One of the points that has been shared with me from dispensationalist sources is the claim that Jesus only came for the Jews. I’ve heard it stated so strongly that one guy said Jesus only died for the Jews. This is a combination of obvious truth with obvious nonsense.
My contact person has told me repeatedly that Jesus only came for the Jews. He will have a couple of quotations he likes to throw in and never wants to listen to my response. Let me give you an example. He likes to quote this out of Matthew.
Matthew 15:24 (KJV) But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.He claims that this clearly teaches Jesus did not come for the Gentiles. If I had a one verse Bible I would agree, but I like to share with him that Mark has the same story, but with one extra word which he doesn’t like to include,
Mark 7:27 (KJV) But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.Notice the word “first”. What Mark added is that Jesus may have come first to the Jews, but that did not rule out the Gentiles.
What evidence do we have that Jesus had anything to do with non-Jews? Let’s look at a few examples.
Start with the Wise men.Now, obviously, some of these, like Pilate were not Gentiles that He was ministering to or reaching out to, but if you look at the whole list you can see that there are cases where Jesus got involved with non-Jews.
Herod was not considered Jewish.
The woman at the well was the Samarian. And Jesus went to her village to teach.
The Syrophoenician woman was a gentile.
The centurion was a gentile
Pilate was a gentile.
The soldiers who executed him were gentiles
One of the 10 lepers was Samarian.
It is obvious that Jesus was ministering to the Jews. He was a Jew born in Israel. He was raised in Israel. Most of His ministry was spent in Israel. He was speaking in Hebrew and Aramaic. But keep in mind half the truth is not the whole truth. Sometimes half the truth will get you where you need to go, other times it will stop you in the middle of the bridge.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.