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The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

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Judaism could underst<strong>and</strong> a new relationship<br />

towards God <strong>and</strong> man, • ' <strong>and</strong> even <strong>the</strong> forgiveness<br />

<strong>of</strong> sins. But it had no conception <strong>of</strong> a moral<br />

renovation, a spiritual birth, as <strong>the</strong> initial condition<br />

for reformation, far less as that for seeing <strong>the</strong><br />

Kingdom <strong>of</strong> God. And it was because it had no<br />

idea <strong>of</strong> such ' birth from above,' <strong>of</strong> its reality or<br />

even possibility, that Judaism could not be <strong>the</strong><br />

Kingdom <strong>of</strong> God.<br />

Or, to take ano<strong>the</strong>r view <strong>of</strong> it, for Divine truth is<br />

manyndded— perhaps some would say, to make<br />

^Western* application <strong>of</strong> what was first spoken to<br />

<strong>the</strong> Jew—in one respect Nicodemus <strong>and</strong> <strong>Jesus</strong> had<br />

started from <strong>the</strong> same premiss: <strong>The</strong> Kingdom <strong>of</strong><br />

Ood. But how different were <strong>the</strong>ir conceptions <strong>of</strong><br />

what constituted that King* dom, <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> what was<br />

its door <strong>of</strong> entrance! What Nicodemus had seen <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Jesus</strong> had not only shaken <strong>the</strong> confidence which his<br />

former " views on <strong>the</strong>se subjects had engendered<br />

in him, but opened dim possibilities, <strong>the</strong> very<br />

suggestion <strong>of</strong> which filled him vdth uneasiness as<br />

to <strong>the</strong> past, <strong>and</strong> vague hopes as to <strong>the</strong> future. And

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