Choose life: The case for Judeo-Christian values: IX
As readers of this blog have no doubt noticed, I've been providing a lot of links to Dennis Prager's The Case for Judeo-Christian values series. I will continue to do so. (For those that want to cut to the chase and read Dennis's articles in quick succession you can find them all right here: Prager Articles.)
As a Christian I don't suscribe to all of Dennis' Biblical exegesis. Christians believe the Old testament, including the Torah, should be interpreted by the New testament, and that the entire Biblical record is meant to point to and glorify God's intended Messiah for mankind - Jesus Christ. Mr. Prager, an observant Jew, does not believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah. That's a critical dividing line, but not a big surprise. For I think it is safe to say that while there are a great many "Messianic Jews" who do worship Yeshua (Jesus), most observant Jews are still awaiting the revealing of the (second) coming Messiah. Yet I believe, becuase the Scriptures predict it, that the majority of the Jewish nation will, in time, acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and his role as the promised One.
Until that time, "gentile" Christians are called to recognize that we have been grafted into the "Olive Tree" that is spiritual Israel, and that only by the mercies of God. It was to the Jews that the oracles of God were given - not to the gentiles. And when Jesus, a Jew by the flesh, began His public ministry it was to the household of the Jews first. So, we remember our place and as the opportunity affords we humbly share with our Jewish friends the veracity of Christ as the "annointed one".
Yet as Dennis so ably demonstrates, among Jews and Christians there is a timeless bond. More than any two tribes of people on earth we share a faith in the same transcendent God and that unites us as nothing else can. In my lifetime I have witnessed a remarkable thing, a closer bond between Jews and Christians than perhaps at any other time in history. It is a thing to behold. And I pray that this bridge grow ever stronger until the "day dawns and the morning star" rises in our hearts, Jews and Christians alike!
I encourage you, therefore, to read, meditate on, and benefit from Dennis Prager's "case for Judeo-Christian values".
Choose life: The case for Judeo-Christian values: IX
by Dennis Prager
There are good people on both sides of the Terri Schiavo tragedy, but chances are that if you affirm Judeo-Christian values, you have opposed pulling the feeding tubes from the severely brain damaged woman's body.
Why? Because if there is anything that Judeo-Christian values stand for, it is choosing life and rejecting death. As the Torah puts it, "I have put before you today life and death, and you shall choose life." Link to rest here.
As a Christian I don't suscribe to all of Dennis' Biblical exegesis. Christians believe the Old testament, including the Torah, should be interpreted by the New testament, and that the entire Biblical record is meant to point to and glorify God's intended Messiah for mankind - Jesus Christ. Mr. Prager, an observant Jew, does not believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah. That's a critical dividing line, but not a big surprise. For I think it is safe to say that while there are a great many "Messianic Jews" who do worship Yeshua (Jesus), most observant Jews are still awaiting the revealing of the (second) coming Messiah. Yet I believe, becuase the Scriptures predict it, that the majority of the Jewish nation will, in time, acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and his role as the promised One.
Until that time, "gentile" Christians are called to recognize that we have been grafted into the "Olive Tree" that is spiritual Israel, and that only by the mercies of God. It was to the Jews that the oracles of God were given - not to the gentiles. And when Jesus, a Jew by the flesh, began His public ministry it was to the household of the Jews first. So, we remember our place and as the opportunity affords we humbly share with our Jewish friends the veracity of Christ as the "annointed one".
Yet as Dennis so ably demonstrates, among Jews and Christians there is a timeless bond. More than any two tribes of people on earth we share a faith in the same transcendent God and that unites us as nothing else can. In my lifetime I have witnessed a remarkable thing, a closer bond between Jews and Christians than perhaps at any other time in history. It is a thing to behold. And I pray that this bridge grow ever stronger until the "day dawns and the morning star" rises in our hearts, Jews and Christians alike!
I encourage you, therefore, to read, meditate on, and benefit from Dennis Prager's "case for Judeo-Christian values".
Choose life: The case for Judeo-Christian values: IX
by Dennis Prager
There are good people on both sides of the Terri Schiavo tragedy, but chances are that if you affirm Judeo-Christian values, you have opposed pulling the feeding tubes from the severely brain damaged woman's body.
Why? Because if there is anything that Judeo-Christian values stand for, it is choosing life and rejecting death. As the Torah puts it, "I have put before you today life and death, and you shall choose life." Link to rest here.
posted by Publius @ 4:18 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home