I have recently encountered a new form of spamming on Facebook business pages. People from SEO companies in India “Like” your pages and post a link on your company pages. I just had 2 posts in two days.
Facebook logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since Google has recently started demoting link farms and SEO linkings that are manufactured, I am wondering if this tactic is an attempt to avoid that Google algorithm. If it doesn’t help me, I guess I should report them a s spam….
We were told that faxing would not be possible in 10.7.4, because PPC and 32bit is no longer supported, but I found an easy solution. I had purchased a ZOOM 56K V.92 USB #3095 External Modem (Windows, Mac, & Linux) while still using Snow Leopard. I needed to fax something today, and I read that perhaps USB modems will still work. It does. Here is the procedure. Go to File>Print and then choose Fax PDF from the dialog box:
Then this dialog box will appear and you can use your address book or type in a number and add a cover sheet if you wish:
You cannot seem to print from Adobe’s Print dialog interface, so if you wish to print a PDF file, you will need to open the document with Preview and not with Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Harold R. Eberle (Author), Martin Trench (Author), Paul Jones (Illustrator)
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” Matthew 24:1-3, RSV.
Victorious Eschatology is a profound book which challenges the popular belief in Dispensational Theology, most typified in the Left Behind series of books: a great apostasy will take place in the Church, in Israel the Temple will be rebuilt, Israel will be granted a temporary peace by the Anti-Christ for 3.5 years, a Great Tribulation will follow for another 3.5 years, before which the believers will be “raptured” out of this world, and then Jesus will return at the end of this 7 year period to establish a millennial kingdom. This popular theology of the end times is informed primarily by the Dispensational interpretation of the book of Daniel and Jesus’ discourse in Matthew 24 (and parallel passages in Mark and Luke).
Victorious Eschatology makes the case that Dispensationalism has misinterpreted these passages and gives a very credible alternate explanation of Daniel’s prophesy and of Jesus’ discourse in Matthew 24. The authors argue that Dispensationalists have misunderstood the chronology of Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question in Matthew 24:3. They argue that Jesus’ prediction of the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. is separate from his prediction of the final judgment, which begins in verse 35. Everything leading up to verse 35, including the references to the Great Tribulation, have to do with the judgment on Jerusalem which took place in “this generation,” or approximately 40 years after his crucifixion.
I believe the most profound and simple example of their reasoning is in response to the disciples’ question about “when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming…?” When the disciples asked this question, first of all, they did not believe Jesus was going to be crucified, nor did they believe he was going to be raised from the dead (Mark 9:31-32). They could not have been asking about his Second Coming, because they didn’t know anything about it. They believed, like all good Jews of that time, that the Messiah would be a king like David, who would come and rule in Jerusalem, and kick the Romans out of Israel. Instead, they were asking, “when are you going to come into your kingdom and rule in Jerusalem.”
Jesus’ response is that they should look for signs, especially that
when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; Matthew 24:15, 16, RSV.
The authors point out the parallel passage in Luke reveals that the desolating sacrilege is not an anti-Christ sitting on the Holy Seat in the Temple, but the armies of Rome:
when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it; Luke 21:20, 21, RSV.
Repent! Jesus is coming soon (Photo credit: Ben Sutherland)
Obviously, this sign happened in 70 A.D. followed by the complete destruction of Jerusalem, with a great tribulation wherein the starvation was so rampant that the citizens resorted to cannibalism and over 1 million Jews either starved to death or were killed by the Roman army.
The final point the authors make is that none of the signs Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24: 1-34 need to take place in order for his Second Coming. From verse 35 on into the next chapter, Jesus emphasizes that his coming will be “in an hour you do not expect.” In the next section, they point out how perfectly Daniel’s prophesy of the 70 weeks of years is fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming and crucifixion. The prediction is so perfect that it seems to come in the exact year the Lord predicted through Daniel.
