I am an EX-charismatic-fundamentalist-bapist-xian

I am an EX-charismatic-fundamentalist-bapist-xtian (What a mouthful! It nearly choked me too!) in the process of converting to Orthodox Judaism and so I read your article for several reasons and would like to respond to you with some thoughts.

I believe that the main problem we are dealing with here is LACK OF STUDY on the part of both Jewish and Christian people and so, the average ordinary person is woefully ignorant of the TRUTH of the other¡¯s religion/beliefs and that is the root behind it all. As you may gather from my background, I too believed that what I was hearing and being taught in the church was the TRUTH, after all these were "learned men" of G-d, had gone to seminaries, had degrees in theology and so in the culture of being respectful to elders and teachers, who was I to question? Would I ever argue with my math teacher, history teacher or science teacher? They were learned people, had studied and passed exams, had degrees and diplomas, were recognized by their peers as educated authorities, employed by the schools to teach me.

As for the preacher at the church, he was the ultimate authority as he had the added privilege and advantage of being esteemed as ¡°called by G-d¡± to the ministry and he fell under the authority of other leaders, more ¡°learned men¡± with degrees and doctorates in theology. These were senior pastors with years in the ministry. So, to the mind of the average Joe-citizen, they MUST know more than me. Never question or challenge their authority because you will receive the wrath of the authority figures because you dared to question or even ask something beyond your ¡°faith¡¯ to ¡°just believe.¡¯ I suppose it falls into the parent category of, ¡°because I said so. And that settles it!¡±

Oh how I love the favorite Jewish word . . . WHY? And Rabbi said blah blah blah, but Rabbi so and so said blah blah, and WHY did he say that? Because of this and this and WHY was it like this and this. I love the questions and the arguments and the whys!! What a difference to ask why. Use your brain and your intelligence; don¡¯t just sit there like a lump taking it all in without challenging it.

Of course, do you ever ask a Jew just why they don¡¯t believe that the ¡°messiah¡¯ has already come? No! Do you ever ask just what that ¡°messiah¡¯ is supposed to do? Do you ever ask a Jew about these prophecies and get an understanding of them, after all the ¡°old testament¡± is the Jewish bible, so maybe they know a bit more about it than you do. In fact, do you even ask just what the Passover is? We happily would celebrate Easter, running around looking for Easter eggs, believing that we had the answer, Palm Sunday and all that and the poor Jews were left in spiritual oblivion by the holy spirit because they had crucified Jesus because they rejected him! We even have a whole heap of verses to back that up with. Pity the verses all come from the New Testament!

But thanks be to Hashem, the Creator of the Universe, may His name be blessed, who saw fit to answer my hungry soul and show me a few things that made my hair stand on end and hit my charismatic head between the eyeballs with a four-pound Pesach hammer! I never knew what the Passover lamb actually was and even now, I do smile to myself because if the people who actually started this false religion called Christianity way back then actually had an inkling or understanding of anything, they would have linked the god-man-sin-sacrifice to the Atonement ram and not the Passover lamb! How learned of them! No wonder the Jewish people never believed in the crucified ¡°messiah¡¯ Pesach lamb idol of the Egyptians!

You see, once you have done some Torah study and understand the specific timing of Pesach, when you read the four gospels, the OBVIOUS ERRORS glares back as you, but until you have gained that knowledge, you wouldn¡¯t know the difference. Now, when I read the gospels and see just how anti-Semitic they actually are, my heart is grieved because I know that most Christians wouldn¡¯t even realize that. Of courses, the other more glaring errors like Stephen¡¯s speech in Acts 7 just exposes that the authors of these letters didn¡¯t have a Jewish hair on their head and knew nothing of the Tanakh! Very ¡°learned¡± Friends-Romans-Countrymen they were. Eyewitness accounts? Where? Eyewitness to what I say?

Based on the inspired god-breathed words of Stephen in Acts 7, I have asked a few Christians to read the verses, and then answer the following questions. A mini bible study for them ¡°because it¡¯s good to have bible study. I use the Authorized King James bible (KJV) so as not to cause confusion about ¡°interpretation and translation¡± as it¡¯s been the accepted authentic ¡°god-breathed¡± inerrant bible since 1611 from 70 learned scholars of Greek and Hebrew. . . .

