A quadratic equation is always equal to ZERO; exactly like any christ’s good deeds you would care to mention.

 

You’re right. Jesus needed a betrayer to deepen the plot: his best friend! All plotted in ultra secrecy. The trouble is that he promised to come back this time to discharge nuclear weapons at Armageddon!!Who is going to betray him then?!…

 

The Gadarenes weren't Hebrews, if I recall, so they had no problems with the other white meat.

If jesus had expelled the demon, then Judas wouldn't have betrayed him, which means god wouldn't have gotten a sacrifice (of himself) for our sins, which means we would all have to go to hell, where we're going anyway since we don't actually believe any of this.

The Bible doesn't say that Jesus could not have driven Satan from Judas or that He wanted to do so.

Let's see.  Caiaphas, Annas, the other Sadduces, the Pharisees, Pilate, the Jewish people (who kept trying to kill Jesus, thus driving him into hiding), Satan, and Judas and that's all just within the Gospels.  The New Testament doesn't seem to lack villains.

OK, first off, I do not want this thread to devolve into a little corner of anti-Semitism.  I need to say right upfront that I have no problem with Jews, I have friends and colleagues who are Jews, I have four grandparents and two parents whom I loved who were Jews, I have brothers and sisters and in-laws and cousins and neices and nephews whom I love who are Jews.  Because of my heritage, many would consider me a Jew, though I consider myself a Christian only, after Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus, which also happens to be a fine Biblical text demanding that Christians not persecute Jews.

I don't support bigotry against Jews, I believe they should be left alone to practice their religion as they see fit, without discrimination of any kind, and, whatever problems Jesus had with Jews he had with some Jews who lived two millenia ago, not with all Jews and not with any Jews living today.  So if anyone is offended by my beliefs, they come from the Bible not from my mind, and if anyone wants to use this as ammunition for some attack on the Jews, I think you've seriously misread the Bible and need some psychological help to boot. 

To the extent that I said the Jews were Jesus's enemies, I want to withdraw that statement now and apologize.  Many Jews were Jesus's enemies, but not all.

Now, here's why I say that many Jews were enemies of Jesus:

And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.  John 5:16

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.  John 7:1

So, some Jews persecuted Jesus to such an extent that they drove him underground for fear of being killed.  Those Jews were His enemies.

The other problem is that many Jews, like Cretans, back in New Testament times were liars:

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.  This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.  Titus 1:10-11

To answer your question, yes, Jesus preached exclusively to the Jews.  They didn't all listen.

Now, if anybody has a problem with the Biblical treatment of the Jews, I'd like you to consider that the Jewish Talmud has the Sanhedrin hanging Jesus for heresy and Jesus being kept in a vat of boiling excrement for eternity, so maybe there's room on both sides for some interfaith dialogue.   And for the rationalists out there, I'm pretty sure you agree with the Apostle Paul that we shouldn't give heed to Jewish fables, don't you?

Oh, I forgot Herod.  He killed all of the male babies in his kingdom to try to kill Jesus.  That makes him a villain, too.

The consensus here is that we could with pride say that the demon that took Judas for a ride is part of the salvation plan. No demon, no salvation, as it were. Am I wrong?

Jesus would have found a way to get himself killed if Satan/Judas hadn't done the honors?  

So was Judas' betrayal a righteous act in that it minimized bloodshed?  Or ought we to factor in the bloodshed visited by christians upon jews in reprisal for killing their god?

 

Move the goal posts and make shit up. When that doesn't work repeat and repeat and repeat.