In Matt. 28:19, Christ reportedly commissions his apostles to spread the gospel to “all the nations.” The Greek word ethnē translated as “nations” in these verses is universally interpreted to include Gentiles―making it a complete reversal of Christ’s earlier instruction to the apostles to reach out only to the Jews (Matt. 10:5-6).
It strains logic to assume that his disciples could have understood Jesus’ last words to refer to other than Gentiles. How, then, are we to make sense of Acts 10 and 11? In these chapters Peter encounters Cornelius, a Gentile, and through a dream comes to the conclusion that the gospel is not to be restricted to Jews. He reports the dream and the conclusion to his Christian brethren in Jerusalem, who at first are quite critical of Peter, but then come to accept his explanation, concluding (Acts 11:18): “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Well, DUH! If Christ’s parting words to his disciples before His ascension instructed them to spread the gospel to the Gentiles, wouldn’t you think they’d remember it? Wouldn’t you think that Peter and the brethren in Jerusalem would have embraced rather than questioned the practice of reaching out to the Gentiles? Why, then, their surprise?
It strains logic to assume that his disciples could have understood Jesus’ last words to refer to other than Gentiles. How, then, are we to make sense of Acts 10 and 11? In these chapters Peter encounters Cornelius, a Gentile, and through a dream comes to the conclusion that the gospel is not to be restricted to Jews. He reports the dream and the conclusion to his Christian brethren in Jerusalem, who at first are quite critical of Peter, but then come to accept his explanation, concluding (Acts 11:18): “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Well, DUH! If Christ’s parting words to his disciples before His ascension instructed them to spread the gospel to the Gentiles, wouldn’t you think they’d remember it? Wouldn’t you think that Peter and the brethren in Jerusalem would have embraced rather than questioned the practice of reaching out to the Gentiles? Why, then, their surprise?
