Circumstances do count. If a baby is aborted, is it his fault that he never learned about the 10 Commandments? Gentiles were under different circumstances as were Jews and as we as Christians are right now. So there are not just 2 groups. There are at least 3 main groups with at least a billion subgroups. God is always just and fair. He doesn't penalize you for that which you have no control over.
Again, I am speaking to what Paul is actually saying. There are "many" who come in Christ's Name, who preach that God judged men according to the DNA they were born with. I posted Paul's words for your review, there are many more, that exposes this teaching as false. Men create groups, men create walls of separation. There is only ONE Church of God.
Eph. 4:
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
The Jesus, "of the Bible", says offenses must come. We live in an evil world the same as Abraham and Caleb and Zacharias. We are surrounded with evil. I think it's important not to let the evil distract us from "Seeking first the Kingdom of "GOD", and HIS Righteousness", as Jesus instructs. That way we don't get drawn into the affairs of this world.
Gentiles will be judged under the circumstances they found themselves under. They will be judged at least according to their conscience.
Again, for me it's important to let God Himself, though HIS Inspired Word, instruct me as to how HE judges. That is why I posted the Scriptures for review and examination and hopefully discussion as to what is said.
What you wrote is what I meant by legalism. The Pharisees obeyed the letter of the law, not the Spirit of the law.
That is what some preachers who call Jesus Lord, Lord promote. But when a person actually reads what is actually written, the Pharisees "Full well rejected" the Letter of the Law, so they could keep their own manmade traditions, their own manmade judgments, their own manmade righteousness.
I know we have been taught by preachers in the synagogues and in the streets since our youth, that the Pharisees obeyed God's Law trying to please God or earn favor. This teaching is a deception, a falsehood, a lie. We are told to "take heed" of these deceivers who come in Christ's Name, to test the spirits, and prove all things. To believe the Pharisees were keeping the letter of the law is to deny "EVERY" Word Jesus spoke about them. I posted God's Inspired Word through Isaiah which defined them. But no one seemed to care.
Now there were members of God's church that the Jews persecuted, who did obey God's Law. You can read about them in the Law and Prophets, as well as Luke 1 & 2.
I'm trying to get a handle on where we deviate and why. I think you're trying to group everything under one umbrella which is the Law. What's your opinion on where we deviate? My "umbrella" is Christ. The Law Giver is, by definition at least, much much greater than the Law.
Thanks for the question. The answer as to why men deviate from God is probably the easiest question to answer. We can look at the examples Paul said were written for our admonition. Why did Eve deviate? Is it not because she listened to a voice, who professed to know God, but by his works denied Him? And in every case, every example in the Scriptures of men who deviated, turned away from God's instruction, and walked in their own. "EVERY" time a man deviated is because they heard, but didn't "DO" what was instructed by God.
EVERY TIME.
Jesus didn't deviate even once. How did HE do this? According to His Own Words, "
And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
Jesus speaks of " Many Christians" in Matt. 7. These Christians called Him their Savior, they taught in His Name, they helped others in His Name and did "many" wonderful works, all in Jesus' Name.
But what does Jesus tell them?
And then will I profess unto them, "I never knew you": depart from me, ye that "work iniquity".
God's LAW is the Armor HE gives us to withstand the wicked influences of this world, including its religions "Who profess to know Him". We are instructed to "put the armor on".
But we have deceiving voices in the garden God places us in, just as Eve did, who promote philosophies like "God's Law only brings death", "Obedience to God is a false gospel", "God placed a Yoke of Bondage on the necks of men who trusted in Him", "God judge's men according to the DNA they were born with", and on and on and on.
In the Bible, when men adopted these deceiving voices, like Eve and the Pharisees did, they deviate from the Christ, the Holy One of Israel, the Law giver.
But in the same Bible, those who, like Zacharias, Abraham, Simeon, Caleb and EVERY example of Faith, who were "Doers" of God's Laws, and not hearers only, they and their family were blessed, as God promised. This has been true from the very beginning.
Gen. 26:
4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
I know this world's religions preach against this "Way of the Lord" but I learned the lesson of the example of Eve, so I take God and His Son's instruction seriously, and as a result, I don't adopt these deceptions.
2 Cor. 11:
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Great question.
