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Much evil has been comitted in the name of Christianity because
of things like Replacement Theology.
The belief that the Church has replaced Israel.
Even Martin Luther said
some horrible things in his little booklet, The Jews and Their Lies.
The Church should have been more instrumental
in resisting Hitler.
However, is the way to deal with Anti Semitism through more Anti Christian Rhetoric?
God
Forbid!
Not only this I have met some silly and carnal Christians in my day.
Christians that try to cast
demons out of anyone they cannot control, Pentecostals mistaking a seizure in a man on stage for God's working, Excommunicating
those that speak out against particular evils, United Pentecostals denying the Trinity, Catholics exalting Mary, Christians
that think Christ came to make them rich, Personally being excommunicated because I confronted a particular pastor that wasn't
accountable to anyone and in fact was getting
away with adultery, Christians condemning me because I wasn't married at
the time and I had a beard,
The list goes on concerning what I have personally experienced.
The CUF group is
partly meant to confront such evil and silliness.
We have confronted those that teach such things.
Lets
go back even further to the Jews own book which speaks concerning Jews.
Speaking of Elijah, "There he went into a cave
and spent the night. Then the word of ADONAI came to him; he said to him, "What are you doing here, Eliyahu?" 10 He answered,
"I have been very zealous for ADONAI the God of armies, because the people of Isra'el have abandoned your covenant, broken
down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. Now I'm the only one left, and they're coming after me to kill me
too." (1 Kings 19, The Complete Jewish
Bible)
This is what the Jews were doing to the messenger of the Lord and
the prophets. This is also confirmed by Jesus and Paul, both Jews. "29 "Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim!
You build
tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the tzaddikim, 30 and you say, `Had we lived when our fathers
did, we would never have
taken part in killing the prophets.' 31 In this you testify against yourselves that you are worthy
descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead then, finish what your fathers started!
33 "You snakes! Sons
of snakes! How can you escape being condemned to Gei Hinnom?"
(Matthew 23, The Complete Jewish Bible)
AND
"In
that case, I say, isn't it that God has repudiated his people?" Heaven forbid! For I myself am a son of Isra'el, from the
seed of Avraham, u of the tribe of Binyamin. 2 God has not repudiated his people, whom he chose in advance. Or don't
you know what the
Tanakh says about Eliyahu? He pleads with God against Isra'el, 3 "ADONAI, they have killed your prophets
and torn down your altars, and I'm the only one left, and now they want to kill me too!"4 But
what is God's answer to him?
"I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt down to Ba'al." 5 It's the same way in the present age: there
is a remnant, chosen by grace." (Romans 11, The
Complete Jewish Bible)
Is it surprising that Jews and Gentiles were
instrumental in killing Jeshua as well?
What does this prove?
It proves that 'yet ADONAI laid on him the guilt
OF ALL OF US."
"Who believes our report? To whom is the arm of ADONAI revealed? 2 For before him he grew up like a
young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He was not well-formed or especially handsome; we saw him,
but his appearance
did not attract us. 3 People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom
people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. 4 In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which
he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. 5 But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed
because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep,
went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet ADONAI laid on him the guilt
OF ALL OF US." (Isaiah 53, The Complete
Jewish Bible)
In fact the Jews and Gentiles in Jesus' day put Him there at God's approval.
"For, brothers, you came
to be imitators of God's congregations in Y'hudah that are united with the Messiah Yeshua - you suffered the same things from
your countrymen as they did from the Judeans who 15 both killed the Lord Yeshua and the prophets, and chased us out too. They
are displeasing God and opposing all mankind 16 by trying to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be
delivered.
Their object seems to be always to make their sins as bad as possible! But God's fury will catch up with them in the end."
(1 Thessalonians 2, The Complete Jewish Bible) Though each generation wants to think they wouldn't have done what
their
predecessors did Jesus points out that this isn't true. (Isaiah 53; Matthew 23:29-33)
Does it make us without guilt
to point out the sins of Israel, No Way, Does it make Israel without Guilt to point out the sins of Gentiles and those that
claim to come in the name of Jesus?
No Way!
