Posted by Ray Kidder on 10/4/2009, 3:03 pm, in reply to "Re: Luke 17:20-21"
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Searcher,
You wrote:
"We are no longer blessed with faithful Abraham. We are no longer partakers of the promise made to Abraham. (Gen 12:1-3) We are no longer wild olive branches grafted in to the olive tree. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ as found in Eph 1:3. The one hope of His calling for us today has NOTHING to do with the kingdom promised SINCE the world began in Matthew 25:34. The kingdom of God as found in the gospels and throughout Acts has to do specifically with the promises made to the chosen nation of Israel."
For this to be true, this passage from Galatians 3 (NKJV) has to be false now; right?:
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Back in Galatians 1 (NKJV), we read of how the gospel cannot be changed during St. Paul's lifetime, nor in the lifetimes of the members of the churches in Galatia:
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
In Galatians 5 (NKJV), it implies that at least some of the original readers of the Galtian churches were gentile Christians:
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
If these people were Jewish, they would have already been circumcised.
St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, which was a fuller explanation of the gospel that he preached, characterizes both Adam and Abraham as examples of the Christian life. If Christianity were intended for Jews only, why did God chose the head of all humanity to show the way of the Christian life? Since Adam was the prototype man, it makes sense that the life this first man lived represents God's plan for all men; kind of how the life the prototype dog lived represents God's plan for all dogs.
Ray Kidder
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