John 3:16

One of the most popular bible verses that's slapped on car bumper and even totted into spotting events is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

My first problem with this overused, illogical statement is that there is no reason for God to make any form of sacrifice in order to pay for the sins of humankind. Who is he making this sacrifice to? Who's forgiveness is he seeking? To whom does the death that is the wage of sin get paid? He's making this sacrifice to himself, and if you actually think about it for 2 minutes rather than swallowing a story whole and ignoring any plot holes, you must arrive at the conclusion of how illogical this is.

John 3:16



The second problem is the emphasis of this alleged sacrifice both on the part of God and the part of his son. Why is it so special that Jesus was God's only begotten son? Does got have low sperm count, or a narrow eurethra or something? Couldn't he have as many sons as he wants? Not to mention that I'd be a wealthy man if I got a dollar every time a religious person told me we're all god's children. Besides, God's apparent son ended up in heaven for eternity with his father- how is that giving his son? If anything the passage should say he lent his only begotten son for three days, and had him returned with a couple of holes his appendages. If I GIVE you my lawnmower, then take it back three days latter and never even let you see it again, is it fair for me to say that I love you so much that I gave you my only lawnmower?

From Jesus' perspective, this isn't a sacrifice either because he didn't really give up his life. He left a planet full of people who hated him, physically abused him, and misunderstood him to spend eternity in paradise. Mind you, I'm humoring the existence of God and Jesus here. Now if you believe a man named Jesus did exist but wasn't God in human form or the son of God at all, but believed he was and actually died but never came back, that would be more of a real sacrifice than if Jesus really was the son of God. Granted, the sacrifice wouldn't do anything for anyone, but at least it would be real.

Christians talk about this sacrifice as if we were standing in the street and the wages of our sin were Mac truck barreling towards us, and he pushed us out of the way accepting death on his own. Now that would be heroic for a person to do. What if after a guy pushed you out of the way of a truck and died himself instead you learned more about that guy? What if you learned that he could have made the truck disappear, or stop it with a remote control, alert the driver, or make the truck never exist in the first place? Then would it still be a brave and noble sacrifice for that man to chose the one method of stopping the truck that required him to die a brutal and bloody death? I'd say that would make the man suicidal, and if he knew he'd spend eternity in bliss afterwards I wouldn't blame him for seizing the quickest excuse to die.

The word "him" in the last part of this verse must refer to Jesus because the H isn't capitalized. Therefore, it can't refer to God, because apparently God's so important that you even capitalize the first letters of pronouns referring to "Him." It claims that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It's a good thing it says "should," rather than would or will, because every Jesus believer I know is every bit as mortal as the rest of us. Millions of Christians throughout history have in fact perished and died. Ohhhh you mean the kind of everlasting life that happens AFTER you life stops lasting... Oh, okay. Well it's a very nice sentiment that because an impotent God who lent us his only son for a few days all we have to do is believe in him and we'll live forever - after we die.