The Nugget:
Joh 17:3 Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent. (TPT, The Passion Translation)
My Comment:
One of the most misread verses in the Bible is John 17:3.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (KJV)
Joh 17:3 Now eternal life means knowing you as the only true God and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ. (Williams NT)
Jesus in His prayer to His Father, in asserting that the Father is the only true God, does not exclude Himself from or deny His own deity!
To argue that Jesus does just that is to fail to read John 17:3 in its immediate, near, related, and remote contexts. This denial of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is not the subject of this prayer!
To argue that Jesus attributes Deity to His Father exclusively and alone is a logical misreading of John 17:3 for this text does not apply the word “only” to the Father but to God.
Jesus is AFFIRMING that the Father is the only true God but Jesus is not excluding Himself from the category of true deity.
Notice that the word “ONLY” is mistakenly and illogically understood to apply to the FATHER. But nowhere in this text is the word ONLY applied to the word Father so as to say “ONLY the Father is the true God.” Therefore, to so understand John 17:3 to state this falsehood is clearly a mistaken reading of this text, and this argument is thus utterly refuted.
Pingback: Addressing John 17:3 to Refute Anti-Trinitarians | Real Bible Study