Are the Gospels written specifically to Jews only?

If the disciples did not understand it, what is this gospel of the kingdom that they were preaching? Obviously it was not the forgiveness of sins through the cross.

The whole ministry of Jesus encapsulates numerous truths and must be taken in the whole IMV....He was not only the Son of Man, but also the Son of God, the Kings of kings, Lord of lords and the SON of David at the same time.....the problem comes when people like some on this site decided to pit the words of Jesus against the words of Paul......this leads to numerous errors, conflated gospels and false gospels.......Jesus was clear....he had many things to say, but the disciples were not yet ready to hear it or bear up under it....the words that PAUL speaks are the words of JESUS and those words flesh out the truths that JESUS began in his ministry.......this is what MANY deny, miss or fail to see.......John the Baptist prepared the material, JESUS organizes the material and lays the ground work and principles while PAUL finishes it off with the expanded, fleshed out line of truth......of course Peter, John, Jude, James focuses in on particular applications of the word...James to the Jews scattered, Jude to all concerning the common salvation open to all, Peter to both and John to both.......
The entire N.T. is taken as a whole to ALL.......It just so happens that JESUS being a JEW and of the line of David and tribe of Judah begins his ministry in Israel.........and then uses PAUL to expand that ministry from within Israel out to the Gentiles from Rome to Turkey......but note.....PAUL almost without exception started in the synagogues and then worked outwardly....BOTH JEWS and GENTILES included even though he was primarily sent unto the Gentiles....

The base message......the Kingdom of God is in you and this is how you enter the kingdom and these are the characteristics of the subjects of the kingdom and this is the reward for faithful service to the KING.....which happens to be both the KING of the JEWS and the KING of the world

If you and I trusted in the message the disciples were preaching before the cross, would we be saved eternally?

No offence, but that is a moot question.....1st Matthew thru John was written after the fact...so the message they preached was just as powerful the day they preached it as it was the day it was penned down...the power is in the message....2nd The O.T. saints speak of salvation in the present tense and fully understood the resurrection and eternal life <---Job for One........David for another

So.....what exactly is your point.......

I think it’s a fair question because obviously the gospel of the kingdom that they preached, for the Jews only, is not applicable today.

I don’t see any OT saint looking forward to the cross. Many, including David prophesied of that day, but had zero understanding. It was hid until from the whole world from the beginning until after the cross.

I think it’s a fair question because obviously the gospel of the kingdom that they preached, for the Jews only, is not applicable today.

I don’t see any OT saint looking forward to the cross. Many, including David prophesied of that day, but had zero understanding. It was hid until from the whole world from the beginning until after the cross.

If the disciples did not understand it, what is this gospel of the kingdom that they were preaching? Obviously it was not the forgiveness of sins through the cross.

Since he is not getting it, I think this is the answer that you want. Its worth stating it for the readers to realize.

Jeremiah 23:5 KJV

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.

This is the good news about the Gospel of the Kingdom, and its a prophecy for all Jews.
The Gentiles were of course excluded from any good news, until the Jewish Nation rejected it completely by stoning Stephen, as Paul explained in Ephesians 2 and 3.

Based on what has taken place when the Kingdom is mentioned and the failure to find a single answer to my question as to what people are looking forward to, the Gentile believers must be looking to heaven and not the Kingdom which is very sad .

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHA that is the most tragic things I have ever heard from one called a believer......Jesus must have been stupid when he told them to search the scriptures for they are they that testify of me......or maybe he did not understand that these things were hidden and no one could understand.....Abraham must have been stupid as well to tell the rich man that his 5 brothers had the word which could keep them from coming to the place of torment...or Moses lifting the brazen serpent or the institution of the passover or Job speaking of his redeemer living and Job knowing he would be resurrected and see him with his own eyes.......WOW man.............It is truly tragic that many believe what you said above........

There are over 100 O.T. prophecies concerning the persecution and crucifixion of JESUS such as the couple below......it is ignorant to say that these could not be seen by the men and women of faith that LOOKED forward to their MESSIAH......and before the N.T. was written and before JESUS even was born they fully understood being crucified which Rome had been doing for over 8 or 9 decades before Christ was crucified. Crucifixion was a WELL KNOWN method know to ALL in the Middle East LONG before ROME.....

Psalm 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Zecheriah 12:10 "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

NOTE: John 19:36-37 For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN."
And again another Scripture says, "THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED."

The history and pathology of crucifixion.

In antiquity crucifixion was considered one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death. Probably originating with the Assyrians and Babylonians, it was used systematically by the Persians in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great brought it from there to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century BC. It was virtually never used in pre-Hellenic Greece. The Romans perfected crucifion for 500 years until it was abolished by Constantine I in the 4th century AD. Crucifixion in Roman times was applied mostly to slaves, disgraced soldiers, Christians and foreigners--only very rarely to Roman citizens. Death, usually after 6 hours--4 days, was due to multifactorial pathology: after-effects of compulsory scourging and maiming, haemorrhage and dehydration causing hypovolaemic shock and pain, but the most important factor was progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement. Resultant anoxaemia exaggerated hypovolaemic shock. Death was probably commonly precipitated by cardiac arrest, caused by vasovagal reflexes, initiated inter alia by severe anoxaemia, severe pain, body blows and breaking of the large bones. The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHA that is the most tragic things I have ever heard from one called a believer......Jesus must have been stupid when he told them to search the scriptures for they are they that testify of me......or maybe he did not understand that these things were hidden and no one could understand.....Abraham must have been stupid as well to tell the rich man that his 5 brothers had the word which could keep them from coming to the place of torment...or Moses lifting the brazen serpent or the institution of the passover or Job speaking of his redeemer living and Job knowing he would be resurrected and see him with his own eyes.......WOW man.............It is truly tragic that many believe what you said above........

