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Old 06-11-2009, 12:43 PM
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tonybones2112 tonybones2112 is offline
 
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Originally Posted by Fredoheaven View Post
Sir, been thinking about the following verses:
John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Is the word "world" included the Gentiles? so that if they believe in Christ they shall not perish but everlasting life?

Thanks for the inspring study bro. George. I need to learn more...
Fred, the advantage we have for understanding this is we are looking back on these events. The disadvantage is not rightly dividing the Scriptures by putting Paul's message as the authoritative one. When we do, we see that as Paul said in Eph. 3 and Romans 11, that the Gentiles had no access to God or salvation without blessing Israel and obtaining proselyte status. Only through Israel and her rise would the Gentiles receive reconciliation with God. Many make the erroneous assumption and doctrinal error that Cornelius in Acts 10 is the pattern for "Gentile salvation". Cornelius was a Gentile proselyte to Judaism. The gospel message given to Paul of Eph. 2 had not been given to Peter or any of the other apostles.

So if we see Romans 11, Eph. 2 and 3, we see that the present Church, the age of Grace, is a parentheses in the five Commissions given to the 12 apostles. "The world" is the calling out of Jews worldwide, as the 144,000 will do in Revelation and would have taken place back then, because only through a risen israel could the gentiles receive anything. Today, "but now", salvation is available to all through the gospel of Christ crucified apart from israel, becasue she fell and has been set aside.

If we set the following verse, one of the most misquoted and misinterpreted Scriptures in the Bible, into it's correct context and can see Acts 2 as the beginning of what is following in this verse, it becomes easy to understand just what Christ meant when He spoke of "the world" and to whom the message would go to:

Joh 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Acts 2 was the beginning of this with the Jews from all over the world first coming to Jerusalem. George has put a lot of work into this and I'm interested in his study but I've already "rightly divided" the book of Acts:

Acts 1-7: "The Five Great Commissions"
Acts 8-15: "The Great Commission Of Paul(Acts 9:15), The Grafting Of The Mystery Body Into The Olive Tree"
Acts 16-28: "To The Jew First And Also The Greek"

If you understand and believe Paul primarily, we see the 12 knowing nothing of the revelation of the mystery of Eph. 3 until given to them by Paul in Acts 15, thus their message up to that timeand beyond was to Jews and Gentile proselytes.

Grace and peace brother

Tony