Redemption Interpreted

Summary of Proofs
from Christian Evidences, Chapter 6

By Leland M. Haines

Under construction-- Italics have not been added.

For Footnotes hit the number in the brackets. Use "back" to go back. Apostles

We Can Have Confidence

Israel's Rejection Of Jesus

We Can Have Confidence

        We can have confidence in the record of God's revelation to man by examining how He accomplished it. The first revelation, as we have mentioned earlier, is contained in the first five books of the Bible known as the "Pentateuch" (from the Greek word meaning "five scrolls"). These cover the creation account to the giving of the Law. God used Moses to write these books and to lead Israel out of their Egyptian bondage. When Moses came to the Israelites in Egypt, he gave absolute proof that he was called of God to be His messenger and deliverer.
        The story of Moses and how be became God's messenger and the deliverer of His people is recorded in the second book of the Bible, Exodus. There you will find proof of his calling by the saving of his life when he was placed in the Nile River in a basket (Exodus 2:1-10), by the Lord's appearing to him in a flame out of a bush (Exodus 3), by his demands to the Pharaoh to "Let my people go" - a demand that was accompanied by miraculous plagues and wonders (Exodus 6:28-12), by the passing through the Red Sea (Exodus 14), and in the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Law (Exodus 20:1-23:33). The other Mosaic books cover other miraculous events, such as the people surviving forty years in the wilderness, fed by manna (Numbers 1-10:10). Throughout this period of revelation God gave proof that Moses was being used to accomplish it.
        Even in light of the proofs, Israel was quick to forget them,
and instead murmured and rebelled. One of these incidents occurred when the people were to go in and take possession of the promised land. Moses wanted to take the land but the people insisted that he send in spies to determine if it was possible to conquer the inhabitants. All of these spies except two reported that they could not take it. The Israelites then murmured against Moses and rebelled. They thought they would be better off in Egypt and wanted to return. Then the Lord said to Moses: "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have wrought among them?" After Moses interceded for the people, the Lord said, "None of the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to proof these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice, shall see the land which I swore to give to their fathers." They had to wander forty years in the wilderness until that generation died off. Also those who spied out the land and brought the evil report that caused the murmuring "died by plague before the Lord" (Numbers 14:37, 11, 22-23, cf. Numbers 13-14). These events are examples showing that the people never were asked to believe without proofs. There were many signs. In spite of these the people were free to accept or reject them, but they should have believed the signs!
        As Stephen summed up Moses' work in the early church period he said Moses "was mighty in his words and deeds." This Moses "God sent as both a ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years" (Acts 7:22, 35-36).
        Thus we see that this first period of revelation was accompanied by many "wonders and signs." The people did not have to accept Moses on his own words. Clear and plain proofs were given that he was sent to represent God.
        God's revelation to mankind continued throughout the Old Testament period until about 400 B. C. During this time God used prophets to deliver His message to His people. Thus the Old Testament consists of many more books than the Pentateuch. The Old Testament is often broken down into various sections. Jesus told His disciples, "Everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44). Others have broken it down even more, into the Pentateuch, history, poetry and wisdom, and the prophets. How can one know these books record God's revelation? Moses laid down the basic principle by which the people of Israel could know who spoke for the Lord. "When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him" (Deuteronomy 18:22). There are several places in the Old Testament where we see this principle was used to prove who were false prophets, and who did not speak for God (Isaiah 41:21-24, 43:9, 48:14, Jeremiah 37:19, Lamentations 2:14), and as proof of who spoke for God (Isaiah 42:9, 45:21, 46:11, 48:3). These Old Testament prophets knew they spoke for God. They claimed over 2,000 times that what they delivered was what "God said," "God commanded," "The word of the Lord said unto me," "Saith the Lord God," "The word of the Lord that came to...," "Thus says the Lord", "The oracles of the word of the Lord," etc. Knowing this, they were careful in recording and preserving God's revelation.
        There were also many proofs in the New Testament period. Jesus performed many miracles and signs, and was raised from the dead, giving very convincing proof to the people that He was the Christ sent to redeem man. The apostles also presented convincing proofs.
        Thus we understand that God has always given proofs that He was present during a period of revelation. No one was asked to accept revelation by a blind faith. We can accept the New Testament as God's record of the redeeming events because of the proofs given to the common people at the time. The record of Jesus' life and ministry is found in the four Gospels. They were written in a period when many witnesses of Jesus' proofs and resurrection were still alive, and by those apostles who showed clear signs that they were called to their special task. The apostle Paul later appealed to many witnesses of the resurrection as proof that it occurred. He noted that Jesus "died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive" (I Corinthians 15:4-6). The readers could easily check out his claims with the witnesses and verify that there was ample proof that Jesus was the Christ. If Jesus and the apostles had not done the things recorded in the New Testament books, there would have been loud objections to the Gospel and other New Testament records, and the common people would have rejected them.

