It's not nonsense and once again, the KJV renders this same verse as: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that "believeth not the Son" shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. The NIV says "rejects the Son" and the HCSB says, "refuses to believe in the Son." The Greek word translated as "believeth not" in that verse is apeitheo and it means: "not believe, disobedient, obey not, unbelieving." Strong’s definition of apeitheo is "to disbelieve willfully and perversely." In the context of 3:36, to "not obey the Son" means to reject the Son by refusing to believe in the Son. This is in harmony with (John 3:15,16,18,6:40,47; 11:25,26)
There is a difference between obey by choosing to believe in the Son and obedience/works which "follows" believing in the Son unto salvation. Obedience is a manifestation of belief and disobedience is a manifestation of unbelief. You seem determined to turn believing in the Son unto salvation into salvation by obedience/works which "follows" salvation. BTW those translations you cited back up my argument.
Some of them do.
I don't see anymore exactly what we're debating here.
We both believe God is to be obeyed.
So,,,
What if we don't obey Him?
Jesus said we should confess our sins.
John said we should confess our sins.
What sins exactly are we confessing?
We're confessing sins that demonstrate that we did not obey God.
If we have to confess those sins....it means we MUST OBEY God.
Otherwise, why are we confessing them?
I don't post ad infinitum. I do like to make my position very clear.
We're speaking here of believers....
Let's stay on John 3:36 for a moment....
I understand what you're saying about the unbelief part.
But why would John make such a statement if what he taught was that it's necessary to believe in Jesus for salvation?
John 3:18 he who believes not is ALREADY lost....
When we trust God we are faithful to Him and trust our very lives (eternal) to Him.
We agree with our mind that Jesus is God,
We willingly submit to His authority.
Our behavior must mirror our trust in Him.
So, faith and FAITHFULNESS are inseparable.
As the greek word UNBELIEF shows, the opposite of
faith is not just UNBELIEF, but DISOBEDIENCE.