I, like many of you, are glued to the television watching the primaries and, of course, McCain is now representing the Republican party. I was rather intrigued by the fact that he stood next to John Hagee and said he was proud to receive the endorsement of John Hagee. I think if John McCain had a little more insight into what John Hagee taught he might not be so proud of that endorsement.
John Hagee, among other things, calls the Roman Catholic church the great whore of Babylon depicted in Revelation 17. This is nonsense. He is a replacement theologian who believes that Israel will replace the church as the focus of God's plans during the Tribulation and not only so, but that two thirds of the Jews are going to be slaughtered in a holocaust that's going to make the Nazi holocaust pale by comparison and that in the not-too-distant future.
He has the temerity to call others replacement theologians because they don't distinguish between people on the basis of race. I am to John Hagee a replacement theologian which, of course, is nonsense. I simply don't think that God, in any way, judges people on the basis of race. Rahab was a Canaanite and yet she was true Israel because she believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. Ruth was a Moabite, the archenemy of Israel, and yet she was a true Israel because she believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. If you look at Esther you see that the nations look on and see how the sovereign God raises up Esther, and the text tells us that many different people from many different nations became Jews. They didn't change their birth mother, but they believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. So again, this has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with relationship.
Of course, he wants an ethnically exclusive state in the Middle East and says that God has given Jerusalem only to the Jews. He has gone so far as to say that if America divides Jerusalem there will be no forgiveness - that America will end up on the ash heap of history. So anyone that wants a two-state solution in the Middle East and believes that God does not put Arabs on a different footing than Jews, that we, at the foot of the cross are equal, he will denounce. For him that's poking your finger in the eye of God.
Again, I think that if John McCain understood what this man teaches he will be as quick to distance himself from John Hagee as Barak Obama was to distance himself from Louis Farrakhan, who is also a racist. We need to know what these people teach. Unfortunately, because they're visible, a lot of people assume that they represent evangelicalism in some strange way and, as a result, marginalize Christians. This is not the case. We do not, in any way, hold to what John Hagee teaches.
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16 comments:
Replacement theologians are those who think that Christians have relaced Israel. You stated,
"Rahab was a Canaanite and yet she was true Israel because she believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. Ruth was a Moabite, the archenemy of Israel, and yet she was a true Israel because she believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel."
But you forget one point. They both identified and melde with Israel. Christians do not. Christians worship a God that the Israelites did not. Christians must believe that Jesus is God because they are relying on him to save them. If they do not believe that he is God then they are trusting a man to save them from God.
Remember God only promised to preserve those who are in his covenant, those who love him and keep his commandments. Do Christians keep God's commandments? No, they think the law has past away especially the one commandment that is given as a sign of the covenant, the Shabbat (Sabbath.) Not even to mention the Passover which is also a sign of the covenant.
Pastor Hagee loves the Jews because he believes that if he does he will be able to turn them from the Torah to grace. But an integral part of the Torah is grace.
In Exodus 34:5-7 God said,
"And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Or do we believe John 1:17,
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Think about it...
We are to believe both. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Christians believe in a different God than Israel. That isn't true at all. There is only ONE God. To act like we humans are capable of fully understanding the realtionship of Yeshua with His Father is a little arrogant. We will never be able to fully understand it. Is Yeshua God in the flesh, humbled upon the cross even unto death? Yes. Yet, Yeshua was still subordinate to His Father. Mathew 11:27 "All things are delivered unto me of my Father." So I wouldn't go so far as to say we have different Gods, we have the same God. Unfortunately we have done a poor job relating that to our Jewish brothers/sisters. We have gone on telling them that the Messiah did away with their law and they know the true Messiah will not do that, and Yeshua didn't. He taught Torah in the way it SHOULD be taught and that is what started his trec towards the cross. The Pharisees didn't want to hear the truth, pride got in the way.
You should read my comment under the post "Does the Bible Claim Jesus is God?"
I once was a Messianic Jew but have to reject the "New Testament" after reading the Bible and comparing what the Tanakh says compared to the Gospels and other books in the "New Testament."
The writers of the NT played fast and loose with the Scriptures. It all boils down to if we believe God or John. God said he was alone. John says he wasn't.
