How is anyone supposed to take a God seriously who couldn't clarify enough about pertinent issues like the requisite for salvation, the existance of hell, the role of non-Israelites, the validity of his word, etc.
I believe that God has made it very clear most of these issues you have brought up. In fact the mass majority of people who identify as Christian and have a Personal Relationship with Christ have very little disagreements about these specific things. It is only a tiny % of people who claim to be Christians that disagree with these specific things you have mentioned.
There will always be disagreements in every camp about everything on Earth. You will find Scientists who disagree with Einstein about his Theories. You will find Doctors who disagree with each other about all sorts of things. Literally 99% of every aspect of Life people are going to disagree.
Since that is the case, do you personally reject all Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists and every other group of people and their ideologies and perspectives because there isnt 100% unanimous agreement in all things?
When it comes to Salvation, 99% of Christians believe that it comes by Faith thru Grace in Jesus Christ, believing He is God who died on the Cross for your Sins and rose again on the 3rd day. Are there people who dont believe this? Sure but almost every Christian would reject that person as being Christian because they do not agree with the most widely accepted and historical understanding of what is the requirements of Salvation. From Scripture the prerequisites are pretty basic and clearly stated, Repent Confess and Believe on Christ as your Lord and Savior, the only one that can even be debated is Jesus as God, but to deny Jesus as God ends up rejecting the Scriptures that very clearly teach Him as such. ( I am sure our resident hater of Jesus as God has or will chime in here as he always derails Threads in 2 different ways, one being Jesus is God)
The existence of Hell is another thing that is accepted by the huge mass majority of Christians. 99% of Christians believe that Hell exists, again only a very small % dont believe that there is a Hell. There also is another tiny % of Christians that disagree that Hell is an inescapable place. The only real debate among any % of Christians is whether or not when someone goes into Hell if they remain conscious forever or if they are burnt up into Non-Existence. The Bible is clear, Hell exists.
The next thing you bring up is the role of Non Israelities, that is a very, extremely broad topic, so I dont know what you mean by that. If you would like to be more specific as to what you meant by that I would be happy to share my thoughts about it if you would like to hear them...
Finally you stated the validity of Gods Word. Again for 99% of Christians this is a settled topic, the Bible is the Word of God period. All of it from the beginning to end is Scripture, God Breathed and contains everything God chose to give us knowledge of Himself and everything necessary to be saved. What you do find is that many of the tiny % that reject or disagree with the previous things are ones that also choose to reject that the Bible, all of it, as Gods Word. Usually when people reject the Bible as Gods Word, they also begin to reject the other topics you brought up. There is a definite correlation between rejecting major doctrine of Christianity and making concessions about the Bible not being Gods Word.
And aren't all of us "gentiles" merely allowed salvation because his own people rejected him?
So I havent read all the posts in here to see what others say, but I would like to quote you a verse from Gods Word that I believe speaks to the heart of this question:
Rev 13: And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This Scripture signifies that the Life, Death and Resurrection, the method of Salvation was already known and done before the World was even created. I dont believe that my Salvation was only allowed because Jesus was rejected by Israel, I believe that my Salvation was purposed before the World was even created.
I believe that the rejection of Christ by Israel was known before the foundation of the World. In fact if you read the Word of God from the beginning you can see that Humanity has ALWAYS rejected Him. Go back and read the story of Adam and Eve, they rejected God. Read Exodus as God Himself straight up spoke to them and lead them by Fire and Cloud performing miracle after miracle along the way, they ALL rejected Him.
It is of no doubt that Humanity as represented by Israel AND Roman would reject Jesus and crucify Him, it is in our hearts to hate and reject God, but just as God showed in the Old Testament, He is gracious and forgiving God in that even while we as Humanity were in the midst of nailing God to a cross, He still cried out Father Forgive Them and still bore our Sins upon Himself so that all can have Salvation if they choose to accept the gift God offered to us all..
Why would you be happy knowing your salvation is only a result of a ploy to incite jealousy?
Well I dont believe that my Salvation is a ploy to incite jealousy, but I do believe that God knowing the hearts of man and Israel, knew that they had become so full of themselves when He choose to use them as His revelation to the World, that making it obvious that they were not the exceedingly special people they built themselves into, when Salvation was given to the Gentiles openly, it would create a sense of Jealousy.
From the framing of your questions, it seems to me that you believe Gentiles were only given or allowed Salvation to try and cause Israel to become Jealous and get them to come back to God. I do not believe that to be the actual sense of what is conveyed in the Scriptures. So the Scripture which you are getting that idea from is this one:
Rom 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
However it is a must to read everything in context, and when we read further
Rom 11:14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them
Essentially I take this all to mean that Gods pouring of Salvation is to cause the Jews to rethink their own positions they had esteemed themselves. They had built themselves up to think that they were literally better than everyone else, simply because of their linage. I was Born a Jew therefore I am above everyone else. That attitude caused many things in the mind of the Jews, 2 of them being that by bloodline they were granted Salvation (which was never the case) and second it caused them to no longer desire to abide by the Law or understand Grace.
