the salvation message of the Synoptic Gospels contradict 180 degrees the "faith only message" in the Gospel of John!
Let us continue.
Critics notice that besides what "John says" the very important "things that John does not say". It is extremely significant that we do not see qualifiers with the word "believe". John does not condition salvation on whether one "really believes" or "truly believes." Neither does he speak of "genuine faith," "real faith," or "effectual faith." There is only one kind of faith. One either believes in something or he does not. Therefore, those who speak of "spurious faith" or "false faith" are psychologizing faith as the Scripture neither does, nor provides a basis for doing. In contrast, John does use qualifiers to distinguish the real from the fraudulent in other concepts. He speaks of the "true light" (1:9), "true bread" (6:32), "true vine" (15:1), "true worshipers" (4:23), and "true God" (17:3). When he shows that even the unsaved can be referred to as disciples (6:60-64), he later calls the saved who adhere to His word "disciples indeed" (8:31).
Also in John, we do not see other conditions attached to faith or any condition replacing faith. For example, the word "repent" (in reference to obedience to the Laws and Commandments of God) does not even occur even once in John's Gospel but yet "repent" was the very "first" word mentioned by Jesus as conditional for receiving "the Kingdom of God" into one's life.
Answer for yourself: Can we really consider the Gospel of John "Good News" if it does not teach repentance which is foundational to "entering the Kingdom of God" as does the other 3 Gospels?
In spite of the strained efforts of some to impose repentance on the salvation accounts in John, scholars find the opposite and little if any mention of repentance in John's Gospel. In the incident of the woman at the well (4:1-26), Jesus’ disclosure of the Samaritan woman’s multiple mates would have been a perfect time to call her to repentance from her sin. But yet we find none as if Jesus condones here behavior and infidelity and adultery. Instead we find Eternal life offered on the condition of asking (4:10) and drinking (4:14), both expressions of believing "only"; no works or repentance needed here! Again strange but true Jesus makes no mention of "repentance" to this sinner. John makes God's salvation totally and absolutely free and makes it clear that salvation is not conditioned on human merit but let the reader understand that the Torah and the Books of Moses say different as well as the Prophets.
Now pay close attention to what I say next. Here is another "dogma" connected to Roman theology. Christianity teaches that Salvation is not based on "human merit" and that there is nothing that a person can do to make himself "acceptable to God". This is the foundational teaching that is connected to the doctrine of "original sin".
Answer for yourself: Are you aware that Biblical Judaism does not teach nor believe in the Christian doctrine of "Original Sin" but yet Christianity teaches this as if the Hebrew Scriptures teach it; it should grab you attention that Biblical Judaism teaches that the Hebrew Scriptures do "not" teach this! Many Christians who profess to believe in the doctrine of "original sin" do not know what it teaches. Even more Christians are ignorant of its history and origin: that it had its roots in a heathen philosophy, that it has evolved, and that it was made a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church in the fifth century A.D., primarily by the influence of Augustine. Finally, most Christians do not know the fact that the doctrine of original sin is really a theory.
It is probably shocking for the Christian who has been taught the "theory of original sin" as Bible truth to be told that not one word of any of this horrible teaching can be found in the Bible. Christians believe the theory of "original sin" to be a Bible doctrine because Christian theologians, preachers, and Sunday school teachers teach it as if it was a Bible doctrine that they are quoting directly from the Bible, and give this teaching a semblance of credence by spouting Bible texts quoted out of context. However, this theory is not a Biblical Doctrine at all. You cannot find the Bible teaching this "concept" in either the Old or New Testament unless you "read" into texts ideas not present in the text in the first place. Here is another "man made" dogmas that litters the pages of our Bibles; no different from the many in the Gospel of John addressed above.
Answer for yourself: Where can you find written in the Bible that "The whole human race existed in Adam at the time of his transgression"? Or that "Adam's will was the will of the species"? Or that "In Adam's free act the will of the race revolted against God and the nature of the race corrupted itself"? Or that "All men existed as one moral person in Adam, so that in Adam's sin we sinned, we corrupted ourselves, and brought guilt and merited condemnation upon ourselves"? Or where can it be found written in the Bible that "Adam was the federal head and moral representative of the race, and God made a covenant with Adam, agreeing to bestow upon all his descendants eternal life for his obedience and making the penalty for his disobedience to be the condemnation of all his descendants"? Or where in the Bible can it be found written that "All men are guilty and condemnable for the depraved nature with which they are born"? Nowhere! These theories are not in the Bible. You can search the Bible through from cover to cover and you will never find a word of these theories on its pages. The fact that mere men have had the boldness to teach these theories as Bible truths is a serious and sobering fact. God has twice warned men not to tamper with his Holy Word, neither adding to it nor taking from it. Deut. 4:2, Rev. 22:18, 19. But yet we continually "add to" and "take away" from this Divine Revelation because we fail to study the Hebrew texts and listen to the Rabbis expound upon God's Word as we should being "Gentiles" in need of the "light God gave to the nations, the 'Jewish people'" who are equipped to teach the Hebrew Scriptures better than any "non-Jew" ever born.
Now back to "merit" mentioned above as related to the "salvation message"; merit of course being denied by Christianity as necessary to "faith" for man's salvation. Let us see who is true here.
Answer for yourself: Have you ever looked up the word "grace" in the Hebrew? Have you examined the contexts in which it is used. Christianity teaches over and over again that we are "saved" by "grace" and never stops to see what the word means. We saw above that Christianity teaches as well "faith only".
Answer for yourself: Would you believe that the word "grace", when looked up in the Hebrew, to get it full and complete meaning when connected to "salvation", has hidden in the original language the concept of "merit"; that man "merits" grace from God does which is based upon his "obedience to the Laws and Commandments of God"? Probably not but you need to know this and I hope it gets your attention.
Now you see the importance of "repentance" and "obedience" to the Laws of God as our Covenant responsibilities. Let us look when we have time to a "eye-opening" article on "grace" and "merit" which now brings the whole of the Gospel of John and its "salvation message" under "suspicion".
I hope you took time to read the above link; having done so then let us continue.
Let us continue on with the second article in this series.
Bennoah1@airmail.net