Thanks for pointing that out. John chapter 3 is so familiar I just remembered it and had thought the post was expressing thoughts following on from reading it.
The omission of "begotten" from the text is particularly worrying. Is there a special magic Jesus conjured out of ectoplasm being proposed? Such a Jesus would not be human.
James 1:12-13 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
Now if God were reproducing asexually by mitosis and relocating one of His selves to this world how could He be tempted? Or were the Christ to communicate by mass hallucination from aloft, how could He experience hunger?
Matthew 4:1-4 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Begetting is essential to produce human offspring. Divine progeny cannot be tempted. Jesus
was. tempted and so we know that Jesus was begotten.
Quote:
Here is the comparison: JOHN 3:18 . ESV. .look up
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
JOHN 3:18 .KJV. .look up
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
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Attempting to change Christ's very nature like that is rather disturbing. What next? A Jesus who isn't even God? He created the whole world (and the stars) and came down to die for us as John's Gospel explains right there in chapter one! The whole passage is available by clicking
more » in the hover-link:
John 1:1.ff. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.….All things were made by him.….And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us
Ultimately we'd be led up a path where Jesus was neither human nor divine and therefore not able to remain sin free in the face of temptation or offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice to redeem us from the condemnation referred to in the first post.