To put it into an easier way to understand, if you have a child that is completely full of themselves and believes they are entitled to everything just because they have esteemed parents, many times you need to give the things they feel entitled to, to the people they feel they are above, to cause them to rethink who they are, and if they are even entitled to anything.
So will the entitled child feel jealousy? Yes probably, but that is because they are arrogant and entitled. Did the parents do it to CAUSE jealousy? No they did it to cause the child to understand what their position really is, that they are NOT entitled to anything and they need to be thankful and thus act the way the other child receiving the things acts.
The Gentiles were NEVER kept out of Salvation, if you go thru out the Scriptures there are plenty of Gentiles that became great in the Jewish Kingdom and received every blessing the Jews had, read the book of Ruth for one of the best examples. The difference was that God was using Israel to demonstrate His greatness and ability thru and Gentiles needed to convert or join Israel to enjoy the blessings. Since Christ has come it is now the Church that God uses to demonstrate His greatness thru and the Jews (actually everyone) needs to convert or join the Church, by Grace thru Faith in Christ to enjoy the blessings of God.
Thru the Church God has poured out the blessings that were once in Israel, to cause the Jews who were essentially the entitled spoiled child to rethink their rejection of Christ, and Christians are to live in accordance to these blessings to inspire the Jews (an actually all the Lost) to want to emulate us by Faith in Christ.
So while I can understand the frame work of your question, I believe that the context and moreover the negative connotation you have ascribe to everything is unfounded. My Salvation was laid out before the foundation of the World and of course it is my hope that the wonderful Personal Relationship I have with Christ, by Grace thru Faith would inspire other people to want to seek out Jesus and rethink their rejection of Him...
Also, why is it fair for all of humanity to be punished for the mistakes of the first two according to a literal interpretation of biblical cannon?
So let me ask, if we define Sin as breaking of Gods Law, lets just pick one, it comes right from Jesus:
Matt 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
So according to Jesus to look upon the opposite sex with lust is to commit adultery or to simplify it even further, to lust after another person in your heart is to break Gods Law.
So my question is, have you ever lusted after someone?
You and I both know that you have, therefore we can be certain that if you were in the Garden, you too would have broken the one simple command God gave Adam and Eve. The fact is we are not being punished for the mistakes of the 1st two people, we are all suffering as the result of Sin period, of which you are just as guilty of it as Adam and Eve and everyone else.
As I mentioned in the beginning, all thru out the Scriptures humanity is constantly rebelling against God, Adam and Eve were the first but everyone else is right in line with them...
Even if it is not meant to be a literal reading, why does sin and evil exist anyway if God really is all-powerful?
Sin is simply the choice to choose against God, and there is always a consequence against choosing against God. The consequence is Evil, Darkness and the other adjectives you used. Does the existence of Sin define God as not all powerful? Not at all, the existence of Sin actually shows a God that loves and cares for His Creation and desires a REAL Relationship with them.
Do you think an entity that has zero ability to choose against its creator can ever possibly know Love? Can it even comprehend any real emotion?
If you were to find out that God created all the rest of Humanity except for you, with the absolute inability to exercise a personal will and freedom, that every other person except you was essentially a robot, what would you really think of this God?
It really boils down to either creating robots that can never experience any true emotion or comprehend love or creating sentient creatures that are in the likeness of yourself ( God here) that have freedom and can experience true emotions and love which means they MUST have the ability to turn against you.
God choose to create us in His image and likeness even tho we can turn against Him, because He would rather have a creation that can truly understand and sense love and emotion than a bunch of robots that have no ability or concept of love. With that ultimately comes the consequence of choosing against Him, which of course with God being perfect to choose against perfection would result in imperfection and the symptoms you described.
I am glad God choose to create me in His image and likeness with freedom because I can know Him as He is and experience joy and love even if sadness and heartbreak occur along the way. I would rather be a sentient creature that has to deal with an imperfect life at times, who can know the Love of God thru Christ, than be a robot that can not sense happiness or joy even if I no longer experience pain or sadness..
Above all that is Christ, and there is nothing more defining in my life that would ever cause me to doubt how God choose to create me and this world because I do know Christ and His Love and Mercy that is extended towards me every single day. Even tho I am the worst Christian and a terrible sinner, every day God showers me with His Love and affection, with His Grace and Mercy! I will take that over a robot that would live in a perfection I can not sense, know or acknowledge in anyway...
Anyways thats my 2 cents on your original questions...
