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Churches to Read Torah as Others Read Koran
Arutz Sheva ^ | 8/8/11 | Gil Ronen

Posted on 08/07/2011 5:42:30 PM PDT by Eleutheria5

Churches in the U.S. are preparing to read sections of the Torah on Sunday, August 13, in a show of solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.

The move is a response to an initiative by a group of churches that read from the Muslim Koran during their services on Sunday, June 26. According to the Faith Shared project, which initiated the Koran reading, 66 churches from 32 states joined that effort.

In an effort to counter the move, a grassroots movement of churches across America is preparing to read from sections of the Torah during their services.

According to Pastor Mark Biltz, one of the pastors leading the move, while Jewish communities around the world read the Shema prayer, Christian communities will join them in solidarity. “There is a special bond between Jews and Christians, as both hold as the greatest commandment to love the L-rd their G-d with all their heart," Pastor Biltz explained. "So I’ve also posted the Shema in as many languages as I could find on our website so everyone could see it.

“I am asking in a show of solidarity with the G-d of Israel, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that churches/organizations join together in one accord and read from the Torah during their Saturday/Sunday services this coming August 13 and 14,” he wrote.

Biltz went on to say that "The suggested reading from this Torah portion is the greatest commandment, found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, that we love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength."

The pastor is referring to the verses after the one-line Shema prayer. The reading will obviously not be from a parchment hand-written Torah scroll.

(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: churches; koran; markbiltz; read; reading; torah
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I can understand reading from the Torah because it's part of the Christian Bible as well. But Geeze, Louise! Enough already with the Koran. Are Imams reading from the New Testament to reciprocate? What's next? The Baghavad Ghita? Gilgamesh? Codex Nutal? How about the Kama Sutra? Everyone can just look at the pictures without reading anything.
1 posted on 08/07/2011 5:42:34 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Eleutheria5

>> Are Imams reading from the New Testament

They reject the New Testament.


2 posted on 08/07/2011 5:44:49 PM PDT by Gene Eric (May our dreams converge for a free and prosperous nation.)
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To: Eleutheria5
The Torah is already part of the Christian Bible. They should be reading it a lot already. Sheesh.
3 posted on 08/07/2011 5:46:48 PM PDT by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis (Want to make $$$? It's easy! Use FR as a platform to pimp your blog for hits!!!)
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To: Eleutheria5

Any attempt to equate the Torah, a revelation of YHWH to his chosen people, to the book written by Mohammed is like trying to compare the Ritz Carlton to an abandoned Super 8.

Historically, the Torah is revered by the Jew and the Christian. The stories of Mohammed? By neither.


4 posted on 08/07/2011 5:49:46 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis
Our first reading is almost always from the Old Testament(ie Hebrew Bible) the second reading is from the New,and they followed by one of the Gospel's.
5 posted on 08/07/2011 5:49:50 PM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the Wes)
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To: DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis

I think that’s the point. The Torah is part of the Christian Bible, and therefore suitable for reading in a Christian Church.

The Koran is NOT part of the Bible, and contradicts it in numerous ways.


6 posted on 08/07/2011 5:50:25 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius.)
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To: Eleutheria5
The Gita has some sections in it that are clearly of Western origin. Take a look sometime at the proverbs ~ you will find them more than familiar.

The Gita was assembled sometime in the First Century AD. There were already Jewish missionaires in India. Christians were to come.

7 posted on 08/07/2011 5:51:15 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Eleutheria5

What Church would be Dumb enough to read the Qur’an?


8 posted on 08/07/2011 5:51:50 PM PDT by Cheetahcat ( November 4 2008 ,A date that will live in Infamy.)
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To: Cicero
The Koran is NOT part of the Bible, and contradicts it in numerous ways.

So true. And it is so stupid when idiots say that we all just worship the same God.

9 posted on 08/07/2011 5:53:08 PM PDT by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis (Want to make $$$? It's easy! Use FR as a platform to pimp your blog for hits!!!)
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To: DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis

>The Torah is already part of the Christian Bible. They should be reading it a lot already. Sheesh.

I know. I taught my Sunday School lesson from it today. Didn’t think I was making a grand political statement.


