Christ, the Divider

Whenever Christ preached, or whenever Christ IS preached, it necessarily creates division amongst men. This is because the gospel forces men to confront and answer the critical question - "who do you think Jesus is?"

At the feast of tabernacles (Sukkhot), the people listening to the preaching of Jesus where divided into three camps, those who thought he was THE prophet Moses spoke of, those who thought He was the Christ, and those who thought Him to be a deceiver.

While the modern world would disagree, only one of those positions was right, the other two are fatally flawed, because the wrong answer to this most important of questions is the difference between heaven and hell. As we shall see, while it is belief that divides men, even a knowledge of what the scriptures say doesn't make the difference between believing and not believing. As John Calvin pointed out, when someone is predisposed not to believe 'out of the Scriptures themselves, which lead us by the hand to Christ, men frequently make obstacles for themselves, that they may not come to Christ'

The reason men believe at all is not a function of intellect or position, it is the result of the unmerited grace and predestining work of God!