I then cross reference their answers to what was actually written in Genesis and Exodus in the very same KJV. You will know the correct answers because you have studied Torah, but your answers will differ from every Christian who reads that scripture in Acts and then answers it. I then show them that their answers are all wrong. Their grade is a big fat ZERO! Fail! But how could that be? How could the facts stated by Stephen, filled with the holy spirit and uttering inerrant g-d-breathed words be wrong? Lost in the translation? Confused eyewitness? Dodgy scribe? Or just plain false and invented by someone who couldn¡¯t bother to check out the original Hebrew in the first place. Plagiarism at its absolute worst!

That really gets the poor Christians up and thinking! You see, they never knew because they never studied it diligently, cross-checked and cross-referenced it, asked questions and made sure. They put more time in studying at school for a minor test than studying the most important and significant aspect of their life, their spiritual life and what they believe and believe in! Study, study, study. That¡¯s the problem because you study very hard to get a good grade in school, but hardly put the same effort into the basics of Christianity. Most Christians have never read their bible through even once and so are blissfully ignorant of the inaccuracies and errors. If you only read a chapter here and there in the New Testament, or a few verses on Sunday morning from the preacher, but have never read the Old Testament even once, how could you know if its correct in all its statements?

Apart from Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark, Moses in the bulrushes, the Exodus and Psalm23, the average Christian knows very little. Oh yeah, David was a king and cheated with Bathsheba, Solomon had to make a decision about the two woman and the baby, Jacob had four wives and a bunch of kids, Abraham had Isaac when he was 100 years old, Samson pulled down the pillars and Methuselah is the oldest person in the bible, but I forgotten just how old. Pretty neat for a bible quiz, but useless when it comes to understanding the depths of the error you are in.

I really believe that if Christians were actually TOLD a few things about their inerrant bible and shown just a few MAJOR discrepancies as well as a little bit more about what the Passover lamb actually represents in Judaism. To explain the Shema to them so that they can grasp the fact that Hashem has clearly made it understood that He is First and One and just what it means to make/worship an idol, you will actually do a lot of Christians a good service. I¡¯m not talking about the fanatical missionary out to get you converted to Christianity. He is so blinded by the light, he¡¯s a ¡°blind-guide¡± from his own scriptures (Matthew 23:24). Tell him to first read Acts7, answer the questions, get 10/10, and then you¡¯ll consider talking to him. Otherwise, you¡¯re wasting your breath. You may even help him by getting him to actually read the bible and he may spot a few more errors.

Rather I refer to the average church-going-indoctrinated-unquestioning faithful person who really thinks he¡¯s worshiping the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that what he is being taught by the learned preacher is actually correct. That¡¯s the person who may really need to be told a few truths. Not to convert him, but for him to see what he¡¯s following is actually false and based on a lie. If the average Christian had someone actually explain who the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob really is, they would be so surprised and also realize that its not who they think it is.

I really don¡¯t subscribe to the view that each person is really freely choosing what belief system they have. They have not actually freely chosen it by knowledge and understanding. Their spiritually hungry soul has just followed the overwhelming majority of the accepted religion of his family and community and if they¡¯re following it, it must be right. I call it uninformed consent! I am a medical professional and I smile at the politically correct (PC) patient¡¯s right to refuse drugs/procedures/surgery based on their choice. So they either refuse treatment just because they can and so deny themselves proper care and I call it uninformed refusal. Alternatively they accept the treatment blindly and so it¡¯s uninformed consent. Either way they are uninformed and ignorant. They don¡¯t question, they don¡¯t read up, get a second opinion, study available literature. They just refuse or agree depending on the day and who said what to them whenever. A society of confusion, believing lies from their preachers and pastors and ministers, so why question anyone else? If they would only get informed, there would be a radical change in society. We trust authority figures without question, easier to comfort ourselves that they are the ¡°learned clever trained ones¡¯ but not ever bothering to use the intellect and understanding we have been given ourselves. Are they really the ¡°learned clever trained ones¡¯?

