The Most Misquoted Verse In The Bible

How many times have you heard these words from a pulpit; " Jesus said if ye die in your sins, where I am, there ye cannot come"?  Speaking from personal experience, I can assuredly say that I have heard this " Bible verse " all my life as I have sat in different congregations.  It is a well known "Scripture", and if you were to ask anyone who has listened to preaching for any length of time, they will tell you that they have heard this verse all their church-going life.  This " verse " is so commonplace that it is universally accepted as " God's Word "  without question.  Since this " Bible verse  " is quoted so often by so many people one would think that any Bible student would be able to " flip right to It ".  If you expected this  verse  to be quickly found  by those who quote It you would be waiting a long time because the verse does not exist.  No one who advocates this " verse of Scripture " can show you where it is in the Bible.  The Scripture that this " misquoted verse " is derived from is found in John 8:21 and reads as follows; "I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come ".  Here's a logical question; why is a verse of God's Word so often misquoted? It is obvious that the actual verse reads nothing like the misquoted verse, so why has this error continued to be accepted as Truth throughout recent Church history?  I believe the answer is twofold. 1. Most Christians will not take the time to study the Bible to see whether " these things be so "( Acts 17:11 ), and will accept whatever is preached from the pulpit as truth and 2. losing Salvation apologists prefer the convenience that the misquoted verse adds to their doctrine as opposed to simply accepting the Scripture as written.  When you look at this passage of Scripture " in context " you will find that It does not end at verse 21 the way the misquoted verse does.  Those that thunder this verse from a pulpit leave the audience hanging with the words " if ye die in your sins ", and the listeners are then expected to conclude that " dying in your sins means  " dying with unconfessed and un-repented -of sins in your life".  The intended message of this misquoted Scripture would then be " Jesus said that if you die with sin in your life you do not get to go where He is because you have now become lost "  Was this the message that Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the writer of this passage of Scripture, John, intended to convey?  Let's let the Bible answer this question for us , instead of handed-down traditions of men.  We have already seen John 8:21 as it actually appears in Scripture without being misquoted, so let's look at the other Scripture, the one that is never mentioned from the pulpit, John 8:24, and see what It actually says.  Here is the verse as It appears; " I said therefore unto you , that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins ". If we rightly divide the Word of Truth here (2Tim. 2:15) we will properly identify to whom Jesus was speaking. These people were Pharisees, people who were religious, pious, abounding in works.  If anybody was going to heaven, they were.  They were certainly not the kind of people losing Salvation apologists have in mind when they misquote this Scripture such as drunkards, adulterers, whoremongers, liars, etc. When we look at verse 24 along with verse 21 ( in context ), we find that Jesus Himself actually tells us here what causes a person, good or bad,( in this case good), to " die in your sins ".  It is unbelief.  Jesus  says that dying without believing in Him as Savior is what causes you to die in your sins.  Jesus does not leave the audience or the minister to " make up your own mind " about what dying in your sins means.  He plainly tells us here.  Here is the proper interpretation of John 8:21-24; Jesus told good, religious people that "had no sin", that they would " die in their sins ".  Why, or for what reason, would they die in their sins?  Because they died with sin in their life?  No.  Because they died without accepting Him as their Savior.  It's time for us to conclude what the Bible rightly divided concludes, even if it means checking to see if the preacher man is preaching it the way he ought to ( we can hold Him to God's Word also ).  It's time for those who claim to be Christians to stop being lazy and start studying the Scriptures for ourselves and see if what has been handed down from the pulpit and tradition " be so " (Acts 17:11 ).  If we don't do these things  we are destined to continue to believe and teach errors such as this.
Soteria  Dia Christos Sola!