James,
Where in the Torah does Hashem say He is alone? He said in the Shema that the Lord God is One yes but does that mean that Yeshua couldn't possibly have been with Him? God is great enough to not only be completely within the temple and also everywhere else correct? He spoke to Moshe as a burning bush, dwelling from within the presence of the bush itself, why then can he not therefore do the same from within Yeshua haMashiach? Why don't you get a list together of ALL the Appostolic Scriptures/Torah contradictions you claim and let's iron this mess out. Shalom.
-Jay
jay,
Isa 45:21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
Isa 43:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Isa 44:8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me?yea, there is no God; I know not any.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Here the Almighty uses Anechi (I) it is singular. If any of these verses were spoken by Jesus then he does not aknowledge his father being with him. Or, if this is the father speaking he doesn't realize Jesus is with him. But in John 1 we can clearly see that Jesus was "with" the father.
You must realize that only a few times does God use the word one in connection with himself but MANY times he stresses that he is alone.
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
Can you deny these words? God is with God.
The plain understanding is that Jesus is YHVH in the NT. Either he is "with" YHVH or not. If YHVH says there is no other besides him, or even like him then either YHVH or John is not being truthfull. The truth is that the end-times king is to fear God. It will be one of his hallmark traits (Isaiah 11:1-3)
I ask again does God fear God? Email me at james@readmyblogplease.com if you would like to converse about the contradictions etc.
I once believed as you do now...
-james
Hi James,
Bless your heart, I can only imagine the searching that you have undergone to have once been as you put it "Messianic Jew" and currently have rejected the truth of who Christ is based on your current understanding. I would just pray and suggest to you that you would read further in the book of John that you quoted from and take it in it's whole context. It is not usually productive to quote scripture out of it's full context when making a point, especially a point with such great a consequence. If you read on picking up at John 1:9 - 34 In it you will see how the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us... the One and Only who came from the Father full of grace and truth(v.14)
(John 1:9-18)
Jn 1:9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
Jn 1:10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
Jn 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Jn 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God —
Jn 1:13 children born not of natural descent,nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Jn 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jn 1:15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”
Jn 1:16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
Jn 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jn 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
grace, peace and hope - Kari
You don't seem to understand. I started out as a baptist christian when I was in my early teens. At 16 I became believer in Jesus. My father was a SB minister. I have been studying the New Testament since I was in my late-teens.
I am talkig here about intense study not the occasional reading of a couple of verses here and there.
I am now in my mid-forties and after a couple years of studying the "Old Testament" I started having serious questions about the "New Testament." Questions that could not be answered using the Bible itself. I had taken courses in Greek and was not learning Hebrew. I had figured out the problem.
The proble was that Christians start with Matthew and understand everything through the "lens" of the "New Testament" instead of Starting with Genesis and "Testing" the "New Testament's" validity.
So, I am not your average unread "believer." I have read multiple volumes of Theology, Applogetics and yes the "New Testament" (multiple times.)
Don't feel sorry for me. I believe in the end-times king. It is just not Jesus. He cannot be the messiah. Go to my blog and read what I have written so far. My decades of study have finally come together and now I can tell my story. I challenge you to visit.
readmyblogplease.com
-james
Thanks for the invite to read your blog. Thanks also for clarifying your background, sounds like you have quite a background in digging into the word. For what it is worth, my faith grew leaps and bounds after studying the O.T. and reading the N.T. and recognizing the hand of God woven throughout, revealing the Messiah to come, in the O.T. and confirming in the N.T. His (Christ Jesus) fulfillment of what was prophesized in the O.T.
So it appears that your study has lead you in a different direction. I just pray that as you continue your study that you seek after Him with an open heart, that's all.
So thankful to our Lord who has told us if we seek Him will all of our heart we will find Him. Grateful beyond words that I have found Him true to His word and for His truth and grace in which I stand and am humbled and blessed beyond measure to celebrate collectivley this weekend. He is risen indeed :) Blessed to walk by faith - Kari
In response to James W.'s initial comment:"Do Christians keep God's commandments? No, they think the law has past away especially the one commandment that is given as a sign of the covenant, the Shabbat"...
You fail to realize that the purpose of the law is not to save. It is to provide a visable standard where either Christians or Jews can see that they have failed to meet God's standard of rightousness. Gal3:10-14
Christians are in God's covenant through good old Abraham;
Gal 3:6-9 Whereas beleivers are united w/ God through genuine belief in Christ and inevitably obedience. So the answer to your question, "Do Christians keep God's commandments?" We can all try just like the Jews, but inevetiably we all fall short, just like the Jews. Thank God for His Son, He is risen!
