Posted on 01/09/2018 4:28:29 AM PST by Kaslin
I won't make any assumptions about how many readers noticed I took a three-month break from column writing.
Nevertheless, I want to explain why.
I needed the time to finish the first volume of the biggest project of my life as a writer, a commentary on the first five books of the Bible, or what are called the Torah in Hebrew.
The commentary is addressed to people of every faith and, especially, to people of no faith.
I have believed all my life that the primary crisis in America and the West is the abandonment of Judeo-Christian values, or, one might say, the dismissal of the Bible. Virtually everyone on the left thinks America would be better off as a secular nation. And virtually all conservative intellectuals don't think it matters. How many intellectuals study the Bible and teach it to their children?
And yet, from the time long before the United States became a country until well into the 1950s, the Bible was not only the most widely read book in America; it was the primary vehicle by which each generation passed on morality and wisdom to the next generation.
Since that time, we have gone from a Bible-based society to a Bible-ignorant one; from the Bible being the Greatest Book to the Bible being an irrelevant book. Ask your college-age child, niece, nephew or grandchild to identify Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel or the ten plagues. Get ready for some blank stares. I recently asked some college graduates (none of whom were Jewish) to name the four Gospels. None could.
But what we have today is worse than ignorance of the Bible. It is contempt for it. Just about anyone who quotes the Bible, let alone says it is the source of his or her values, is essentially regarded as a simpleton who is anti-science, anti-intellectual and sexist.
Our society, one of whose mottos is "In God We Trust," is becoming as godless as Western Europe -- and, consequently, as morally confused and unwise as Europe. Just as most professors regard most Bible believers as foolish, I have more or less the same view of most college professors in the liberal arts. When I hear that someone has a Ph.D. in sociology, anthropology, political science or English, let alone women's studies or gender studies, I assume that he or she is morally confused and bereft of wisdom. Some are not, of course. But they constitute a small minority.
Whenever teenagers call my radio show or I meet one in person, I can usually identify -- almost immediately -- the ones who are receiving a religion-based education. They are far more likely to act mature and have more wisdom than their Bible-free peers.
One of our two greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, rarely attended church, but he read the Bible daily. As he said while president, "In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man."
Were he able to observe America today, Lincoln would be shocked by many things. But none would shock him as much as the widespread ignorance of and contempt for the Bible.
I have taught the Torah, from the Hebrew original, for 40 years. Of the many things I have been blessed to be able to do -- from hosting a national radio show to conducting orchestras -- teaching Torah is my favorite.
When asked how it has affected my life, I often note that in my early 20s, when I was working through issues I had with my parents, there was nevertheless not a week during which I did not call them. And there was one reason for this: I believe that God commanded us to "Honor your father and your mother."
In my commentary, I point out that while the Torah commands us to love our neighbor, love God and love strangers, it never commands us to love our parents. It was sophisticated enough to recognize that love of parents may be impossible but showing honor to a parent is a behavioral choice.
In America, there is an epidemic of children who no longer talk one or both of their parents. In a few cases, this is warranted. But in most cases, adult children are inflicting terrible, unfair pain upon their parent. This is one of a myriad of examples where believing in a God-based text is transformative. Secular callers tell me that they hardly need the Ten Commandments to desist from murdering anyone. That may well be true. But apparently, a lot of people could use the Ten Commandments to avoid inflicting terrible pain on (admittedly, flawed) parents.
The title of my work is "The Rational Bible" because my vehicle to God and the Bible is reason. If you have ever wondered why all of America's founders revered the Bible, let alone why anyone today might do so, this book should provide an explanation. My ultimate aim is to help make the Bible America's book once again.
Understanding the Old Testament is an important help in understanding the New.
And the social reflection of the mores of the two Testaments has a lot of similarities.
Churches have become cold as a godless modernism has been adopted.
This article is right on the money.
Progressives have aggressively pushed society to abandon Christianity and replace it with worship of the State.
The two go in tandem.
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:39-47)
Dennis is dead in his trespasses and sins. I wish it were no longer so. He that believeth on the Son is not condemned.
He’s such a smart man & yet he doesn’t get it. Sad.
I suggest you read this.
What Is the Torah? All About the Torah, Judaism's Most Important Text
To believe in any god that would condemn 3/4ths of the humans of this earth can not be a true, loving and fair god. While I associate with Christians as good people I know that there is a Divine Providence that loves the entire world and everyone in it and not one is condemned. The Creator did not authorize any written instructions for anyone. Revealed religion is actually an enemy of the Creator.
Thank you !
I’ve been saying this for a long time. And how much of an Ego do you need to take a 3 month break to write your commentary on the scriptures ?
he had to offer his input ? Thank the lord, now we can all pray to the book of Prager.
Prager is a gem. Thank God we still have people like him around.
the primary crisis in America and the West is the abandonment of Judeo-Christian values
So obviously everything Dennis Prager writes is a lie and should be cast into the dustbin of prevarication, right?
There is so much info that requires deep reflection and contemplation that it can not be simply read as one would read literature--this is a common mistake made by atheists.
Its a challenge. Just as, I believe, any Christian that reads the Gospels and is not shaken to his core is not reading it correctly.
Can’t wait to read this. Prager is a spiritually-minded Jew with profound insight.
He’s 1/2” from being a Christian but doesn’t know it.......he has more spiritual insight than most Christians........and he has faith......”Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
So, you are saying Jesus lied?
The Holy Spirit agrees with Jesus. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. (1 John 2:22-23)
On the contrary, He has given men freedom to choose. Many choose sin and death. But God has also provided a way to salvation, through His own death on the cross. That's some God, one who would pay the penalty for my sin and only ask in return that I accept His free offer. Not cheap, since something priceless was given, but free.
The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
The condition he describes of ignorance of the Bible did not come about by chance.
It was a part of the detailed plan of Marxist/atheists to take down our nation from within - and they have exceeded far beyond their wildest dreams.
As I’ve stated many times on FR, my mother was a typist with the FBI in WWII and typed out their plans, and told us of them when we were young. Since I was 10 in ‘55 I’ve watched their plans be implemented.
Has made me sick to observe knowing what’s coming.
We are a mostly godless nation. The Trump phenomenon is the grace of God for a season, but the pendulum will swing back after his time - and will almost certainly be worse than Obama.
The days of our nation are numbered.
We must pray - and repent - of our lukewarmness toward God. May His grace lead us to return to Him......
The two go in tandem.Progressives have aggressively pushed society to abandon Christianity and replace it with worship of the State.
Socialism (under whatever euphemism) is faith in government and cynicism towards society and God. Those things go hand in had, because (see the first two paragraphs of Common Sense) society and government are in a real sense opposites.Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. —Ps 146:3
Jesus himself said that the unrepentant Jew doesn't believe Moses.
Ellicot states it better than I.
(46) For had ye believed Moses.--The present incredulity springs from that of the past. If they had really believed Moses, they would have seen in the whole spirit of the Pentateuch a manifestation of God, which would have led them to the fuller manifestation in Christ. Worship, and sacrifice, and offering, and priesthood, were all meant to teach. Their very name for "law" (Thorah) meant "instruction." But they accepted what the senses could know, and never went down beneath this surface to its true significance--i.e., they never believed Moses. We have here, in another form, the thought of John 5:39-40.
What's your opinion about Abraham? Elijah? Moses?
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