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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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Physician, while it gives some insight into <strong>the</strong><br />

neaetjui <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se two events, <strong>and</strong> explains <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

chronological succession.^ It was fitting that at <strong>the</strong><br />

very outset, when Rab-binism followed <strong>and</strong><br />

challenged <strong>Jesus</strong> with hostile intent, <strong>the</strong>se two<br />

spiritual facts should be brought out, <strong>and</strong> that^ not<br />

in a controversial, but in a positive <strong>and</strong> practical<br />

manner. For, as <strong>the</strong>se two questions <strong>of</strong> sin <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> possible relation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sinner to 6od are <strong>the</strong><br />

great burden <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> soul in its upward striving after<br />

God, so <strong>the</strong> answer to jhem forms <strong>the</strong> substance <strong>of</strong><br />

all religions. Indeed, all <strong>the</strong> cumbrous observances<br />

<strong>of</strong> Rabbinism—its whole law—were only an<br />

attempted answer to <strong>the</strong> question: How can a man<br />

be just with Grod ?<br />

But, as Rabbinism stood self-confessedly silent<br />

<strong>and</strong> powerless as regarded <strong>the</strong> forgiveness <strong>of</strong> sins,<br />

so it had emphatically no word <strong>of</strong> welcome or help<br />

for <strong>the</strong> sinner. <strong>The</strong> very term * Pharisee/ or *<br />

separated one,* implied <strong>the</strong> exclusion <strong>of</strong> sinners.<br />

With this <strong>the</strong> whole character <strong>of</strong> Pharisaism<br />

accorded; perhaps, we should have said, that <strong>of</strong>

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