JOHN 3:16 & ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION

 

When the subject of election and predestination comes up, those who oppose these teachings seem to like to mention John 3:16, as noted in the header image above.  They equate the word "world" as meaning every single individual that has ever lived or will live in the future.

When dealing with this verse, we first have to remember who the Apostle John was writing to.  Many say John was writing to Jewish Christians while others say it was a mixture of Jewish and Gentile Christians around Asia-Minor.  I remember listening to a pastor whose name I can't remember, and he said the John 3:16 verse would be considered a scandalous statement because to the Orthodox Jews, as far as they were concerned, they were the only ones who would be saved.  Because they were God's chosen nation, they mistakenly assumed God would save them and them alone.

Here, when John is quoting chapter 3, verse 16, he is saying that God's love was for all nations, not just the Jews, and this didn't set well with many of the Orthodox Jews.  There are different types of love that God possesses: benevolent love, beneficent love, and salvific love.  Benevolent and beneficent love are closely related but still there are small differences and you can read about them here .  These two types of love are shown universally, even to those who consider themselves God-haters.  This love is expressed in the fact that God gives them their very next breath.  The Bible says in Matthew 5:45 that He causes the sun "to shine on the good and the evil and causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust."  That is the example of God's universal benevolent love.

Salvific, or electing love, on the other hand, is shown only to those whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world.  We can explain it through this example:  Say you're a schoolteacher and you say you love your students, well, that's great.  You show all your students a specific type of love.  But you're also a parent and you say you love your own children, but the love you show to your own children is much more special than what you show to your students.  There are just some things you would do for your own children that you wouldn't do for your students.

Yes, God loves the whole world, but His salvific love is only shown to a specific group, whereas His benevolent and beneficent love is shown to humanity as a whole.