John the Baptist was great initially, and he had the high mission of guiding Israel to Jesus.
But actually, he failed dismally at this once he met Jesus. Only 2 of John's disciples are recorded as having even followed Jesus - Andrew I think and another.
John even kept doing his own baptisms, while Jesus had to set up his own baptisms further downstream. Why wasn't John telling all his people to go to Jesus?
John lost his way. Up to meeting with Jesus, he did great. He called the nation to repentance. But after the initial revelation from the Father when Jesus arrived to receive John's foundation of work (accepting his baptism), John never followed, supported or testified to Jesus. Instead he went off on some tangent about King Herod, as if that were even important.
Finally, he even expressed full doubt and lack of faith in Jesus at the end, when he sent two disciples to ask if in fact Jesus IS the actual Messiah.
Jesus' response is extremely telling. He says even the LEAST in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John! In other words, John doesn't even make it into the Kingdom. He had the greatest mission of ANY prophet (actually testifying to and supporting the Lord when he arrived) but his failure was horrific.
Case in point: Everyone was asking, "If Jesus is the Messiah, then where is Elijah? Elijah must come first!" That's according to the scripture they all knew. When asked by the Disciples, Jesus told them clearly: John the Baptist is Elijah, if you can believe it! However, when John had been asked by the Jewish leaders, are you Elijah, he denied it. So he was on record as completely contradicting Jesus!! (Even John's dad knew that John was foretold to "go in the spirit of Elijah", yet he contradicted this himself!)
One has to ask, would Israel have rejected Jesus so badly if John who had all their respect, actually continued to testify to Jesus, and became his No. 1 Disciple and supporter?
Anyway, I'm just saying, I reckon Lin Wood IS doing a John the Baptist role, but I reckon he's doing it 100 times better than John the Baptist himself did.
John the Baptist was great initially, and he had the high mission of guiding Israel to Jesus.
But actually, he failed dismally at this once he met Jesus. Only 2 of John's disciples are recorded as having even followed Jesus - Andrew I think and another.
John even kept doing his own baptisms, while Jesus had to set up his own baptisms further downstream. Why wasn't John telling all his people to go to Jesus?
John lost his way. Up to meeting with Jesus, he did great. He called the nation to repentance. But after the initial revelation from the Father when Jesus arrived to receive John's foundation of work (accepting his baptism), John never followed, supported or testified to Jesus. Instead he went off on some tangent about King Herod, as if that were even important.
Finally, he even expressed full doubt and lack of faith in Jesus at the end, when he sent two disciples to ask if in fact Jesus IS the actual Messiah.
Jesus' response is extremely telling. He says even the LEAST in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John! In other words, John doesn't even make it into the Kingdom. He had the greatest mission of ANY prophet (actually testifying to and supporting the Lord when he arrived) but his failure was horrific.
Case in point: Everyone was asking, "If Jesus is the Messiah, then where is Elijah? Elijah must come first!" That's according to the scripture they all knew. When asked by the Disciples, Jesus told them clearly: John the Baptist is Elijah, if you can believe it! However, when John had been asked by the Jewish leaders, are you Elijah, he denied it. So he was on record as completely contradicting Jesus!! (Even John's dad knew that John was foretold to "go in the spirit of Elijah", yet he contradicted this himself!)
One has to ask, would Israel have rejected Jesus so badly if John who had all their respect, actually continued to testify to Jesus, and became his No. 1 Disciple and supporter?
Anyway, I'm just saying, I reckon Lin Wood IS doing a John the Baptist role, but I reckon he's doing it 100 times better than John the Baptist himself did.