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Part 7 of 7.
(3) Gentiles were not required, but had the privilege of, joining the Hebrew family via the proselytization process (cf. Acts 2:10; 13:16). Additionally, there were many instructions in Moses' law designed to benefit the "strangers" (Gentiles) who came among Israelite people ( Leviticus 19:33ff).
(4) The Lord sent Jonah to the Gentiles of Nineveh ( Jonah 3:1). Archer said that the theme of the book of Jonah "is that God's mercy and compassion extend even to the heathen nations on condition of their repentance" (1964, 295). Jonah is sometimes called "the first apostle to the Gentiles."
(5) Four Gentile women were woven into the genealogical fabric of the Messiah-Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba-in both legal and biological senses ( Matthew 1:5-6; Luke 3:31-32).
(6) In addition, the prophets clearly revealed Jehovah's redemptive concern for the Gentiles, who were to be grafted into the New Testament church on an equal basis with the Jews ( Genesis 17:4; 22:18; Psalms 2:8; Isaiah 42:1, 6; 49:6; cf. Romans 11:1ff; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:11ff).
Conclusion
There always has been a way for honest people to be right with their Creator-if they seek after him and choose to please him ( Acts 17:27ff). God so loved the entire world and gave his Son as a potential redeeming sacrifice for all who avail themselves of his gift ( John 3:16). He is the loving benefactor to everyone who submits to his will in faithful obedience ( 1 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 5:8-9; cf. 2 Peter 3:9).
Article by Wayne Jackson.
I share this information for one to go over. I haven't had the time to do no more than glance over the beginning being I'm out town on business again.
Hopefully some others can share on this great question you asked.
God bless.
Part 6.
EVIDENCE OF DIVINE CONCERN FOR THE GENTILES. Continued.
(1) The practice of offering sacrifices as atonement, typically foreshadowing the coming of Jesus, apparently was a human requirement from the very commencement of history. Abel, son of Adam and Eve, brought the "firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof" ( Genesis 4:4). The offering must have been killed, otherwise he could not have presented the fat, which was the best part. Moreover, we are told that "righteous Abel" (so designated by Jesus [ Matthew 23:35]) offered his sacrifice "by faith" ( Hebrews 11:4), which, in the overall context of this chapter, clearly is an objective faith grounded in revelation, and not that which was subjectively whimsical.
When Noah departed from the ark after the waters of the flood subsided, he built an altar and offered sacrifices of every clean animal and bird, and Jehovah was pleased with his offering ( Genesis 8:20-21). What compelled him to do such?
Melchizedek, whom Abraham encountered on his return from the rescue of his nephew, was designated by Moses as a "priest of God Most High" ( Genesis 14:18). A priest is an appointed servant who officiates in the offering of sacrifices to atone for sin. The modernistic notion that Melchizedek was merely the "high god" priest of the Canaanites (e.g., Baal), worshipped in pre-Israelite Jerusalem, is absurd (Hicks 1962, 343). God would hardly have chosen a Baal-worshipper to be a type, prophetically previewing his Son ( Hebrews 7:3). See also Leupold (1942, 463).
(2) The entire world population was one in kind prior to the call of Abraham. He was the first to be designated a Hebrew ( Genesis 14:13). The Hebrews were not set apart as a distinct people until the giving of the law of Moses ( Exodus 19:5-6; cf. Ephesians 2:14). It is wholly unrealistic not to recognize that God's love for the Gentiles was a part of the ancient world.
See Part 7 of 7!
Part 5.
Incidentally, Hume conceded that there is no rational excuse for the worship of many gods.
Were men led into the apprehension of invisible intelligent power by contemplation of Nature, they could never possibly entertain any conception but of one single Being, who bestowed existence and order on this vast machine and adjusted all its parts to one regular system (quoted by Monser 1961, 494).
This speaks to the issue of the Gentile idolatry described in the context of Romans 1:20ff.
Professor Alan Johnson, a respected biblical scholar, tells of a missionary in northern Brazil who once observed a native enter his village. He was extremely nervous and fidgety, and his brow was covered with sweat. He seemed quite uneasy, even in the presence of his friends. Later, it was discovered that he had just killed a man from another tribe-although it was not considered wrong to kill a member of some other tribe, and he would not have been condemned by his peers. The man obviously was under the internal pressure of a guilty conscience (1976, 44; emphasis added).
