***The HS leads all believers at varying paces, and all believers reflect the HS’s leadership to varying degrees.***
The very term “lead” indicates that there are those who choose to follow, and, by corollary, those who choose to not follow.
***You can’t tell me that if you could snatch any two Popes from history and throw them in the same room they would agree on everything important.***
No, but I would tell you that the Church is not the Pope, nor is it any or all of them. It matters that the Church is correct, not any man within it.
***The failure of the Jews was always part of His plan, which fit neatly and perfectly with His plan to then bring in the Gentiles, as a group.***
Are you saying that God really didn’t mean that the Jews were the Chosen People? Was God lying? Did He really mean that by “Chosen People”, he meant chosen for hell? This does not follow Scripture in any way.
***Not in the sense that I think you mean it. God is simply not a failure. :) Does it make no sense at all that God used the failure of the Jews to usher in the inclusion of the Gentiles, and that it was all planned? It flows perfectly to me. I mean, we DO have the luxury of 20-20 hindsight. This part is supposed to be easy. :)***
God tried everything to lead the Jews to Christ, short of frogmarching them. Isn’t this an indicator that if He didn’t do it with the Chosen People, He doesn’t do it to anyone else?
The very term “lead” indicates that there are those who choose to follow, and, by corollary, those who choose to not follow.
I don't think we can draw that connection necessarily, at least in the way we commonly use the word "choose". For example, soldiers are drafted and they are led by leaders. If their "choice" is between following that lead or being shot, then there really isn't a connection. Of course there is no comparison to our state with God here. With God, He leads, but unlike normal draftees, He has already prepared them to WANT to follow. There is no force or threat against will at that point. You have called it frogmarching, which implies to me something that is against the will. That isn't how it works, except for the original touch of Holy Spirit. If it is that original touch that is found to be offensive, then all I can do is report that I have never in my life met another Christian, who believes that God changes hearts, who has ever regretted being so touched.
Are you saying that God really didn’t mean that the Jews were the Chosen People? Was God lying? Did He really mean that by “Chosen People”, he meant chosen for hell? This does not follow Scripture in any way.
God was not lying. :) But first we have to decide what "chosen people" means. We can look at this:
Deut 7:6-8 : 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
This does not say that all Jews, by virtue of their birth to Jewish parents, are automatically saved and go to Heaven. Genesis 12 says that the Jews were chosen to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. They were also chosen to be a light to the gentiles. John Gill, in his “Exposition of the Entire Bible” says the Jews were “chosen for special service and worship, and to enjoy special privileges and benefits, civil and religious; though they were not chosen to special grace…or eternal glory.” That only makes sense since the rules for salvation have never changed. Everyone who has ever been or ever will be saved has been so by grace through faith.
God tried everything to lead the Jews to Christ, short of frogmarching them. Isn’t this an indicator that if He didn’t do it with the Chosen People, He doesn’t do it to anyone else?
An omniscient God does not need to "try everything". Rather, He DID everything in order to "get" all the Jews He wanted to be with Him in Heaven. None were lost, as the Bible tells us. So, there is no issue of Him "not doing it" with His chosen people.