These first two sections make a very convincing argument and should be studied as a mandatory corrective to a Dispensational fear of the future. But my praise for the book ends at that point. There are three issues where I think the book becomes very questionable at best and illogical at worst.
The first issue is their theological view that everything is going to get better until Jesus comes to take over the world: that the expansion of his kingdom by the conversion of the nations is inevitable and that the history of Christian expansion is one long story of the advance of Jesus’ millennial reign. My problem with this theological retrospective is that they cherry-pick their history to show how things are improving. For some reason, the last century, where more were martyred than in all the history of Christendom combined, and where over 100 million were murdered by genocidal, atheist nations (including 6 million Jews in the Holocaust), is overlooked, while the advance of women’s rights and the end of slavery prove that Christ is conquering the nations. This facile interpretation of history reminds me of the “Social Gospel” movement of the early 20th Century that found its end in WWI, where the continuing depravity of humankind was on full display in the mass destruction of the Great War. My point is that human nature has not changed and the advance of Christianity is by no means measurable in the transformation of world governments and society as a whole.
My second issue is their unconvincing interpretation of Revelation. While David Chilton, makes an excellent argument for Revelation being a Covenant lawsuit against Israel for its rejection of the Messiah in his book Days of Vengeance, many of the arguments the authors use in this section of the book are just weak. They make a few good points, and they point out that the 7 churches do not represent the 7 ages of the Church, but most of their arguments lack scholarly citations or scriptural backing.
Finally, they make a very weak argument about the Man of Lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians. The cumulative effects of the latter sections of the book leave me with a feeling of disappointment; that they tried to twist and fit everything into their predetermined understanding of a brighter tomorrow.
While I cannot go into the full detail here, I believe the authors’ eschatology fails because it does not deal adequately with the simultaneous growth of both good and evil (wheat and the tares) until the time of the end. Yes, Jesus will conquer, but the overcoming of evil will be a cataclysmic event and not one of gradual progress.
(from the book: Pardoned or Paroled?)
1] God Alone is Righteous and God alone is Good:
Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed, all who were incensed against him, (Isaiah 45:24, RSV).
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone,” (Luke 18:19, RSV).
2] We are not to look to ourselves for any good or righteousness, for none exists in us:
For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh, (Romans 7:18, RSV).
For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness, (Romans 10:3, RSV).
Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; (Philippians 3:8-9, RSV).
3] The only righteousness we have is Jesus Christ in us:
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord,” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, RSV).
4] We are saved, not because of any good deeds on our part, but through faith:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God-not because of works, lest any man should boast, (Ephesians 2:8-9, RSV).
So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, (2 Timothy 1:8-9, NIV).
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin, (Romans 3:19-20, NIV).
For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law, (Romans 3:28, RSV).
5] We are sanctified, made holy, not by good works, but also by that same faith, for Christ is not only God’s righteousness in us-he is also the One who is perfect in us:
“ …delivering you [Paul] from the people and from the Gentiles-to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me,” (Acts 26:17-18, RSV).
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain? – if it really is in vain. Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:1-5, RSV)
…Christ Jesus, whom God made our …sanctification, (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, RSV).
…in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, (Romans 8:4, RSV).
But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him, (Romans 8:9, RSV).
6] Sanctification then is not something we achieve, it is something that we receive. Sanctification is God’s work, for he is the One who makes us Holy:
Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy, (Leviticus 22:32, NIV).
You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the LORD; I sanctify you, (Leviticus 22:32, NRSV).
7] We grow in Christ’s likeness, not through good works, but through growing in our trust in Jesus and his all sufficient work for us. As we trust his work for us more completely and trust him in all things, we rest in him. As we rest in him by faith, he pours his nature into us:
Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee, (Isaiah 26:3, RSV).
So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience, (Hebrews 4:9-11, RSV).
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, (2 Corinthians 3:18, RSV).
8] As we grow in trust in him, our character becomes more like his, and good works are produced naturally, as an expression of our relationship to him. They are the byproduct of relationship, not the cause of it nor the means to gain relationship:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing, (John 15:4-5, RSV).