If you are Jewish and have studied Torah and know your way around the Tanakh, you can read Matthew and the glaring errors leap out at you. The problem is that the average Christian who is reading the same thing does not have the same background in Torah and so believes what he is reading is the inspired, inerrant word of G-d because that is what he has been taught by the ¡°learned ones¡±! So you believe you are reading the TRUTH. You are told by the ¡°learned ones¡¯ that Jesus is the fulfilled prophecies from the Old Testament and so you don¡¯t question, you believe it. Just like you are told the earth is round, you believe that also! Do you ever question it? No! (Being taught that it was flat at one stage . . . must have been a nightmare to learn all that geography again!)

You are taught that you are also worshiping the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (They use the three patriarchal names to back up the trinity claim saying that G-d set the pattern in the OT ¨D three are one!) which is the Father, plus the other two, Jesus who was the ¡°creator of the universe¡¯ and the holy spirit who was the ¡°power behind it all.¡± So, when you hear anything about G-d and the Jews, you have it in your mind that it¡¯s one and the same G-d. That is why the Jews are often accepted by Christians because we are all ¡°worshiping the same g-d¡± when in fact, there is no similarity, no connection at all! I know many Christians who went to celebrate Passover with Jewish families and were so enraptured by the whole experience. Sitting at the same table, sharing a Passover seder and both on the opposite ends of the universe in their understanding of it all. The Christians thinking it was a ¡°type and shadow¡¯ of the sacrifice of Jesus for their sin, the new covenant and promise to the church, the Jews thinking of the exodus from the slavery of Egypt and the Torah and Mt Sinai. What a pity they never actually shared the truth of it all with each other and learned something!

Christians are taught in the church that they are currently in the ¡°Church Age¡± or the ¡°Age of the Gentiles¡± and that the reason why the Jews haven¡¯t converted is because they have been blinded by the ¡°holy spirit¡± until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. So, do they question that either? No! Instead they believe that they must pray for the Jews¡¯ ¡°lost souls¡± and that the ¡°holy spirit¡± will show them the way and lead them into the fold to be forgiven of their sins and live happily ever after in heaven; Oh dear. Also, the reason for the urgency is that 2,000 years have passed since the crucifixion and because of the corruption of the verses from Daniel, the world is going to end after one week or 7,000 years (based on a day is like a 1,000 years and a 1,000 years is like a day), meaning 6,000 years and then 1,000 years for the ¡°day¡± after Armageddon; the millennium reign of Jesus. As 6,000 years have nearly passed by (more or less, thereabout, 5,764 actually) and so Jesus wont return till the ¡°Age of the Gentiles¡¯ is complete i.e. the gospel must be preached to the whole world and the Jews begin to accept Jesus as the messiah. Otherwise, no show! That is why there is the urgency to convert the Jews, because without the Jewish people accepting Jesus, he ¡°ain¡¯t¡± coming back to fetch his saints and we¡¯re all gonna have to just keep on waiting and waiting and waiting; so convert those Jews, quickly! That is why there are all the ¡°Left Behind¡± books coming out (a whole seven books in the series and a movie); the fear of the mark of the beast, the 666, the Antichrist hovering around the corner ready to set up his abominable temple sacrifice. If the Jews get converted PRONTO! then the 3.5 years of tribulation will be shortened and all the saints are gonna be raptured out of here before the final showdown between the antichrist and Jesus and his saints. The church is obsessed with the second coming and the signs of the second coming and how to speed up the second coming!

The Christian church is watching the happenings in Israel with an anxious eye and the talk about the possible building of the temple and the Jews who are preparing to be priests in the temple are really getting things stirred up. When Israel was ¡°born as a nation again¡± after the Second World War and the land was given to the Jewish people, the Christians related this to be a sign of the coming of the end of the age! This ¡°prophecy¡± was supposedly foretold by Jesus when he said in the gospels:

29: Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31: And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32: Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34: Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

24: But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 25: And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 26: And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27: And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. 28: Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: 29: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 30: Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. 31: Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

28: And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. 29: And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; 30: When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. 31: So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 32: Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33: Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

Three Gospels said it; so it must be true! (No, they just all copied it from each other!)

