Cheryl Schatz

Robin, It is so good to see you thinking this one through. Let’s start with your first point. 1) Actually “all” does mean “all” in the Scripture. I think you mean that it can mean something other than every single human being. That is true. But “all” means “all” of a category. The primary meaning is the individual components, every. What category is Jesus talking about? If Jesus is talking about all Jews and Gentiles, then that is everyone for there is no other category. There is no option for the word to men only some of the category. For example, if the passage were talking about all of the crowd, then it means all of the category (the crowd). It wouldn’t mean all of the world. But in this context it cannot mean a subcategory of mankind as there is no subcategory mentioned. I do believe that He meant “all” as in all Jews and Gentiles because that means all people without exception. Secondly, it would not be like Jesus who gets all of His words from the Father to be imprecise. If He actually meant that He would draw some Gentiles and some Jews then He would have spoken precisely. In fact just a few chapters later, Jesus said that He would let His followers know what isn’t true. John 14:2 (NASB) “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. Jesus said that if it were not so, He WOULD HAVE told them. Jesus is not interested in being misunderstood or being imprecise. He would have told us what He meant. Thirdly, the fact that the Gentiles had ALREADY started to come Jesus was a sign that they were being drawn to Jesus. So Jesus’ statement makes no sense that Gentiles would only be drawn to Him if He died. Let’s hash this one out before we go on to the other points. I believe that everything you have to say is worth answering and considering.