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification, (Romans 6:19, RSV).
9] As we walk in the knowledge of our own transgression and of our lack of worthiness based upon our good deeds, we will know that we have been saved only by God’s goodness, His mercy, and His Grace. Because of that knowledge of our unworthiness, we will be much less likely to judge others and much more likely to extend mercy, grace, and compassion, and in so doing, we will begin to express more completely the character of Christ and so become more like Jesus:
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven … (Luke 6:35-37, RSV).
Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins, (1 Peter 4:8, RSV).
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment, (James 2:13, RSV).
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, (Matthew 5:7, RSV).
10] Righteousness and sanctification come through relationship to the Father; not through our efforts. We are established in relationship by faith and trust in Jesus’ finished work on the Cross.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, (Romans 5:1-2, NIV).
However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness, (Romans 4:5, NIV).
11] Therefore, we can continually confess and face our actual sin, because we are free of the need to have any righteousness in ourselves.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us, (1 John 1:8-10, RSV).
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects, (James 5:16, RSV).
12] Our righteousness is Christ and He alone. He is our Sanctification, our Sanctifier! He is the Holy One who lives inside us. It is He that is holy within us, not our flesh. Our righteousness is not something we have independently from God, as if it were our character. Our righteousness is the Holy God who lives within us by His Spirit.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are, (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, RSV).
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body, (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, RSV).
Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, (2 Timothy 1:13-14, RSV).
Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed, all who were incensed against him, (Isaiah 45:24, RSV).
For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh, (Romans 7:18, RSV).
For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness, (Romans 10:3, RSV).
Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; (Philippians 3:8-9, RSV).
A Christian Philosophy of Life – Part 1
Sex, Love, Desire, and the Just Measure – Discovering the Purpose of Life and a Life in Balance
Introduction: The Love of Wisdom
In ancient Greece, the first schools of philosophy flourished. They were called academies, or colleges, and their goal was to prepare young people to lead the State by giving them instruction in morals and ethics, mathematics, dialectics [or logical reasoning], and the natural sciences. The crucial aspect of this education was not simply to gain knowledge but to build wisdom and character. A greedy, corrupt, and selfish person could not be a good leader of the State. Citizenship and virtue were requirements for a true education.
The schools established by Socrates and Plato were not started simply because they had a desire to know facts. Facts by themselves do not reveal ultimate meaning, nor do they reveal the purpose of life. Socrates, Plato’s teacher, was interested in discovering truth. The very meaning of the word philosophy is the “love of wisdom.” This pursuit of truth is not a dispassionate and disinterested inquiry into the nature of things. Philosophy is a journey of ultimate importance, a journey whose purpose is to discover the meaning of life – the ultimate meaning of all things – the reason “why.” No one can enter such a pursuit dispassionately and still be a genuine philosopher. You cannot treat casually that which matters most. To pursue wisdom is to consider the value of the most important things in all life.
It is a tragedy that most colleges today have no interest in truth, but a great investment in knowledge. Matters of ultimate importance are discarded as either fanciful opinions or unobtainable and unproven, or, worse, as irrelevant. The headlong rush to learn facts for the sake of career, jobs, and money makes a mockery of the original purpose of the academy. This method of education teaches the technology of how, but not the reason why. For you see, the only way you can come to a true knowledge of your subject matter is to know its purpose, its meaning, and its ultimate end. Why is a job important? Why are ethics important? Why should not one cheat his way to success? If death comes to all, what difference does it make how one lives? Will money satisfy all things in life, or is there an inner need in all for something more?,,,,
via A Christian Philosophy of Life – Part 1 | The Scholars Corner.
I thought about titling this article “Jesus is More Jewish Than You,” because most people don’t understand just how Jewish Jesus and the early church were. I just want to point out some things from history that may strike you.
