Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
"He came to his own and they rejected him."
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John 1:11...this seems a pretty sweeping statement, implying that the Messiah is not going to merely reform nor purify Judaism. The Messiah was repudiated, rejected by Judaism.
Now, on to my thesis (and sorry for incessantly pounding on my tiny drum): was it not possible that the same rejection of the "Jews" to Jesus was presaging the later rejection of the Holy Spirit by the christians? The christians eventually would also build idols and worship them, and forget about the goal of God's calling. Jesus called His followers to be small, to be nothing. But His followers eventually built towers that put Babylon in the shadows.
Notice the word "repent" which begins the epistles to the Asian assemblies in Revelations 2 & 3. This is the word that both Jesus and John the Baptist spoke to initiate their ministry among the Jews. "Turn back from your own paths, and rejoin the path of salvation, which has been set before you by God." Eventually Jesus had to speak this word to the christians as well.
The problem with getting a directive by God, it seems, is that God gives us receding targets, and wants us to aim, direct ourselves, towards them. We, unfortunately, want fixed spots to aim for, and thus we settle down too quickly. Thus God is required to continually recalibrate us, and call us back to the path. I don't see the failure of the Jews to recognize their messiah as much different from the events which have taken place in christianity in the past 2,000 years.