We are all guilty of sin and unloving actions and non action. That
is why we have a saviour extending his hands out to us. He personified Love. He demonstrated ultimate Love (1 John 4)
Do
Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You was taught by Jesus. He wasn't the only one that taught this but He taught
this. A similar teaching is 'Love Thy Neighbor as you love Yourself' Both
of these teaching are essentially the same.
This
does not have pagan origins but origins in the Old Testament.
"Don't take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any
of your people; rather, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF; I am ADONAI." The Complete Jewish Bible, Leviticus 19:18
So
the claim that Jesus' teachings on Love is of Pagan Origin is unfounded.
It is also true that even the humans that
hold pagan beliefs were first created by God.
We ought to Love everyone including the Jews because, 'the root support
us not the other way around and we are grafted into the olive tree (Israel) and though they are enemies for the gospels sake
they
are beloved for God's sake. (Romans 11)
"What follows is that Isra'el has not attained the goal for which she is
striving. The ones chosen have obtained it, but the rest have been made stonelike, 8 just as the Tanakh says, "God has given
them
a spirit of dullness eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, right down to the present day." 9 And David says,
"Let their dining table become for them a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a punishment. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, so
that they can't see, with their backs bent continually." 11 "In that case, I say, isn't it that they have stumbled with the
result that they have permanently fallen away?" Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that
the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy. a 12 Moreover, if
their stumbling is bringing
riches to the world - that is, if Isra'el's being placed temporarily in a condition less favored than that of the Gentiles
is bringing riches to the latter - how much greater riches will Isra'el in its fullness bring them! 13 However, to those of
you who are Gentiles I say this: since I myself am an emissary sent to the Gentiles, I make known the importance of my work
14 in the hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save some of them! 15 For if their casting
Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting
him mean? It will be life from the dead! 16
Now if the hallah offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But
if some of the branches were broken off, and you - a wild olive - were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers
in the rich root of the olive tree, 18 then don't boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast,
remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. " (Romans 11, The Complete Jewish Bible)
We
are to love all, including the Jew and Jesus personified Love by giving His life for us (Isaiah 53)
But what if they
reject Yeshua?
God will deal with them.
"When that day comes, I will seek to destroy all nations attacking Yerushalayim;
10 and I will pour out on the house of David and on those living in Yerushalayim a spirit of grace and prayer; and they
will
look to me, whom they pierced." They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son; they will be in bitterness on his behalf
like the bitterness for a firstborn son. 11 When that day comes, there will be great mourning in Yerushalayim, mourning like
that for Hadad-Rimmon in the Megiddo Valley.
(Zechariah 12 The Complete Jewish Bible)
Love Shows Christians Are
Jesus' Disciples (John 13:35)
Love rejoices in the truth and is kind. (1 Corinthians 13), This means that it is unloving
to let someone asleep in their house at night while their house is burning. In the same way we must tell all about the Love
of God through Christ. Their house is burning and we must warn them. This also means when we know the truth we should communicate
it.
The proper interpretation of Christ's words never leads to violence but to love.
Jesus expressed His Love
by dying and resurrecting. We celebrate his death and resurrection because it means life for those that believe. Jesus, James
and Paul (both Jews) pointed out that Love is the
fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12; Romans 13:10;
James 2:8)
Seeing those that do violence in the name of Christianity doesn't negate the Christian experience. Just
because I have seen unloving people that profess to be Christian doesn't mean that my Christian experience is negated.
'Moses
gave form to the law of love (Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:5), but only Christ could give it substance." Bakers Dictionary
of Theology.
Jesus was greater than Moses.
3 But Yeshua deserves more honor than Moshe, just as the builder
of the house deserves more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is
God. (Hebrews
3, The Complete Jewish Bible)
" For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest
on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Pele-Yo'etz El Gibbor Avi-'Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God,
Father
of Eternity, Prince of Peace], 7 in order to extend the dominion and perpetuate the peace of the throne and kingdom
of David, to secure it and sustain it through justice and righteousness henceforth and forever. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot
will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9, The Complete Jewish Bible)
"A psalm of David: ADONAI says to my Lord, "Sit at
my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." (Psalm 110, The Complete Jewish Bible)
Only God in the Flesh
could love as Jesus Loved.
BJ Max
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