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| The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XXI.—The Call
of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold.
So you cannot get out of this notion of yours a
basis for your difference between the two Christs, as if the Jewish
Christ were ordained by the Creator for the restoration of the people
alone3390 from its dispersion, whilst yours was
appointed by the supremely good God for the liberation of the whole
human race. Because, after all, the earliest Christians are found
on the side of the Creator, not of Marcion,3391
3391 Or perhaps, “are
found to belong to the Creator’s Christ, not to
Marcion’s.” |
all nations being called to His kingdom, from the fact that God set up
that kingdom from the tree (of the cross), when no Cerdon was yet born,
much less a Marcion. However, when you are refuted on the call of the
nations, you betake yourself to proselytes. You ask, who
among the nations can turn to the Creator, when those whom the prophet
names are proselytes of individually different and private
condition?3392
3392 Marcion denied
that there was any prophecy of national or Gentile conversion;
it was only the conversion of individual proselytes that he
held. |
“Behold,” says Isaiah, “the proselytes shall come
unto me through Thee,” showing that they were even proselytes who
were to find their way to God through Christ. But nations
(Gentiles) also, like ourselves, had likewise their mention (by the
prophet) as trusting in Christ. “And in His name,”
says he, “shall the Gentiles trust.” Besides, the
proselytes whom you substitute for the nations in prophecy, are not in
the habit of trusting in Christ’s name, but in the dispensation
of Moses, from whom comes their instruction. But it was in the last
days that the choice3393 of the nations had
its commencement.3394 In these very words
Isaiah says: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that
the mountain of the Lord,” that is, God’s eminence,
“and the house of God,” that is, Christ, the Catholic
temple of God, in which God is worshipped, “shall be established
upon the mountains,” over all the eminences of virtues and
powers; “and all nations shall come unto it; and many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His
way, and we will walk in it: for out of Sion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”3395
The gospel will be this “way,” of the new law and the new
word in Christ, no longer in Moses. “And He shall judge
among the nations,” even concerning their error. “And these
shall rebuke a large nation,” that of the Jews themselves and
their proselytes. “And they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears3396
3396 Sibynas, Σιβύνη·
ὅπλον δόρατι
παραπλήσιον. Hesychius, “Sibynam appellant Illyrii telum
venabuli simile.” Paulus, ex Festo, p. 336,
Müll. (Oehler.) | into
pruning-hooks;”
in other words, they shall change into pursuits of moderation and peace
the dispositions of injurious minds, and hostile tongues, and all kinds
of evil, and blasphemy. “Nation shall not lift up sword
against nation,” shall not stir up discord. “Neither shall
they learn war any more,”3397 that is, the
provocation of hostilities; so that you here learn that Christ is
promised not as powerful in war, but pursuing peace. Now you must deny
either that these things were predicted, although they are plainly
seen, or that they have been accomplished, although you read of them;
else, if you cannot deny either one fact or the other, they must have
been accomplished in Him of whom they were predicted. For look at the
entire course of His call up to the present time from its beginning,
how it is addressed to the nations (Gentiles) who are in these last
days approaching to God the Creator, and not to proselytes, whose
election3398 was rather an event
of the earliest days. Verily the apostles have annulled3399
3399 Junius explains the
author’s induxerunt by deleverunt; i.e., “they
annulled your opinion about proselytes being the sole called, by their
promulgation of the gospel.” | that belief of yours.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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