Along with all the teachers of the Law of God, given to Moses, many of whom had their disciples, Jesus was a wandering rabbi who debated the interpretation of the Law with other rabbis. So, if we think about the debates between schools’ interpretations during First Century Judaism, there is nothing unusual here. Gamaliel is probably the most famous of the other rabbis of that period (Acts 5:34). Paul was a member of Gamaliel’s school.
Jews praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur. (1878 painting by Maurycy Gottlieb) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus never violated the Law. He never ate pork or shellfish or anything forbidden. He participated in the Passover and all other feasts in the Hebrew cycle. He tithed to the Temple. All his followers did the same. The disciples continued to worship at the Temple after Jesus’ crucifixion (Acts 2:46 – 5:25). The proof of just how Jewish Jesus was is written in Acts 10, which happens about 9 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, when Peter is given a vision of all kinds of animals, and told to “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter protests, saying:
“No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
It turns out this vision has nothing to do with breaking kosher laws, but it has to do with allowing Gentiles to become part of the Church. You see, up until that time, none of the Jewish believers considered Gentiles to be able to become part of their fellowship because they were NOT Jewish! So for 9 years after the death of Jesus, none of the believers considered themselves anything but Jewish and Kosher. Right after this vision, Peter is asked to come visit a devout Gentile named Cornelius, who gives alms to the Jewish people. Peter’s response is interesting. He says,
And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered; and he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me,” Acts 10:27-29
So here too, we see that there is nothing the disciples learned from Jesus that caused them to question the exclusiveness of their Jewish faith. Their Jesus was Jewish through and through. This expectation of this faith being only Jewish was so strong, that when Gentile believers started being admitted into the fellowship, there was a debate among them whether any of these Gentiles could be saved without being circumcised. (Acts 15). In the end, the Jewish leaders decided that what was happening was a fulfillment of Isaiah and the promise to Abraham, that in Abraham all the nations (peoples, tribes, Gentiles) would be blessed (Gen 18:18), and that Isaiah 49:6 says: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” And rather than impose upon them the whole kosher law system that was part of Israel’s special calling, the Gentiles were to follow the covenant of Noah (no murder, theft, etc.), to refrain from eating strangled meat, food offered to idols, blood, and to not engage in sexual immorality (Acts 15:20). In other words, the Gentiles could become part of the fellowship without having to become Jews. But even after that decision there were many disputes over whether Gentiles could be full members of this Jewish faith. Many of Paul’s letters were written in response to this controversy. But the fight was still among people like Peter and Paul (a rabbinical scholar) and other members of the Elders like James, Jesus’ brother.
So what got Jesus into so much trouble? Well look at the record of the prophets from Elijah to Malachai. Where is there a record of the Israelites obeying rather than resisting the prophets, or worse, having them killed? The prophets of Israel always confronted the people with their sins and declared the righteousness of God. Jeremiah said judgment was coming in defeat and exile, and he got thrown into prison. Samuel was ignored by the people who wanted a king instead. Elijah was persecuted by the king and queen, who wanted his head. Jesus was no different. Jesus attacked the hypocrisy of the ruling class, who were being religiously rigorous by tithing even from their herb gardens, but who had no qualms stealing homes from widows and orphans, (Matt 23:23, Mark 12:38-40).
Do you realize that when Jesus overturned the money changers’ tables in the Temple that he threatened the entire economic system of Jerusalem? There were an estimated 70,000 priests who depended upon the Temple as a business for their food and livelihood. When Jesus saw the corruption of this corporate, commercial enterprise taking place in the very precincts of the Temple, he was filled with rage, as any prophet would have been under the anointing of the Spirit of God. Jesus, was a very effective prophet against corporate interests that were using the money system to oppress the common people, turn the Lord’s house of prayer into a “den of theives” and he drove them out:
“So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” –Matthew 21:11-13
Just think if a prophet today could go in and kick out all of Congress, the regulators and their agencies, and the Federal Reserve. Who would be angry then? Politicians? Bankers? Lobbyists? How long do you think he’d be allowed to live? Well, in effect that is just what Jesus did when he kicked over the tables. The money went flying everywhere except into the hands of money traders and the priests.