The conscience is a part of the human package, and it demonstrates a moral chasm between men and women and other biological creatures of our planet ( Genesis 1:26-27).
EVIDENCE OF DIVINE CONCERN FOR THE GENTILES.
Though the Old Testament story is mainly the story of the Hebrews' role in God's wonderful plan for human redemption, there are numerous glimpses in the sacred literature of the early history of divine interest in, and provisions for, Gentile salvation.
See Part 6.
Part 4.
All rational human beings do have an intrinsic sense (a conscious awareness) that there is right and wrong. It is not perfectly defined in nature; that requires revelation. Nevertheless it is there, and it is universal. C. S. Lewis, one-time professor at Cambridge, wrote:
If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own (1960, 19; emphasis added).
Even more significant perhaps was the testimony of David Hume, the notoriously skeptical Scottish philosopher who was so militant against Christianity. In his volume, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (published in 1749), he stated: It is universally acknowledged that there is a great uniformity among the actions of men, in all nations and ages, and that human nature remains still the same, in its principles and operations. The same motives always produce the same actions; the same events follow from the same causes. Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit; these passions, mixed in various degrees, and distributed through society, have been, from the beginning of the world, and still are, the source of all the actions and enterprises which have ever been observed among mankind. Would you know the sentiments, inclinations, and course of life of the Greeks and Romans? Study well the temper and actions of the French and English; you cannot be much mistaken in transferring to the former most of the observations which you have made with regard to the latter. Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature (1910, 37.VIII.I).
See Part 5.
Part 3.
(3) There is a fundamental fact of human history. Humanity was created in the image of God ( Genesis 1:26-27). This does not have reference to the physical features of humankind, for God is not physical ( Matthew 16:17; John 4:24; Luke 24:39); rather, as noted above, it alludes to intangible qualities that were created resident in the spirit of the person. This aspect of human personality is what Paul called conscience. The English word derives from the Greek term, syneidesis, a compound term signifying "to know together." It reflects a common knowledge that human beings share with one another of a sense of religious and moral culpability.
As one scholar noted: "According to Romans 2:14-15 conscience is innate and universal. It is not the product of environment, training, habit, race impression, or education, though it is influenced by all these factors" (Rehwinkel 1999, 136). The ancient Gentiles, therefore, were not judged by the same rule as the Jews, but they were not void of law and culpability. Elsewhere the matterhas been described in this way:
[T]he threefold workings of the law, in that the guidance of their heart predisposes them to know the right, the testimony of their conscience bears witness with their heart that the right is preferable, and lastly, after the deed is done, their thoughts or inward reasonings accuse or excuse them according as their act has been wrong or right. These well-known psychological phenomena, observable among the Gentiles, are proof conclusive that they are not without law, with its power and privilege of justification (McGarvey and Pendleton n.d., 313).
See part 4.
Part 2.
The Inward Law
The ancient Gentiles were not judged by the same rule as the Jews due to the fact that the Hebrews had a written revelation from God (the law of Moses, and eventually the completed body of the Old Testament Scriptures), while the other nations did not; the Gentiles, therefore, were evaluated by a more general standard than the Jews. Paul wrote:
Romans 2:14-16.
From this text, as well as supplementary data, the following facts can be deduced:
(1) While the Gentiles did not have a written law (e.g., the law of Moses) certainly on occasions they had communications from Jehovah (cf. Genesis 3:9; 4:6; 6:13ff; 12:1ff, etc.), and divine traditions surely were echoed across the centuries.
(2) There is something "written within the heart," i.e., in the human psyche, that "by nature" (physis) urges one to do what he perceives to be right and refrain from what he feels to be wrong. It has been defined as the "natural sense of what is right and wrong" (Thayer 1958, 661). This moral sense cannot minutely define right and wrong, but it can initiate some broad and strong inclinations.
This certainly is evidenced by the fact that Adam and Eve felt guilt after having eaten the forbidden fruit, even before confronted by God ( Genesis 3:7-10). "Condemned by their own consciences, they were ashamed and afraid to meet their benefactor and friend-an inevitable consequence of sin" (Campbell 1958, 32).
"There is no witness so terrible-no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us" (Sophocles). "Man's conscience is the oracle of God" (Lord Byron).
See Part 3.
That is a great question!!
Here's a portion of an article from Wayne Jackson.
