[OBW]

CMW,

I would be a little careful with seeing Jews v Gentiles in the NT writings from the standpoint of "not written to me." I realize that Paul was heavily providing an underpinning to people who did not already have the background a Jew would have. But that does not make anything written to the Jew, like Hebrews, not for the Gentiles. Especially now. In this day, while we do not start with the learning and practice of the Jews, we do know a lot about it. There is no better evidence of this than our propensity to try to claim every OT promise to Israel to us today.

I realize that Hebrews (maybe James too?) does not seem to fit with so much of the rest of the NT. But that does not make it less meaningful to us. We may have never had a system of animal sacrifices (in this era) but we still try to appease God through otherwise irrelevant activities. I may have never really got the "order of Melchesidek" thing, but Hebrews is still important. Same for James.

But, for example, while we all have a part in evangelism, Jesus did not tell everyone who he appeared to to go into all the world preaching. Nor even the 120. He took the 11 aside and told them. That does not define a hierarchy. But it does follow the notion that they had been trained for 3+ years for a purpose that was not given to every believer.

As for outer darkness, while reading it too literally might be problematic, I would not toss it aside as somehow written to only Jews. Seems that without clearer intent, it would be dangerous to ignore the warnings, even if without understanding the actual impact of what outer darkness represents. And it would be easy to presume from a Calvinist view that it couldn't be a permanent thing. But even that might be better to not presume.