I'm Offended That You're Offended!

I've been offending a lot of people lately.

1. Wezlo, a Baptist pastor of Christdot.org fame, was offended at my statement on Barack Obama's pastor, "Shame on the fools who equate the murdering of children with the acts of a nation against the murderers." I further suggested Israel is morally right in its war against the murderers of these kids, and that there are times when God uses righteous anger, even righteous violence.
   
   So offended was the Protestant pastor that he ended up deleting several posts, closing the comments on one blog post, and finally hinted it as a reason to close his blog. "That was out of line", he tells me. "You're coming here trying to pick a fight", he asserts. "You should have said, 'I think it's foolish...' rather than 'Shame on the fools...'", so as not to offend anyone, he tells me in a now-deleted post.
   
   
2. A pluralistic man of the secular world was offended after I mentioned that the names of the months of our western calendar are named after "false gods". "False gods?", he asks, "How is my god any more false than yours?!"
   
   I suspect his was a rhetorical question; there are not too many people nowadays worshipping Aphrilis, namesake of the month of April.
   
   
3. Pakistani Muslim and long time acquaintance Adnan Siddiqi and his Muslim friends were offended by the implication that the Jewish people have survived 4000 years thanks to God's preservation, despite at least 8 different civilizations attempting to destroy them. I then suggested that Hamas et al will go the way of the dodo, as did the groups prior that tried to destroy the Jewish people. Needless to say, that didn't soothe his wounds.
   
   
4. Even some Jewish friends took offense after I pointed out the modern Jewish calendar differs from God's calendar in Scripture. All-around nice guy, dad of 8 kids, and friendly Messianic Jewish rabbi Derek Leman, found it wise to publicly distance himself from me for my remarks on the Jewish calendar.
   
   [Update: in the comments to the same post, another Jewish reader, Gene Shlomovich, is engaged in a debate with me over the merits of Messianic Israel theology, the theology that states both Jews and gentiles are part of Israel, either by descent or by Messiah's grafting-in.]
   

Combine those with the respectful theological disagreements with a Christian friend, Brian, regarding the dissolution of the Levitical priesthood, a debate with comments long enough to write a short novel, a debate which continued on privately for a few more back-and-forths.

In addition, I've recently discovered another Christian friend privately took deep offense at the recent assaults on Easter, finally admitting he "didn't want to hear anymore about it". Ignorance is bliss!

In the last few weeks, I've offended at least 4 Christians, 2 Jews, 2 Muslims, and a man who in all likelihood is an atheist. And those are just the people who've spoken up. :-)

All that said, here's some more red meat for the easily-offendable. :-) I suspect it will offend Jews, Muslims and atheists more than Christians, for it contains something most Christians believe, something I consider the Christians to be absolutely and entirely correct in. (Shocking, ain't it? Not too often I can agree with Christianity!)

It's a quote from an intellectual Jewish man, a former atheist, who turned to Messiah in his mid-life, Art Katz. He had this to say regarding the easily-offendable nature of the pluralistic western world. In some ways, it gives me reassurance through all these debates and arguments and offend-ings and disagreements,

Have you heard of pluralism? The whole modern western world is pluralistic. That is to say, "many paths to God." There's no single truth.

Jesus made a remarkable statement: "If you see me, you see the Father, I and the Father are one. No man comes to the Father but by me. If any man comes any other way, that man is a thief and a robber." You guys realize what a scandal the gospel is? You realize how abrasive the gospel is? Do you realize that God has chose the foolish things? That there's nothing about the gospel that's intellectually credible? God has given us something calculatingly foolish, compared to the wisdom of the world. The world that is pluralistic and likes to consider many paths to truth has got to contend with a gospel that insists upon itself, and the Jesus of that gospel, as the only truth. It is uncompromising in its insistence. It is absolute in its expression. And the very question of absoluteness and singularity itself runs right across the whole tenet and grain of the modern world. You understand that? Do you understand how pluralistic the whole mindset of the world is, how many options -- I don't know's, the maybe's, the grey's, who's to say's -- and into that whole mucky world of vagaries, and choices, and nuances, comes one statement out of the heart of God: "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me."

