{"id":3925,"date":"2024-02-01T14:18:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T19:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=3925"},"modified":"2024-02-01T14:18:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T19:18:18","slug":"more-on-john-173","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=3925","title":{"rendered":"More on John 17:3"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>


\nThe Text:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joh 17:3\u00a0 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.<\/p>\n

The Challenge:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christians always run away from John 17:3 when Jesus says the only true God is the Father and he is the Christ that was sent by the Father. and run to John 17:5. They say us Muslims cherry pick one verse. But let’s put things in its context because Jesus is praying and in John 17:1, 2 and 3 Jesus is saying God give me the glory that i had with you. In John 17:5, what is Jesus praying for\"\u2753\ufe0f\"<\/span>\u00a0first and foremost, if Jesus was Almighty God, did he lose his glory\"\u2753\ufe0f\"<\/span><\/p>\n

My Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You totally misunderstand John 17:3.<\/p>\n

(1) you refuse to take John 17:3 in its immediate, near, remote and total Bible context. Therefore, you do not understand this verse and your claims as to what it says or teaches are false.<\/p>\n

(2) you misread John 17:3 by failing to take into account just what the word “only” must have reference to:<\/p>\n

Joh 17:3\u00a0 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.<\/p>\n

Indeed, \u201conly\u201d modifies \u201cGod that really exists\u201d or \u201cGod there is,\u201d and not \u201cyou.\u201d Therefore, the two phrases\u2014\u201cYou [Father], the only true God\u201d and \u201cOnly you [Father], the true God\u201d\u2014do not have the same meaning.<\/p>\n

Shelenberger, A. T. (2009). An Exposition of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 Argument in Rejecting Christ\u2019s Deity Using John 17:3. Christian Apologetics Journal, 8(2), 7.<\/p>\n

The whole article by A. T. Shelenberger provides a thorough refutation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ mistaken understanding of John 17:3 and in doing so also refutes the Muslim misunderstanding of this New Testament text.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the article Shelenberger states:<\/p>\n

The hidden equivocation becomes evident when the phrase \u201cthe one [Father] \u2018who alone [is] truly God\u2019\u201d is converted to the sentence \u201cthe Father alone [or only the Father] is truly God.\u201d The Watchtower had, in effect, made a radical change in the wording. As if the two sentences have similar meaning, the word order basically went from \u201cthe Father is the only true God\u201d to \u201conly the Father is the true God.\u201d But, in fact, they do not mean the same.<\/p>\n

Shelenberger, A. T. (2009). An Exposition of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 Argument in Rejecting Christ\u2019s Deity Using John 17:3. Christian Apologetics Journal, 8(2), 6.<\/p>\n

Before that, Shelenberger states:<\/p>\n

One contention the Watchtower propounds is that, according to John 17:3, only the Father is the true God. This entails the argument: since Christ places the Father in the category \u201ctrue God,\u201d it must mean that he does not place himself in it; and only the Father belongs in the category. This argument, however, commits three informal fallacies.<\/p>\n

Shelenberger, A. T. (2009). An Exposition of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 Argument in Rejecting Christ\u2019s Deity Using John 17:3. Christian Apologetics Journal, 8(2), 5.<\/p>\n

When the text of John 17:3 is read carefully, it is clear that Jesus does not exclude Himself so as to deny His own Deity when He speaks of “the only true God.”<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Text: Joh 17:3\u00a0 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. The Challenge: Christians always run away from John 17:3 when Jesus says the only true … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695,160,885],"tags":[5943,5941,5942],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics-issues-other-faiths","category-doctrinal-discussions","category-false-religions","tag-jehovahs-witnesses-and-muslims-misunderstand-john-173","tag-more-on-john-173","tag-shelenberger-article-on-john-173-cited"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}