One of the signs of his imminent return will be when you see the leaves budding on the fig tree which is the land of ISRAEL becoming a nation again. Israel is represented by the fig tree. The trouble is that the prophecy also says that this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Well, it been nearly a generation now and so the urgency to get the Jewish people to come into the fold is growing more urgent everyday! That is what is behind the frantic evangelism and missionary work of the Christian churches, especially the Baptist, charismatic TV-hype-type preachers! So, that¡¯s why millions of dollars are being tithed and donated to be spent on evangelizing the lost brethren, our poor spiritually blind Jewish brothers and sisters . . . whom G-d had supposedly rejected and divorced and got a new bride (the Church) instead. Always found that a bit strange that g-d could ¡°divorce Israel¡¯ but the church frowns on divorce . . . except for marital unfaithfulness they say which is what Israel was doing because they went off and were committing idolatry.

But if you should divorce for that very same reason, you have such a stigma attached to you because you didn¡¯t forgive the sin . . . so then I thought, why didn¡¯t g-d forgive Israel???? But you cannot ask such questions! Ironical isn¡¯t it that the very thing the church accused Israel of doing; the churches are doing themselves ©¤ idolatry . . . ooops!

Anyway, the church is watching Israel with a keen eye and anything that happens there is related to ¡°prophecy¡¯. The current security wall being built is even seen as the wall of the city in Daniel 9:25 KJV Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

The wall being built in troublous times - with all the security issues in Israel, that is certainly troublous times, is another "sign of the end of days" when jesus is going to return for his church and rapture the whole lot of them out of here. Its no wonder the church can¡¯t seem to find agreement of whether the rapture is going to be pre- or mid- or post-tribulation. Everyone wants it to be pre-trib because who wants fire and brimstone raining on their head and the 7 vials and the 7 seals and the 4 horses and the wrath of the lamb treading his enemies in the winepress! Lets get out of here! So, quick, get those Jews into the fold, double quick time. Spend the money to send the missionaries. Jesus is coming back . . . on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, soon to a theatre near you. The Christians want jesus to come back to get them, take them to the marriage supper of the lamb/groom/whatever so they can live in heaven in eternal bliss and they MUST get the Jews into the fold so all hands are currently on deck to achieve this objective. The fact that the converted Jew will then start tithing money to the church thereafter is just a good business bonus for the leadership. A profitable return on investment. The Christians contribute to the cause because they¡¯re "storing up treasure in heaven" where "moth and rust doesn¡¯t get at it". Its an all round win win situation and the missionaries are actually quite cheap, living "by faith" and charity, only receiving a small stipend from the church and are oh, so enthusiastic. What a bonus! It¡¯s only the big top guns that get to drive the 4X4 Jeep Cherokee¡¯s and live in million dollar mansions paid for by the faithful. The average Joe-Christian is just getting by, in complete ignorance. The church keeps its faithful obedient to its cause by threatening them with various types of excommunications if they don¡¯t tow the line. The Catholic Church had outright excommunication and so the person was afraid that if they died without the church, hell and eternal fire was his future. The Charismatics have a different version, called blasphemy of the holy spirit which can NEVER be forgiven. So every fundamentalist charismatic tows the line and even thinking that the Toronto Blessing is not from g-d is bordering on blasphemy of the holy spirit. So, who dares question anything? If you do, you¡¯re questioning god¡¯s anointed and chosen/called leader and so you¡¯re questioning g-d and so you¡¯re heading for the big fire! Fear keeps you in line. The church also has various other doctrines to get you to tow the line and only bring out the big stick if you make too much noise. The majority of Christians just tow the line, pay their tithes and keep an eye out for the second coming! Good, cause no trouble.

Christianity is not some benign harmless religion that keeps its beliefs to itself. Rather it is a doctrine that has used the truth of the Tanach to base its false idolatrous cause on. Christianity has hijacked the Torah and the Covenant and wants to claim it for its own. The very sign that was used by the Jewish people, the blood of the sacrificed Egyptian idol on the doorposts to be a sign so the firstborn would not die, has become the very symbol of a system that has, for the past 2000 years, systematically murdered, tortured, maimed, raped, pillaged and destroyed many Jewish people, families and communities. The ¡°blood of the lamb¡± that saved the firstborn has now become the ¡°Blood of the Lamb¡±, Christianity, with it as its symbol as it attempts to destroy the Israelites and any other heretic that stands in its way.

