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NASB | Matthew 22:42 "What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?" They *said to Him, "The son of David." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 22:42 "What do you [Pharisees] think of the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)? Whose Son is He?" They said to Him, "The son of David." |
Subject: What if Jesus was born in 1971? |
Bible Note: My God! My God! What shall I do with these people who are so bold to disguise their ignorance of the Bible, and their hindering of the propagation of your Gospel, by making pompous forays into realms of rectification? They close their eyes and ears to available texts of clarification in order to rail at those who try to preach your word. What is their goal and purpose? And what shall I do in response to these attacks? You have said that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when our obedience is fulfilled”. Does that mean that I should answer this man, and cast down the nonsense he is raising here, and cast aside this distraction from the message? I fully realize the possibility that, directly or indirectly, this man has the power to silence my voice on this forum. Indeed, his statement: “please, please confine your questions and comments to matters on which the Bible speaks” sounds like a threat, like some last warning ere they pull the plug. What shall I do? What did you do when you knew they would throw you out of their synagogue? You spoke up anyway, didn’t you? And so will I. They have done it before, objecting even to my linking to this site, with suggestions that I profit from it, that I use it to enhance my site, even stating that it is illegal. They jump and bend their bows now, whenever they see the name of Aixen. Nor do I mind it (Lord, you know) But I react to the fact that the message that I seek to bring, always about Jesus, is being his from view by all of this. It is being buried under personal attacks, and cast aside by squabbles among supposed brethren in Christ, that seem to bring him to an open shame. And they are squabbles based on careless ignorance. He says, “The Bible does not deal with hypotheticals”. And with such arrogance, such dogmatic self assurance! Not only did he fail to read the responses that were given to his compatriots who had said similar things, he did not even care to check his own response against the scriptures. Though he surely has concordances, he did not even check to see if the phrase “what if” is in the Bible. He might have looked up “suppose” or “peradventure”. He might have considered again the purpose of a parable. But he did not. What if he had checked? He might have found that Abraham used this phrase with you some half a dozen times, in hypothesizing about Sodom. He might have found that God himself used hypotheticals, as in Exodus 13:17. He will find that man for lack of knowledge often used hypotheticals until God revealed the facts, as in Numbers 23:3. He might have found Jesus using hypotheticals in Luke 15 to show what would happen if, and in Luke 14 to show what would happen if they did not. If this man were wise, and charitable, he might even suggest that the story about a woman having had seven wives (Matthew 22) was hypothetical. But why is he so upset about a hypothetical, a conjecture, that points us to the need that would exist if Jesus were alive today. What is the harm that he is seeking to avoid? But the fact is, as has been said, that Jesus is alive today. It does not matter when he was born, for he is the great I AM, the self-existent and eternal God. And men need to respond to him. Why are these folks so set on distracting from that message? He suggests it is equivalent to God living in Iceland or Moses having invented the Internet. With what self-righteous authority he says, “No one is spiritually fed by 'what if' speculations”. I suppose that people are “spiritually fed” from understanding where Cain got his wife, or the middle, shortest, longest this and that in the Bible, and other such topics filling his forum He says, “Let's not waste time with fantasy”. Now, whether or not we can find “what if” in the Bible, surely it is something else to fight against a device that lets a person know that Jesus is alive today, and that we face the need to respond to him today. That is the purpose of the “hypothetical”, which is in fact much more than that, and so much more than fantasy. But he did not care to look at that. Good Sir, if Jesus being alive today is fantasy, then do what’s in your heart. It does not matter if you take me off your forum. So go ahead and do your worst. If you do not take me off, I may be back again to draw attention to him and to remind your visitors of their need to respond to him. So do what you will. You would not have the power if God had not given it to you. |