Posted on 03/21/2005 1:36:27 PM PST by 1 spark
ABOUT a month before Easter this year, I received a poignant letter from a prominent Seattle-area evangelical Christian businessman, a passionate activist for Israel. He wrote to invite me for a kosher meal at his home — and to discuss Jesus.
He did not, he promised, intend to evangelize me, a believing Jew. Rather, as a leader in the growing movement of Christians and Jews allying on behalf of the Jewish state, he was puzzled about what we Jews believe about the Christian savior. He was, he said, "ashamed that I never engaged my friends in what is the most important aspect of their lives, their faith, simply because some Christians — not Jews — told me to never ask these questions of my Jewish friends, or risk deeply offending them."
With the approach of the most holy day on the Christian liturgical calendar, his questions deserve answers. As citizens of a largely Christian society, most Americans see Easter through Christian eyes: as a commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection, which won salvation for all mankind. My Christian friend was asking why Jews don't see Easter as he does.
In wondering, he is far from alone. The new political alliance of conservative Jews and Christians has aroused curiosities. Jews like me who work with evangelicals and other Christian conservatives are often asked, by friends and colleagues mustering their courage, how nice people like us could possibly reject the risen Christ.
How, indeed. The best answer may be that what distinguishes the two religions above all is that Jews never saw a need for the sacrifice recalled at Easter.
The apostle Paul, who originated the most distinctive ideas in Christianity, taught that salvation is not something you buy with deeds — in particular, not with the Torah's system of 613 commandments, whose practice he explained could now be discarded. Rather, salvation is God's gift. God gave the ultimate gift in the form of Jesus' saving death.
Later Christian theologians boasted of God's unmerited "grace" as if it were a unique feature of their religion, while Jews were stuck with a discouraging faith where you try to earn your way to heaven by performing commandments. This represents a misunderstanding of Judaism.
As the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to King Solomon, advises, "Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has already approved your deeds." At the same time, Solomon crystallized the heart of biblical religion: "Be in awe of God and keep his commandments, for that is man's whole duty." How were the two ideas reconcilable?
In the Jewish understanding, salvation came in the form of the covenant given to Moses on Mount Sinai — God's gift. The commandments a Jew performs do not "earn" salvation. They are merely the response that God asks to the fact that the Jew is already saved — "God has already approved your deeds." As a fundamental Jewish text, the Mishnah, puts it, "All of Israel has a share in the world to come." Non-Jewish peoples had their own covenant with God, received by Noah after the flood. It worked the same way.
What about the great Jerusalem temple, often depicted as a mechanism for "purchasing" forgiveness with sacrificed animals — before the building was destroyed 40 years after Jesus died? Surely, this made the need for Christ's sacrifice clear.
But Solomon also said that when the Jews were in exile, without a temple, they "should repent saying, 'We have sinned; we have been iniquitous; we have been wicked,' and they [will] return to you with all their heart and with all their soul — may you hear their prayer and their supplication from heaven and forgive your people who sinned against you."
In Judaism, repentance is always available to people, Jews and non-Jews, who wish to "get right" with God. The temple sacrifices were an aid to this, not a precondition. That was proved by the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. The first temple lay in ruins for 70 years (before a new one was built). If God saw no need then for a sacrificial Christ, why would there ever be a need?
The offer of Christianity, for Jews, amounts to giving up the unique grammar of our relationship with God, the commandments, in return for a gift that we already had. This is why Easter is a day on which we should wish Christians all the blessings of their faith — a faith, however, that if we understand our own, we can never share.
What about Miryam(Mary) ?
B'shem Y'shua
chuck
No. Are you Mormon? I think this is an LDS belief.
It's documented history. As you say, it doesn't mean anything to you. Because you refuse to believe doesn't make it any less true.
"We see him completely differently."
Who's we? You cannot speak for the entire Jewish population, because many, many have forund their Messiah in Jesus after searching and being shown the scriptures.
His earthly father was Joseph; however Mary, his mother never sexually knew Joseph to beget Jesus. Jesus was born of a virgin Mary, impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus' father was God.
It is written by the prophet Isaiah. 7:14:
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God is with us).
This prophecy of the Messiah was fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke 1:26,27,30,31
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.
To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was JOSEPH, OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID; and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary for thou has found favour with God.
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
Oh, so what you are claiming is not that they didn't "know" the prophetic scriptures, but that they (in your belief) "misunderstood" them.
I don't see how Isaiah 9:7 prophecies a second coming of the messiah.
After His Resurrection, however, He appeared to his disciples on many occasions, and they believed and knew He was the Messiah and thus they turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ, in fact, dying for Him, beginning in Jerusalem.
And that is a foundation of your faith. It is not proven and means nothing to me.
Here are some links if you are really interested:
http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org/explanation02.html
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/faq/faq042.html
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/j4jlibrary/leviticus1711.html
People typically don't like to be accused of things they didn't do.
He mentions Jesus and James. But some of the details of the passages in question are generally accepted by scholars as being later interpolations.
In my opinion, Christianity as we know it today is largely the creation of Paul. I think the historical Jesus would be shocked at what came to be taught about him.
The Dead Sea Scrolls do not contain any "New Testament" writings. Claims that partial fragments of "NT" texts were found have been refuted. The oldest extant, nearly-complete manuscripts of "NT" texts date from centuries after the life of Jesus.
Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Fulfilled in the Gospel of Luke 1:32,33
When Jesus Christ returns (in the not so far off future because of what is happening prophetically in Israel today and to the Jew) he will conquer evil and bring judgment and righteousness to the earth in his new Kingdom on earth FOREVER. That has not happened yet, but will happen when Jesus returns at the second coming. He shall reign over the house of David; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. This tells us this is future and yet to come. There will be a new Jerusalem, the City of God.
Who's we? You cannot speak for the entire Jewish population, because many, many have forund their Messiah in Jesus after searching and being shown the scriptures.
Jewish Christians are Christians not Jews.
His earthly father was Joseph; however Mary, his mother never sexually knew Joseph to beget Jesus. Jesus was born of a virgin Mary, impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus' father was God.
That made no sense to me when I was 8 and even less now.
Either Jesus was the son of God or of the Davidic line.
You can try to change the rules later, but that will not sway me and explains why most Jews scoffed at any such assertion at the time.
It is written by the prophet Isaiah. 7:14:
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God is with us).
1. The Hebrew word almah means "young woman" not "virgin".
2. For a marriuage to be proper, the man and woman must consumate the relationship.
3. Are you suggesting that Jesus was born before the Babylonian conquest?
None of the Dead Sea scrolls do anything of the kind.
Do a study of Zelophehad
B'shem Y'shua
chuck
B'shem Y'shua
chuck
That you believe this does not make it true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.