In answer to the video "No Compulsion in Religion"
All religious scriptures have the concept of spiritual death, albeit some differences. Christianity, which is assumed to be Jesus' teachings, includes the HB with all of its contents, as well as the account of creation and the divine will to keep humanity in the dark in regards to moral consciousness.
Contrary to the Quran where man is supposed to be ingrained with God-consciousness, knowledge and good and evil, in the Bible, this mechanism was hidden in the fobidden tree of knowledge.
Jesus of course recognizes, as depicted in the NT, that some individuals are beyond spiritual hope. He accuses the stubborn Pharisees who could not see the truth despite his repeated warnings Jn8:42-49, thanks God for obscuring the truth to this type of repeated transgressors. They are those who are foreordained to have their hearts hardenned Rom9:8-23,Ex4:21,Deut2:26-35. They become delusional in spiritual matters and are further deceived through lies
Matt11:20-25"Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not..Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent"
2Thess2:10-13"and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness".This is in line with the Hebrew Bible's statements the likes of
Jer10:23"people's lives are not their own, it is not for them to direct their steps".
Besides distancing himself from the spiritually unclean while calling them dogs and pigs Matt7:6, Jesus also purposely spoke to the spiritually dead, as the ones alluded to above, in parables, knowing that however clear his language is they will not understand him, thus conforming the prophecy of Isaiah according to which a category of transgressors will never be spiritually receptive
Mk4:10-12,Matt13:13-15"Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed...lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them".Jesus did not love and pray for these "enemies", he on the contrary kept them far from the truth, in line with David who "hated" the lame and blind Jebusites 2Sam5:8.
Jesus clearly states in it that he keeps speaking in parables to the spiritually blind
"in order that"they do not understand
"otherwise they might turn and be forgiven".He uses parables to teach and lead astray at the same time. It teaches his followers and confuses his rejecters and he purposely continues in this manner "otherwise" the rejecters might turn and repent, meaning he could have taught them in another manner than in parables but didnt, to achieve the purpose of NOT having them reform themselves. Note Jesus is quoting Isaiah6's prophecy where YHWH is sending Isaiah to some sinful nation.
Isaiah fortells that nation's doom and prior to this these people have their spiritual senses sealed as a punishment. Isaiah is to further confuse them (make the heart...) "otherwise" they might mend their ways. It is in this exact sense that Jesus in Matt13 is referencing Isaiah, hence the words that the prophecy is fulfilled in his contemporaries. He was confronted to people whose spiritual senses were sealed by God as a punishment as he stated earlier. To fulfill Isaiah's text he does exactly like him, confusing them further as a form of wordly punishment for their rejection of him, through unintelligible parables that will prevent any possibility for them to reform themselves. This theme isnt unique to Isa6, elsewhere God has
Isa29:10"poured upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and He has closed your eyes; the prophets and your heads who stargaze, He has covered".This sealed their understanding to all the vision which Isaiah was putting before them
"And the vision of everything has been to you like the words of a sealed book, which they give to one who can read, saying, "Now read this," and he shall say, "I cannot, for it is sealed".To those who only pay lip service to the Law, the hypocrites who only fear God outwardly
Isa29:14"I will continue to perform obscurity to this people, obscurity upon obscurity, and the wisdom of his wise men shall be lost, and the understanding of his geniuses shall be hidden".This complete loss of wisdom will perdure until an unspecified day where the spiritualy dead will "see" and "hear" again v18.
Isa6, as quoted by Jesus centuries later when confronted by the spiritually dead, is a direct action by YHWH preventing people from the right path as He is alleged to have done to Pharao to whom Moses was sent with miracles but with a clear purpose; to cause God -in answer to Pharao's denial of the miracle- to unleash His series of punishements on Egypt and consequently free the enslaved Israelites. This is acccording to the principles that YHWH disposes as He wills of the hearts of the people, and more particularily of nations' leaders
Prov21:1"A king's heart is like rivulets of water in the Lord's hand; wherever He wishes, He turns it".For the attainement of this purpose in regards to the Egyptian ruler
Ex7:3-5,13,Ex10:1"I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them".Pharao and his officials had no other issue but to be doomed
Ex14:4"And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army".Pharao's heart was purposefuly hardened prior to the performance of miracles in order to create a chain of events meant at destroying the Egyptian oppressors and ultimately freeing the Israelites. This removed any possibility of reform at the sight of the signs and warnings
Ex8:15"So the necromancers said to Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God," but Pharaoh's heart remained steadfast, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had spoken".It is interesting to note that even prior to that, the subjugation, enslavement and opression of the Israelites themselves is attributed to God who is said to have stirred the peoples' hatred and jealousy towards them
Ps105:23-5"Israel came to Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And He made His people very fruitful, and He made it stronger than its adversaries. He turned their heart to hate His people, to plot against His servants".The same was done later to Sihon king of Heshbon whose spirit was caused by God
"to be hardened and his heart to be obstinate".Sihon consequently refused Moses' peace offer and was defeated in battle, his land conquered, his people massacred Deut2:26-35. Similarily, we read in Isa37:7 of God instilling a certain desire into the wicked Assyrian king Sennacherib that would ultimately create a chain of events leading to his death. Again later, God would harden the hearts of the Canaanites in order that Israel
Josh11:20-23"might destroy them completely, and that they might have no favor, that they (the Jews) might destroy them as the Lord had commanded Moses".In
Judges9:22-24"God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the inhabitants of Shechem"in order that the king Abimelech might be severely punished for his wickedness and murders of the sons of Gideon
53"Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers".YHWH prevented Solomon's son, Rehoboam, from hearkening the wise counsel of his father's former advisers about using tact, diplomacy in his dealings with the people who were heavily burdened by the royal taxation system instaured since the time of king David. YHWH prevented Rehoboam in order that the promised punishement of Solomon for his alleged sins, including the sin of idolatry, come true through the scission of the kingdom
1Kings11,12:15"The king did not listen to the people, for it was something brought about by the Lord, in order to fulfill His word".Just as one day, YHWH will draw Magog by
"hooks into its jaws"as would be done with a wild beast Ezek38, throughout the course of history, God would rise and forcefully incite neighboring nations to destroy and subjugate the Israelites for their transgressions. These punishing nations were late destroyed themselves, despite having done the task required of them. This would be the case of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Amonites, Moabites etc as described in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Other examples of spiritual death in the Hebrew Bible are those of the tribe of Ephraim who remained "exalted" so long as they served God but when they became guilty of idol worship and remained unrepentant despite prophetic warnings to cease their sinful ways they "died" a spiritual death long before national destruction Hosea13. Again, in 1Sam2:25 we read of Eli's unrighteous sons who persisted in their transgressions despite the warnings until they could not hearken the voice of reason anymore because their faith was sealed, ie "the Lord desired to kill them". As he confronted the multitudes of polytheist Israelites, the prophet Elijah, in his open prayer to God, says that
1Kings18:37"You have turned their hearts backwards".
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