Although born in Bethlehem in Judea, he lived his whole life in Galilee. Do you know that the word “Jew” actually means Judean or “person of Judea.” The New Testament is full of the words like “the Jews.” But you have to realize that all of Jesus’ first followers were Galileans. This was not a case of outsiders against Jews, or “Christians” against Jews. This was a case of Galilean Hebrews against Judean Hebrews. There was a huge dispute going on about the nature of the religious law. The Judeans considered the Galileans uncouth and uneducated hillbillies, kind of like the East & West Coast people may look on people from West Virginia. Well, Jesus’ Galileans saw a bunch of stuck up hypocrites that had no compassion on the poor or the broken; as legalists and sticklers for the Law but who had no mercy. And the Galileans were challenging the right and authority of the upper class Judeans, or the “Jews.”
So forget about all the anti-Semitism that appears to take place in the New Testament. All the fighting is between one set of Jews and another, and in the beginning, for years, the Judeans had the upper hand. The established political and religious heirarchy, which rejected Jesus’ prophetic call for reform and repentance, crucified him.
They got the Galileans (and Judeans who agreed with them) who believed Jesus was the promised Messiah, kicked out of synagogues, thrown into prison, beaten, stoned, and killed – not just in Jerusalem but in many parts of the Roman Empire. It is one thing to disagree with someone’s interpretation of the Law, but when you start killing them over it, you have much more than infighting, you have a real problem on your hands. But you have to remember, if anyone was hurt by this treatment and upset with the Judeans, it was their fellow Jews. The new synagogue of the Messiah members were upset with their brothers who were treating them so. And the New Testament is a record of that conflict. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the modern translations did not distinguish between Judean and non-Judean Jews with a better word.
Now here is the final prophecy of Jesus. Like Jeremiah, he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and a new exile for the rebellious remnant. And like Jeremiah, he also prophesied a restoration, which has come true 2000 years later!
Jesus, as prophet, accused the leaders of the children of Israel and those who followed them of Covenant Breaking, and he foretold of God’s Covenant Lawsuit against the rebellious house.
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, “and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Luke 19:41-46
“Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down,” Matthew 23:31-Matthew 24: 2 .
This prophecy came to pass in 70 A.D. when the Romans came and destroyed the city. But before his crucifixion, Jesus also prophesied a time of restoration that would come after the new exile:
“For this is the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,” Luke 21:22-24
Now 2000 years later, the Jerusalem is back in Israeli hands and the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. If you say, we didn’t do anything to deserve this exile, you haven’t read the prophets. Never did the people of God believe that they deserved correction or rebuke by God, yet Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Ezekiel, and many more prophesied the first exile. Was this prophet wrong for exposing the corruption and giving those words? It cost him his life to say so.
Just a note to say, if you want to understand what all the discussion and disagreement was about, the entire New Testament, except for Luke-Acts, was written by Jewish believers, arguing their rabbinical school’s case with other Jews, Hellenists (Jews from the Diaspora in the Empire who spoke Greek), and to explain Jewish history to gentile converts. Luke traveled with Paul and writes down Paul’s debates and encounters and conflicts with his fellow Jews in the Book of Acts. He also relates what he had not witnessed from the early days of the Jewish fellowship in Jerusalem. His Gospel was for a Gentile readership, but follows Matthew and Mark in style. However, if you want the deepest overview and insight into the debate, the Letter to the Hebrews is probably the best place to start. As nearly as we can figure it, it is possibly written by a Jew from the Alexandrian school, who is named Apollos. Written in high Greek (Attic) which was the language of the highly educated, but whose use in speech had died out about 330 B.C. Paul’s letters, by contrast, were written in common Greek (Koiné). Think of it as if, Hebrews was written in King James English, while Paul’s letters were written in American English.
