Posted on 12/13/2004 8:27:28 AM PST by Lando Lincoln
Up and down the street where I live, half the homes are lit up with Christmas trees, the other half with menorahs. The days are good and the nights are silent. Most of the time we can’t tell the difference between Christians and Jews. We’re too busy being just plain old Americans.
You have Christmas. We have Chanukah. You have Easter. We have Passover. Does this separate us? No, this unites us, for together, this land is our land.
If this sounds corny, well it is.
I am offended, however. Across this nation, in cities, towns, villages and school districts, Christians are being told that they cannot celebrate Christmas openly. Here, there and everywhere, Christians are being sent into hiding if they want to sing carols, display nativity scenes, herald the Ten Commandments, or praise Jesus. Even Santa is not kosher.
I am Jewish, and Jesus is not my God…so why am I so offended at what I take to be an agenda of persecution against Christians?
This is not a scholarly approach, so let me simply say that American Christianity is a marvel, a near miracle of tolerance and, better yet, loving-kindness. American Christians do love their neighbors as themselves. I know this from the pavements I walk, the streets I drive, the sandlots where I root for the home team. I am free to visit your church, and you would be most welcome in my synagogue.
How this happened is a mystery. But the difference between European Christianity and American Christianity is as vast as an ocean.
Let others provide the history and the details. For me it is enough to remember that Europe plunged its Christianity into the Nuremberg Laws and a Holocaust that has existed in one form or another for some two thousand years, and continues to this day. Europe finally produced Hitler.
AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY produced Jefferson, Lincoln, and a document that opens with these words: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility… and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do order and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Sound familiar? It should if you know the Hebrew Bible, as this from Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
Here, in this land, more often than not, those words have been turned into deeds.
Yes, we are a Judeo/Christian nation, and if it gets any better than that, I don’t know where.
Only Israel itself compares, the Israel of before, and the Israel of today. Israel is where our American heritage begins.
As Jews, we do not pray to Jesus, but we stand in admiration that true Christians adhere to His message of love, taken from our Scriptures. We respect your devotion as you respect ours. We honor your faith as you honor ours, even as we pray separately but live equally, in friendship.
From “The Hebrew Impact on Western Civilization,” we get this: “How closely the Puritans identified themselves with the Israelites is hard to over-emphasize…They actually thought of themselves as a new Israel…If Israel had its Pharaoh, so did the Puritans in King James 1. The Atlantic Ocean was to them the Red Sea. America was the new Canaan…The first book printed in America was the Bay Psalm Book.”
Of course we have our self-haters, bigots and anti-Semites. Openly or in secret, they pray in favor of America’s enemies and promote any cause that would harm or even destroy Israel. But they do not define this country. Let their curses turn into blessings.
Give me, instead, those Christian Evangelicals, all 70 million of them, or those 60 million Gentiles who turn Christian but once a week or twice and year.
Away with the restrictions and laws that deny Christians their Christianity.
Let me watch them praise their Lord with Christmas trees and jingle bells, for these are a reminder to me, a Jew, that I live in this land, this land of mostly Christians that have kept the promise of my ancestor, the prophet Micah, that this house be blessed by the shade of that vine and fig tree, and none shall make us afraid.
About the Writer: Jack Engelhard is the author of the bestseller "Indecent Proposal," the award-winning "Escape from Mount Moriah," and the novel "The Days of the Bitter End," which is being prepared for movie production. Jack receives e-mail at viewopinion@aol.com.
Yes, I want to be on your ping list. Thanks!
Wow, thank you for posting this article!
Ping
""What particular freedoms have you lost? What are you not free to do?
Here are a few, they are general catagories, if you get into specific cases the list would eat the bandwidth.
Start a business without permission.
Repair our own homes in our own way.
Choose our own retirement plan.
Choose not to have a retirement plan.
Educate our children in our own way.
Make our own business arrangements.
Choose our own medications.
Choose our own transportation.
Choose to opt out of giving information to government about our business.
Choose to keep our financial affairs confidential.
Choose to support our candidates without limitations.""
**Also what about -The affirmative-action laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Employee hirings and building codes. How about if a guy wants to smoke a cigarette nowadays - in public?
Ping.
I have been already for several years with the opinion that Israel is very much like the USA.
-Relative to population, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on earth. These immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom or expression, economic opportunity, and quality of life.
America = House of Joseph, a coat of many colors (multi-striped), gathered out of the nations.
Joseph is yet alive.
Jeremiah 31:7-10
7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither
. 9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
When sons are blessed "God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh", one should consider that there is a real live modern-day fulfilment of Biblical proportions going on here.
Jeremiah 23:7-8 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
Note the "annointed" crown (where the oil is) at the top of the head, separate from his brethren.
