By RICHARD N. OSTLING AP Religion Writer, the Sun Sentinel
Intro by author of article:
Much Jewish-Christian dialogue merely rehashes historical grievances or fosters superficial goodwill. More substantive discussion of religious differences is hampered by Orthodox Judaism's policy of shunning talks with Christianity.
My response to this:
I've been involved in a Jewish-christian alliance online and I know what he means. One thing that mostly occurred with the organizer of the alliance was "rehashes historical grievances." This man can tell you all the horrid things done to Jews by so-called Christians. But he really doesn't want people to try to convince others, Jewish others, of their theology, which I agree with. But I wondered if the alliance was really succeeding.
Author of article, again;
Rabbi Jacob Neusner wants to fill that vacuum and "take up an argument postponed for nearly 2,000 years." His claim is overly grand, but he does make a noteworthy contribution in the 1993 book A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, recently reissued in a revised edition (McGill-Queen's University Press). Neusner, a prolific Jewish author, teaches at the University of South Florida...
The book sidesteps modern scholars' endless arguments about whether Jesus actually did this or said that, preferring to take the four Gospels in their entirety and confront Jesus as believed in by ordinary Christians. Neusner skips the Gospels' miracles, crucifixion and resurrection, concentrating instead on Jesus' teaching, mostly from Matthew's Gospel.
Though Neusner belongs to Reform Judaism, which celebrates individualism and freedom from tradition, he's a traditionalist who amiably dissents from Jesus' interpretations of the Torah, God-given Jewish law in what Christians call the Old Testament.
"Where Jesus diverges from the revelation by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, he is wrong and Moses is right," he maintains.
Starting with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Neusner says Jews can appreciate Jesus' opening Beatitudes ("Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ...").
He also endorses the way Jesus develops three of the Ten Commandments:
My response:
I like his use of the word "develops" bc Jesus did explicate the old writings, however, there's a new testament passage that states that if everything was written that could be written there would not be room for all the books that would be written. It seems to me that more writing is always necessary if relying on the written word to explicate well what anyone was trying to say. Paul's writings were misunderstood, I believe, when writing what became Calvinist theology. If Paul could be here to explain better we would get a better picture. This is true about things spoken by Jesus. Right here Neusner, who has now passed, refers to several of the passages that I've noticed were in need of more words.
I'm not saying that translators failed. Preserving ancient Jewish writing and ancient early church writing against all the darkness of the ages past is a miracle. And those who were doing such work themselves were still waiting for more revelation.
This writer of the article refers to Neusner's writing, who brought up many passages I've looked at lately and have seen where the meaning was misconstrued. Bc, think of it rationally, if we believe in Jesus as the Christ, then it would follow that He would not contradict the old writings. Develop them, yes, contradict them, no.
I've noticed that people who find certain interpretations, particularly ones that suit their evil nature only make their conclusions from one word, one word that could have been a different word choice and the meaning would be so altered.
Revelation 12: 11
And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death.
This is how many who look for a victory by Satan over Christians and Jews determine that Revelation is telling them of the death of these people when in fact I now notice that ONE word "the" that is in some translations causes it to read, " they did not love their lives into THE death."
Now I realize the passage was telling that those who love God, overcame the devil and were those, it's delineating who now, were the ones who did not love their lives unto the second death. "The" refers to the second death.
I can just hear the complaint of those who think God is unfair. How could He leave us in the lurch? How could He not make it clear?
There are people who have been saved merely by observing the order in nature that comes from a sane creator, no words, no scripture. There are those who have been saved by being only taught Islam but see a loving Allah. The Bible has made clear we live by faith not knowledge. Faith is about a heart open to God.
Jeremiah 23 says (and I spend much more time in that old book than the new)
"In the latter day you will understand." I guess God was saying, as you get closer to things that will be, it will become more clear.
Also, one needs a relationship with God and must open their heart to God for the indwelling holy spirit to understand anything related to God's kingdom. Otherwise, now I see the Bible can actually bring evil results for evil people, to read it in the common tongue. A Bible should have a warning like a cigarette pack. "If you don't meet the criteria, this book may take your soul from comatose to complete death."
Satan stands by to use this book for his purposes and is always ready to deceive. But people are deceived by their hearts being wrong. It's human evil the devil preys upon. Human evil is our problem as talked about in Jeremiah 17 more than Satan. You can see how centuries of one human living before the flood could cause that human to develop into unbearable wickedness. God HAD to shorten our lives!!
But knowledge doesn't redeem souls. God said HIS PEOPLE perish (die or have bad happen) for lack of knowledge. It talks only of God's own, not people in general.
One passage that really stands out is the one about honoring parents and Jesus talking about setting family members against ea other. Oh my!!
