Luke 14:23 A question for bible believing Christians

[jtartar]

Luke 14:23 says: The master said: "go out to the highways and country lanes and force people to come in, to make sure my house is full". This verse is not a command of Jesus, but, rather is at the end of the parable "A man once gave a feast". In the parable a man gave a feast and invited many guests. At the time for the feast he sent the servants out to tell those he had invited to come because everything was ready. None of those people came, they all had other things to do. The man sent the servants to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Then the servants came to him and said there is still some room left in the banquet room. The man said go out and find people and force them to come so my house will be full. This verse was used centuries ago by Catholics and Protestants in Europe to support forcing people to go to the one officially approved church in a nation. Today Christians generally don't favor forcing people to go to church, so what do Christians do with this verse now? I can't think of any way to get around it except to ignore it. How do Christians soft pedal this verse today?

Keithnurse,
When Jesus was telling the Parable of the Rich man who was holding a banquet, the main message was not about the compelling the ones to come.
In a parable, the message is ONE thing, not everything in a parable is to be taken to mean something.
Here is what Jesus was speaking about, and the ones who he was speaking to, understood completely.
Jesus was telling about His Father sending out to invite the Jews into His Kingdom, because they were the ones who had the first right, God's Chosen ones.
The first ones He invited made all kinds of excuses. These pictured the natural Jews. Then He sent out others to come to the feast. These pictured the Samaritans, who were relatives of the Jews. These did not want to come and fill the the man's house. The Jews, as a whole rejected God's son, and so the nation was replaced with Christians as His Chosen people.
After the first ones invited refused to come, the man sent out to get whoever he could. These pictured the people of the nations, GENTILES, who would fill the house.
The original purpose was for the nation of Jews to make up, what is called The Kingdom of God, a number mentioned in Revelation as 144,000. Since this number could not be filled by the Jews, God filled the remainder of the number making up His Kingdom, with Gentiles.
When Jesus was on earth he told his disciples that only a Little Flock would be given the Kingdom, Luke 12:32. At John 10:16, Jesus told them there would be other sheep who would become one flock, one shepherd, with them. These were the Gentiles. The ones of the Little Flock would be the ones having the First resurrection, Rev 20:4-6. The Bible says that they will be resurrected to heaven with Jesus, to be Kings and Priests with Jesus, Rev 20:1-6. Paul tells us that these ones will be resurrected IMMORTAL, they cannot die again, 1Cor 15:50-54.
Now, the ones resurrected in the general resurrection, both the righteous and the unrighteous, can die again, Acts 24:15, John 5:28,29. At Revelation 7:4 and 14:1,3, we have the number given again. Consider Rev 7:9 which speaks about a great crowd which NO MAN can number. This is the group of people who will survive the Great Tribulation, and live on during the Thousand Year Judgemant Day, with the opportunity to live forever, without ever having to die. The sealed ones, at Rev 7:3,4 make up that Little Flock, in comparison with the Great Crowd, and will be the Kings and Priests over the Billions that will be brought back in the resurrection, together with the ones who live through the Great Tribulation, Rev 7:14.
All who prove to be incorrigible, those who will not obey the OTHER SCROLLS, Rev 20:12,opened during the Thousand Year Judgemant Day, will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, Rev 20:14,15, gone forever.

 

[keithnurse]

Keithnurse,
When Jesus was telling the Parable of the Rich man who was holding a banquet, the main message was not about the compelling the ones to come.
In a parable, the message is ONE thing, not everything in a parable is to be taken to mean something.
Here is what Jesus was speaking about, and the ones who he was speaking to, understood completely.
Jesus was telling about His Father sending out to invite the Jews into His Kingdom, because they were the ones who had the first right, God's Chosen ones.
The first ones He invited made all kinds of excuses. These pictured the natural Jews. Then He sent out others to come to the feast. These pictured the Samaritans, who were relatives of the Jews. These did not want to come and fill the the man's house. The Jews, as a whole rejected God's son, and so the nation was replaced with Christians as His Chosen people.
After the first ones invited refused to come, the man sent out to get whoever he could. These pictured the people of the nations, GENTILES, who would fill the house.
The original purpose was for the nation of Jews to make up, what is called The Kingdom of God, a number mentioned in Revelation as 144,000. Since this number could not be filled by the Jews, God filled the remainder of the number making up His Kingdom, with Gentiles.
When Jesus was on earth he told his disciples that only a Little Flock would be given the Kingdom, Luke 12:32. At John 10:16, Jesus told them there would be other sheep who would become one flock, one shepherd, with them. These were the Gentiles. The ones of the Little Flock would be the ones having the First resurrection, Rev 20:4-6. The Bible says that they will be resurrected to heaven with Jesus, to be Kings and Priests with Jesus, Rev 20:1-6. Paul tells us that these ones will be resurrected IMMORTAL, they cannot die again, 1Cor 15:50-54.
Now, the ones resurrected in the general resurrection, both the righteous and the unrighteous, can die again, Acts 24:15, John 5:28,29. At Revelation 7:4 and 14:1,3, we have the number given again. Consider Rev 7:9 which speaks about a great crowd which NO MAN can number. This is the group of people who will survive the Great Tribulation, and live on during the Thousand Year Judgemant Day, with the opportunity to live forever, without ever having to die. The sealed ones, at Rev 7:3,4 make up that Little Flock, in comparison with the Great Crowd, and will be the Kings and Priests over the Billions that will be brought back in the resurrection, together with the ones who live through the Great Tribulation, Rev 7:14.
All who prove to be incorrigible, those who will not obey the OTHER SCROLLS, Rev 20:12,opened during the Thousand Year Judgemant Day, will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, Rev 20:14,15, gone forever.

