Posted on 09/02/2006 7:29:43 PM PDT by topcat54
As I said your argument is not with me but with the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth. It is to Him that you must answer.
"Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2:37-39)
Sounds like an exclusive Greenwich country club. :) Of course, this near Atheist does not have much use for those Christians who think they are acheiving something useful or good by detaching Jews from their religious beliefs. Sure they mean well, but then so many do, who sometimes end up achieving the opposite. The term hubris comes to mind. I am probably missing the point of all of this in any event, and am just wasting bandwidth.
Less like a country club and more like the Marine Corp. Judaism is difficult, full of burdens- and that's even when everyone else is not trying to kill you.
Anyone can join out of conscience or a calling but you don't get much if any reward compared to anyone else who doesn't join but yet acts correctly under some basic human tenets.
It's not really a particular interest what they believe, except as I mentioned that it is strangely complimentary.
But, as a painful history proves, if I believe I am you, then your mere presence offends my reality and under the right circumstance I may be compelled to harm and remove that which offends my version of the truth.
Appreciating the dangerous results of such beliefs, even the Catholic Church has attempted remedies to old doctrine.
And those Christians who don't believe in Replacement Theology, but in their own solid place in God's Kingdom which is complementary to Judaism, don't usually have trouble with Jews. At least in a religious sense.
What exactly is Replacement Theology in your mind? I am not sure I have a handle on that. Is it the belief that Christians have picked up the baton, and incorporated the teachings of Jews into their theology, and work of Jews, as Jews, on this mortal coil is done, and they are sort of like the human appendix - vestigial organ - to be excised if it is perceived to rupture?
It's what this thread is all about.
Israel was blessed but no longer.
Christianity is Israel. Israel is passe.
Of course the human condition would damn what has fallen, once blessed but no longer. What is the opposite of being blessed? What do the damned deserve?
I think I have certain advantages as a more detached secular WASP from all of this. I just don't think that way. :)
Matthew was originally written in Greek, not Hebrew. Remember that at the time Matthew was written, Greek was spoken all over the known world.
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