Neusner COMPLETELY misunderstood this one! And you wonder, why didn't anyone try to help him understand this passage? Or did they? Or did they deliver their message with a bad attitude? It's amazing all the efforts by false Christianity to keep Jews from ever seeing the light! What were they afraid of? A Jew enlightened? The old testament talks about how people feared Jews bc of their God
So, I'll try to explicate. Keep in mind, it's the written word which can be misunderstood.
Look at the book of Micah. Chapter 7. It says mother and daughter are enemies. It says beware of the one "who lies in your bosom." That's a spouse! And see how almost identical it is to the passage in Matthew that says almost the same words. But now Jesus makes clear it's on account of HIM! But it WAS bc of Him in the Old book it's just that He was hidden there.
It's talking about the very choice you see in the first book of the Bible, in Genesis where God says choose between life and death. This is where Calvin beliefs and ideas about evil humans being the union of Satan and man are null. Bc the choice is made by people from the same blood line, one chooses life, the other death. That's why you find your worst enemies in your family. The sayng "familiarity breeds contempt" only applies when as one becomes better acquainted with a soul they become closer to the thing they rejected and thus the other person becomes more and more contemptible.
This would be more likely if you know someone lifelong and have the chance to know them by sharing space as you do with family.
This is probably the main reason for a failed marriage especially when someone has been deceiving someone to get into the relationship and now the deceived one is finding out the truth. "Beware of the one who lies in your bosom."
In Genesis God says there will be enmity between Satan's children and God's. And there are no other TYPES of people on the earth.
How is it on account of Jesus? How is it on account of Messiah? Bc Messiah amplifies the choice for life which conversely amplifies the choice of death. John 3 says "they are condemned already BECAUSE they did not believe in the only son of God." Now God has made a greater provision for redemption. God does not take lightly that this gift is rejected by humans whose main plight is their inability to do right! That they would put a fist to God and insist that they need no help causes Him to hate them as the book says He hated Esau! Esau was giving up his soul.
Satan thus sees more clearly humans who are rightfully his own. And I shudder to think of what Satan makes out of the clay of human! Don't get me wrong. Satan never created anything. He only gets humans to cooperate with defiling the image of He whose image they were made in. It's Satan's pleasure due to his hatred of God.
Sadly it is a hatred shared by humans.
That brings me to talk about Jesus "developing" the first commandment. You see only the words in Exodus, "you shall have no other gods before Me."
So Jesus said "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Here is where loving oneself is a commandment. People hate themselves bc they hate God whose image they are. We only are able to love other people by means of love from God, then love for ourselves, but loving ourselves bc we love God.
He really developed that commandment!
Going back to what Neusner said about honoring parents in Moses' law and how he thought Jesus contradicted this! This is where, I find, honoring them becomes so difficult. If they are evil, they are your enemy, difficult. Difficult yes, but we will find God's blessing, as He said, long life, if we do honor them anyway. Here is where one wonders, has to find answers, when evil comes from parents. Of course, condoning their evil God doesn't want.
And as Neusner stated, misunderstanding also Jesus talking about what seemed to say we should not confront evil, yes we SHOULD. I see now Jesus was talking about application of said concept, not about leaving evil to grow and take over!! Turn the cheek. If someone strikes you on the cheek, don't let anger force you to immediately retaliate. Stand back, evaluate, find a strategy against the evil, don't just react!
Again, rational thinking tells you the God who killed off all humans save only a small small number to confront their evil that He found contemptible, would not come to earth as a wimpy male. Jesus walked with such immense power coming from the holy spirit, the tangible part of God who heals, and effects our physical world, and could walk through a crowd. He used whips in a church to show anger. We need more whips in churches!
He called pharisees a brood of vipers, sons of the devil! Clearly much is misunderstood! Sure, bc of Satan and his schemes, which would have no effect without humans by which he works! Humans who do his work and have to pay for HIS sins in hell.
Neusner, as it appears, was very positively impacted by Jesus, yet confused by things said he didn't understand. Neusner credited Jesus for just about every positive development in the west, credited him for civilizing the west! Amazing, bc he was a contemporary of Holocaust Jews!
But misunderstanding of scripture has plagued everyone, including Christians, since time immemorial. And in the words of Thomas Paine, founding father, it's been a tremendously "prosperous invention of the devil." But, again, only with human cooperation.
I know Neusner did not seem to think Jesus was in favor of Moses' law. But Jesus DID say He was the fulfilling of the law. I can see an example of this in looking at His "development" of that first commandment. He says that we must love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls, and our neighbor as well as ourselves. Now, I cannot muster up love for God. In my journey I have recognized His love for me. I have had the opportunity to realize His presence. As a result, I found myself simply experiencing something akin to falling in love. I just couldn't help loving God. So I find myself fulfilling this commandment but it is coming from within my heart. This is what Jesus does.
What also ensued is that to draw near to God I knew I needed to deal with evil in my life, but was enabled by the desire to be close to Him and by His amazing grace. This also is what Jesus does.
These ponderings about Neusner I will continue in another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment