Thread by @WokePreacherTV

2 examples of communal guilt, individual repentance: Numbers 21:4-9 and Acts 2:36-39, 3:17-19, 26.

In both of these cases, collective guilt is declared or implied (“we sinned,” “what shall we do?”), but the solution is a cumulative yet individual repentance.

https://twitter.com/arielbovat/status/1417888384505114624

In the Hebrew for “when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake,” the word for “anyone” is ’îš -- translated elsewhere as “a man,” “each man,” or “one man.” biblehub.com/hebrew/ish_376…

In both Acts 2:38 and 3:26, the Greek is hekastos, again, “each one,” “each of you” or “every one.” biblehub.com/greek/ekastos_…

The Acts 2 passage is particularly important because it is one of the few examples of scripture touching on this topic after the cross + the resurrection.

The crowd was “cut to the heart” when Peter told them: “let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Even if he weren’t *the* Anointed One, to kill God’s anointed was a death sentence, per 2 Samuel 1:16.

So what was the solution? Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. That’s it. Right there and then. There has been so much damage to the church’s witness because of men who ignore or deride this immediate offer of forgiveness.

The Catholic Church has publicly absolved Jews of the “deicide” charge many times, over centuries, yet an unwillingness to extend grace persists in some pockets of Christianity, hurting our mission to the Jewish people (see Michael Brown’s Book Our Hands Are Stained with Blood).

Even outside of this exegesis, a few simple questions show this position does not withstand basic scrutiny. Can a person repent on behalf of anyone else? Does an individual’s repentance not count in the eyes of God if a majority in his or her demographic does not also repent?

The advocates of the collective guilt position do not answer these objections or even entertain them; as we saw this week from Kwon + Thompson, they can only double down with the “poisoning the well” logical fallacy by labeling the questions themselves as evidence of racism.