Thus saith the LORD of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
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Invoking Biblical blessings, leading Israeli rabbis thanked Trump for acting to fulfill prophecies about Israel’s redemption.
Some 250 Israeli rabbis, including Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, sent a letter to President Donald Trump thanking him and praising him for his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The letter, initiated by the Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and delivered by Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, told the American president, “You have the rare privilege to be the first president to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the State of Israel,” Ynet news reported.
“We are confident that you will be remembered in the history of the Jewish people forever as one who stood at the fore and was not afraid. May God’s promise to Joshua be fulfilled upon you: ‘Did I not command you, be strong and have courage, do not fear and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’”
Ynet reported that the letter was signed by rabbis of a wide range of communities, including rabbinical judges and yeshiva heads. Among the prominent signatories are: Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, national religious leader Rabbi Haim Drukman, the Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu and Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the Samaria region.
“We merit living in a generation in which prophecies are being fulfilled, one after the other,” the letter continued, emphasizing that Trump is playing his role in that process.
“The presidents of America merited standing by Israel in actualizing the prophecy of the return to Zion and the building of the State of Israel. “
“With this recognition, we see the fulfillment of another step in the completion of the prophecy of Isaiah that the nations of the world will recognize the centrality of Jerusalem,” said Rabbi Eliyahu. “‘For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication’ (Isaiah 62:1). We hope that other enlightened and believing nations will follow in the footsteps of the United States.”
Christianity reached the non-Jewish world through the person
of Paul. Paul traveled the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, teaching
the gentile world about Jesus. Paul founded many churches throughout the
Roman Empire. The churches which Paul established were predominantly
gentile. The Christian scriptures end their narrative at this
point. They leave the reader at the historical point where there
are two churches; the Jewish church of James, and the gentile church
of Paul.
History tells us that the Jewish church of James did
not survive as a separate entity. By the time Christianity became the
established religion of the Roman Empire, there were almost no Jewish
Christians left. The few Jewish Christians which still existed, were
persecuted as heretics by the gentile church. All of Christianity as it exists
today, was transmitted through the body of the gentile church. The books
of Christian scripture were products of the gentile church. They may
have included in these books, material which came from the
Jewish Christians. But the gentile church was the editor of this material.
It was the gentile church who determined the contents of the Christian
scriptures, and who transmitted these texts to the future generations.
In order to be convinced that the gentile church is
truly transmitting the original message of Jesus, one must
determine that Paul’s teachings conformed with the teachings of
Jesus. The gentile church only learned of Jesus through the
teachings of Paul. If Paul’s teachings were not synonymous with
the teachings of Jesus, then the gentile church does not possess
the original message of Jesus.
To
determine Paul’s connection to Jesus, we will turn to the books of
Christian scripture. It is clear that the editors of these books were
strongly motivated to present Paul as one who is faithfully transmitting
the original message of Jesus. Yet even these biased writers, were not
able to do so.
The Christian scriptures describe the basis of Paul’s
mission in the following manner. Paul never saw Jesus in real
life. Neither did Paul learn of Jesus’s teachings through
the disciples of Jesus. Paul emphatically states (in the 1st and
2nd chapters of Galatians) that no living person was involved
in transmitting Jesus’s message to him. Paul only learned of
the teachings of Jesus through a series of visions. In these
visions, Jesus appeared to him and imparted his teachings.
Paul’s entire message was the product of these visions.
The only way we can verify the truth of Paul’s claim, is
by determining the reaction of Jesus’s disciples to Paul’s message.
These men who lived with Jesus and heard him teach, could compare the
teachings that they heard, to the prophecy of Paul. How did the Jewish
following of James react to Paul’s claim to prophecy?
Paul
makes the claim (Galatians 2:9) that the leaders of the Jerusalem Church
acknowledged the fact that he was appointed (by the dead Jesus) as a
messenger to the gentiles. But Paul was lying. James and the Jerusalem
Church never acknowledged the validity of Paul’s visions. It is the
Christian scriptures themselves who contradict Paul’s claim.