Check out my blog, and thanks Hank. . . www.bloodmessage.com
If God is alone (i.e. without the Son) then why does He say "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." (Gen 1:26)
-B.
Majestic plurality... Email me and I will email you an answer...
james@readmyblogplease.com
It would be too long to post here...
It wasn't too long after I looked at it... Here is your answer...
Gen 1:27. And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them
Answer:
1) Do The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit all have Physical Bodies? If only the Son has a body why didn't Hashem say “Let us make man in Our Son's (3rd person singular) image?” How far can we go with this?
2) Just ponder this. The fact is that the hebrew word for spirit is “ruach” and it is a feminine noun. ruach – singular / ruachot – plural (Numbers 16:22)
3) If there is a trinity and the Father is Spirit then that would make a redundant Spirit, wouldn't it?
4) While God says “Let us make” his word also says “He created .” Even well read Christian Theologians acknowledge a principle referred to as "Majestic Plurality." While I could try to explain this, someone else has already done a excellent job. Here is an excerpt from a article at http://www.karaites-usa.org/Studies_On/elohim_plural_or_singular_1.htm
Does the majestic plural form of Elohim implies that there is anything multiple about God? To help clarify this it is worth looking at the few instances where the majestic plural form of Elohim is used to refer to someone other than YHWH. The clearest example of this is in Exodus 7:1. In this passage YHWH tells Moses that he will make him an Elohim to Pharaoh: "Behold I have made you an Elohim to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet" (Exodus 7:1). Certainly this does not mean that YHWH made Moses into a god, but rather that he would speak to Pharaoh with authority through Aaron who would serve as his mouth-piece in the way that the prophets serve as the mouth-pieces of YHWH. In any event, there is clearly nothing multiple about Moses, even though he was made an Elohim to Pharaoh.
On rare occasions Elohim is used as majestic plural even when referring to pagan gods. For example, "And they bowed down to Ashtoret the Elohim of the Sidonians, to Kemosh the Elohim of Moab, and to Milkom the Elohim of the children of Amon." (1Ki 11:33). Here we see three pagan deities each of which is referred to as an Elohim. Obviously the book of Kings is not saying that any of these false deities is a "great God". On the contrary, the verse goes on to rebuke the Israelites for worshipping them. The meaning is that the Sidonians, Moabites, and Ammonites looked upon their deities as great Gods and in this instance Scripture employs the terms used by the pagans themselves to refer to their own deities. At the same time we must observe that Ashtoret, Kemosh, and Milkom are each referred to as Elohim even though there is nothing multiple about any one of them.
Clearly the word Elohim, when it refers to YHWH, is an majestic plural which is numerically singular, having a singular verb and a singular adjective. This majestic plural is simply a grammatical form that denotes greatness without any implication that the object itself is a plurality or multiplicity. If we maintain that Elohim implies multiplicity then we must concede that Moses was also a multiplicity along with Kemosh the pagan deity of the Moabites and Milkom the pagan deity of the Amonites.
That YHWH is a single individual and not a multiplicity of gods or personalities is consistent with what we find throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Moses declares to the children of Israel, "YHWH is our Elohim, YHWH is one" (Dt 6:4). Were YHWH a multiplicity of gods or personalities what would be the point of saying that He is "one"? It is worth noting that it does not say YHWH is one of something (one god, one personality). He is just simply "one", in every respect of the word. Similarly, the prophet Zechariah tells us about the universal worship of YHWH at the end of days, "And YHWH will be king over the entire earth; at that time YHWH will be one and his name will be one" (Zech 14:9). Zechariah is saying that today people multiply YHWH but at the end-time all mankind will know that YHWH is a single individual deity with one single name. We are taught in the book of Isaiah that YHWH is the one and only, "I am YHWH and besides me there is no savior" (Isa 43:11). Elsewhere in Isaiah, YHWH poses the rhetorical question, "Is there an Eloha (God) besides me?" (Isa 44:8). Similarly we read in the Psalms, "Who is an Eloha (God) besides YHWH and who is a rock (=savior) besides our Elohim?" (Ps 18:32). In these verses the word for "God" is Eloha ?ÁìåÉäÌÇ, the singular form of Elohim. These passages are saying that YHWH is an Eloha and besides Him there is no other Eloha. Indeed, YHWH is called by the singular Eloha (God) some 47 times throughout the Hebrew Scriptures which proves that He is not a plurality or multiplicity. This and the fact that the verbs and adjectives connected with Elohim are always singular confirm our conclusion that Elohim is an majestic plural denoting a singular individual but with a connotation of greatness.
