“Behold the fortified, his soul will never be settled within him; but the righteous will live with his faithfulness”
“… and all of this is worthless to me.”
The prophet Habakkuk opens his book with an outcry to God about the success of Nebuchadnezzar. Habakkuk cannot understand why God allows the wicked to succeed in their quest for more wealth and more power. Why does God allow these wicked men to crush the righteous and the innocent?
In response to Habakkuk’s quest for understanding God says: “Behold the fortified, his soul will never be settled within him; but the righteous will live with his faithfulness.” God is telling the prophet to look just a bit beneath the surface. A man like Nebuchadnezzar, who is constantly seeking to augment his power, to build a bigger and better fortress for himself, is…
Christian missionaries insist that you need blood for atonement. Not only do the missionaries claim that without blood there is no atonement for sin but they also contend that this doctrine is taught in the Jewish Scriptures.
These assertions are critical components in the ongoing missionary campaign to persuade people to give their hearts to Jesus. According to the missionary; when Jesus came on the scene, everyone already knew that their sins can never be forgiven without the shedding of blood because this is what the prophets of Scripture had proclaimed in the past. The missionary would have you believe that Jesus came to supply mankind with the blood atonement that they so desperately needed.
The problem that the missionary faces is the simple fact that the Jewish Scriptures do NOT say that you NEED blood for atonement. Yes; the prophets taught that blood offerings CAN…
In Exodus 35, Moses relays God’s commandment to build the tabernacle to Israel. Before Moses actually tells the people about the tabernacle he tells them about the Sabbath. He tells them that work is not to be done on Sabbath and that they cannot kindle fire on that holy day. Only then does Moses tell them about the building of the tabernacle.
Why is this introduction necessary? Why does Israel need to hear about the importance of Sabbath before they hear about the command to build the tabernacle? And why is the prohibition against making a fire singled out from amongst all the prohibited forms of work?
Perhaps we can understand these introductory commandments when we consider the purpose of the tabernacle.
The tabernacle was to be a sanctuary in the realm of space. Israel was going to close off a certain area, fill it with their expression of obedience to God’s explicit and detailed instructions, and that place will then become a sanctuary for God’s holiness.
We can so easily fall into the trap of thinking that we have generated our own holiness. We can convince ourselves that we took this dark and desolate place and transformed it into a place of light and holiness. We can believe that it was we who created an island of sanctity and purity in a mundane and desecrated world.
Sabbath sets us right. Sabbath reminds us that the world that God created was very good. It was filled with holiness and sanctity. It is only the negative activities of man that violated the pure and holy world that God created. We are not creating anything new with the building of the sanctuary. We are just peeling back the layers of sin and disobedience so that the holiness of God that is inherent in creation can shine through.
Sabbath is a day when we don’t try to change anything. We take the world where it stands and focus on the purpose for which it was created. We reconnect to the original plan of creation which has man basking in the radiance of God’s all-encompassing kindness.
Creating fire is the one act that most directly transforms the realm of space. A fire has the power to turn an area which was cold, dark and inhospitable into an illuminated, warm and inviting place. As such, fire represents man’s ability to affect and to transform the world we live in. But Sabbath is not a day for transforming and changing. Sabbath is the day to remind ourselves that God is the ultimate and the only Creator. All that remains for us to do is to let in the light and the holiness of God that is inherent in the very fabric of existence.
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It has come to my attention that Dr. Michael Brown has posted a public challenge to Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi to engage him in a public debate. In the context of this challenge Dr. Brown tells his audience that he has nothing to hide and that he is willing to the debate Rabbi Mizrachi in any venue.
The Jewish community has nothing to hide. Dr. Brown took the time and the effort to spell out his position in a comprehensive 5 volume series entitled “Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus.” In response, the Jewish community took the time and the effort to write and to publicize a comprehensive rebuttal to this series. As far as the Jewish community is concerned, all the cards are now on the table.
If you are seeking the real Jewish objections to Christianity, you shouldn’t expect to find them in a missionary publication. In 2007 I wrote “Contra Brown” as a response to the central arguments of Dr. Brown’s first 4 volumes. In 2010 I wrote “The Elephant and the Suit” in which I present a general refutation to his 5 volume series. In these articles I point out that Dr. Brown did not address some of the core Jewish objections, I point out that some of his central arguments contradict each other and I demonstrate that he has seriously misrepresented the Jewish position on the core issues.
This was followed by Supplement to Contra Brown in which I go through his 5 volume series page by page and I respond to every argument that he raises against the Jewish position. You can find these articles on my blog “1000 Verses.” Simply google the number “1000” followed by the word “verses” and you will find my blog ( https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/ )
Since then, I have written several responses to issues that Dr. Brown has raised on his radio shows. These can be found on my blog under the title “Response to the Line of Fire.” When Dr. Brown came out with a new book, “The Real Kosher Jesus,” I responded with “Kosher Reality.”
I am satisfied to say that the Jewish community has fulfilled its duty toward the truth seeker. We have nothing to hide and we have laid all of our cards out for anyone to study and to come to their own conclusions. Many people have availed themselves of the information that we have publicized, both Jews and Gentiles, they have studied the issues, and they have turned their hearts to the God of Israel.
To date, Dr. Brown has failed to respond to any of my writings. If Dr. Brown feels that he has laid all of his cards on the table, then I am more than satisfied to let things stand where they are. If Dr. Brown feels that he has responses for the arguments that I have raised in my writings I invite him to publicize those responses in whichever format he sees fit. He could use his radio show, he could write, he could make a video presentation; it’s up to him. And if he brings a new argument to the table it will be our duty to provide a response in a format that is available to the seeker of truth.