If I hear anything from my Jewish kinsmen in conversations I have been involved with my people, invariably they bring up, "What about the other people of the world? What about Buddhists, what about Muslims, what about Hindus? Don't they have a religion, isn't it a world faith? Aren't there redemptive elements in these religions? And you feel a blush coming up to the roots of your being, when you have to insist and say, "No, these are satanic deceptions and false alternatives that lead unto death." To insist on the singularity of the gospel, to insist on the absoluteness of it: this is not just an issue of religion, it's hitting the world head-on in a confrontation of wisdoms, of moral systems, of mentalities.

I've found this to be true, that one bold statement goes against the grain and tenet of the world and induces all kinds of anger and offense: No man comes to God but through Yeshua the Messiah. Speak that truth, and you're a bigot by the world's standards. The world will slander you and attack you and mock you to no end should that tiny statement be uttered in public. It is the ultimate offender in this easily-offendable, politically correct world.

For the record, I'd like to say that none of the disagreements have created a cold between myself and any of you who know me personally. I always prefer clarity to agreement, and I think honest debates help bring about that clarity.

So if you're offended or disagree with me, I want to hear from you, I want to discuss it, I want to find the truth of the matter. Even if we can't attain agreement, at least we can find clarity in exactly where each side stands.

God's Calendar vs Man's Calendar

*Update*: some Jewish friends have taken offense to this post, as I mention some non-Biblical things in the Jewish calendar. The point isn't to condemn the Jewish calendar, as it is much more Scriptural than the western calendar, but instead to point out the few places it deviates from the calendar God gave us in the Torah.

The secular western calendar in use today is very different from the Biblical calendar.

Unlike the western calendar, God's calendar doesn't have months named after false gods:

• January is named after the Roman god Janus.


• February is named after the pagan cleansing ritual known as februa.


• March is named after the Roman god Mars.


• April is named after the Roman sexual goddess Aphrilis, also known as Aphros or Aphrophdite.


• May is named after Maia, a Roman goddess of fertility.


• June is named after the Roman goddess Juno.


• July is named after the Roman emperor-worshipped-as-god, Divine Julius Caesar.


• August is named after the Roman emperor, Augustus, who, upon his death, was claimed to have joined the Roman pantheon as a god.

Only the remaining months, September, October, November, December, are neutral and secular in meaning, having their names derived from Latin numbers.

Also unlike the western gentile calendar, the Biblical calendar does not have days of the week named after false gods:

• Monday is named after Mona, the pagan Gemanic god.


• Tuesday is named after the Nordic god Tyr.


• Wednesday is named after the Germanic god Woden.


• Thursday is named after the Nordic god Thor.


• Friday is named after the Nordic god Frejya.


• Saturday is named after the Roman god Saturn.


• Sunday is named after the Germanic sun goddess Sunne.

In addition to the days of the week and most of the month names, the western gentile calendar also has many holidays named after false gods, or derived from a false god but have since been renamed.

• The Lent holiday is derived from the Babylonian god Tammuz, in which 40 days are spent weeping for his death.
  
  
• The Easter holiday, exactly 40 days after the beginning of Lent, is in honor of Tammuz' mother goddess, Ishtar. Easter is celebrated as Tammuz is resurrected back to life as the reincarnation of his father god, Nimrod.
  
  
• The Christ's Mass holiday (Christmas) is celebrated on December 25th as it was the birthday of Deus Sol Invictus, the "invicible sun" god of the Romans, a title given to the false gods Mithras, Sol, Elagabalus, and Mars. Some scholars suggest that Tammuz was also believed to have been born on December 25th.
  
  
• Most of the paraphernalia associated with the big holidays can be traced back to pagan origins. For example, Christmas trees, Yuletide, Easter eggs, and Easter rabbits in conjunction with these festivals are of pagan origin.

What about the Jewish Calendar?

Some folks think the Jewish calendar to be the Biblical calendar. Unfortunately, this is not quite so; the Jewish calendar in use today mostly Biblical, but also mixes some elements of the Babylonian calendar picked up during the Israelite captivity some 2600 years ago.

