QUOTE=Light;2816068]Not true. Many religions existed before Christianity. Hinduism is the oldest religion. 5000 years before Christ. There was of of course Judiasm before Christianity and Buddhism was 500 years before Christianity. So what did you want all these people who felt a want to worship God to do back then? Wait for Christ? They'd be dead by the time he came. So it doesn't mean they hate Jesus or Christianity. They had their own path as people do today. [/quote]
Don't forget: That at the judgment of mankind at the Tower of Babel, God set aside the nations temporarily because he wanted to call but one Nation to himself. And He did just that through Abraham. You might recall that that nation was called Israel.
W created the religion of Judaism? You said once that God isn't religious. Remember saying that? And then I asked you if was Jesus religious, and you never answered.
All the Old Testament saints were like Abraham: They
believed God and He reckoned their faith unto them as righteousness. And in believing God, they believed in the many promises of a coming Redeemer who would save men from their sins. So...the OT saints looked forward to the coming of the Messiah; whereas on this side of the Cross, the NT saints look back to the fulfilled promises of the Messiah, most especially his death, burial and resurrection, and they also look forward to the consummation of this age when all things will be restored, including our dead bodies, which all happens at the Second Coming.
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I was talking about our time not 2000 years ago. Of course back then Jesus was a revolutionary but today no one hates him that I hear of.
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Everyone who doesn't love God and keep his commandments hates Him and his Son.
Yes back then, not today.[/QUOTE]
You put on a limit on it, but Jesus didn't. In fact, do you know that I Jesus' high priestly prayer to his Father shortly before he went to the Cross that he distinctly omitted the world from his prayer. He prayed specifically for the disciples contemporary with him AND for all those who would come to believe on Him both through their preaching and the preaching of future generations.
In other words, he prayed strictly for the Father's elect. He prayed for all those who presently believed in hm and who could come to believe on him after he died and rose again. Don't you find it a wee bit curious that your "best friend" didn't pray for the world that hated him? Jesus is supposed to love all unconditionally and indiscriminately, right?
But please save me from the drivel that I know is already in your mind. No need to remind me about Jesus's prayer on the Cross for the [many] Jews who crucified him. The Father began answering that prayer at Pentecost when thousands repented of their sins and believed on him. Very many of these were the ones who cried out previously: "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" But it was only the elect in this group who eventually repented and came to their senses.
And you should get in touch with Church History. The most persecuted people on this earth, throughout all these centuries, have been Christians, and we're still hated to this day! Jesus told his disciples, and by extension all future generations of disciples, that they would be hated by the world because the world hated him first. And it still does. The world, like YOU, hates the exclusive claims of Jesus, as but one example. They hate his claims to being the Great I AM. They hate his claim to be equal with the Father. They hate his preaching on hell. They hate his claim that He's the only way to the Father. The world hates his claim to having all authority on Heaven and Earth, given to him by the Father. They hate his claim that one day he will return from heaven to judge the entire world,, etc., etc. And YOU do, too! And mostly, they HATE his testimony that the worlds' deeds are evil! And you are no different from this hell-bound world!
John 15:18
18
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
NIV
And this truth is even taught in the OT long before Christ came:
Ps 2:1-3
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the LORD
and against his Anointed One.
3 "Let us break their chains," they say,
"and throw off their fetters."
NIV
Do you know who the Lord's "Anointed One" is? In v. 3 it speaks of THEIR chains and THEIR fetters. So...tell me, who is the Lord and his Anointed One?
And then we have the grand doctrine of
Reconciliation taught in the NT. Do you really think that that doctrine only applied to first century Jews?
This doctrine applies to the end of this age because mankind comes into this world with hostility in their dark hearts toward their Creator. In fact, this doctrine is illustrated immediately after the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, for God reconciled Eve to Himself by decreeing that enmity would exist between her and the serpent (Satan). By God explicitly decreeing that enmity, He implied that he graciously removed the enmity between the woman and Himself which she caused when she sinned against Him. It's impossible for a person to be enemies with Good (God) and Evil (the devil) at the same time. One either loves one and hates the other.
Jesus declared that all men ARE evil. Not just the Jews. All men, throughout all ages, come into this world with a sinful nature. It's in man's nature to hate God and His Anointed One. And this hatred can be expressed in a multitude of ways.
So, no, you skirted the real issue in 8726 in which I quoted Jn 14:21. After all, we know the world does not keep Jesus' commandments. And Jesus clearly taught in this text that only the ones who keep his commands are those who love him. This implies that the world does NOT love Christ.
Further, Jesus went on to say that only those who love Him will be loved by the Father and Himself. Therefore, the haters of God and his Anointed One are in turn hated by God! And this is precisely why Jesus didn't pray for the world at large in John 17. He only prayed for the Father's elect.
