• I just love the fact that our God used a Pagan magi, who would be worse than Samaritans to travel a long distance, bring gifts, fall on their face and worship Jesus. I wonder if He used them because nobody else was willing to listen and obey God's calling. God is not about who is in and who is out, He used these people to take part of the prophecy which would forever be etched in time. I Love our ireligious, boundary breaking God.

    1. I always thought God did it because, he is able to break into and to overshadow any religion, astrology or "heathen" nation, and without affirming it. But - abit like Paul on Areopagos. He breaks into the unknown. And abit like John 3,16: He is for the whole world. He can command every false prophet to speak right. He break into any false astrology system, and use their system for them selves, as a way to abolish it: Who needs astrology after Jesus have come with Peace for the Whole Earth ? And lastly: the heathen was invited at his birth, because he was king of all the nations. And yes - I think you are right. Nobody else was willing to go, that is especially true of these times, and probably also then.
    2. Yes, and all that He does is centered out of His love. So while hypothetically He could break into and overshadow, His love would lead Him to not coerce. Romans 8:28, He works all things together, or synergy. Not addition rather multiplication in harmonizing even the bad and the sinful to bring the best. “Looking for the jewel. amongst the rubbish”

  • Brilliant! And hauntingly true. The lamb will conquer them, of course, by the same method by which he has always conquered: by his own blood, and by the blood of his own, the martyrs who remain faithful
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    Revelation 17:9–18Revelation for Everyone
    9‘This is a moment for a wise and discerning mind. The seven heads are seven hills, on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings; 10five have fallen, one is still there, and the other has not yet arrived, and when he does come he is destined to remain for only a short time. 11And the monster, which was and is not, he is the eighth king. He is also one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. 12The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not
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    1. jesus answers the time question, briefly. he develops the restore the kingdom "to israel" assumption that they make with a statement. since Christ has completed his work through israel, carry this information out to those that benefit, to the world, fulfilling my promise to Abraham. Luke continues to illustrate this task thought the rest of this volume 2 of his Gospel story.
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      Acts 1:6The Lexham English Bible
      So when they had come together, they began asking him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
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      1. English is not my first language, but I was taught that “God” (the Creator and the Father of Jesus) is to be written with capital letter. I am reading now your book „The New Testament and the People of God”. It is disturbing to me and bothers me a lot that you write “god” instead of “God”, even if this pertains to the true God. Why?

        2.  thank you for this insight!

        3.  — Edited

          @Fred Sprinkle Thank you for inserting the author’s clarification. I read it together with the preceding paragraph I insert below: “Second, I have frequently used ‘god’ instead of ‘God’. This is not a printer’s error, nor is it a deliberate irreverence; rather the opposite, in fact. The modern usage, without the article and with a capital, seems to me actually dangerous. This usage, which sometimes amounts to regarding ‘God’ as the proper name of the Deity, rather than as essentially a common noun, implies that all users of the word are monotheists and, within that, that all monotheists believe in the same god. Both these propositions seem to me self-evidently untrue. It may or may not be true that any worship of any god is translated by some mysterious grace into worship of one god who actually exists, and who happens to be the only god. That is believed by some students of religion. It is not, however, believed by very many practitioners of the mainline monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) or of the non-monotheistic ones (Hinduism, Buddhism and their cognates). Certainly the Jews and Christians of the first century did not believe it. They believed that pagans worshipped idols, or even demons. (The question as to how Jews and Christians regarded each other’s beliefs on this topic will be addressed in Part V of the present volume.) ”  n.t.wright: “The early Christians used the phrase ‘the god’ (ho theos) of this god, and this was (I believe) somewhat polemical, making an essentially Jewish-monotheistic point over against polytheism. In a world where there were many suns, one would not say ‘the sun’.” I checked in the Greek grammars. I translate from German: „The article before θεός doesn't mean in NT “the God” (a certain, well known one among many others), but simply ‘God’ (the only One). Why is the article in NT there while we omit it? The people in the ancient world believed in many gods. Through the article used, the only God stood from them out. In the West influenced by the Christendom, thinking of God, we think of the only and true God. That is why we leave the article out.” (W. Stoy, K. Haag and W. Haubeck, “Bibel Griechisch leicht gemacht“, p. 33). This is an excerpt from an English book: „John 3:10 ὁ διδάσκαλος τοῦ ᾽Ισραήλ - the teacher of Israel  There were many teachers of Israel, but Nicodemus was either well known or, if the article is par excellence, the number one professor on the Gallup poll! Often ‘the gospel’ (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) and ‘the Lord’ (ὁ κύριος) employ articles par excellence. In other words, there was only one gospel and one Lord worth mentioning as far as the early Christians were concerned.” And in the footnote he writes: “ὁ θεός also may be regarded as par excellence rather than monadic in many contexts. This is not to say that to the NT writers there were many gods, but that there were many entities and beings called θεός. Only one truly deserved the name.” (Daniel B. Wallace, “Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics”, p. 223) @Terry Wildman We have to remember that the first manuscripts until 9th century were uncial. “About the beginning of the 9th cent. a new style of script was introduced (known as ‘minuscule’)” (Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). In “The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church” (3rd ed. rev., p. 1037). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.). “Uncial” this means that all the letters were capital. Only from the beginning of the 9th century the manuscripts were minuscule – in small letters.

        4.  — Edited

          @Placyd Thanks for the correction, however the effect is the same. It is interesting that the definite article might be the designator, but I am not sure that is always the case.

      2. Rev 12:5, "She gave birth to ... one who was to shepherd (Gr) all the nations with a rod of iron." When it comes right down to it, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, is no soft pushover. Humanity is demanded to come to his terms not his theirs. "Every knee shall bow." Isn't it beautiful to live in this age of voluntary servanthood?!

        1. There are several courses offered at Udemy.com with lectures by N. T. Wright. Many are less than $50. I'm taking the course on his book Simply Jesus right now and enjoying it.
          Online Courses - Anytime, Anywhere | Udemy
          udemy.com
          1. He's a more better writer than I thought.  My most bestest book

        2. Is there anywhere in Wright's books or other writings that he explicitly states that Believers are to be transformed to the image of Christ?  I am simply wondering if and where he addresses this subject.  

          2. Thank you!

          3. He seems to focus more on bearing the "image of God" than of Jesus specifically. But he says this in his book "Paul: Fresh Perspectives" in a the section on 1 Corinthians 15: "The end result is the creation of a new type of human beings, once more in the image of God but now, more specifically, in the image of the risen Messiah: as we have born the image of the earthly human being, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one."

          4. That is very helpful.  Thanks!

        3. I wonder why NTW's own translation of Ephesians 2:8 does not render "pisteos" as "faithfulness" as he does in Galatians 2:16. It seems to me that both are references to the faithfulness of Christ.  Based on his commentaries on Paul, I would have thought that NTW would translate "pisteos" by default as "faithfulness" unless the context demanded otherwise.

          1. Partly thanks to N. T. Wright's influence, I have come up with a diagram of the timeline suggested by Ephesians 1:3-14. I post it here for your edification and feedback. In essence this is a sketch of the "plan" for the unfolding of God's "purpose and will," referred to multiple times throughout the passage. I hope it is fairly self-explanatory, especially if you have the text in front of you as you look it over. But I welcome critique and comment, and I'll answer any questions that my ensue. Thanks, Dr. Wright, for your rich insight into the teachings of Paul and indeed those of Christ Himself.
            1. Insightful and helpful. Thanks for sharing.
          2. has joined the group.