For example, the Jewish calendar kept today by modern Jews has month names taken from Babylonian paganism: the Jewish month of Tammuz is named after the Babylonian god Tammuz, who's worship is mentioned in Scripture as an abomination, and who's death was mourned for 40 days prior to the day of his mother goddess, Ishtar.

(As mentioned prior, to this day, Christians celebrate this pagan holiday in the form of 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter, replacing 40 days of weeping for Tammuz with 40 days of fasting for Jesus, replacing Ishtar Day with Easter Day.)

The Jewish year starts in the middle of the calendar on a Jewish holiday not found in Scripture, a holiday called Rosh HaShanah ("head of the year"), which may be Babylonian in origin. It should be noted that while Rosh HaShanah is not Scriptural, it is celebrated at the same time as the Scriptural Yom Teruah, and the two are often interchangeable in modern times.

Ironically, because the Jewish calendar is a mix of God's calendar and the Babylonian calendar, Jews are left with the uncomfortable reality that the "head of the year" falls in the 7th month of the calendar! Yes, it's true, Jews say "happy new year" not in the first month of the year, but half-way through the Jewish year!

Unlike the western pagan calendar, the day names in the Jewish calendar tell a better story: they are the same day names in God's calendar.

So What Is God's Calendar?

God's calendar is the calendar He gave to his people in Scripture. Unlike the western calendar, God's calendar is based around lunar cycles. It also utilizes agriculture and natural ripening of crops to determine seasons.

And unlike the western calendar and the Jewish calendar, God's calendar does not have any months or days named after false gods.

According to Scripture, here are the days of the week we are to use:

• Yom Rishon (יום ראשון), "First Day"
  
  
• Yom Sheni (יום שני), "Second Day"
  
  
• Yom Shlishi (יום שלישי), "Third Day"
  
  
• Yom Revi (יום רבעי), "Fourth Day"
  
  
• Yom Hamishi (יום חמישי), "Fifth Day"
  
  
• Yom Shishi (יום ששי), "Sixth Day"
  
  
• Yom Shabbat (יום שבת or more usually שבת), "Sabbath"

In God's calendar, a new day doesn't start at midnight. Rather, the day starts at sundown and ends at sundown. Thus, the Biblical sabbath starts Friday at sundown and lasts until Saturday at sundown.

The names of the months are equally as simple as the days, Torah simply calls them "First Month", "Second Month", etc. The first month also goes by the name HaAviv or HaAbib in the Torah, meaning the month of "the aviv (ripe) barley", indicating that finding naturally ripe barely in the land indicates the beginning of the first month. God's calendar has 12 months typically, but a 13th month is inserted if barley is not naturally ripe by the end of the 12th month in Israel.

In God's calendar, there are holidays which God calls "My appointed times" (Lev 23), eternal landmarks in time we're commanded to remember all our generations. There are 7 Feasts of the Lord, (7 being a Hebrew number of completion), 8 if you count the weekly Sabbath (8 being a number of new beginnings). Here are the holidays God instituted, listed in the order they occur:

• Passover - 1st month, day 14. This year, Passover will fall in April in the western calendar.
  
  
• Unleavened Bread - 1st month, day 15, the day after Passover. This is a 7 day-long festival. We see Messiah and his apostles celebrating this Feast and the Passover in the gospels.
  
  
• First Fruits - 1st month, first day of the week following Unleavened Bread.
  
  
• Weeks - Also called Shavuot or Pentecost, falls 7 weeks after First Fruits. In the New Testament, we see the apostles celebrating this Feast of the Lord in Acts 2. This is the last Feast of the Lord occurring in the spring.
  
  
• Teruah - Also called Feast of Shofar Blasts, Feast of Trumpets, Feasts of Shouting. This is the first feast occurring in the fall. It falls in the 7th month, day 1.
  
  
• Atonements - Also called Judgments, called Yom HaKippurim or Yom Kippur in Hebrew, this feast occurs 9 days later: 7th month, day 10.
  
  
• Tabernacles - Also called the Feast of Booths, Tents, and Dwellings, this feast occurs 5 days later: 7th month, day 15.

Additionally, God calls the Sabbath day, the 7th day, a weekly feast, a feast that has been in existence since the time of creation.

All of these Feasts of the Lord have symbolic meaning, with special commandments given to us detailing how to commemorate these eternal Feasts of the Lord.

