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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* The Japanese deputy foreign minister said Japan supports Iran's nuclear energy program. * The Japanese agreed to supply Iran with nuclear fuel rods.
Missing Pieces to the Japanese Puzzle By Rabbi Lazer Beams
King David warned (Psalm 7:16), that if a person digs a pit for someone else to fall into, he ends up falling in it. We saw this on Purim with Haman - he prepared a tree and a noose to hang Mordechai, and he himself ended up hanging on the same tree with the same noose around his neck.
Our good friend attorney Baruch Cohen brought some amazing information to my attention that he gleaned from Rucho Shel Mashiach blog, namely, that Japan has been supporting Iran's nuclear program. You connect the dots: * The Japanese deputy foreign minister said Japan supports Iran's nuclear energy program. * The Japanese agreed to supply Iran with nuclear fuel rods. * The Government of Japan then turned around and "deplored" Jewish construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and added that they don't recognize our rights to our holy city and homeland.
The "measure for measure" that Hashem is doing to Japan is mindboggling. They don't want us to build homes on our land, they're losing homes on their land. They choose to help build nuclear reactors that are intended to destroy us, their own nuclear reactors shall destroy them. Hashem's justice is not something to play with. Let the haughty be forewarned - the Guardian of Israel shall not slumber.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Japan's Catch 22 By Rabbi Lazer Beams
King Solomon, the wisest of all men, says (Proverbs 21:30): "There is no wisdom, and no understanding, and no advice against Hashem." In other words, as the Malbim explains in his elaboration of Proverbs, even if you're intelligent and capable, and you've made your best efforts, you can do nothing to fight a Heavenly decree.
The Malbim's explanation is no cause for despair; his intention is that you can't fight a Heavenly decree with material means. But, there are many effective spiritual ways to completely rescind a harsh decree. Prayer, penitence, and expressions of gratitude are capable of mitigating the harshest of decrees.
The Japanese are an intelligent and dilligent people. Their problem is that they don't realize that not every problem can be solved by money or by Hi-tech. After days of reassuring the world that things are more or less under control, yesterday they finally sent up a white flag and declared maximum alert as highly toxic plutonium was the latest contaminant found seeping into the soil outside the Fukushima nuclear plant.
The TEPCO people figured that as soon as they restore power lines, then they'd be able to pump loads of water in to cool the reactors. But that plan has backfired; as workers pumped water into units to cool the reactors down, they discovered pools of contaminated water in numerous spots, including the basements of several buildings and in tunnels outside them. This contaminated water has been emitting radiation exposures more than four times the amount the government considers safe for workers, and that's already a way-higher-than-normal level.
The Japanese are now left with a deadly Catch 22: They must pump in water to keep the fuel rods cool, but since that water has been leaking out, they're now faced with a task of pumping out the highly contaminated water and safely storing it. So, they're in big trouble if they pump in more water and they're in big trouble if they don't. The more they cool down the nuclear fuel rods, the more they're left with nuclear-contaminated water. What can they possibly do?
It's a dead end, materially that is. On a spiritual side, there's much to be done. Hashem was about to destroy Nineveh, but they repented (see the Book of Yona). Nineveh is a precedent - Japan should learn from them. Better yet, if Japan as a nation would learn emuna, accept the Seven Noahide commandments, and turn to Hashem for Divine assistance, they'd see big miracles. Emuna Outreach would be happy to advise the Japanese Government, if they'd only listen. http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2011/03/missing-pieces-to-the-japanese-puzzle.html
A Rabbi in Israel answers a Christian pastor who questions him on why Jews do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah and son of G-d. The Rabbi answers and explains by giving evidence from the Torah & the Messianic prophecies that were given by G-d to the prophets in ancient times.
FROM YOU ARE MY WITNESSES (Is. 43:10) THE TRADITIONAL JEWISH
RESPONSE TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES by Yisroel C.
Blumenthal
The authors of the Christian scriptures describe the
development of the early church in the following manner.
Jesus was a Jewish man, who lived in the land of Israel. When
he was about thirty years old, he began to travel throughout the
country. For about three years, Jesus traveled and taught. By
the time Jesus died, he had created a small following. All of
his followers were Jews. Prominent among Jesus’s followers
were his twelve disciples. These disciples formed a
community with its center in Jerusalem. The community of
Jesus’s followers was lead by James, a brother of Jesus. This
community is referred to as the “Jerusalem Church”. In the
years following Jesus’s death, the Jerusalem Church grew in
size. At one point, the authors of Christian scriptures claim
that they numbered several thousand. But the members of this
church were all Jews.
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 scriptures 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.
RABBI CROSS-EXAMINES CHRISTIANITY Rabbi Michael Skobac takes you on a fascinating exploration of how a small Messianic movement within Judaism, 2,000 years ago, transformed into a radically non-Jewish world religion. In this lecture, you will learn about the Jewish roots of Christianity, how those roots became obscured over the course of time and what surprising developments may lie ahead.
