Does 2 Peter 2's warning of false teachers describe Witness Lee?

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by Lisbon

At 83 I appreciate almost everything I read on this forum. I am not enough of a theologian to even understand all that is written but. My wife and I were raised for 30 years in the Assemblies of God and of course they are Armenian. We both switched to the other side somewhere along the way. Our teaching was such that you could be a believer for 40 years and just before the end someone throws a rotten banana in your face, you curse, and thereby go to hell. Believe me I have heard this sort of thing spoken. Where is the eternal life of John 3? If you live with the constant fear of either living a good life and going to heaven or being like most of us and certainly going to hell, what a living. On his death bed, David told Solomon to kill Joab. That has never set well with me, but the Lord quite clearly tells us he will make it.

Wow that is amazing you are 83 and still going strong and browsing this forum! God bless you! I've never grown up in Arminianism but I can see how it can be easily abused to judge people. I'm thankful that although my church adheres to this, they are a lot more loving then I am and discourage judging at all costs. But I lean towards Calvinism and 1 John is probably the strongest proof text for this.

Regarding John 3:16 the verb used for believe is in the present continuous tense so one has to remain in this "pisteuo" (which is better translated as trusting or committing oneself to Jesus). Many translations say "shall" or "would" not perish but have eternal life, but if you do a careful Greek word study the correct translation is "should" which would imply possibility.

So read in the Greek the verse would say something like "that whoever continually trusts and commits himself to Him should not perish but have eternal life". This reading is consistent with the later verse 36:

John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.