Messianic Jews and some wise Christians have suggested these feasts of God have special meaning because Messiah fulfilled some of these.

For example, the first 4 feasts -- all which occur in the spring -- were fulfilled in real-time by the Messiah: his betrayal coming the very night he was celebrating Passover with his disciples (becoming the sacrifice Passover lamb), his death during Unleavened Bread (the unleavened/sinless one being buried for 3 days), his resurrection on First Fruits (becoming the first fruits from the dead), his sending his spirit to the disciples while they were celebrating Weeks.

Likewise, we look forward to the last 3 feast which remain unfulfilled, so we speculate. We speculate that Yeshua the Messiah will return on Teruah, the day of shofar blasts; New Testament prophecy confirms Messiah will return with the blast of the shofar. 9 days later, on Atonement/Judgments we speculate is when he will judge the nations per prophecy in the Tenakh and New Testament. 5 days after that, on Tabernacles, he will tabernacle and dwell with us, the Prince of Peace bringing us lasting peace.

Want to learn more about God's calendar? Michael Rood, a Messianic Israelite gentile, has written an excellent article explaining the western calendar, the Jewish calendar, and the Creator's calendar: The Creator's Calendar.

He also has a podcast teaching on the subject:




Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers, and may the Lord use this to increase your understanding of his appointed times with humanity.

Obama's pastor spouting anti-Israel hate speech

Many of you in the US have heard that leading Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama recently had to distance himself from his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Not only did he dedicate a speech to distancing himself from his pastor, Obama has removed Rev. Wright's picture and information from the BarackObama.com website.

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

A recent investigation of Rev. Wright has discovered him to routinely demonize Israel, calling it an apartheid and racist state on the scale of South Africa years ago, and the blaming the US government for giving black people AIDS and blaming it for the September 11th attacks. The Reverend has reprinted on his Pastor's Page an op-ed piece by Mousa Abu Marzook, the Hamas kingpin whose organization calls for the violent overthrow of Israel, replacing it with an Islamic theocracy. Rev. Wright has also been found to be an adherent of Black Liberation Theology.

Rev. Wright has met with certain leaders who are known to be anti-Jewish hate mongers who vilify Jews, white people, Israel, and the west in general. For example, Rev. Wright's church publishing, Trumpet Newsmagazine, gave a "Trumpeter Award" to Louis Farrakhan, the black racist leader of the Nation of Islam who makes profound, thought-provoking statements such as, "The Jews helped get Hitler's Third Reich get on the road", blaming the Holocaust on Jewish cooperation with Hitler. Oh, and that Jews have victimized African Americans. And that Israel is an evil state of Jews, and we ought to do everything to help the Palestinians overthrow the evil occupier in order to bring about a worldwide Islamic nation.

Yes, man of the year indeed.

New revelations are being uncovered around Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. A church newsletter has been recently dug up in which the good Reverend demonizes Israel, calling the IDF "Israeli Death Squads", accusing Israel for collaborating with white supremacists, calling Jesus a "beautiful Palestinian boy" (ha!), blaming the Jews for every problem at every turn, and finally, accusing the state of Israel of building an ethnic bomb. You know, a bomb that kills only black people and Arabs.

Yes, I'm completely serious.

No, you couldn't make this stuff up.

Here are quotes from the newsletter of Reverend Wright, pastor of leading Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama:

"Don't miss the opportunity to drive five miles to south Bethlehem. Feel the ecstasy of entering the most dramatic cave in which the Virgin Mary delivered her beautiful Palestinian baby. During the Second Intifadah, the uprising against Israeli occupation, Muslim and Christian activists, chased by the Israeli death squads, were given refuge in the church.

You may go and see the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, only a thirty minute drive. Beware; don't plunge into the dirty and polluted waters. The river is almost dry. Its waters were diverted by the Israelis. Five miles west, near Jericho, you will pass by the Mount of Temptation where Jesus fasted for forty days. I can no longer walk up the steep mountain and pay respect to the Greek monks who chose to dedicated their lives to their Lord at their ancient and lonely monastery at the summit.

I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.

Arabs have always supported the dismatling of this racist government."

