A few
years ago, the Baptists (who seem to have a special love for the Jewish people
and the nation of Israel) sent teams of missionaries in the "shtelels of
Chicago" to witness to and save the Jews. Unfortunately AND fortunately there
was not much success that year. You see, the theology shared by Baptists
excludes them from effectively witnessing to the Jewish people without savagely
hurting their sense of Mishpocha (family). No [generalized] Jewish person would
accept a Messiah who disbands with Torah. The Midrash (A Jewish commentary on
the Hebrew Bible) says that Messiah is so important that is He tells you to
disobey a command, you are to do it. This is not saying, as you would first
guess, that the Messiah is able to disband with Torah. Instead, it's saying that
if the Messiah is telling you to disobey a command of Torah, it's because your
understanding is so skewed, you are actually disobeying it in your attempt to
obey!
Gary
asked "any follow-up to
it you wanna post now." I would like to answer that
question, and I will attempt to maintain a state full of grace and
truth. There are [at least] two things I've learned regarding
Avraham's covenant in the last few months. (1) He did not receive the covenant
until after he was declared righteous because of his belief (I know that may be
a no-brainer for most but I never 'noticed' the implications before). That's
when WE gain the covenant as well... when WE believe. Sometimes understanding
that faith comes before action and that obedience to Torah comes after
life-changing emunah/faith is like trying to understand the Hebrew concept
of the non-static, dynamic action-oriented verb "to be." (2) The covenants
made with the Children of Israel, the Davidic Covenant, and the [Re]Newed
Covenant are expansions of the three aspects of Avraham's
covenant.
As a
closing note, G-d is not a Conservative Jewish man with two sets of dishes (one
for Jews and one for Gentiles). He eats cheeseburgers (beef+cheese,
Jew+Gentile). He doesn't deal with one type of person (Jews) first and then deal
with another type (Gentile). He has them both simultaneously. One G-d, One
House, One Faith, One Rule, One People, One Baptism (the noun), Multiple
Understandings.
Thank
you, John, for your wisdom.
--
slade
How close will we become? Not as much as either of us would hope but much more than any of us can imagine. That is the way of God, is it not?
a brother and a friend
John
