I thought you might pick up on one of those early Christians being called Niger, meaning black (notice one 'g' btw.). I could have mentioned the Ethiopian eunuch also. That was before any reference to Italian converts. We know of no Germanic converts at tha time.Cornfed wrote: ↑March 16th, 2023, 7:01 pmDogs got the Gospel before the English. So what? Cyrene was a Greek colony founded on the coast of North Africa, which was effectively part of Europe.MrMan wrote: ↑March 16th, 2023, 6:50 pmI noticed your sig after reading that comment. You come on here and post the most racist obnoxious stuff about blacks being subhuman and you have a link to 'Final Version Christianity.' Africans got the Gospel before the English.
Acts 13:1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
Cyrene is in Africa.
And the Lord Jesus is a Jew.
Do you see the irony?
His mother was an Israelite.It is somewhat debatable whether JC was an ethnic Jew, but supposing he was, so what?
Paul was a Jew.... and European-centered religion? Before the Islamic invasion, there were a large percentage of Christians in Africa and Asia. And now there are multitudes of Christians in the global south, while a lot of Europeans have stopped going to church, or their parents or grandparents did.The chosen people now are the international Christian community as Paul made clear, God clearly always intended Christianity to be a European centered religion,
Israel's unbelief and God using Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy was prophesied in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. Also, consider these words from Paul to correct your attitude.and if you associate the current Grabblers with Biblical Jews then their failure to follow Christ makes them backsliding heretics and so is even more reason to revile them.
Romans 11
17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
(NKJV)