¡¤ Rev 12:11− And they overcame him (the accuser of the brethren, the great dragon, that old serpent called the devil) by the Blood of the Lamb . . .

The Holocaust was possibly the most devastating for one single event, but probably if one would take all the events the past 2000 years; many more Jews have died at the hands of this murderous idolatrous system called Christianity than even at the Holocaust!

The latter centuries saw the beginnings of the Protestant movements and having read the other writings associated with Martin Luther, (The Jews and their Lies.), then one trembles at the ¡°authority¡¯ and ¡°learned men¡¯ behind these new Christian denominations as well. At this very moment, the Christians may not be actively driving the Jewish people out of their homes, murdering them or plundering their property. It¡¯s far more insidious and sinister than that. It¡¯s converting them to Christianity; to assimilate the Jewish nation into an idolatrous religion, what Hashem repeatedly warned the Israelites about. Do not follow the other nations.

I really learnt a lot reading your little book and trust that you have gained a small insight into the mind and workings of the average Christian. I know that its not the Jewish way to actively proselytize the Christians, but maybe its not a bad idea to use the opportunity if it so does, to actually speak to a Christian and teach them to gain an understanding of what the principles and beliefs of Judaism actually are. Do not think for one minute that they actually know and understand the difference between their g-d and Hashem, they have just assumed it to be the same.

Leaving someone who is in need without showing them loving kindness and care is not the Jewish way, so is leaving them in spiritual need. If you see a beggar who asks you for money or food, you give it without question and he uses it to nourish his physical body. When you see a spiritual beggar who doesn¡¯t even know he¡¯s starving, do you just walk on by and leave him to starve? It may be the most kindness you show someone to actually tell him a little truth about Hashem and maybe the beggar is hungry enough to start looking for the truth himself. How sad that those Christians shared a Passover seder with a Jewish family and the Jewish family fed them food but never gave them the spiritual food, which is what they really needed

This brings me to my point. If I had known more of just what Judaism was about, the fundamentals of its beliefs and the truth concerning the covenants, the holy days and prophecies I would have been out of that false xian religion faster than you could say pesach a long time ago! Not one Jewish person that I have ever known (and there have been many!) told me anything about Hashem, Judaism, etc. Instead I kinda thought we shared a belief in the same g-d and we instead treaded lightly around the Easter and Christmas issue. Ignorantly, I never thought to ask either. But if I had actually been told a few things early on, I would not have wasted all the years I did in the church believing and thinking I was serving the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I wasn¡¯t. All the time I was in the church, I though I was serving Hashem and I was quite devastated when I discovered the truth about the ¡°Passover Lamb¡±. Well, actually, I was actively seeking the truth of Hashem, I just was looking in the wrong place. I have certainly found the truth now and am diligently learning more and more each day. Oh, the beauty of Judaism. I never knew it was so beautiful. The more I learn and understand and study, the more beauty I find and wonder how I could have wasted all the time bumbling around the Christian church¡¯s doctrines. I finally have the answer to my two questions that no pastor was able to answer me.

¡¤ How do you love the Lord your G-d with your whole heart and soul and strength. So simple when you have it correctly explained to you. And secondly,

It¡¯s all about the Torah. I would have been B¡¯nei Noach a long time ago, based on knowledge and understanding and questioning and study, not ¡°blind faith¡¯ in an invention of an over-active imagination. You got to give it to those early inventors; they certainly came up with a very successful doctrine! I have only one question to ask all the ¡°learned¡¯ preachers, pastors, ministers, senior pastors, doctors of theology, etc in the church. Just what were you studying all those years? How to deceive the masses? How to win friends and influence people? Couldn¡¯t possibly have been the bible? I spent 2 weeks in Acts 7 and nearly got a professorship in historical error! You spent years and years studying. Studying what?

