“And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”  (Acts 14:24-27). ‘Jesus/faith’ in the Acts of The Apostles.

Time must be given by the church historian to the concept ‘gentiles’, particularly in light of the notoriety assigned to Paul as ‘The Apostle to The Gentiles’.  One significance of this text of Acts lies in what appears to be the first record of this mission— ‘to the gentiles’; “…they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”  Returning, then to ‘ethnos’, and the translation question— nation or gentiles?

Can’t approach it any other way than head on.  ‘Gentiles’ when used in Judaism is not ‘goyim – nations’ but rather ‘nokhri – a foreigner or stranger’.  Where a Jew in Judaism is defined by ‘one born of a Jewish mother’ or ‘one converted to Judaism’, ALL OTHERS are ‘nokhri – gentile’.  A long history of teachings surround the concept ‘nokhri’ to include various categories of ‘gentiles’ where Christians and Muslims are ‘ger toshav’.  This discussion is not complete without entering the Seven ‘Naochide Laws’ under which the Christian doctrine of ‘The Trinity’ is called into question.

While Young identifies 93 uses of ‘gentiles’ in English translation of the New Testament, all 93 occurrences have in it’s Greek text ‘ethnos’— always defined by ‘nation’.  Where is this ‘gentiles’ translation with it’s Latin origin and all of it’s separatism, it’s semitism, it’s imperialism coming from?

I’m led, first to the language of origin— Latin.  While the Greeks in their ‘Golden Age’ united the old world through language and culture to give history a period of ‘Hellenism’, the Romans show their might in battle and move history into the ‘Greco-Roman’ period where Latin is one of the languages spoken in and around Rome.  Very little is said or thought of this Italian language until the Holy Roman Catholic Church becomes the ‘Empires own’— complete with ‘papal orders’ that Latin would become the official language of the Church.

Several scholars have attempted to clarify the misnomer surrounding the use of ‘gentiles’ in translation for ‘ethnos’; for lost in translation is ‘nations’.

2025 America is being thrown, perhaps catapulted into Separatism, Semitism, Imperialism —finding root in a neo Fascism… which by historical definition is CHAOS!  To take these 4 man made “-isms, ‘belief SYSTEMS’ and compound them with a 5th, Racism —clearly identifies the ability of man to remove God from his societal struggles. THIS can only result in one thing: “A GODLESS Nation”.  Yes, the freedom that America holds so closely to it’s heart gives rise to any and all ‘isms’ as REPLACEMENT for it’s ‘archy’.

I have said since COVID (20)19 that “the State CLOSED The Church”.  I continue to say to the Church that the men who are in Power in the Church have failed miserably in even understanding or knowing the gravity of their NOT STANDING for the ‘Separation of Church and State’…but then, to return the Church to business as usual as though time has not put an expiration stamp on what they do.

I see the result in the CHAOS of State having usurped the power of church in that in 2025 the single power has moved their -archy into -ism… as a single, solitary determinant for the life of the entire planet.  MOTIVATED by man’s “love for mammon”.  What I am saying is a question that I raised previously: Does man, the powers, the principalities that hold sway in 2025 America… HATE GOD?

I love to tell the story of Dr. Howard Thurman’s ‘test’ he gave at the start of our Educational Trust Seminar.  Ten seminarians gathered, he read the entire book of Mark from the Moffatt Translation.  Then told us to close our eyes and to associate the word that he would say by writing down the first thing that came to our minds.  He said ‘Jesus’.  After hearing our responses, he sat up and said, “Young people, don’t put so much on Jesus.  Jesus is his own man.  It could be that God is calling you to be a Christ.”

Likewise, I believe that the Church has put way to much on Paul.   An ‘Apostle to the Gentiles’?  I think not.  I know not.  Through Paul, “God opened the door of faith to the nations!”

All inquiries By email: talk2therev@icloud.com. “Contradictions Not Final” Wednesdays on Zoom. 6:00 pm CST 7:00 pm EST. Join the Dialogue at my “Swellcast”.  At all times: https://SWELLCAST.com/therev