The Baptist and Jesus were only NEW voices calling for change in Israel. Ranging from confirmed ascetics, to armed revolutionaries, to ceremonialists wedded to tradition, other groups had long been pleading their cause as the means to an improved religious life. The Gospel duo had that characteristic common to them, but one appeal absent from every other group: they insisted that national repentance before God preceded any positive visitation from God.
Consider some of the strong men offering an interpretation of God’s Kingdom. For example, the Pharisees spent 3½ years violently attacking nearly anything Jesus said, did or claimed. They never stopped assuming their priority as authentic interpreters of Moses THROUGH the TRADITIONS built by centuries of rabbinical thought and speculation. That included the sanctity of the Sabbath. For example, the Judaizers held fanatically to their anti-Christian teaching even after becoming disciples. The priests of Acts 6:7 may have led in their mindless crusade. They were Christianized Jews committed to keeping Christianity merely as a sect of Judaism. They demanded circumcision for all Gentile males before being baptized, in essence making them first converts to Moses, then to Jesus. Since Paul championed freedom from Mosaic statutes for Gentiles, the Judaizers continually attacked the integrity of his apostolate. Paul replied with a blunt, harsh, incisive flint-knife slicing of their pretensions. He called them “dogs, men who do evil, mutilators of the flesh” Philippians 3:2. They were “alienated from Christ;...fallen away from grace” Galatians 5:4. “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves” Galatians 5:12. Such violent invective from an apostle-prophet proved necessary in defending Christian freedom against anyone seeking to imprison “faith through grace.” Laymen also proved they could be forceful. Well-intentioned as they were, and excited into delirium by Christ’s feeding of 5,000 men, they aspired to compel Jesus to be their King John 6:14-15. The Twelve had, with THEM, become intoxicated by the miracle...with only Jesus sensing its toxicity to his purpose. The Essenes, men of no religious violence, and Zealots, armed revolutionaries favoring it, also existed in Jewish society. The Essenes, by their withdrawal from society, disappeared when Titus’ legions demolished the Temple in AD 70. The Zealots, armed themselves, and seeking to thrust swords into every upraised Jewish hand, found themselves captives in the Roman/Jewish War AD 66-70 and sold into slavery for trifling amounts. The Pharisees appealed to TRADITION. The Judaizers to CIRCUMCISION. The Essenes to SEPARATION. The Zealots to WAR. Even John to LAW. Only Jesus made LOVE the distinguishing factor of his appeal. As a result, out of all those strong appeals, ONLY ONE prevailed: Christianity. For out of all those strong men, ONLY GOD-in-the-Flesh existed: Jesus the Christ who LOVED the world SO much he gave his life to forgive our sins. End Part XII
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