Part 1 of ?
Gentile Accountability
That the ancient Gentile world was religiously and morally culpable before the Creator is most obvious from the testimony of both Old and New Testaments. In literature of the Old Testament, the idolatry of the pagans is condemned repeatedly, and judgments from God were visited upon these peoples.
(1) Gentile idolatry is condemned as sin by the prophets of God (see Exodus 20:3-5; 32:35; Numbers 25:1-9; Deuteronomy 5:7-9; 6:4, etc.). The captivity of the southern kingdom of Judah was attributed directly to the worship of the false gods of the Gentiles ( 2 Kings 22:17). For an extensive array of information on this theme, see Helmbold 2003, 697-708.
(2) Gentile immorality was exposed and rebuked by the Old Testament writers. For example, in Amos 1:3 - 2:3, the prophet denounced Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, and Edom for their brutality toward their neighbors. The Ammonites "ripped open pregnant women" in their vicious conquests, etc. See also the extensive material presentation of judgments against the heathen nations contemporary with the prophet Jeremiah (chapters 46-51).
(3) In his epistle to the Christians in Rome, Paul describes the religious-moral conditions of the Roman world.
Romans 1:24-27.
From these facts, therefore, one may conclude: (1) Sin is a transgression of divine law ( 1 John 3:4); conversely, where there is no law, there is no sin ( Romans 4:15). (2) But the Gentiles were indicted as sinners. (3) Consequently, they were amenable to a law, and they had violated that law. That their actions were designated as sin likewise implies that they were under divine law.
See part 2.
Also how many scriptures say to be Baptized In Jesus' Name? Water Baptism.
Thank you and I appreciate your help.
Of the Gospel, for it is the power of
God unto salvation to believe in Him
and fully trust in Him !
To God be the glory - Amen!
Have a most blessed day !
Q. Before Jesus came to earth and died for us on Calvary, the Jewish people lived under the law and did sacrifices and offerings and thus was looking to the Cross: what did the Gentiles do. If i remember correctly, Paul brought the message of Salvation to the Gentiles, but before this how were Gentiles Saved
43 When the unclean spirit (demon) is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house (you) from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
What it means in verse 44, is that we have not filled up our house (our spirit and soul) with enough Bible and, on-our-knees prayer, to frighten the demons into fleeing and staying away.
FAMILIAR SPIRITS are like family spies. They watch you and your family, looking for ways to come back in. They deprive you of restful sleep; fears you're failing, fear travels with "torments",
Doubt and painful memories.
You have to close the door. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the gift of Discerning of Spirits. You're not going to see anything. But God is faithful to His Word. If you discern trouble, speak: "I bind you evil spirit and I cast you into outer darkness. Do not return. In the NAME of Jesus Christ. Amen. Praise to the name of Jesus!" Ask God for an Angel to guard your home for a season. The angels will escort evil spirits out! God watches over His Word. Study the Chapter in the Bible, when Jesus was on the 40 day Fast. How did he defeat Satans temptations? What did Jesus say? A command + a scripture.
Furnish your "house" (you on the inside), with the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit for his gift of discerning of spirits. (human, God, evil spirits)
Angels like praise music :) Listen to more music than the drone of a tv. My friend Carman died last year; listen to some of his tunes on YouTube, like Revival in the Land. He was a radical Christian. I'll pray for you. Mishael
I'd like to add some of what I believe. God is love , but not at the expense of His Holiness, or His Justice or righteousness .
That why He sent Jesus as the Christ to meet His standards of Holiness , righteousness, Justice , under the law , He fulfilled the law that we all broke and we violated Gods Holiness , righteousness, and Justice. Which separates us from God .
For God so loved the world that He sent His Son
I'm sure there is so much more that could be said
Water baptism is not mandatory. It is an act of obedience, worship, a deep desire to leave a sinful past and feel clean. Some people need that and want it.
It is solely Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Jesus knows what we need.
It is not anyone else's business to say, do it this way or else you're not saved properly.
1 Peter
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Jesus shed his blood on the Cross for all human beings that would receive Him.
My testimony is like Paul's. I wasn't looking for Jesus. He came to me in my home. I saw Him. I heard 2 Timothy 3:5 like thunder. I was shown the death penalty for practicing astrology. I saw hell, I saw an invisible outstretched Hand, and I took it. All I knew was that I deserved death.
