AG STUDY GUIDE FINAL - The Forerunner

Herod or Pontius Pilate? Did they find great joy in the birth of the Messiah?
And what about Colossians 1:5, 6? Paul declares that by 54 A.D. the truth of the Gospel
has gone out into “ALL THE WORLD.”
“…because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before
in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all
the world…” ~ Colossians 1:5, 6
Did Paul literally mean that the Gospel had been carried to the Americas or Australia?
Of course not! Geography wasn’t what he was speaking about. And the same is true for
John 12:19:
“The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ‘You see that you are
accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!’" ~ John 12:19
Dr. D. James Kennedy – We all say “all” all of the time when we don’t mean it. No we
don’t! Some people never say “all.” They speak Chinese. You don’t say “all” all of the
time. Either when you mean it or when you don’t mean it. There are sometimes that you
sleep. There are sometimes that you eat. There are sometimes when you say other
things. You really don’t say “all” all of the time. Do you? And so, therefore, these
people don’t understand the figurative use of language. There are almost over six
hundred different species of figures of speech found in the Bible. And they are found in
most any large novel, or even in a big newspaper you will find them. They are
everywhere! No they’re not. They’re not everywhere. They’re here and there and the
other place. You see we do that all the time and we don’t even realize that we are doing
it. No we don’t do it all the time. You see if I called you every time you used a universal
word and you didn’t mean it universally, I would be having to stop you all the time. No
I wouldn’t!
The fact is that we all use this type of hyperbole, well, “all” the time. Newscasters refer
to “the whole city” turning out to greet a World Championship team when what they
technically mean is a very large crowd.
We talk about the entire world being fixated upon the news of Princess Diana’s death.
On and on it goes.
Well, if that’s true for us, might not the same principle apply when we find similar
expressions used in Scripture? The simple fact is that most scholars would suggest that
it’s even more true — that hyperbolic speech was very common within the Hebrew
culture.
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