10 posted on 08/07/2011 5:53:28 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (The solution to fix Congress: Nuke em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!)
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To: DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis

I agree. Jesus was, after all, a nice Jewish boy. Mohammed was not. It is blasphemy and sacrilege for any Christian minister or Catholic priest to be reading passages from that filthy book(the Koran) in the House of God.


11 posted on 08/07/2011 5:54:16 PM PDT by jmacusa (Political correctness is cultural Marxism. I'm not a Marxist.)
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To: mware

That’s good. Some churches I’ve been in preach almost exclusively from the New Testament and don’t use the Old Testament much. This is sad because there is so much good stuff in the OT and the OT is much longer than the NT.


12 posted on 08/07/2011 5:54:47 PM PDT by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis (Want to make $$$? It's easy! Use FR as a platform to pimp your blog for hits!!!)
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To: jmacusa
Jesus was, after all, a nice Jewish boy

The palestinians were claiming recently that Isa (Jesus) was really a Palestinian freedom fighter. True story.

13 posted on 08/07/2011 5:57:01 PM PDT by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis (Want to make $$$? It's easy! Use FR as a platform to pimp your blog for hits!!!)
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To: Cheetahcat

>>What Church would be Dumb enough to read the Qur’an?

Sadly, it is probably United Methodist.


14 posted on 08/07/2011 5:57:09 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (The solution to fix Congress: Nuke em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!)
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To: Recovering_Democrat
At the same time the men who assembled the Koran in Damascus worked quite some time AFTER Mohammad had gone on to his reward.

Fair judges of the matter have always assumed the writers stuffed ancient Jewish text into the Koran and the Hadiths ~

More recently translators of some of the most ancient copies of the Koran (written in pre-dot Arabic) have determined it was actually written in Aramaic (by those same fellows in Damascus where Aramaic was still used at the time). Not only that, it looks like the basic document was a missionary's manual for converting the Arabs of Mecca ~ and that, too, was prepared in Damascus some years before Mohammad.

Some items are rather obscure but seem to have been taken from an exceedingly old Torah.

The Koran wasn't exactly "written" ~ more like "assembled" with some Arabic history tossed in for good measure (and probably to make the Arab conquerers of Damascus happy).

The Moslem belief is that the Earthly Koran is a copy of the Real Koran which was written by God and is kept in Heaven. It is, frankly, impossible to discuss this with Moslems ~ they don't believe Mohammad wrote the Koran!

15 posted on 08/07/2011 5:58:49 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Eleutheria5

I can not find a list of churches that are participating.


16 posted on 08/07/2011 6:00:14 PM PDT by Beckett08 (Better a Mommy in The White House than a Commie in The White House)
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To: muawiyah

Hinduism gained its foothold as a survivalist religion for te Brahmin class, like Islam.

Islam has a system of abrogation built into it. In short, the “truth” of the scripture is that scripture which is most recent chronologically. If one writer early on said killing infidels is bad but a later writer said it was good, then “killing infidels is good” is truth according to the Koran. This system also enables Muslims to point to either passage to support whatever argument they need to make at the time. The contradictions enable lying to further the aims of Islam, which is to force Islam onto all peoples of the world. It is primarily a totalitarian political system to its leaders, even if its adherents to consider it a religion.

Similarly, Hindu early on adopted the philosophy that it would adopt elements from any other religions that the masses would find appealing and that the ruling caste could use to better remain in their ruling positions. Thus, in Hindu, you will find a lot of Buddhism and other eastern religions and influences from Judaism and early Christianity.


17 posted on 08/07/2011 6:00:30 PM PDT by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Prepare for survival.)
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To: DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis
Done properly, a good priest, or minister can unite all three readings and make it relevant to the world we live in today.

I happen to have a very good priest who always unites the readings.

If members of the parish take the opportunity to attend scripture study, he tells us the background and significance of each reading.

18 posted on 08/07/2011 6:01:03 PM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the Wes)
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To: Eleutheria5

Mr. “Purpose Drive Life” Rick Warren has his finger in this - I’ll bet.


19 posted on 08/07/2011 6:03:05 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: Eleutheria5

Mr. “Purpose Drive Life” Rick Warren has his finger in this - I’ll bet.


20 posted on 08/07/2011 6:03:05 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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