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In John 3:16-17, God, The Heavenly Father shares in a nutshell His "Gospel". Gospel is the English translation of the Greek meaning "Good News". The Good News is that about Jesus' gift to every person on earth and His coming to live in His Followers in the person of God the Holy Spirit! Jesus is the English translation used for God the Son's original Hebrew name, Yeshua. GaryFPatton (gfp '42™ 2011-09-08)

The King James Version (KJV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and other modern translations of the Christian Bible use the older English word "begotten" in this verse. Begotten, the progressive tense of the verb "begat" would be better translated in all Bible versions as "one and only". Begotten in the context of this verse does NOT mean procreation by sexual intercourse as it does when referring to humans and animals. The latter is what the Islamic Qur'an argues in Surah 23:89-91. Because of the Islamic teaching about the meaning of begat, I like "The Message (MSG)" paraphrase of the Greek for "one and only" at http://diigo.com/0n225 . There the writer uses "one of a kind". I feel that "one of a kind" in lieu of "one and only" is a more modern and still accurate expression. It also is clearer in confirming the "oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit", the plurality within the Oneness of God. This is what Christians call "The Trinity of God" although that expression is not used in the Bible. God, obviously, does not have sex with humans. And no Christian believes that He does. A so-called, Christian contemporary of the Muslim Prophet, Muhammad, may have improperly explained the Gospel ("Good News") of Yeshua /Jesus to him. History documents that some of those calling themselves Christians in Arabia in the 7th Century were NOT truly Followers of Jesus. They had a poor understanding of the Christian Scriptures as nominal believers ...like some so-called Muslims, then and now. The cult to which some of these belonged and with whom Muhammad may have had contact or received reports about also believed that Jesus had sex with Mary, a Follower of His. These nominal Christians were really pagans with an incomplete understanding of what followership of Jesus entailed. If Muhammad had not received this misinformation about what Christians believed, He would not have recorded Qur'an 5:116, 6:101, 19:35, 19:88-91, 23:88-89 nor similar passages that deny Jesus

The King James translation of the Christian Bible was the one my Mom used most of her life. This passage was read at her funeral by my Friend, Adele van Caulart. It was one of Ina Donelda Patton's favoutites. My Mom also was called Donnie by my Dad and members of our extended family, as she had been as a child by her 8 siblings. Mom's Friends and catering business colleagues usually called her Donna.

This is God's eternal promise to those who trust in Him and His plan by following Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus). He died a sacrificial death as God Immanuel (God with us) to pay the full penalty for the sinful nature and sins of everyone who believes that Jesus' death on the cross, not our "good works", gives us the salvation we all need. Our sin and sins separates us from a relationship with God (Romans 3:23 & 6:23). Only Jesus' death can reconcile us with our heavenly Father for eternity the Bibles says clearly in John 14:1-6 & 22-27 at http://diigo.com/0pfky .

God has a plan for you. He came to earth in flesh and bones and lived a sinless life as Jesus. As ordained, He bled and died on a torture instrument for you. He then, rose from His grave to save all those who'll believe and follow Him from their sin nature and sins plus. At the same time, He also gives them an abundant, new and eternal life plus peace ...regardless of what they've done It's not too late. It's never too late. It's never too late for you! His plan is gonna be wild. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be full of Him ...because God a plan just for you! It says so in His love letter to you, the Bible, in this passage and in Romans 10:8-12 at http://diigo.com/0lk6j . The door to new life in Jesus is always available for those who don't know Him personally ...in fact Jesus is there knocking right now. He also says that in His love letter to you at http://diigo.com/0lk60 .

Yeshua (Jesus) Followers work hard for God! But, they do so moment to moment only after Holy Spirit draws them into relationship with Jesus and they choose to follow Him. They do their "good works" to glorify God out of thankful love for the salvation that He already has given them because of His loving grace and mercy (unmerited favour). And they do this only as he lives his life out through them as Jesus said in John 15:5 at http://diigo.com/0jvfh . Good works done otherwise i.e., in "the flesh" (pre-salvation habitual leanings), have NO value.

You guys NEVER ever did that ...right? gfp (2011-10-04)

Might it not have been more understandable for his readers for this academic to have simply said: "When you have a really difficult problem ...go to sleep!" Or: "Take a shower!" The latter usually works best for me. And to enhance the former, I keep a pad & pen on my bed-side table so I can jot down a quickie reminder, without really waking up, because I seldom can rember my brialliant idea in the morning? What do you do? gfp (2011-10-04)