by jimwalton » Sat Dec 22, 2018 9:58 am
Your case fails on many points. An examination:
You start with Isaiah 2.3. It's a prophetic reference to the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2.1-12). The same God who confused the languages at Babel (Gn. 11.1-9), at Pentecost He loosened tongues so that everyone could hear it in their own language. The word of the Lord went out from Jerusalem in its first stage of fulfillment of the Great Commission (Mt. 28.19-20). This Gospel came from the Jewish disciples of Jesus in Jerusalem in Israel.
> Any salvation message MUST come from ISRAEL
I have no problems with anything you said here.
> The Gospel came from OUTSIDE Israel... Invented by the nations
Here's where your problems lie.
> Jesus did not write down because he was not given any message (Mat 5:17)
We have the spoken word of Jesus. It is not necessary to have written it down to be an authentic message. It was an oral-rhetorical culture, and often the spoken message was considered more authoritative than the written word. Jesus's words were only written later for posterity.
Matthew 5.17 says NOTHING about that Jesus was not given any message. It says that he didn't come to erase what had been already given, but rather to fulfill it. The Gospels are replete with quotations of Jesus claiming he HAD been given a message (Jn. 8.28; 10.18; 12.49-50. et al.).
> Luke confessed that his Gospel was NOT from God (Luke 1:1-3)
He does no such thing. He never says his Gospel was not from God, i.e., there is no such confession. His investigation and careful research don't omit God as the source (2 Peter 1.21; 2 Tim. 3.16). These people aren't channelers, writing in a trance. They use their brains and their skills, and the Holy Spirit is at work in them. He puts his account in the same category as the others who have written Scripture (Lk. 1.1-3).
> Peter warned against Paul's confusing teachings.... (2 Peter 3:16)
Ironically, you are distorting this verse. Peter was not issuing a warning of any kind. Peter had been writing about the second coming of Christ, and he bolsters his case by claiming that Paul had written the same stuff. Paul wrote about them just as Peter was. People such as the Thessalonians had taken Paul's teachings and distorted them, just as Hymenaeus and Philetus did about the resurrection (2 Tim. 2.17). There is also evidence that Paul’s teaching about grace were twisted to mean moral laxity (Gal. 3.10; Rom. 3.20, 28; 5.20). Peter isn't warning against Paul's confusing teachings. He's saying that ignorant and unstable people distort what these inspired teachers and writings were saying. And, by the way, in doing so Peter is putting Paul's epistles on the same plane with the OT (which were also misused and distorted, Mt. 5.21-44; 15.3-6; 19.3-10) ) as God-breathed (2 Tim. 3.16).
People distort the Bible to their own destruction, Peter says. That's the warning.
> The Gospel contradicts the New Covenant of God (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
On the contrary, the gospel is perceived as a fulfillment of Jer. 31.31-34 in Heb. 8.8-12; 10.16-18; Eph. 2.12-13; Gal. 5.18. The blood of Christ assures the validity of the new divine order prophesied by Jeremiah (Mk. 14.24; 1 Pet. 1.2; Col. 1.14; Eph. 1.7; Heb. 9.12; 10.19).
In other words, the gospel didn't come from outside Israel, but from the God of Abraham through Jesus through his Jewish disciples through Jewish Paul. It started in Jerusalem (the crucifixion, resurrection, and Day of Pentecost) and spread from there. It was recorded by almost exclusively Jewish writers (Luke is an exception, but he got his material from interviews with the eyewitnesses, so there is a Jewish source). Nothing came from outside Israel, and nothing was "invented by the nations."
Last bumped by Anonymous on Sat Dec 22, 2018 9:58 am.