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NASB | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
Bible Question:
Searcher, Thanks for your response... Sorry if I'm looking too much into it, or making this difficult.. So one can continue to be a Catholic believing in the virgin Mary, confessing your sins to the priest, or continue to be a Jehovah's Witness, believing Jesus is just the greatest man, or that the Holy Spirit is just a force, and still be saved? As long as the person has a relationship with Christ, that's all they need for salvation? |
Bible Answer: No not at all. The belief in Christ must be of the God-man, the true Son of God, Who wrought salvation for us on the cross and Who is the only one who saves. You cannot be a genuine JW and be saved. But you must recognise that not all who belong to the JWs actually fully understand what they teach. Indeed it has changed through the decades. Thus a practising JW may believe in his heart that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God without recognising that strictly he is going against JW teaching. The same is true of Roman Catholics (although I would not parallel the two as RCs believe in the full divinity of Christ. Large number of Roman Catholics today do not strictly hold the teaching of their church. It is doubtful if they know it, and in fact what is taught depends on what part of the world they live in. Auricular confession is not necessary, but it is not a gross sin as long as the person looks to Christ and not to the church for forgiveness. Belief in the Virgin can vary over a wide range of ideas. The question is as to where their real trust is laid, is it in Christ or is it in the Virgin. The one saves, the other doesn't. So God looks at the heart. He knows who is truly believing in Christ for salvation. But once you are aware that the teaching of your church is false you should leave it. It is not OK to be involved in what you know to be false teaching |