Yikes. Should you swap out "Israel" for "Zionists", one might mistake this for a Mein Kampf citation. In 3 short paragraphs, I count 9 "blame it on Israel" moments. This guy is seething.

While Obama has publicly distanced himself from the Reverend Wright, I can't help but think the Reverend's theology has influenced Obama more than he is letting on. How much influence would a man have on you if he converted you to his religion, married you and your wife, baptized your kids, and preached at your house of worship for years?

I don't believe Obama or his pastor are covertly Muslim; I believe that to be yet another political cheap shot. However, what Obama's pastor is preaching one can hardly call Christian, and certainly not Scriptural, either from a Jewish standpoint or a Christian gentile standpoint.

I respect Obama, but because of the potential influence of his long-time pastor and spiritual mentor, I cannot vote for him, the risk is too great. We should never live to see the day when a black-supremacist, Jew-hating, anti-Israel, Nation of Islam-supporting President rules over this country. Though he may not be those things, it cannot be risked, and I cannot cast my vote for Barack Obama.

Weekend thought

From a comment to The Torah Is Obsolete and Passing Away?,

"I question, then, why Messiah didn't say such a thing to his followers...something like, 'Hey, stop going to the Temple, I've made the priesthood obsolete, you don't have to keep 95% of God's commandments, you can ignore God's Feasts, never mind about the food stuff, oh, and I've changed the Sabbath to Sunday. Happy Easter.'"

Internet debates are funny that way. :)

Shabbat shalom.

We Celebrate Easter Because...

Jesus rose from the dead on Easter?

Nope.

Messiah rose from the dead on, or near, the Feast of First Fruits, one of the 7 Feasts of the Lord found in the Jewish and Christian Bibles.

Christians celebrate Easter because the founder of the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, issued the following decree in 325 CE at the Council of Nicaea:

When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for what could be more beautiful and more desirable than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of festivals, to follow the customs (the calculation) of the Jews who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter; which we have observed from the time of the Saviour’s passion (according to the day of the week).

We ought not therefore to have anything in common with the Jew, for the Saviour has shown us another way; our worship following a more legitimate and more convenient course (the order of the days of the week: And consequently in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jew. For it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right, they who, after the death of the Saviour, have no longer been led by reason but by wild violence, as their delusion may urge them? They do not possess the truth in this Easter question, for in their blindness and repugnance to all improvements they frequently celebrate two Passovers in the same year. We could not imitate those who are openly in error.

How, then, could we follow these Jews who are most certainly blinded by error? For to celebrate a Passover twice in one year, is totally inadmissible.

But even if this were not so it would still be your duty not to tarnish your soul by communication with such wicked people (the Jews). You should consider not only that the number of churches in these provinces make a majority, but also that it is right to demand what our reason approves, and that we should have nothing in common with the Jews.

It's with a somber conviction that we must admit that most of Christianity this weekend will be celebrating a feast named after a pagan goddess, thanks to a Jew-hating Roman emperor who

• Declared his companion to be Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun god.
  
  
• Proclaimed sun-day to be the new Sabbath
  
  
• Rose early during sun-rises at the steps of the church to worship the sun, instituting the first state-sanctioned sunrise services.
  
  
• Murdered his son and his wife years after becoming a professing "Christian".
  
  
• Proclaimed himself Pontifex Maximus, a title for the high priest of the ancient pagan Roman religion, now given as a title for Roman Catholic popes.
  

Ouch.

The Torah is obsolete and passing away?

Or at least, so goes the teaching I've heard from many Christian preachers and thinkers. Is it true?

"What is the old covenant?" Great question. After all, Hebrews 8 in the Christian New Testament says,

By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

Many Christians understand this to mean the Torah, the Law of Moses, which Jews follow to this day in the form of the religion of Judaism, is old and obsolete, aging and will soon disappear. The notion of Torah disappearing reinforces the religion Christianity and tears down the religion of Judaism, so it's a tempting thought for many Christians.

And so the thinking goes that Christians and even Jews need not follow God's commandments in the Torah.

I replied to Trent in an email, but the answer lies so deep in Scripture, I thought it worthy of posting to the blog where you folks can read it as well. Here we go...

You asked what is the old covenant from a Hebrew perspective. Good question.

There were a couple of "old" covenants.

• God made a covenant with Adam that man must work to live.
• God made a covenant with Noach that the earth will never again be destroyed by a flood.
• God made a covenant with Avraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, uncountable, and that he would be the father of many nations.
• God made a covenant with Jacob that his name would be Israel and that his offspring would be God's people forever.
• God made a covenant with all Israel that if they keep His commandments in Torah, they will be blessed and will prosper in the land God gave them.
• God made a covenant with David that promised him one of his descendants would have a throne established forever.
  

When Christians talk about the "old" covenant, they're usually referring to the covenant God made with Israel on Mt. Sinai, telling them to keep His commandments. These weren't actually new commandments He gave to Israel, but were deeper, elaborate revelations of God's own commandments which were kept from the beginning of time -- look how Abel sacrificed innocent blood as an offering, or how Cain's act of murder was evil, or how Noah knew which animals were clean and unclean...all long before God's covenant with Israel at Sinai. What I'm saying is this: God's commandments are timeless and not limited to the Sinai covenant.

The covenant on Mt. Sinai became "old" once the covenant was renewed on Mt. Moab (If I recall right!) with blessings given for keeping the commandments, whereas the Sinai had many curses for breaking the commandments.

Mind you, none of these have been replaced by Messiah's new covenant with us.

In Jeremiah 31, a new covenant is prophesied to occur between God and the southern house of Judah (Jews today) and the northern nation of Israel (lost, absorbed into the gentile nations to this day):

The time is coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them, "
declares the LORD.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

Now, I believe he's prophesying about the Messianic covenant here, because if you look at Messiah's actions, he was always about writing the Torah on our hearts. For example, Messiah told us [paraphrasing], "You've heard it said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I say, if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart, you're committing adultery."

That's taking a Torah commandment, the Law, and applying it to the heart.

He made similar statements about hating your brother, about loving your neighbor, taking oaths, loving God, even the less popular ones related to Temple service.

In fact, almost all of Matthew 5 is dedicating to getting to the point of the Torah, and applying it to our hearts, rather than just outwardly as the Pharisees were doing.

Now, what does all this have to do with the old covenant stuff?

The book of Hebrews says that these things -- in particular, the Cohenim (Levitical priesthood) is passing away. While that's true, it won't be gone until the New Covenant is complete, otherwise Messiah wouldn't have bothered applying what is "old" to our hearts. You might think the New Covenant is complete with Jesus, but I propose it's not complete until He finishes the job: new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem descending from heaven, everyone knowing the Lord. That's when the New Covenant is complete, after which we will enter another covenant that makes the "new covenant" become old. :-)

What evidence is there that the New Covenant isn't complete yet, you ask? Look at the rest of Jeremiah 31 that we just quoted earlier, here's the rest of the prophecy:

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

This is what the LORD says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the LORD Almighty is his name:

"Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,"
declares the LORD,
"will the descendants of Israel ever cease
to be a nation before me."

This is what the LORD says:
"Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,"
declares the LORD.

"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

There are 3 things about this "new covenant" of Jeremiah's that haven't happened yet:

1. Everyone will know the Lord
2. Israel will no longer be rejected
   
3. Jerusalem will be rebuilt completely

Don't be ignorant of these things -- Jews today will retort Christian missionaries saying, "If your Jesus brought Jeremiah's new covenant, how come these things haven't happened?" If you look at anti-missionary websites like Jews for Judaism, they explicitly list every "new covenant" prophecy Jesus did not fulfill, then go on to say, "to our knowledge, no one has ever fulfilled these messianic requirements."

If you study the Scriptures, however, you'll find that it's prophesied that a new Jerusalem will descend from heaven, Israel will return to the Lord, and every knee will bow [jeez, that's cliche, I know!] - all will know the Lord. When those things happen, only then is the "old covenant" complete, because the Old Covenant -- with it's earthly pictures of heavenly things like blood shedding for atonement of sins, the Holy Temple, the priests -- will be replaced by the actual things they were pictures of. I think that's what the author of Hebrews meant when he says "by calling this covenant new, he makes the first old, and what's old and obsolete is passing away.