The 15th chapter of the book of Acts, describes how
the leadership of the Jerusalem Church disregarded Paul’s claim to
prophecy. Paul had come to Jerusalem. He had been preaching to the
gentiles that they are not required to practice the law of Moses. Some
members of the Jerusalem Church disagreed with Paul. They felt that in
order for a gentile to join their following, he should be required to
observe the law of Moses. This question was brought before the leadership
of the Jerusalem Church. The elders of the church discussed
the question, and James handed down his decision. His judgment was
that the gentiles were not obligated to observe the entirety of the law of
Moses as a prerequisite to joining the Christian community. But he stipulated
that the gentiles were obligated to observe certain dietary laws, and to
avoid immorality.
If Paul was telling us the truth when he claimed that
the leadership of the Jerusalem Church acknowledged him as a true
prophet, then this story makes no sense. Here we have Paul, who was
personally appointed by the dead Jesus as his emissary to the gentile
world. Whatever Paul taught was personally revealed to him in these
prophetic visions. One of the central teachings of Paul was that the
gentile world is not bound by the law of Moses. Yet when the leaders of
the Jerusalem Church are in doubt as to what Jesus would have said
concerning the gentiles, they discuss the question, and look to James for
guidance. If there was any truth to Paul’s claim, that these leaders
acknowledged the truth of his prophecy, then they should have simply asked
him “what did Jesus tell you?” The fact that they considered the question,
and the method that they used to resolve the question, clearly tells us
that these men did not believe that Jesus had ever spoken to Paul. The
author of the book of Acts, his bias notwithstanding, could not hide this
simple fact.
The difference between the gentile church founded by
Paul, and the Jerusalem Church founded by Jesus, was not limited
to the question of the authenticity of Paul’s prophecy. These
two institutions espoused two totally different philosophies.
The central teaching of Pauline Christianity is, that faith in
the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus, is the only valid method
through which atonement for sin can be achieved. The
entire philosophy of Paul, revolves around this one teaching.
Evangelical
Christianity is founded upon this basic teaching of Paul. If you were to
ask an Evangelical Christian to sum up his belief system in one sentence,
he would respond with this point. That faith in Jesus is the only
redemption from sin. In fact the entire concept of the messiah-ship of
Jesus is basically limited to this one point. Jesus is the messiah of
Evangelical Christians, only because they believe that his death
provided atonement for sin.
But the
Jerusalem Church which was established by Jesus, and which was guided by
his disciples, did not believe in this teaching of Paul. They did not
believe that faith in Jesus could effectively atone for their sins. This
is demonstrated by the testimony of the Christian scriptures. The 21st
chapter in the book of Acts reports that the normal activities of the
members of the Jerusalem Church included the offering of animals
for the explicit purpose of the expiation of sin. The book of
Acts describes how four members of the Jerusalem Church had taken a
Nazirite vow. This means that they had voluntarily brought themselves into
a situation where they would be required (by the law of Moses) to bring an
animal as a sin offering. It is clear that these people saw in the
temple offerings a valid method for the expiation of sin. If
they believed as Paul did, that Jesus died for their sins once and
for all, then there would be no point in bringing a sin offering in the
temple. The fact that the Jerusalem Church still participated in the
temple offerings after Jesus had died, tells us that they did not see in
Jesus’s death an all atoning sacrifice. These people were not Evangelical
Christians.
The Christian scripture provides both the theological and the
historical justification to the accusation that Christianity has failed in
the transmission of its own message. The Christian scriptures tell us that
the disciples of Jesus never believed the fundamental teaching of
Evangelical Christianity.
These people who lived with Jesus and heard him preach
did not believe, that with the death of Jesus, the world is
redeemed of its sins. The Christian scriptures also tell us, at
which historical point the break in the transmission occurred.
These books tell us that Paul, the father of modern Christianity,
had no connection to Jesus. Christianity is an edifice erected
upon the testimony of one man. All of Christianity stands upon Paul’s
word that Jesus appeared to him. The only people that were qualified to
verify Paul’s claim, contradicted him to his face. This emerges from the
pages of the very books which Christianity regards as true witnesses to
its claims.
By Yisroel C.
Blumenthal
Did The Original Followers of Jesus Vanish Just As Rabb Gamliel Predicted
The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates Gamaliel as a saint, and he is commemorated on August 2
Gamaliel
Teacher
Gamaliel the Elder or Rabban Gamaliel I, was a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the early 1st century AD. He was the son of Simeon ben Hillel, and grandson of the great Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder. Gamaliel is thought to have died in 52 AC. Wikipedia
