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Download: html Who Is Jesus? (Chapter 10)But aren't such beliefs rather bigoted and narrow–minded?Quite the contrary, Jesus and His life and teachings are absolutely universal, open to all men, and are anything but "narrow-minded" or "bigoted"! In fact, it was Jesus' proclamation that "whoever believes in Me shall not perish!", that so infuriated the closed-minded and racially-prejudiced religious leaders and rabbis of His Own Jewish religion! Jesus frequently helped and mingled with so-called "pagan" Gentiles, those whom His Own Jewish people had been taught by their leaders to despise and look down upon. The religious leaders and teachers of Jesus' day were narrow-minded in every sense of the word. They were sour, intolerant and legalistic, and felt that they alone had an absolute monopoly on God and His Kingdom. It was the fact that Jesus told them to their faces that the Kingdom of God would be taken from them and opened up to others — to nations from the East and from the West, to all people throughout the entire World — that infuriated them so much that they determined to destroy Him. (Matthew 8:11,12; 21:42,43) God sent us His Son to show all men, all nations, all people, what He Himself is like, to freely bring us His Own great Love! "For God so loved the World (you and me) that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Who Is Jesus?, Copyright © 1998-2010, The Family International |