[20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (ESV)
I think this famous passage in John 17, the whole chapter a long prayer by Jesus the night before he is betrayed and the events leading to his crucifixion, has a number of moments that speak of the connections between humans over the unending generations. Even though this is from 2,000 years ago, when he prays in verse 20, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” as a young reader in a study group I remember we all noticed this meant Jesus was praying for us, we were the future people who would believe because others sent this story down through the generations. If we could feel that way after 2,000 years, why should it ever end? It implies all future humans.
I included the whole passage because of how he keeps bunching everyone together saying we are all one. This also speaks of impartiality. All humans are one with God just as God and Jesus are one with each other. The moral circle never stops expanding.
Then also, the final he asks that we be with him to see his glory, given by God before the foundation of the world...So now he reverses and rather than speaking for all time forward, he goes back to all time already past...in this way it is all encompassing. Ancient people may not have had opportunity to help others far away, and thus to even think about it, but like many other moral issues, he sets a way of thinking that we can easily apply to the specifics as our thinking evolves over all time.
There are innumerable new moral challenges as humans populations expand over time, many never mentioned in the New Testament, but timeless principles like this help us negotiate the new. So none of these things are specifically baked in, but the universal for all humans for all times principles are definitely baked in like fine pottery.
I feel the need to mention, I am a universalist believing all humans are saved (within Christian beliefs) and then expanding out to all religions a Universalist believing all religions are equally from God, on the days I believe in God, there are many other days in which I don’t believe in God. I like the conflict.
John 17:20–24
[20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (ESV)
I think this famous passage in John 17, the whole chapter a long prayer by Jesus the night before he is betrayed and the events leading to his crucifixion, has a number of moments that speak of the connections between humans over the unending generations. Even though this is from 2,000 years ago, when he prays in verse 20, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” as a young reader in a study group I remember we all noticed this meant Jesus was praying for us, we were the future people who would believe because others sent this story down through the generations. If we could feel that way after 2,000 years, why should it ever end? It implies all future humans.
I included the whole passage because of how he keeps bunching everyone together saying we are all one. This also speaks of impartiality. All humans are one with God just as God and Jesus are one with each other. The moral circle never stops expanding.
Then also, the final he asks that we be with him to see his glory, given by God before the foundation of the world...So now he reverses and rather than speaking for all time forward, he goes back to all time already past...in this way it is all encompassing. Ancient people may not have had opportunity to help others far away, and thus to even think about it, but like many other moral issues, he sets a way of thinking that we can easily apply to the specifics as our thinking evolves over all time.
There are innumerable new moral challenges as humans populations expand over time, many never mentioned in the New Testament, but timeless principles like this help us negotiate the new. So none of these things are specifically baked in, but the universal for all humans for all times principles are definitely baked in like fine pottery.
I feel the need to mention, I am a universalist believing all humans are saved (within Christian beliefs) and then expanding out to all religions a Universalist believing all religions are equally from God, on the days I believe in God, there are many other days in which I don’t believe in God. I like the conflict.