Mileage Maker

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” Romans 9:6-7 NASB Not all Israel – Daniel Boyarin’s study of the invention of heresy as a way to establish religious…

Hitchhiker’s Guide (29): Gentiles

I will sow her for Myself in the land.  I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, and I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they will say, ‘You are my God!’”  Hosea 2:23  NASB You are my God – Who is a Gentile?  Before you answer with the…

Hitchhiker’s Guide (26)

The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  Matthew 22:39  NASB Your neighbor – “Who is my neighbor?”  The scribe’s question brought about the famous parable of the Good Samaritan.  We all know the story.  But perhaps we haven’t considered all the implications.  Ira Stone helps us see one additional consequence:…

Neighbor or Stranger

And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.  Joshua 3:17  NASB Nation – Gringo.  WASP.  Chink.  Gook.  Cracker.  Dego.  There’s a long list of racial slurs…

The GREEK New Testament

“For from ancient generations Moses has those who preach him in every city, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”  Acts 15:21  NASB Moses – Typical Christian exegesis of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 concentrates on the requirements (or lack thereof) for Gentile believers.  But this fixation on what Gentiles must believe and…

Paul of Tarsus, LCP

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.  For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:14-15  NASB Bondage – What if we read Paul’s letter to the Romans not as…

A Confused Soul

To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law;  to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of…

Pagan/Gentile/Jew

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;  Acts 9:15  NASB Gentiles – Footnotes matter.  So often we find information in those tiny print words at the bottom of the page that makes all the difference in the…

One of the “Also”

Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.  Acts 11:1  NASB Also– Put aside the last 2000 years of theological manipulation.  Read this statement as a believing Messianic Jew in the first century. It should totally confuse you. It might even make you mad—or cry! How in the…

What to Do with Gentiles?

So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel. Joshua 6:23 NASB Outside – mihuts. That’s what you do with Gentiles. You save…