What About John 3:16?

I believe John 3:16.  

If I’m a heretic on hell, this is the heart of my heresy. I believe John 3:16 says what it means and means what it says.  

The most familiar verse in the Bible clearly contrasts everlasting life and perish. They are opposites. It is endless life, or an end to life.  

What does perish mean? I asked a thoughtful pastor friend the same question. Without hesitation he responded, “To die... or, uh... cease to be. If something perishes, it doesn’t last- you know, like perishables at the grocery store.”

“Oh, but I thought you believed in endless torment,” I quizzed.

“Well, I do,” he assured with a puzzled tilt of his head as he fingered his chin.  

“So what does perish mean in John 3:16?” I persisted.

This seminary trained pastor of half a century looked befuddled. “Yeah, well, now in John 3:16 it has… uh, well… uh… a different theological meaning.” He carefully enunciated the-o-log-i-cal. He proceeded to parrot the typical traditional teaching in which perish doesn’t mean what he just said it did.

I didn’t judge him, or think less of him. How could I? His belief was mine for so many years.

Do you remember when you first memorized John 3:16? Most believers do not. It’s like trying to recall the first time you heard Amazing Grace. John 3:16 is ingrained in our Christian psyche. At churches, camps, or nursing homes, I have only to begin “For... God... so... loved…” and the audience easily joins in without missing a word.   

I’ve come to believe that John 3:16 is a verse we know so well but understand so little. Why? It’s because we were already sure of what it meant before we ever contemplated what it actually said. How else would you explain taking a word like perish in obvious contrast to everlasting life, with its clear and consistent meaning of a miserable end to life, and turning it upside down and inside out to mean an endless life in misery?

My pastor friend knew exactly what perish meant, and got it right the first time. He had heard it and used it too many times to not know or say otherwise. And when he had heard and used it, it always had the same plain definition. Always, but with one striking exception- and only one- and that is when it is used to describe the final fate of unbelievers. Suddenly, mysteriously, magically it takes on a unique sense, a contrary interpretation, an opposite explanation because now it is to be understood “theologically”.  

To understand perish theologically means It can not, and must not, contradict the established dogma of endless torment. But there is no such thing as a theological understanding of John 3:16, as if it means something else if you don’t unscramble it theologically. Such gobbledygook is medieval, the thought that no one could expect to simply read John 3:16 and understand it correctly. The reader might suppose that perish actually means... uh, perish.

Consider that every other word in John 3:16 is accepted in its primary sense. There is no abracadabra that transforms any of the other words from a handkerchief into a rabbit.  

For God so loved is clear enough. No one would invert love to hate.

The world may have multiple interpretations, but no one changes it to the sky.  

That he gave his only begotten son needs only to be declared, not decoded. 

Calvinists and Armenians may squabble over the who of whosoever, but no one contorts who into nobody.  

Believeth in him is understandable.  

Everlasting life needs no dissection.  

But what about shall not perish? Ah, now here is the dilemma- how to take a word that means an end and interpret it as endless. Bible translators are too informed to falsely render it something more agreeable to their dogma. They couldn’t and wouldn’t change it to “shall not suffer” or “shall not be tormented”. If it really means that, why not translate it such? But they know better, and no translation has ever dared. It is left to the wizardry of theologians, academics, preachers, and teachers to pull off the bizarre switcheroo.

A handkerchief and rabbit bear closer resemblance to each other than do the understood end of the word perish with the assumed dogma of torment without end. It’s equivalent to turning up into down, in into out, yes into no. 

Or “black as white” as translator R. F. Weymouth (known for his Weymouth New Testament) contends: "My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language than when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying 'destroy,' or 'destruction,' are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this."

It’s quite the radical transformation. Or it’s a disappearing act- here’s an end, now it’s gone. Ta Da!... there is no end.

But there is no real magic- it’s only a trick. Handkerchiefs don’t really turn into rabbits and nothing ever actually disappears. A handkerchief is not a rabbit and never will be, and perish is what it is and always will be.  

So how do the theological magicians justify their trickery of changing an end into no end? There is no linguistic argument. Neither the English nor the underlying Greek offer an expression elastic enough to bend and stretch and twist it into contradicting itself. Some oddly grasp at the straws of burst wineskin bottles (Matthew 9:17) or lost life (Mark 8:35) in an absurd notion that either would picture torment over death (I’ll address this extensively).

There is no textual argument. Nothing in the passage suggests that an understood end should be understood as endless. Rather, everything in the context would bind the meaning of perish to its plain and primary sense. From the immediate context of the serpent in the wilderness (those who looked would not die- Numbers 21:9), to the wider context of a spiritual birth versus a fleshly one, Christ’s transparent words appeal to commonly understood realities. “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?... We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen” (John 3:10, 11).    

And, again, perish is the obvious opposite of everlasting life.

There is no exclusivity argument. In other words, it can’t be said that the wording of John 3:16 is unique or isolated and requires special treatment. “Shall not perish but have everlasting life” is in one accord with a multitude of texts that clearly contrast life that lasts with life that ends: 

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John 10:28)  

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 3:23)  

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11, 12).  

These are a few examples of many (we’ll examine them all in more detail).

So I believe John 3:16. That’s my heresy. And I don’t say it to be clever or cute. My experience has been that no defender of endless torment is willing (or able) to carry on the conflict on this battlefield. They retreat to more familiar territory of presumed proof texts. If I ask about John 3:16, they will quickly dart and dodge: “But what about…?”  

I’m always glad to engage the battle at whatever text they choose. And in writing this book diligent effort will be made to adequately and honestly address every relevant scripture. What about the rich man and Lazarus? Sure, let’s discuss it! What about everlasting punishment? Absolutely, let’s look at that! What about unquenchable fire, undying worms, ascending smoke, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Certainly! We’ll carefully consider each one.  

But before we do, what about John 3:16?