YHWH is called Eloha (God), the singular form of Elohim, in the following verses: Dt 32:15.17; Isa 44:8; Hab 3:3; Ps 18:32; 50:22; 114:7; 139:19; Job 3:4; 3:23; 4:9.17; 5:17; 6:4.7.9; 9:13; 10:2; 11:5; 12:4.6; 16:21; 19:6.21.26.; 21:9.19; 22:12.26; 24:12; 27:3.8.10; 29:2.4; 31:2.6; 33:12.26; 35:10; 36:2; 37:15.22; 39:17; 40:2; Prov 30:5; Neh 9:17.
James Wood said the following:
1) Do The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit all have Physical Bodies? If only the Son has a body why didn't Hashem say “Let us make man in Our Son's (3rd person singular) image?” How far can we go with this?
I said:
You are looking at this in the wrong way James. You are saying that the ONLY way that Yeshua could be with Adoani in the beginning is in a purely physical way (bodily form). The word used in John 1:1 that states Yeshua was WITH Adoani in the beginning is the word πρός "pros" which, according to the Thayer's Lexicon says this about the meaning of the word "pros":
I, with the accusative, to, towards, Lat. ad, denoting direction towards a thing, or position and STATE.
So Yeshua as a state or part of God would not make Him seperate from God but a part of Him the ONE true God.
James said:
2) Just ponder this. The fact is that the hebrew word for spirit is “ruach” and it is a feminine noun. ruach – singular / ruachot – plural (Numbers 16:22)
I said:
Did God not make men AND women James? If God created men AND women in HIS images than why can't part of God be feminine. The Son Yeshua is male while the spirit if female. It makes sense to me that if wisdom is always referred to as feminine throughout the book of Proverbs and Yeshua sent the Spirit after His ressurection as a helper,(a helper that has wisdom - both female realted in the bible)why wouldn't it be a feminine tense? If God sent Eve to be the helper to Adam and his friend and companion then why wouldn't the Spirit be seen in the same way?
James said:
3) If there is a trinity and the Father is Spirit then that would make a redundant Spirit, wouldn't it?
I said:
See #1 same thing goes here. The spirit is a part of the ONE true God. If we are not allowed to see God, less we die, then how is he supposed to relate to us or us to Him? God can NOT show Himself to us in ALL His glory or we will die. So, He sends Himself in a way that we can, His Spirit. It is a way for Him to lead us and guide us without showing Himself which He can't do untill we are in His presence with our new bodies. Does this make sense to you James? God has to relate to us but if He shows Himself we die SO He creates a man in which He can dwell as He did in the temple (Yeshua) and once Yeshua is gone for a time He sends His pirit to lead us and comfort us.
James said:
4) While God says “Let us make” his word also says “He created.” Even well read Christian Theologians acknowledge a principle referred to as "Majestic Plurality."
I said:
I don't argue a point about Majestic Plurality. My point is that there is ONLY ONE GOD. That One God has many attributes, He can speak to us from within a burning bush, temple or man. Doing this does not make multiple gods. He can't show Himself to us so He has different methods He uses to do it. The Son and the Spirit which are both the same God, not seperate. The man part of Yeshua had to answer to the Father.
I hope this helps you out James.
p.s. I'll be sending you some information from one of the researchers at ffoz.org once I get it. It should be pretty good.
-Jay
Israel is a tiny nation surrounded by over 50 large Muslim nations. The Catholic Church has some 1,100,000,000 adherents, great wealth and countless works of art. Who is the "vulnerable target" now?
James W wrote: "Or do we believe John 1:17,
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. "
I want to comment about grace and atonement.
(le-havdil) How to live in order to enable the Creator in His loving kindness to provide His foregivness is outlined in Tan’’kh ; and was also taught by the first century Ribi Yehoshua (the Messiah). Yәkhëz•qeil′ (”Hesekiel”) 18 implies that one must do his/her sincerest to keep Torah, in order so ha-Sheim in His grace will give His foregiveness.
Read the essential teachings of Ribi Yehoshua in here:http://www.netzarim.co.il
Anders Branderud
To James: Why do you think that evil spirits acknowledged Yeshua, and had to obey His voice? Why would angels announce His birth? What about His encounter on the mountain with previous prohets (Elijah / Moses???) Ask ANY devil worshiper Who they fear the most.... I think you'll have your answer :)
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