Hi Mike,
Joh 3:15 Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eonian life.
What does ‘should not perish’ mean? Isa 57:1 tells us even the righteous perish!
J____

Hi J____,
You ask:

Joh 3:15 Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eonian life.
What does “should not perish” mean? Isa 57:1 tells us even the righteous perish!”

This is typical of how the scriptures seem to contradict themselves in the eyes of the natural man. Unless and until we learn to always apply that principle of “the sum of thy word,” then God’s Words will always appear to be contradictory. They are designed to be so, to cause most people to be snared and to fall backward.

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Isa 28:9  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isa 28:11  For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Isa 28:12  To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

What “should not perish” really means is to die with no hope of resurrection. Christ Himself perished momentarily:

Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeeme r.
Isa 54:9  For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for [ as] I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

God had not really forsaken Christ, but He had really done so momentarily. It is mankind as a whole who is “not appointed to wrath” in the end, yet we will all “live by every word… of God… momentarily.”
As is always the case God will no more “be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee,” only after He has done so and we have lived by every word that proceeds out of His mouth, and we have ‘kept the things written therein… things present or things to come they are all ours’.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Rev 1:3  Blessed [ is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those  things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. [” all things” 1Co 3:21-22]

There is not one scriptural example of God rapturing his elect out of a trial until after they have already endured that trial. Not Enoch, not Elijah, no one will avoid living by every word that proceeds out of God.” God saves us through the trials which He brings upon us. We really do “live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth.” He even saves us “through death,” meaning ‘through’ perishing.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

I hope this helps you to see how we are to approach these is, was and will be words of God which will never pass away and will be kept by all of mankind.

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike