My First Snow

My funny, sweet, Doberman was shivering but didn't want to come inside, she was having so much fun running, jumping, and stuffing her face into the first significant snowfall since she's been alive.  

photo taken by my husband, December 26, 2013

Do you seriously want to say Jews "persecute" people for worshipping Jesus?

 I was told the following article was even an example of the lengths Jews will go to to persecute Jews who worship Jesus the last time I referred to this news item I have permission to share as long as I give the source and author.

This is the type of behavior that is increasing around the country and I'll be happy to share others incidents if they provide reputable reference and I can get permission to reprint any news item or link

The following is from the Jewish Herald Voice, and I have previously been given permission to quote articles for this purpose if I reference the author and source..

By MICHAEL C. DUKE

Missionary leader Jim Pratt stands in front of signs he posted on a public footbridge outside the JCC. Depending on his audience, Pratt refers to himself as “rabbi” or “messianic rabbi.”

On June 28, a group of Christian missionaries, posing as “Jews,” violated city and state ordinances by attaching signs to the footbridge that spans Brays Bayou, facing S. Braeswood Blvd., directly across the street from the Jewish Community Center of Houston.

These signs bore messages that encourage Jews to accept Jesus as “lord” and “savior.”

 

Houston City Code (Sec. 28-38) prohibits posting unauthorized signs on curbs, sidewalks, streets, public spaces or public property (Code 1968, § 3-2; Ord. No. 70-1747, § 1, 10-6-70). Similarly, State of Texas Transportation Code (Section 393.002) prohibits the posting of signs on the right of way of a public road. Maximum fines for violating both ordinances are $500 per sign, per violation.

 

Upon seeing the signs attached to the bridge, neighborhood resident, Ira Bleiweiss, informed the missionaries that their signs were violating city law. Bleiweiss is founder of Bridge Houston, a rapidly growing grass-roots Israel advocacy group that also is dedicated to promoting healthy Jewish-Christian relations.

 

The missionaries replied to Bleiweiss’ approach, saying that the law did not apply to them, Bleiweiss said. He then notified the Precinct 5 Constable office.

 

A constable responded to the call, but was told by the missionaries that they had a permit for the signs. After Bleiweiss determined that the missionaries did not have a permit, as claimed, he called Houston police. Before the HPD officers arrived, the missionaries removed their signs from the railing, but not before Bleiweiss took photos with his digital camera.

 

Bleiweiss met the officers, showing them photos and copies of the no-sign-posting laws. He also presented a letter from the city attorney’s office, indicating that the municipal ordinance will be enforced. The officers were professional and even-handed, Bleiweiss noted. They issued the missionaries a one-time warning.

 

“This messianic group doesn’t respect the commandment: ‘Thou shall not bear false witness,’” Bleiweiss observed. “Nor do they respect commandment 28-38 of the Houston city code: ‘Thou shall not post signs on public property.’ ”

 

The missionary group behind the signs is Beth Yeshua HaMashiach. Founded and supported by the Southern Baptist Convention, the church self-identifies as a “messianic synagogue.”

 

Nearly every Sunday for the past several years, Beth Yeshua has sent missionaries to proselytize Jews outside the JCC. These missionaries masquerade as “Jews” by wearing kippot and giving Hebrew names to Christian concepts. They argue that Judaism is an inferior religion, made complete only by acceptance of “Yeshua” (a Hebrew name they give to Jesus).

 

In the past, the missionaries had attached a large banner to trees facing the JCC, and placed missionary materials in a neighborhood mailbox, in at least one confirmed case. The JH-V reported in April that both tactics appeared to violate laws. Since that report, the mailbox fliers stopped, and the missionaries began holding their signs. June 28 was the first time the signs were seen attached to the footbridge.

 

Bleiweiss said he and several neighborhood residents repeatedly have asked the missionaries not to proselytize Jews outside the JCC. “How would Christians feel if Muslims were standing outside the local YMCA, telling them that their Christianity can only be completed by accepting Muhammad?” he asked.

 

“These messianics outside the JCC continue to show a complete disrespect, not only for interfaith, Jewish-Christian relations, but also a disregard for the law,” Bleiweiss said.

 

The missionaries have defended their operations by claiming freedom of speech. When challenged by Bridge Houston members on issues of credibility, respect and legality, the group’s leader has responded by speaking in tongues.

 

Bridge Houston recommends that people call the police if they see the missionaries violating laws.

 

Copyright © 2009 Jewish Herald-Voice. All rights reserved.

 

Do Christians know that Jewish people aren't waiting for a messiah that would be anything like Jesus?

That's the question that I tried to answer today, but my answer wouldn't all fit.

Below is the whole thing..skip down to the ===> if you arrived here from that question since you've read everything else up to it.

 ===============

When I composed my answer it was too long for the space. I've tried to edit it to fit, but just can't figure out how to say everything I wanted to say and still fit the space. To fit I have to omit content I think important to the understanding of some Christians whose perspective of Judaism is foreign to it..even while they may think they understand it.

Imagine a scenario were a group of people decided that they wanted to be known as U.S citizens but couldn’t qualify because they fit none of the criteria of laws of citizenship and they believed the laws of the United States were too difficult to follow and didn’t like them so they have to be wrong. They claim they have texts that “fulfill” the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States but upon direct comparison, those texts are complete rewrites, contradicting the Constitution and Bill of Rights on every major point of law, and then they insist that the original and actual criteria for citizenship that is written into the laws of the United States shouldn’t apply and those who claim that the laws of the United States are **still all valid** and only the United States and its laws get to determine who is or isn’t a citizen are all hateful bigots who deserve eternal torture.

Do you think they have a right to arbitrarily declare to all the citizens of the United States that THEY have the entitlement to negate all the laws and citizenship criteria of the United States because they decided to make their leader into their god to appeal to authority to say their god decided that none of the citizens of the United States are citizens any longer and that they are all the real citizens of the United States? Do they have a right to be known as United States citizens and speak for all U.S. citizens?
And more importantly, when United States citizens declare to those people that they do not have a right to hijack the identity of United States citizens to lie about insult everything about the United States and its laws and people, should the world remain silent to it or even monetarily and verbally support it as the RIGHT of those who hijacked the laws and also insist that the real U.S. citizens embrace them as citizens too even though their efforts are to remove the Constitution and Bill of Rights and replace them with laws that are contradictory to them???
In the case of the Christians claiming to be Jews, they redefine the nature of God to one antithetical to the Creator that all Israel experienced in Divine revelation and who Jews believe was being honest when communicating that God does not become a man, nor do men become gods. Jewish laws and customs in the Tanakh were created specifically to separate them from those who worshipped their rulers as gods incarnate and worshipped other false gods .Religion and rule were inseparable in the ancient world. Jews were originally ruled by judges, who used God's law of Torah, then the Jews demanded/insisted to have kings like others and God let them ..only to show the harsh lessons of what happens when rulers are given too much power over others rights..and wicked kings abounded with the resulting punishments to Israel for straying, time and again. Yet there were always at least a core remnant of people who upheld Torah and preserved it intact to today. God can do anything God wills. But would God do something he said he wouldn’t do and had as a part of an eternal contract? If you want to believe that God is a God of justice, mercy and truth..you would be insisting that God deceived the eternal covenant nation for more than 3500 years if you claim God is a man. Jews believe God who obligates us to tell the truth would not lie to us.

===== Shame on anyone for trying to make utter disrespect to a people and their basic human rights out to be something good, and for supporting something I’m sure they’d balk at if someone tried to do to him. No one said Jews don’t have a right to leave the religion of Judaism; all humans have a choice of how they live and behave. While worship of Jesus is blasphemy for a Jew, God in the Torah indicates that the righteous of ALL people..even idolaters can merit God’s blessing.  There is no eternal hell for the person who doesn’t believe in Judaism.  God punished those who wanted to eliminate Israel or impose idolatry into it..there are many narratives of God blessing Gentiles in the Tanakh and one idolatrous king is even called a messiah outright for his righteous rule. Of course Jews wouldn’t worship the Persian King Cyrus who was called mosiach for his righteous rule of all his citizens and enabling the Jews to rebuild the Temple because the concept of worshiping a human ruler is blasphemy in Judaism.  No one, Jew or non-Jew has entitlement to redefine the core of Torah. We have a right to declare to the world who is or isn’t a Jew according to our LAWS.  When there were wicked kings who ruled Israel and imposed foreign worship into Jewish life they were condemned by prophets and by God and punished. Some of them taught their evil to their children who were also punished for doing  precisely what one user is promoting against the Jewish people.  A couple of those wicked kings who took the throne over Israel were not even Jews according to Torah and this was also something Israel was punished for permitting and those royal lines were cut off entirely.

That is precisely the form of disrespect that the New Testament adherents who call themselves “Messianic Jews” supported by different churches are doing. While most who use that name deceptively aren't Jews, Jews who convert to Christianity are not following Judaism .  According to God’s laws in the Torah (Exodus is clear on this ) they have willingly left the Jewish people and they are separated of their OWN choice.

Just as the laws of the United States define who is or isn’t a citizen, the laws of the Jewish people alone have the ability to determine who is or isn’t a member of the Jewish people.  Just calling yourself an American doesn’t make it so, and calling yourself a Jew even if you don’t qualify doesn’t make you one. Their religion is not forced upon them.  It wasn’t forced upon them to leave their people. That a Jew who adopts a different/contradictory religion is no longer of the Jewish people is not popular opinion but eternal law.  According to Jewish law, a Jew has to choose to leave the eternal covenant through following worship forbidden by God in the Torah (avodah zara) and they lose all rights, obligations and recognition as a member of the Jewish people.  They are only considered a Jew for the purpose of judgment of their apostasy and violation of one of the three cardinal sins that a Jew should not commit even if faced with death. Worship of a man as God incarnate is idolatrous and blasphemous worship according to the laws of Torah.  Such an apostate may only be counted among Yisrael if they repent of the foreign false god worship through formal declaration and then return to Judaism. Otherwise, they remain outside of the Jewish people and that is not disrespecting their right to choose to be a part of the Christian people, it is respecting God’s commandments for Israel and the right of the Jewish people to maintain our own laws we believe God gave us at Sinai and Jews believe are eternal.  

The New Testament depicts a redefined notion of messiah to be an incarnate manifestation of God.  This is antithetical to the eternal covenant at its most basic core element the affirmation of faith and the recognition of God’s eternal nature revealed to ALL Israel directly at Sinai. Believing Jews believe that God did not and does not lie about His very nature to all Israel whom He has preserved as an eternal covenant nation dedicated to exclusive worship of the incorporeal Creator. The covenant remains intact for the Jews as a people in obligation as a light unto the nations in how to strive to honor God’s gift of life and strive to work with God and our fellow humans all equal before our Creator..to make the world better for ourselves and for the lives to follow ours. 

See http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org and the new book from Rabbi Stuart Federow ( Judaism and Christianity; a Contrast available online and highly recommended)  that uses Biblical explanations to show you how very different the two religions are from one another and the irreconcilable differences that cannot be overcome.  For one born a “citizen” of the Jewish people, either God is ONE and does not become a man, or you choose to believe God lied to Israel and you are not a part of the Jewish covenant.  There is no way you can impose Jesus worship into Judaism or upon Jewish observance without utterly violating the core of the eternal covenant between God and Israel.

Unfortunately, because too many Christians think that Judaism is like Christianity without Jesus,and are clueless as to the actual nature of Judaism from the *context*  of TANAKH , but have only a perspective of what their New Testament redefines about it, don’t see how antithetical the two religions are, nor how disrespectful it is for one group to hijack the identity of another to claim to negate the other's path as invalid and to replace them.

To understand what it is that Jews are awaiting, or more accurately..PREPARING in how we live our lives, in belief of God's messianic promise for the world, I respectfully suggest that you read the following:

http://thejewishhome.org/counter/Wanted.pdf  This is a list of the criteria that God established for Israel to know regarding the Davidic Messiah.  The world is objective evidence we are not in a post messianic age.  The Christian religion's redefinition of messiah fits Jesus and is meaningless to Judaism and antithetical to what Jews await, and so is their notion of their antichrist that they believe Jews will worship.  Believing Jews will never worship ANY human as a god incarnate.  Ever. Period.