Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Islam critiqued exposes Jesus; he only liked Israeli sheep, not gentile goats.

In answer to the video "Answering Muslims: Jesus and the "Lost Sheep of Israel"


Matt28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
As a side note, before getting into the issue of who Jesus' ministry was directed at, this verse used by trinitarians does not say that the three entities make one God. Baptizing in someone's name doesnt make that person God, in 1Cor10:2 people are baptized in Moses' name. Baptizing in someone's name simply implies; under that person's authority.

Besides it seems the name in itself isnt sufficient to attract the necessary blessings. In Acts19:13-16 we read of "wandering Jews" attempting to exorcize in Jesus' name, to no avail, because the indwelling demons do not know who these exorcists are.

Another major issue is that we see throughout the Greek writings the disciples only baptizing in Jesus' name instead of the trinity formula as per Jesus' alleged instructions in Matt28. See for example Acts 2:38,8:16,10:48,19:5.

Besides this unexplanable disobedience of the disciples, the main reason questionning the authenticity of this verse is the fact Jesus in his lifetime never directed his ministry at gentiles. He repeatedly distanced himself from them by allegoricaly comparing them to animals who cannot be fed before a human is fed, and who were traditionally kept "outside" the house Matt15:22-28,Mk7:27. Those "humans" being only the children of Israel to who Jesus was sent Matt15:24, and not the others alluded to as animals in the allegory. There isnt any instance of Jesus himself going out of his way to preach to a non-Israelite. Jesus was merely continuing what the long line of Israelite prophets have been doing throughout the ages; attempting to reform the children of Israel so that they might fulfill their role of being the torch bearers of the truth to the gentile nations. As stated in the allegory, they must first receive their fill of spiritual wisdom by their prophet, Jesus in this case. Once that is done and they are reformed, only then, the foreign nations will be blessed through them. 

After him, his earliest disciples kept the same distance and established themselves in Jerusalem. Paul was immediately recalled to Jerusalem after the disciples learned he was preaching to the gentiles. Paul defended himself of converting Gentiles by saying Jesus appeared to him and told him to do so. Peter, who knew Jesus, tested Paul on whether Jesus appeared to Paul or not and concluded he had. So either Jesus did appear to Paul or Paul was a very good liar, probably motivated by the money he received from the gentiles, and as seen from the inconsistent account of his alleged encounter with Jesus the second option seems more plausible. But that is another issue. During all the confrontations between the pro-gentiles and the ones against assimilating them, nobody invokes a saying of Jesus on this disputed subject, nobody mentions some of modern Christian exegete's complex web of interconnected deeds and words of Jesus as foreshadowing an extension of his ministry from the Jews first then to the gentiles. These apostles and early followers of Jesus must have surely been clueless and ignorant of Jesus' intricate discourse and hidden intents.

Just as he was sent only to the Israelites, Jesus similarly commands his followers to preach to the towns of Israel only
Matt10:5-6"These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel"
and further adds that they will still be preaching within Israel before the coming of the Son of Man
"I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes".
This coming can certainly not be speaking of Jesus' alleged resurrection following his crucifixion since that "coming of the son of man" is preceded by a list of trials and tribulations the disciples will endure and none of those occured until the alleged resurrection. That coming of the son of man, which will happen before the disciples finish preaching to the Israelites, is the prophecied end of days that is supposed to occur during those very disciples' lifetime. Jesus will come back then, and Judgement will be imposed on all his rejecters and those who denied the message of his disciples, in addition torturing and persecuting them. The whole passage contains references to imminent doom of towns that reject the message of the disciples, towns that the disciples must flee after unsuccesful preaching, and the promised salvation of those that patiently endure persecution in Jesus' name.

Put simply, this is a false prophecy put in Jesus' mouth by those unknown Greek writers that were sure the end was definately near, Jesus would come while they would still be busy preaching within the towns of Israel, to the Israelites only.

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