If you have questions or if you are confused I encourage you NOT to take me on my word. It’s not about me and it’s not about Dr. Brown. It is about you, you will have to live with your decision, it’s between you and God. I encourage you to study what I have written and evaluate the opposing arguments using your own sensitivity to truth.
All the cards are on the table. Study them, and may the God of truth be with you every step of the way.
CONTRA BROWN: Answering Dr. Brown’s Objections to Judaism
On the July 18 2013 Line of Fire Radio show Dr. Brown explains to his listening audience why it is that he cannot respond to my arguments in written format. Amongst many other reasons Dr. Brown derides the entire method of written communication. He argues that when two people are communicating through e-mail and they realize that they are missing each other they pick up the phone to clarify the misunderstanding through direct verbal communication. Furthermore, Dr. Brown contends that written communication can go round and round for years while a face to face public debate can be settled in a matter of hours.
There are several flaws in Dr. Brown’s argument.
1. In a situation where two people are honestly and earnestly trying to understand each other perhaps it is easier for them to clarify misunderstandings with face…
On the July 18 2013 edition of his Line of Fire radio show Dr. Brown explains to his listeners why it is that he is not responding to my critique of his work. At the same time he addresses my policy of refusing to debate him in a public setting with the question: “what do you have to hide?” In order to give Christianity a veneer of honesty and love for truth he holds up his willingness to debate any rabbi in a public setting. And in order to give Judaism an appearance of dishonesty and falsehood he speaks of our refusal to engage in the spectacle of a public debate. He makes the claim: “Let us recognize that it is not I that is running from dialogue”.
The author of the book of Hebrews presents one of the lynchpins of the Christian missionary campaign in the 9th chapter of his work. In that chapter he states that there is no remission (from sin) without the shedding of blood (verse 22). It is on the basis of this statement that the masters of persuasion attempt to frighten their audience. The missionaries contend that since sins cannot be remitted without the shedding of blood then without Jesus’ sacrifice you are dead in your sins.
This lynchpin of the missionary campaign has no basis in reality. You see; the author of Hebrews did not present this statement as a revelation that he received in some secretive encounter. The author of the book of Hebrews presents his statement as a factual conclusion that he arrived at upon studying the Law of Moses.
Brown deals here with the Jewish objection that contrasts the rationality of Judaism with the irrationality of Christianity. Brown goes on to say that Christianity encourages thought and education (I imagine that Brown would label the Church’s history of opposition to education as an invalid expression of Christianity – “they were not real Christians”). Brown continues his argument with the point that there are many concepts in Judaism that seem to be irrational, such as the miracles recorded in the Jewish Scriptures. Brown concludes his response to this Jewish objection with a quote from Isaiah 55:8,9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts”.
Brown has missed the thrust of the Jewish objection and he has completely misunderstood Isaiah.
Christianity stands on the words of a few men. If the disciples of Jesus would have ignored him as did most of the Jews of his day, no one would have ever heard of him. It is only because these men believed he was the Messiah that the world knows of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.
How did these people come to their conclusion? How did these followers of Jesus decide that he was the Messiah prophesied by the Jewish Bible? What was the motivation behind their decision? Was it a deep loyalty to the words of the prophets or was it some other factor that induced them to come to this conclusion?
It is not easy to determine if someone arrived at their conclusion on the basis of intellectual searching or if the conclusions were generated by some external factor and it is not…
Some of us find ourselves in societies which place much emphasis on human dignity and the rights of the individual. It is so tempting and so convenient to look out from the safety of our respective societies and pass judgment upon those societies and those people who don’t share our values. “Look at them,” we say, “see how their society is so corrupt and so evil, I am not them, we are not them and we will never be them.”
But is this true? Can this be true?
Did you ever watch a pantomime? The actors maneuver their bodies in a way that would convince the audience that they are negotiating with a physical reality when in fact there is nothing there. The actions and the motions of the actors project a reality which is no reality.
Human dignity is real but it is invisible. Even if all of the actors on the stage of life were to maneuver their actions as if human dignity does not exist, it will still exist and it will never be stamped out. But since human dignity is invisible it is so easy to forget it or to walk right through it.
Every one of us is an actor on the stage of life and every one of us is a member of the audience. As members of the audience we look at the stage and we “see,” or perhaps we don’t see, human dignity. It depends on the actors. It is to the degree that the actors play their part in demonstrating that human dignity is a reality that the audience will see it as such. And it is the responsibility of every actor to ensure that his or her audience sees human dignity as the reality that it is.
Almost every action and almost every word can project the reality of human dignity or the denial of that holy reality. There are so many levels of projecting that reality or of denying it. A word of respect or a word of contempt, an act of kindness or an act of callousness, consideration or insensitivity, shame or honor, nobility or crassness, all of these contribute or detract to the overall image that our audience perceives.
It is not always easy to identify the right path. In some situations we need to be cruel in order to be kind, in others we need to confront and oppose in order to bring peace and in some extreme situations we may need to kill in order to save lives. There is no hard and fast rule but that we are all on the same stage and the minds and the hearts of the entire audience is interconnected. And since we are the actors, our words and our actions make all the difference because we are the show and there is no other show.
The audience will only see human dignity as a reality if it is projected as such by the actors. And human dignity will only be real in the hearts of the audience to the degree that the actors have succeeded in portraying it as such.
You are on stage, it’s your turn to act, and this is the most important show on earth.
Reflection on a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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