John 3: 16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Where in the world did God give his son? He gave him amongst the Jews. If God wanted that the world not perish, why did He not give his son among the gentiles who did not know of God at all? Why not give Jesus among the Greeks? Does the Bible have an explanation?
While it is true that Proverbs 3:5 says to trust in God with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding, Timothy 3:16 says that the Bible was breathed out by God for our training, correction, reproof and correction. But these things require that we be able to understand what the Bible is saying. So, if the Bible says that Jesus was born amongst the Jews, we may try to understand why he wasn’t born amongst the gentiles such as the Greeks or the non-Jewish Romans.
Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, TO THE JEW FIRST and also to the Greek.” God may have wanted that the world be saved, but He started with the Jews. That may be because the Jews’ belief in God, the belief of the People of the Book, had gone astray, with acts such as gambling and trade in God’s House of Worship on the Sabbath. Could the world be saved if God had started with the rest of the world first, by planting Jesus among the Greeks? I guess it would be ironic if the Greeks, who were not God’s chosen people, imparted to God’s chosen people a righteous way of believing in God.
But Romans 1:16 puts the salvation of God to the Jews first before anyone else. And many of Jesus’ disciples were Jewish who learned from Jesus the power of God for salvation, and Jesus in Mark 16:15-16 commands those disciples to spread God’s Word to the rest of the world.
But between then and now, many of the gentiles who were converted saw their duty as forcing their belief in God, among the Jews. And so, these gentiles persecuted the Jews and tried forcing them to convert to their understanding of God through Jesus. That sort of makes topsy-turvy the passage of Romans 1:16. It’s as if Romans 1:16 said, ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, TO THE GREEK FIRST and THEN to the JEW.’
But Romans 1:16 seems to imply that it is up to the Jew to accept God’s salvation through Jesus, not to the gentiles who became aware of God only comparatively recently. But the offspring of those who were newly converted didn’t see it that way, apparently. What motive would they have for persecuting the Jews? Did not Jesus say to love thy neighbor as thyself? Did not Jesus define a neighbor as someone who could help you? Is killing the Jews the Crusade’s way of ioving their neighbor? Are the Inquisitions of the offspring of the newly converted against the Jews their way of loving their neighbor? Is the anti-Semitism that is in the news lately the way of the offspring of the newly-converted of loving their neighbor?
And let’s be sure of Jesus command to his disciples in Mark 16:15-16. When he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, BUT WHOEVER DOES NOT BELIEVE WILL BE CONDEMNED,” did he mean that whoever does not believe, after receiving his teaching, should be tried for heresy, killed on sight, scorned, displaced, deprived, disenfranchised and ghettoized?
But what was Jesus teaching? He was teaching the Law that was given to the Jews. He says to the Jews in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
He also said that nobody goes to God except through him, but where do you draw the line between fulfilling God’s Law by loving your neighbor, and hating your neighbor contrary to God’s Law? Jesus also says in Matthew 5:44 to love your enemies. Even if the Jews were perceived as being the enemy, would it be Christian-like to not love them?
If God meant for the Jews to be the enemy, if such is the case, then why was Jesus born amongst them? God only knows.
While it is true that Proverbs 3:5 says to trust in God with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding, Timothy 3:16 says that the Bible was breathed out by God for our training, correction, reproof and correction. But these things require that we be able to understand what the Bible is saying. So, if the Bible says that Jesus was born amongst the Jews, we may try to understand why he wasn’t born amongst the gentiles such as the Greeks or the non-Jewish Romans.
Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, TO THE JEW FIRST and also to the Greek.” God may have wanted that the world be saved, but He started with the Jews. That may be because the Jews’ belief in God, the belief of the People of the Book, had gone astray, with acts such as gambling and trade in God’s House of Worship on the Sabbath. Could the world be saved if God had started with the rest of the world first, by planting Jesus among the Greeks? I guess it would be ironic if the Greeks, who were not God’s chosen people, imparted to God’s chosen people a righteous way of believing in God.
But Romans 1:16 puts the salvation of God to the Jews first before anyone else. And many of Jesus’ disciples were Jewish who learned from Jesus the power of God for salvation, and Jesus in Mark 16:15-16 commands those disciples to spread God’s Word to the rest of the world.
But between then and now, many of the gentiles who were converted saw their duty as forcing their belief in God, among the Jews. And so, these gentiles persecuted the Jews and tried forcing them to convert to their understanding of God through Jesus. That sort of makes topsy-turvy the passage of Romans 1:16. It’s as if Romans 1:16 said, ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, TO THE GREEK FIRST and THEN to the JEW.’
But Romans 1:16 seems to imply that it is up to the Jew to accept God’s salvation through Jesus, not to the gentiles who became aware of God only comparatively recently. But the offspring of those who were newly converted didn’t see it that way, apparently. What motive would they have for persecuting the Jews? Did not Jesus say to love thy neighbor as thyself? Did not Jesus define a neighbor as someone who could help you? Is killing the Jews the Crusade’s way of ioving their neighbor? Are the Inquisitions of the offspring of the newly converted against the Jews their way of loving their neighbor? Is the anti-Semitism that is in the news lately the way of the offspring of the newly-converted of loving their neighbor?
And let’s be sure of Jesus command to his disciples in Mark 16:15-16. When he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, BUT WHOEVER DOES NOT BELIEVE WILL BE CONDEMNED,” did he mean that whoever does not believe, after receiving his teaching, should be tried for heresy, killed on sight, scorned, displaced, deprived, disenfranchised and ghettoized?
But what was Jesus teaching? He was teaching the Law that was given to the Jews. He says to the Jews in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
He also said that nobody goes to God except through him, but where do you draw the line between fulfilling God’s Law by loving your neighbor, and hating your neighbor contrary to God’s Law? Jesus also says in Matthew 5:44 to love your enemies. Even if the Jews were perceived as being the enemy, would it be Christian-like to not love them?
If God meant for the Jews to be the enemy, if such is the case, then why was Jesus born amongst them? God only knows.