I HEAR YOU! However, God has a plan. May we all live to see its fruition:
NLT Version for Mal 4:2
"But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. *** And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.
___________________________________________________________
'... From “The Hebrew Impact on Western Civilization,” we get this: “How closely the Puritans identified themselves with the Israelites is hard to over-emphasize…They actually thought of themselves as a new Israel…If Israel had its Pharaoh, so did the Puritans in King James 1. The Atlantic Ocean was to them the Red Sea. America was the new Canaan… [ See http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Eze/Eze020.html#35 and http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Eze/20/35.html - EA]...The first book printed in America was the Bay Psalm Book.” ....'
Wow! Then I'm NOT crazy! I've come to the same conclusion myself, right down to the allegory of the Red Sea. However, King James was just the first of our Pharaohs. We've been living under 'Pharaoh' since our founding. [See The US is still a British Colony.] See also Psalm 2; we've been living under a long procession of 'kings'.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Psa/Psa002.html#2
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Gen/15/13.html
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Gal/Gal003.html#16
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Gal/3/29.html
I don't expect most here will agree with me, not yet, anyway.
Good post. Jack Englehard is welcome in my neck of the woods anytime.
p.s. George Washington and
Micah's Vine & Fig Tree Vision
http://members.aol.com/VFTINC/history/Washington.htm
Parable of the TWO STICKS:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Eze/Eze037.html#16
Isa 14:1 — For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. *** http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Isa/14/1.html
The Old Jerusalem is Not the New JerUSAlem
By Pastor Sheldon Emry
http://www.historicist.com/ojnj/index.htm
“Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
Engraved on the Liberty Bell.
You beat me to it! I think it's been a while since you and I agreed on anything. But I agree wholeheartedly with what you posted today.
Merry CHRISTmas to you!
Great article! God bless the USA and her friends.
I think the Founding Fathers made a covenant with God, and that practising Jews and Christians are keeping that covenant.
As long as we Americans don't forget where we came from and from Whom we derive all our rights, we will be o.k.
But ominous clouds are gathering and the Orcs of anti-Semitism and Anti-Christianity are hovering around, determined to break that covenant.
I like it; I like it!!
We would agree, as long as you are not suggesting that the House of Judah is dead, withered, irrelevent, cut-off, etc.
There are two houses. The House of Israel does not replace the House of Judah. It was the House of Israel which was utterly "lost" to history. They are not going to be found at the expense of Judah. Those who believe that only confirm their condition of being lost.
Just to be clear on that.
'We would agree, as long as you are not suggesting that the House of Judah is dead, withered, irrelevent, cut-off, etc.'
Well, I just lost what I had been working on for the last 20 minutes or so. Anyway, I never said Judah was cut off. The House of Judah became Christians as well. The whole purpose of the House of Judah was to provide the Messiah. Jesus came to bind up the breach between the two tribes. But I guess you know better than He. And I guess you and I will have to still agree to disagree.
Retrieved a few passage:
1Ki 11:13 — Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; [but] will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/1Ki/11/13.html
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Luk/Luk001.html#32
Luk 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Luk/1/32.html
Luk 1:33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Rev/Rev005.html#5
Rev 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, [be] unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Rev/5/13.html
Rev 19:16 — And he hath on [his] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Rev/19/16.html
Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Rev/Rev011.html#15
So no, 'the House of Judah is NOT dead, withered, irrelevent, cut-off, etc.' , not by a long shot.
If I misunderstand you, my apologies.
'The whole purpose of the House of Judah was to provide the Messiah. Jesus came to bind up the breach between the two tribes.' Should have said 'bind up the breach between the two HOUSES'. He also came to break down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Eph/Eph002.html#14
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
**** Gal 3:29 And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Gal/Gal003.html#28
Let's not rebuild barriers and walls that Christ broke down once and for all.
Well, the author certainly pays us a nice compliment, for which I am grateful, but I can't let this slide by uncontested.
Am I correct in understanding that this poor benighted fellow sees Hitler as some kind of apotheosis of European Christian civilization? An inevitable culmination of a "2000 year old Holocaust?" Ridiculous.
Hitler arose out of the ashes of European Christendom, which was set ablaze in WWI and finally destroyed by Wilson, Clemenceau, and the social left establishment of the post war era.
Hitler himself was virulently anti-Christian (and anti-Catholic in particular). He openly spoke of returning Germany to its pagan roots in a religion of "blood and soil."
In a sense, Christendom itself was a victim of a Holocaust. Not one that lasted 2000 years, mind you, but one that began in earnest in 1789 in Paris and continued through to the present day.
We should all keep this list handy every time we get complacent about how much progress the conservative agenda is making.
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