----- Original Message -----
Sent: December 06, 2004 05:46
Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] The Outside of
the Cup
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
