Quote:
Originally Posted by crakjak
I don't agree with much the JH has to say, however how do you explain Mark 4:10-13 in light of your above post?
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10When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12so that,
" 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'[a]"
13Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?
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Mark 4:12 Isaiah 6:9,10 |
Mark 4 and
Matthew 13 both cover the same parables of the kingdom and quote from
Isaiah 6. In
Matthew 13 when asked why He spoke in parables, Jesus said, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given." The "you" to whom Jesus spoke were all Jews. The Gospel was to start in Jerusalem and then go into the whole world. Paul said that the Gospel was to the Jew first and also for the Greek" (
Rom 1:16). Whenever Paul went to a new place to preach he went to a synagogue if there was one and preached there first. The message of Jesus is for all but was offered to His own people first. The Apostle John said that Jesus was in the world and the world was made by Him but the world knew Him not. He also states that Jesus came unto His own and His own received Him not (
John 1:10-11). Jesus realized that not all His people would accept Him, that's why He quoted the passage from Isaiah chapter 6. God foreknew who would accept and who would reject. Now Israel as a nation is cut off and Gentiles who believe are grafted in. Some Jews are accepting Jesus/Yeshua as Christ/Messiah but some day there will be a great turning to Jesus among the Jewish people. 144,000 will be sealed with His name in their foreheads (
Rev 7:1-8, 14:15, Zech chapters 12-14).
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