Thanks for your answer. So, what you are saying is you ignore the part where it says to "compel people to come in" because you decided it isn't "central" to the story. You need to tell your understanding of this to the churches which put this verse on their signs for passersby to read: "Go out and compel people to come in so my house will be full"

 

[allright]

John 7 66-67 From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then Jesus said to the twelve "are you going to leave to"
Jesus doesn't force anyone to follow him, his followers are to witness and urge others to follow him by word only.
Joshua said "Choose this day who you will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve theLord."

 

[Muffled]

John 7 66-67 From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then Jesus said to the twelve "are you going to leave to"
Jesus doesn't force anyone to follow him, his followers are to witness and urge others to follow him by word only.
Joshua said "Choose this day who you will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve theLord."

Since you believe that Jesus isn't compelling anyone to follow Him then the logical deduction is that the Parable isn't about following Him. That does not prevent Jesus from saying however: Mt 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity

The compulsion in that statement is that of separation from Jesus. In the Parable those unwilling to receive Jesus are cast out. If that isn't a use of force I don't know what is. It is a very different picture from trying to force people to accept. It is a picture of making a very generous offer of salvation which if rejected can't be recovered.

 

[allright]

Someone is going to rob a bank. You warn them its wrong and they'll end up in jail. Its still their free choice whether to rob the bank or not

 

[Oberon]

Thank, gwk230, this answers my question. Definition #1 is the primary definition, so, anagkazo does mean force or compel. I guess the only way modern Christians can reconcile this with modern sensibilities about human rights is to say this means to urge people to come to church.

I'm not a believing christian, but I do know greek, so I can respond to what anagkazo means. First, Thayer and Strong are NOT good lexicons. The standard NT lexicon is Bauer's (it's german, but I'm sure I've seen english translations), and the standard ancient Greek lexicon is Liddell and Scott's. anagnkazo does mean to compel and can mean "compel by physical force" but it doesn't have to. In the context of the whole passage/parable, it probably has more of the sense "do your best to get them in."

Also, the translation "force people to come in" is not strictly accurate. The line reads: ανάγκασον εισελθειν/anagkason eiselthein. anagkason is an imperative form of anagnkazo, and eiselthein is the infinitive of eiserchomai, meaing "to come in." There is no object of anagkason in the line, meaning it literally reads "compel to come in" not "compel people to come in." The line doesn't specificy who is compelled.

 

[Charity]

Luke 14:23 says: The master said: "go out to the highways and country lanes and force people to come in, to make sure my house is full". This verse is not a command of Jesus, but, rather is at the end of the parable "A man once gave a feast". In the parable a man gave a feast and invited many guests. At the time for the feast he sent the servants out to tell those he had invited to come because everything was ready. None of those people came, they all had other things to do. The man sent the servants to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Then the servants came to him and said there is still some room left in the banquet room. The man said go out and find people and force them to come so my house will be full. This verse was used centuries ago by Catholics and Protestants in Europe to support forcing people to go to the one officially approved church in a nation. Today Christians generally don't favor forcing people to go to church, so what do Christians do with this verse now? I can't think of any way to get around it except to ignore it. How do Christians soft pedal this verse today?

We don't soft pedal we just beat you with a stick now....
My belief is that it did mean to "urge" or "suggest" they come in....God would never force anyone but only extend an invitation.....Come in by your own choice..

 

[Oberon]

My belief is that it did mean to "urge" or "suggest" they come in....

Suggest is too weak/soft to translate anagkazo, but "stongly urge" seems fairly appropriate.

 

[Charity]

Suggest is too weak/soft to translate anagkazo, but "stongly urge" seems fairly appropriate.

I'll go along with that.....strongly urge is much better.

 

[lockyfan]

Thanks for your answer. So, what you are saying is you ignore the part where it says to "compel people to come in" because you decided it isn't "central" to the story. You need to tell your understanding of this to the churches which put this verse on their signs for passersby to read: "Go out and compel people to come in so my house will be full"

A brother in my congregation said sometyhing about this.

When he finally found the truth and learnt it, he told the borther her was studying with something along htel iones of

You do realise that I am now condemned. I have to do this.

It is like that once you know the truth there is no going back, you are compelled to go forward both out of love for Jehovah and with the knowledge that if you know the truth and then reject it, you are worse than someone who has not ever known the truth.

That is what is compelling about it. The truth is so simple and great though, that it is not a bad thing to be compelled to live it, because everything in the truth is made to help yuo live a better life. A very simple loving life, although Satan does like to knock you off the path and you know these charges from him are coming, you still happily take them becauser God will not let you bne tested beyond what you can bear.

 

[Muffled]

I'll go along with that.....strongly urge is much better.

I think that is a likely dichotomy. An invitation is an oral request. So an oral compusion seems suitable and could follow the lines of "You must come in."

 

[lockyfan]

I think that is a likely dichotomy. An invitation is an oral request. So an oral compusion seems suitable and could follow the lines of "You must come in."

Yeah kind of like

Oh man you soooo HVE TO DO THIS its the BEST THING EVER.

Is that what you mean?

 

[Muffled]

Yeah kind of like

Oh man you soooo HVE TO DO THIS its the BEST THING EVER.

Is that what you mean?

More like: If you don't do this your a** is toast!

 

[lockyfan]

The thing is though once you know the truth you are under a compulsion to live it, but not in a bad way. Its a good compulsion because you finally have some sense of life and you want others to find out this and to find out what the love of God truly is. For Jehovahs benefit, their benefit as well as your own and