Christology and Preterism Part 2

Is there any suggestion in the Apostolic preaching & letters that the Jewish race would suffer for many generations in punishment for rejecting their Messiah? The commandment refers to 3 - 4 generations:

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.​

Peter reassures the Jews that what they did in ignorance will be forgiven on repentance. He does warn the Jews concerning the danger of not hearing the "Prophet" & 5,000 believed! Acts 3:17-26, Acts 4:4 He goes on to tell the Sanhedrin of salvation by the name of Jesus.

The threats & warnings were to encourage repentance, & many thousands did repent. The Church comprised believing Jews from all round the Roman Empire. God calls believers "my people." As the Gospel spread Gentiles responded & they too became "my people" regardless of race. Zec. 2:11 quoted in 2 Cor. 6:16

Zec. 2:10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”​

 

Yep,

Have you not got Romans 11 in your Bible?

 

Establishing credentials to show the educational authority when addressing a matter such as John is doing is right and proper.

It allows for the readers to know that the poster (in this case John of Japan) is not just regurgitating some view or something from another person. But is using source material and documentation.

He is a professor of higher learning, and what he demands of students he must also demonstrate.

 

Depends on the topic they are addressing.

If they are trying to preach a sermon on the Scriptures, I would listen, sift what is said, glean as gold that which was Scripturally solid and trash everything else.

If they were respected in the field of study, I would e compare how the views were alike and how they were different. I would take that which was agreeable with Scriptures and present that as truth, but that which departed from Scripture I would declare reasons why I could not support that thinking.

I have debated more than once the merits of OT prophecy and the messiah being the Christ with Jews and their teachers. Most listened and were willing to continue to share.

It helped to be non-confrontational and using (as did Christ) their own statements against them.

Admittedly, the most ignorant are those who in their education have placed political standing and authority upon the attainment of degrees.

The beginning of wisdom is to know God, both by virtue, by knowledge, by ... (1 Peter 1:5-7).

Education is good, and good education is better, but in my own experience with students, the best education was found in that struggling student who worked both physically and mentally to achieve the degree.

The hard working student usually built character, and practical experience that the student became not merely able to account for educational knowledge but one who knew how to stick to a responsibility until it was completed and God honoring.

That student had a resource of daily answers to earnest prayer and had first hand experience with what is meant by total reliance upon God, that others just did not experience. So, though possessing a degree, they were not truly nearly as educated.

 

Um, no, that's not how it went down.

 

I have not boasted on this thread, unless you believe that simply giving one's qualifications is boasting. If you believe that, you had better never give anyone a resume for a new job, or you would be boasting.

 

It is impossible to completely interpret the NT without the Greek, so your statement is a non sequitur.

 

Speaking of "race" -

On another site, I'm in discussion with a gang that says today's Jews are not really Jews, but are Ashkenazi or Mongols. I believe that's quite absurd, given that people's undisputable, well-documented history since 70 AD. No other distinct people in history has endured such abuse & persecution as the Jews have, and still remained a distinct people.

preterists just cannot accept the fact that their perception of Jesus' words was wrong, & that the eschatological events Jesus prophesied have simply not yet happened, and preterism is incorrect.

 

So, how do you justify keeping the "generation" translation when the prophesied events did NOT occur during that generation?

 

Well, that generation DID pass without those things occurring, and, as Jesus is always 100% correct, it must be YOUR perception of His words that's incorrect.

 

Go back and read it. I was very clear.

Yes you were. If you weren't, you really need to think and post more carefully.

I fully admit that I discussed the wrong Greek word. That does not change the facts of the passage. I'm going to discuss genea in another post.

I have yet to persuade you of a single thing that I know of, so this does not surprise me.

 

Okay, I openly admit that I made a mistake on Matt. 24:34, thinking without checking that the word there translated "generation" was the Greek genos, but it's really a synonym, genea.

Here is the definition of genea from the above-mentioned Gingrich's lexicon (leaving out all the references): "clan, race kind; perh. nation. Generation, contemporaries. Age, period of time. Perh. family or origin" (p. 41). Other lexicons have a very similar entry. Also, as with genos, there is a much wider range of meaning than the English "generation," putting to the lie the idea that the Greek doesn't help us in Matt. 24:34. It actually expands the need for interpretation.

I was surprised to see, contrary to what I thought (and may have posted here), that genea has the meaning of "race." So really, it is quite all right to translate it in Matt. 24:34 as "race" rather than "generation." It has a more subtle nuance: all of those born to an original ancestor. So the nuance here is that the "race" in the verse is specifically Jews, who were descended from Jacob, rather than other Mid-easterners.