There are over 100 O.T. prophecies concerning the persecution and crucifixion of JESUS such as the couple below......it is ignorant to say that these could not be seen by the men and women of faith that LOOKED forward to their MESSIAH......and before the N.T. was written and before JESUS even was born they fully understood being crucified which Rome had been doing for over 8 or 9 decades before Christ was crucified. Crucifixion was a WELL KNOWN method know to ALL in the Middle East LONG before ROME.....

Psalm 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Zecheriah 12:10 "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

NOTE: John 19:36-37 For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN."
And again another Scripture says, "THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED."

The history and pathology of crucifixion.

In antiquity crucifixion was considered one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death. Probably originating with the Assyrians and Babylonians, it was used systematically by the Persians in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great brought it from there to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century BC. It was virtually never used in pre-Hellenic Greece. The Romans perfected crucifion for 500 years until it was abolished by Constantine I in the 4th century AD. Crucifixion in Roman times was applied mostly to slaves, disgraced soldiers, Christians and foreigners--only very rarely to Roman citizens. Death, usually after 6 hours--4 days, was due to multifactorial pathology: after-effects of compulsory scourging and maiming, haemorrhage and dehydration causing hypovolaemic shock and pain, but the most important factor was progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement. Resultant anoxaemia exaggerated hypovolaemic shock. Death was probably commonly precipitated by cardiac arrest, caused by vasovagal reflexes, initiated inter alia by severe anoxaemia, severe pain, body blows and breaking of the large bones. The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHA that is the most tragic things I have ever heard from one called a believer......Jesus must have been stupid when he told them to search the scriptures for they are they that testify of me......or maybe he did not understand that these things were hidden and no one could understand.....Abraham must have been stupid as well to tell the rich man that his 5 brothers had the word which could keep them from coming to the place of torment...or Moses lifting the brazen serpent or the institution of the passover or Job speaking of his redeemer living and Job knowing he would be resurrected and see him with his own eyes.......WOW man.............It is truly tragic that many believe what you said above........

1 Peter 1
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Peter is telling us that the OT prophets prophesied about NT salvation and grace, but they did not understand it. That's why they "inquired and searched diligently."

Since the Church Age itself was not revealed to them, the OT prophets often saw the first and second advents right together. Notice they testified of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. They did not see the gap in between. It was hid.

Clarence Larkin used the illustration: It's like a man viewing two mountains, a smaller one toward him and a taller one further off, along a line. From his perspective, the two mountains are one mountain with two peaks. Unless views from the side, one could never know that they were two separate mountains with a valley between them.

I will answer all three by the above...and you proved my point with your quote in the bolded.....so.....I can logically deduce the following fro your stance...

a. No one was saved in the O.T.
b. You believe in two gospels of salvation...one for the O.T. saints and one for the N.T. saints

Thanks....I will go with the fact that JESUS said the O.T. testified of HIM, the 100 prophecies concerning the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus which pointed to the cross, the fact there is but one message of salvation, and the fact there were saved men and women in the O.T. that looked forward to the suffering messiah and the coming of the anointed one and shed blood.........

Saved? What do you mean saved? Where they sealed by the Holy Spirit and made a new creature in Christ? Where they redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? Where they part of Christ's body? Where they born again? Where they spiritually circumcised from the flesh? where they sinless? Where they part of the bride? Where they absent from the body and present with the Lord upon death?

Nope!

If they received salvation the way you and I enjoy it today, there would have been no such thing as Abraham's bosom to hold them. If they were new creatures in Christ and part of His body, redeemed by the blood, and made sinless, they would have gone right into the presence of the Father upon death.

Please hear me, I only believe in one way unto eternal salvation and that's through the blood of Jesus Christ applied to one's life for sins through believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The OT saints had to live by their own individual faith. We have the faith of Jesus Christ. Christ's faith was not available to them for it had not come yet. Galatians 3.

So the question about 2 means of salvation should not be a topic.

HAHHAHAHAHH another fallacy..............saved is saved and David speaks of it in the present tense.....

O.T. saints looked forward to the cross in faith ---->Suffering Messiah JESUS identified as the one <---N.T. saints look back.....

Man you have a lot to relearn if you do no believe the O.T. saints were not saved/Justified by faith.....!

The answer is in John 8:46

Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?

The yardstick for holiness in Jesus' day was the law of Moses. He was not guilty of any sin because He kept the Law perfectly.

So this verse ^ is in Luke 16:16.

John the Baptist is said to be dead in Luke 9:9.

I'm trying to ascertain your points, here.

Oh, and remember what I'd put about Jesus and His being "a Prophet like unto Moses" in His earthly ministry (BEFORE His death, Acts 3:22[26])… meaning, "a Prophet" indeed came after JtB, right?



Are you suggesting that Melchisedec was baptized in water? (just trying to figure out what you mean exactly)

No, this doesn't mean that Jesus and His disciples had already been freed from the Law. When the Lord says "it was written ..., but I say"
He is expounding the Law, not making it obsolete.