Cheryl Schatz

Welcome to my blog, Derek! You are special because you are the first to comment 🙂 Thanks for the encouragement! BTW I removed your duplicate post. I am just working through the kinks as I get to know the new blog format myself. Your question/comments are a valid thought. The question we need to ask is whether Jesus identified John as outside the kingdom because of his unbelief or because there were two covenants during this time and John had not entered the new covenant. I do not believe that Jesus’ words to John can be seen as John being like the OT saints while the rest of the Christians were in the NT kingdom. Here is why: 1. There is only one kingdom of God not two. A person is either in the kingdom of God or outside of it. 2. At the time that Jesus spoke, He said that there are people in the kingdom right now (present tense). 3. Jesus did not base His statement that John is not in the kingdom right now on the basis of an OT covenant, but as a result of John’s confession of unbelief. 4. Abraham was set up as the Father of the New Covenant by faith and he was before John’s time. 5. No OT saint was in the OT covenant by grace without faith. Faith was always the basis of entrance into God’s kingdom before and after Jesus. 6. Jesus links John’s confession of unbelief to the cause of someone taking offence. Jesus did not link John’s unbelief to a lesser covenant. It is my opinion that we need to pay close attention to the inspired words and the inspired grammar of God’s Word for these will either establish our view or correct our view. I desire earnestly to know the Word of God intimately by allowing the inspired words to light the way for me. I never want to be in a place where I am stuck to tradition so that I cannot hear the Word. The Word is that important to me. I look forward to your comments on this post or others as we continue to look at the Sovereignty of God.