I hope I have given you a little understanding of one of the reasons behind the frantic and urgent need to evangelize the Jewish people and assimilate them into Christianity. The leaders are the people who are actively encouraging the missionaries to do ¡°g-d¡¯s work¡¯ and bring in the Jews. It¡¯s good for business. Just look at the success of ¡°Jewish¡± Benny Hinn with his multi-million-dollar empire. He¡¯s Jewish and converted, so it MUST be right. For every Jew that converts to Christianity, the ripple effect of him accepting Christianity over Judaism just adds another weight to the scale of those Christians who believe it must be the fulfillment of the OT. If a Jew converts, then it¡¯s got to be true! I don¡¯t know how many learned Torah students would convert though. These evangelists are blind guides and ignorantly think they are on a righteous mission. They¡¯re just really good salesmen and need a change of vocation! They think they are doing the right thing because the church tells them its so and out of their empty hungry hearts, they think they are right. The only thing they are right about is that they should be speaking to a Jew, and use the opportunity to ask a few questions. A rabbi (reform) was telling me how he used to give a few lectures at a Christian university on Judaism and how his classes were always overflowing because the students wanted to know what the rabbi had to say. I was saddened to think that he may have done the same thing as the Jewish family who had the Christians over for a Passover Seder. They left being none the wiser, gained nothing and instead were only convinced even more that they were on the same path to serve Hashem instead of understanding the diametrical opposing difference. Some Christians are genuinely looking for answers; they just don¡¯t know where to find it.

"Now, when I read the gospels and see just how anti-Semitic they actually are, my heart is grieved because I know that most Christians wouldn¡¯t even realize that."

I don't know... the Torah's pretty "anti-semitic".

"Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.

When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.'

"Furthermore, the LORD said to me, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

Deuteronomy 9

Sad really.

Railing against protestant stupidities (e.g. the 'inerrancy' of the standard Anglican translation) as if they were representative of Christianity as a whole.

What was the advice Fr. Seraphim Rose's Taoist master gave him, that turned him back to Christianity and brought him to Holy Orthodoxy? Something about, if you want to embrace a religion, you must embrace it's most ancient and traditional form. Desiree seems to be taking that advice in embracing Judaism, too bad she didn't follow it vis-a-vis Christianity.

http://www.yucommentator.com/media/storage/paper652/news/2005/03/08/Features/Justification.And.Limitations.Of.Interfaith.Dialogue-880693.shtml?norewrite200604062335&sourcedomain=www.yucommentator.com

Justification and Limitations of Interfaith Dialogue

By Walter S. Wurzburger

...Matters of religious faith do not lend themselves to negotiation where in order to arrive at a mutually agreeable settlement both sides are ready to make concessions.

Christians, especially after Auschwitz, may have compelling moral reasons to reconsider the propriety of theological tenets which resulted in the "teaching of contempt" with all its disastrous implications. But Jews have no corresponding legacy of theological hatred which they have to revise, and it is difficult to see, no matter how positive Christians become in their evaluation of Judaism, how Jews can go beyond this stage where Trinitarian belief is tolerated for non-Jews as an advancement over paganism.

It is inconceivable that Jews should compromise on their eschatological ideal that all of mankind would ultimately accept the pure faith in a living God that is shorn of all such distortions as contained in the Christian doctrine of Incarnation or Trinity...

...Basically, if Jews engage in dialogue with Christians, they find themselves treading a treacherous and narrow path similar to that of the rabbis of old who were coerced into disputations.

Today we do not fear violent reprisals for the wrong answers, but the human reactions may not have changed so much over the centuries. What have we go gain from putting ourselves voluntarily into the position our ancestors were forced into?

Instead of promoting good will, such confrontation is apt to destroy it.

It therefore seems that the best avenue to foster improved inter-faith activities is to concentrate on those areas where the various religious communities are truly united in a genuine community of interest and commitment. It is in the area of meaningful cooperation directed to the social realm that religion can provide the most effective answer to the growing secularization of society which endangers Judaism and Christianity alike.

Wow, you must be one smart dude. You have figured out what 2000 years of study has missed. You have discovered what so many Messianic Jews have missed. You have fathomed something that has been missed by centuries of godly men and women. Congratulations

By the way, I don't know where you went to church, but the ones you described are nothing like the ones that I have been involved with. Open discussion and questions have been par for the course. It is too bad that you missed those, and the many great Bible teachers out there.

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