JOHN 3.16-17 REVISITED

If there is one Bible verse that every child who ever attended an evangelical Sunday school is sure to know, that is John 3.16. What child encountered this verse for the first time, without a Calvinist teacher, would conclude that "world" did not mean the whole world of mankind but a limited number of individuals chosen by God? None would, of course.

Calvin himself, in his commentary on John 3.16, stated that "world" included "all men without exception." Luther also said it meant "the entire human race." But White, realizing that such an admission does away with Limited Atonement, manages a desperate end run around on John 3.16. He suggests that sound exegesis requires "that whosoever believeth on him should not perish" actually means "in order that everyone believing in him should not perish..." That slight twist allows White to suggest that Calvinism's elect alone believe (God having caused them to do so), and thus Christ died only for them.

To prevent such a twisting of His Word, Christ himself explains this passage unequivocally: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3.14-15). There is no question that just as the law and the entire Levitical sacrificial system were for "all Israel" (2 Chron. 29.24; Ezra 6.17; Mal. 4.4, etc.), so was God's provision of the upraised serpent: "...every one...any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21.8-9).

In one look of simple faith, healing flowed to each and every Israelite without exception. The precise connection Christ reveals between this Old Testament type and His crucifixion for sin ("as Moses lifted up the servant...so must the Son of man be lifted up") cannot be escaped. "...that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life" is a promise for all.

Every Old Testament type of the cross was for every Israelite. There was no special elect among them whom alone the Passover, manna, water out of the rock, the Day of Atonement, or general offerings for sin applied. Significantly, any check of the list of scriptures used in Calvinist books will reveal an avoidance of references to Old Testament types of Christ and His sacrifice on the Cross. The reason needs no explanation.

Like most Calvinists, White avoids John 3.14-15 and doesn't even attempt to deal with 3.17 which unequivocally states "that the world through him might be saved" (to which his explanation of John 3.16 couldn't possibly apply). This further comment by Jesus explains the meaning of the entire section (John 3.14-18) that His death on the Cross makes it very clear that God gave His Son for the salvation of the entire world. Amazingly, in the book Still Sovereign, of its 13 contributors, not one addresses this point.

Of course, White's interpretation of John 3.16 must agree with his argument that 1 John 2.2 couldn't possibly mean "that Christ's death is a satisfaction for the whole world." He justifies that view by the fact that John goes on to tell us "not to love the world!" How does the fact that we are not to love the world prove that Christ did not die for the sins of the whole world? Obviously, John is using "world" in two different ways: the people of the world, and the world system.

Recognizing that fact, White rightly declares that in 1 John 2.15 "world" means "the present evil system, not the universal population of mankind" (emphasis in the original). White is now caught in a web of his own making. If the fact that "world" in verse 15 means "the present evil system" refutes the claim that in verse 2 it means all the people of the world, why would it not also refute White's view that it means all "Christians throughout the world...at all times and in all places"?

There is no way to escape the straightforward meaning: in 1 John 2.2, "world" means all unsaved mankind.