[Poison Pill]

Dan,

I think (hope) we have whittled this down to something a bit more manageable.

Yes, I view the Bible as more a matter of faith and less a matter of absolute divine revelation. I tend to see the text as divinely inspired but not always historically accurate down to the smallest detail. This does not lessen my belief in God or lessen my belief that events depicted in both texts don't contain ultimate truth. I believe they do. It also does not relieve me from my obligation to follow the moral code laid out for me in the text.

Again, I am not telling you what to beleive, nor am I interested in changing one word of the New Testament by way of revision. If I led you to believe I thought the New Testament was not worthy of adherance, that was not my intent and I certainly don't believe it. I just practice a different faith.

As I said before, I would be pleased as punch if The Passion led to millions of new observant Christians.

One final word on Foxman and the ADL (true story). I'm sitting in the synagogue one night after services when the president of the local ADL comes up to me.

ADL guy: PP, we would like you to come to our annual ADL lunch and join our organization.

ME: That's Foxman's outfit right?

ADL guy: Yes, that right.

ME: Well thank you but no thank you. I would'nt be interested.

ADL guy: (A bit take aback) Really, why not?

ME: You guys stand for gun control and I really could not see my way clear to joining an organization dedicated to destroying my Constitutional right to bear arms.

ADL guy (reeling) Uh well yeah. I guess I see that. (Recovers) You know I used to have some guns too until I got married and my wife made me get rid of them.

ME: Wow, she made you get rid of your guns? How did she do that?

ADL guy: (Matter of factly) She told me to!

Shalom
PP

[BibChr]

LOL; that's a good story.

It gives me an opportunity to return to something I missed, and to which I meant to respond. This guy's presupposition was that, because you're Jewish, you naturally are ADL. You find no such necessity. I'd say the same as to affirming the Messiahship of Jesus. He was Jewish, every last one of the apostles was Jewish, the first Christian churches were Jewish; it simply does not follow that being one requires the other. Regardless of what you've been told.

Then this question, from what you said earlier: are you saying that you don't believe that 25/27ths of the NT was written by Jews? See, that would be a serious piece of revisionism.

Finally, you say this:

Yes, I view the Bible as more a matter of faith and less a matter of absolute divine revelation. I tend to see the text as divinely inspired but not always historically accurate down to the smallest detail.

Two brief thoughts:

1. I have to say — not acidly, just honestly — I can make no sense of this.
2. When I said earlier that I have yet to meet a non-Messianic Jew whose view of the inspiration, authority and truthfulness of the Torah is as high as mine, you said maybe I hadn't met a real, observant Jew yet (or words to that effect). You must see that you, in your "inspired but errant" position, are providing another example of what I was observing. I believe the Torah is the very word of God, verbally inspired, truthful in everything it affirms in every regard.

W^egam shalom l^eka,

Dan