The point - Scripture alone didn't "teach" the Word of God. It was ONLY the re-interpretation of the OT writings, "properly understood in light of Christ's Death and Resurrection" that anyone would realize that the Christians possessed the truth. But for every prophesy of the OT, for every passage that "points" to Christ, a "non-believer" could issue another point of view or interpretation of the same passage and deny that it had any relevance to Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, brother, it is faith, activated by hearing the Good News (not reading the Scriptures) that begins to change one's paradigm, to become Christian, in the face of persecution and opposition from his former Jewish friends and family.
I would argue that the Good News can be found ... in the scriptures.John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.Is it your belief that one cannot hear the gospel from the scripture ?
Do you suggest that there is some difference between hearing the gospel through one's ears ... and reading the gospel through one's eyes ?
BTW ... I would agree that the Bereans' scriptural search acted to confirm the gospel as preached to them by Paul.
Is it your belief ... that the Bereans' scriptural searching ... made no difference in their spiritual outcome ?
Perhaps no further arbitration is needed at this point. Perhaps … it shall endure as … a mystery.
Well, then the Bereans would have never been considered noble if they never made a decision, correct?
I would presume that the Bereans ... made a decision for Christ.
Is it your belief ... that the Bereans made some sort of decision concerning the Eucharist or needed to ?
Brother in Christ
No doubt! And they were given the proper means of looking at the Suffering Servant verses. Thus, other men came to the Bereans, taught by word of mouth the proclamation of the Gospel, it touched the hearts of these Jews, they looked at their Scriptures, meditated on it, discussed it, prayed on it, and began to believe in the Word, due to the faith that God had given them as initially brought to them by hearing (faith comes through hearing).
Is it your belief that one cannot hear the gospel from the scripture ?
To an uninitiated reader, there is a lot of "noise" that can give a person an incorrect reading of WHOM God is and His attributes, for example. Many people thought that the God of the OT was not the same God of the NT. Only by correct teaching were they able to bring the two Testaments together as one integrated whole. Only with external teachings and witness could they receive the correct "lense" to view Scripture through. We take this for granted, 2000 years removed, when we fail to realize that much of our beliefs come from our background and experience with others, and not so much our diligent study of Scriptures. Otherwise, why do so many people believe that by faith ALONE, we are saved? Or that the Eucharist is NOT the Real Presence, despite it being there in plain words? People, even Protestants, have a tradition that they read Scriptures through.
Is it your belief ... that the Bereans' scriptural searching ... made no difference in their spiritual outcome ?
I would say it was secondary. The Bereans AND the Thessalonicans BOTH knew the Scriptures, but the former were open to another way of interpretation - while the latter were not, being more like Paul before his conversion.
Is it your belief ... that the Bereans made some sort of decision concerning the Eucharist or needed to ?
I would presume that they followed what Paul taught, and Paul taught the Real Presence of the Eucharist, as did every other writer that mentions the subject up until the into the next millenium. Paul didn't teach a different Gospel than John 6. I don't think they "excluded" the teachings of the Eucharist - given that they believed that Paul's teachings were from God - likely expressed in the Power of the Spirit. Thus, they accepted all that was given.
Brother in Christ