Israel's Rejection Of Jesus

        The Jewish leaders, as we have frequently noted, rejected the witness of Jesus' signs and wonders, and therefore would not accept Him as their Messiah. This was foretold in their own Old Testament Scriptures.
        Jesus noted one of these prophecies when He explained His frequent use of parables in His teaching. He pointed out that this was again to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy, "You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed" (Matthew 13:14-15, cf. Isaiah 6:9-10, Mark 8:18, John 12:39-41, Acts 28:26-27). Those Jews who rejected Jesus heard about and saw His miracles but chose not to believe. God allowed them to reject His Son; they were not forced to believe. Paul later described them by stating that "whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds" that causes them to miss their Messiah (II Corinthians 3:12f).
        Paul once pointed out in a sermon that Israel rejected Him "because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every sabbath, [and they] fulfilled these by condemning him" (Acts 13:27). Their idea of bringing in God's kingdom was to throw out the Romans and establish a free Israelite nation. Since Jesus did not fit into this mold of thinking and had different views relative to the kingdom, sabbath observance, etc., He was rejected.

All this fulfilled Isaiah's remarks concerning Israel. "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sands of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved" (Romans 9:27, cf. Isaiah 10:22-23). Thus not all Israel would accept Jesus as their Messiah; only a remnant would.
        As both Paul and Peter pointed out, Isaiah stated, "they have stumbled over the stumbling-stone" (Romans 9:32, cf. I Peter 2:8-9). Paul noted this was "as it is written", and quoted from Isaiah 28:16 as an introduction to Romans 8:14. Isaiah was speaking about Judah's trust in Egypt to deliver them from the Assyrians. He told them that, "The Lord of hosts... he will become... a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel... And many shall stumble thereon; they shall fall and be broken" (8:13-15). It was the Lord whom they should have trusted to be their Messiah, but they didn't nor did they later when Jesus came to them. They stumbled twice over the same Rock. Peter noted that this stumbling fulfilled the Psalmist's prediction, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner" (I Peter 2:7, cf. Psalms 118:22, Acts 4:11). Thus the Jews' stumbling was foretold; they stumbled and were broken by rejecting their own Messiah.
        Their rejection was tragic, as Paul points out in Romans. To the Israelites belonged "the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ" (Romans 9:4-5). They were the chosen people God was using to prepare man for the Redeemer, and they should have been the first to accept Him.
        In part, due to the Jew's rejection of the Gospel, the apostles turned to the Gentiles with their message. The Gentiles' acceptance of the good news was also foretold in their Scriptures. Matthew noted that Jesus was fulfilling "what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 'Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles....And in his name will the Gentiles hope'" (Matthew 12:15-21).
        At the Jerusalem conference, Peter quoted the Old Testament to show that the Gospel was meant for the Gentiles: "...the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who has made these things known from of old." Thus the Scriptures foretold that the Gentiles were to come into the church (Acts 15:16-18, cf. Amos 9:11-12, Jeremiah 12:15, Isaiah 45:21).
        Paul quotes from Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'my beloved.'" "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', they will be called 'sons of the living God'" (Romans 9:25-26, cf. Hosea 1:10, 2:23, I Peter 2:10). Those who were not a part of the chosen people of God, the Gentiles, and who shared no part in the kingdom of God in Old Testament times, would now become a part of God's people.
        Many respected scholars believe that the Jews will yet turn to Jesus and accept Him in the last days. What has happened is that "a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob,' 'and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins'" (Romans 11:25-27, cf. Isaiah 59:20-21).
        Since Israel's rejection of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament, their rejection should not become a stumbling block to anyone today, but should serve yet as another proof of the Bible's inspiration.

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March 21, 2001