Note: It says they COULD NOT believe, not WOULD not:
But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.
This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?"
For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,
"HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." - John 12:37-40 nasb.
2007-10-09 05:56:37 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Their unbelief is startling. However, Jesus' predicted suffering and death did not fit the people's idea of Messiah.
John quotes Is 53:1 to prove that their unbelief is predictable.
The consequences of repeated rejection of the truth is loss of the capacity to believe. Isaiah taught that some of them could not believe because God had hardened their hearts ( See Isaiah 6:10 )
2007-10-09 06:12:14 · answer #1 · answered by SeeTheLight 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
This matter in John 12 shows the real problem with being religious. Religious blindness and disbelief.
This arm of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Himself. He has revealed Himself through so many signs yet the unbelieving blind generation did not " get it"
I too was struck by the words" could not " regarding their believing.
These two.. the blindnes and the hardening of the heart are related. They are a punishment TO the unbelieving ones.
Isaiah 6:10
" Make the heart of THIS people numb. Dull their ears and Seal their eyes. Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, And their hearts perceive and return and they are healed."
This verse in Matthew 13:13-15 speaks volumes
" For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand.
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says " in hearing you shall hear and by no means understand and seeing you shall see and by no means perceive
For the heart of THIS people have become fat and with their ears they have heard heavily and their eyes they have closed, lets they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and they turn around and I will heal them"
Yet we see God's real heart. He knows that the Religious ones. even after seeing such signs and wonders STILL COULD NOT believe.
This Verse in Timothy also unveils something so precious about God's heart.
1 Timothy 2:4
[God] ' Who desires ALL MEN to be saved and to come to the FULL knowledge of the TRUTH"
Be blessed brother Jonathan
ur sister
sandy
2007-10-09 07:24:19 · answer #2 · answered by Broken Alabaster Flask 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
37-43 is the narrators very complex interpretation of why Jesus' signs failed to elicit believing. 38 quotes the Septuagint exactly. 40 does not agree completely with either the Hebrew or the Greek Bible. John was much like other writers of the time and adapted the wording to fit his point better.
2007-10-09 06:23:55 · answer #3 · answered by Capernaum12 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
http://cofy.wordpress.com/2007/07/01/john-1235-36/
2007-10-09 06:00:08 · answer #4 · answered by Furqaan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My interpretation is that John timed three minutes (or perhaps three seconds) on his watch.
2007-10-09 05:59:34 · answer #5 · answered by kent_shakespear 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah. Where would the whole Christian religion be w/o Judas....Or, how would there be anything other than perfection if Satan didn't exist? Where's this 'free will' that God apparently wants us to have?
2007-10-09 06:04:53 · answer #6 · answered by strpenta 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