I woke up the next day, conscious of Someone telling me what to do. I cleaned house of anything He said that was occult. Two days later, I had a bonfire in my trash can. Acts 19:19. The Holy Spirit has never left me. He tells me daily about Jesus, what scriptures mean. It's been 36 years of trust, love, praise and worship for my Father and my Lord Jesus. His blood has saved my life many times. Jesus wrote my name in the book of Life before I even knew of it.
God does things how He chooses to bring us into the Kingdom. He gave me the Holy Spirit who has taught me everything I know. I don't have a library of books. Just a Strongs. Life is sweet. People come to God the easiest way possible. Softly or Rough like me. I know how much Paul loved his life despite the bad parts. It's the Blessed Hope of the moment we lay eyes on Jesus again. Tell people of the Love, not legalism. Love put Him on the Cross to shed His blood to give us His Life.
Thank you for this opportunity to send prayer requests to this email address.
Nevertheless, I was devistated to eventually read the response I received from a lady who responded to my request.
Firstly, our friend Deline who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last week.
The response prayer prayed for... Hemp treatment that failed and that the Lord must help her to overcome the treatment....Not true.. No mention of this treatment, she only starts with Chemo this week!
Secondly it looked like a copy and past prayer response and the responder did not check or evaluate the situation correctly.
I was flabbergasted as well as disappointed when I read the email and could not believe the contents of the response email to my heartfelt request, if you know what I mean.
Prayer to me is the most powerful weapon we have to fight any situation, with the Lord on our side.
The prayer warriors should be filled with the Holy Spirit, to seek discerment when they form part of a belong prayer group as they support us with honesty and being upright
Even that could reflect through the email, which was missing as I read the response. It felt like a AI type of email.... I expected more than this...
Surely, as you know, every request is a special assignment and should be handled with the utmost respect, compassion and empathy individually.
Thank you for your time.
I pray that the Lord will anoint your prayer warriors so that they can pray in the Spirit and visualize every request submitted for support with love as well as compassion with the Requester.
May God bless you.
Love in Christ
Sandy Knevitt South Africa
Again, whether metaphorical or literal, things were becoming dangerous. We can at least assume that Jesus does not call us to total pacifism at all costs. In a moment they would point out that they had two swords already. This tells us that a) Jesus had not prohibited them from carrying swords up to then, and b) When Jesus said, "That's enough" ( Luke 22:38) it shows that he is not expecting them to go to literal war against the Romans or the Jews, but could be an exasperated statement, although it doesn't always get interpreted and read that way.
Mishael: I think Jesus was saying, you don't have enough swords to fight everybody off as he went forward to fulfill his Ministry on earth.
Some could say to us, I'm dying. We say and do things to not allow that to happen: exploratory medicine, best surgeon, best hospital etc.
We all, do not think of death the same ways. We should pray and ask, if we can do that.
You mentioned that you are bothered by people taking the Translations too literally & that by doing so, we're imposing our wills upon people. Actually, we do have to take the Bible literally (where the text demands a literal view), or else we can make it mean anything we want to. In regards to Bethlehem, in Matthew 2:1, "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea" & then confirmed in v5, "In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet..."
In these verses, it is confirmed that the Bethlehem spoken of is in Judea. Therefore, it couldn't be Nazareth or near it, which is in Galilee. Now if the problem is that an archaeologist has stated that this reference to Bethlehem is simply one of convenience so as to fulfil prophecy, then he has to come up with some very good evidence why his belief is correct. So if a preacher, even one from the C of C preaches about Bethlehem being in Judea, I have the Scriptures to verify that, unlike anyone else that wants to tell me otherwise, who gives no substantial proof. I don't see that the preacher is forcing anything upon anyone - we all have the Scriptures & we can search them to verify the message. A preacher will soon be found out if his messages are inconsistent with the Bible.
There is limited value in studying those apocryphal books you mentioned, even the Quran (which I've studied as part of ministry). Unless one has the fully trustworthy Scriptures to compare to, we might be inclined to believe anything we want, & we will never know how far we have detoured from the Truth. Some believe that all religions lead to God or if one has 'faith', then that is all that is required. Unfortunately, those roads lead to destruction of the soul, & have no part in God's Message of Love shown in the sacrifice of His Son. The road is narrow - much narrower than what we would like to believe.