Is the old covenant obsolete? Is the Torah, which includes the 10 commandments, obsolete? The end of Hebrews 8 seems to indicate that the old covenant, or at least, the priesthood, is old and obsolete, and is passing away.

We must reconcile Hebrews 8 with Messiah's words that not a single mark of the pen, not a single commandment, will pass away until heaven and earth pass away. That includes even the Levitical priesthood. This means -- and excuse me for this very unpopular, politically incorrect statement -- there will be a 3rd Temple in Jerusalem, complete with a Levitical priesthood. That's my belief.

So, the New Covenant doesn't replace the Sinai covenant as much as it builds on it. For example, without the Old covenants telling us about shedding of innocent blood for atonement of sin, Y'shua's sacrifice would seem totally bizarre and foreign.

Heck, Paul says that without the Torah, we wouldn't know what sin is; the idea that Messiah would free us from sin would seem pointless, because we wouldn't know what sin is.

And without the commandments in Torah, Messiah wouldn't have anything to write on our hearts.

Without the old Davidic covenant, the very concept of a Messiah itself would be foreign to us.

The new covenant builds upon the old covenants.

US State Department: Should We Talk With Hamas?

The Official US State Department blog asks, should we talk with Hamas?

Hamas -- You know, the Jew-hating, genocidal, militant Islamic fundamentalist, hateful propoganda-spewing, suicidal maniacs currently running Gaza.

Hamas is the democratically-elected Palestinian militant group that encouraged and celebrated last week's massacre of 8 Jewish kids at a Jerusalem yeshiva.

That the US State Department would even consider this is a mockery of justice and a spit in the face of murder victims' families -- murders which were carried out by Hamas in the name of their false religion.

Great comment to the blog post:

U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk in Washington, DC writes:

Worrying that you guys are asking questions like this using funds approved by the appropriations committee that I am a member of.

Posted on Sun Mar 09, 2008

Hat tip: LGF

*UPDATE: follow-up post from the US State Department. Apparently, the "should we talk with Hamas" question generated a lot of media attention.

Putting Faces on the Murdered Jewish Kids

These Jewish kids were murdered last week by a Palestinian who walked into their school and fatally shot them all, injuring 40 more.


Yonatan Yitzhak Eldar


Yochai Lipschitz


Segev Peniel Avihail


Roey Roth


Avraham David Mozes


Liran Banai


Yehonadav Haim Hirshfeld


Doron Mahareta


Palestinians civilians -- you know, the ones our media sympathizes with, to whom our politicians give their support, and for whom they hope to create a state -- were obviously filled with sorrow and grief by the murder of these Jewish kids:





Jews are dead? Get out the candy!


Hell, candy for adults too!


Yay! We murdered Jewish kids in cold blood!


Party time!


Party on the streets!


The Associated Press (AP), sympathetic to Palestinian civilians like most western media, posts a picture of a poor old Palestinian woman whose house was raided by the Israeli Defense Forces. What's that on her wall, you ask? Oh, it's just a picture of the gunmen who killed all the Jewish kids. But don't worry, it's just wall art.


Hey, I have a great idea: Let's negotiate with these people and give them their own country. Right smack dab in the middle of a large Jewish populace. Yes, that will surely end well.

Truly we live in the Age of Political Idiocy and Moral Bankruptcy.

The Lord said to Moses, "If you do not drive the inhabitants out of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them."

The Torah, Numbers 33:55

Weekend thought

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice. They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith. They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom."

-Rav Kook, founder of the recently-bombed Merkaz Harav yeshiva (Judaism school) in Jerusalem

"Religion of peace" strikes Jerusalem

Victims' blood stains a religious book in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem March 6, 2008, after a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the seminary and opened fire in the library.

Hat tip: LGF

A school in Jerusalem has been attacked by Palestinian terrorists: Some reports from scene say shooting is ongoing.

Several people were killed Thursday evening when terrorists infiltrated the Merkaz Harav yeshiva Jerusalem and opened fire, a senior police official said.

It was unclear exactly many assailants were involved, but according to various reports, one or two terrorists infiltrated the yeshiva, and may be armed with explosive belts.

Some reports suggested the terrorists were shot and killed, while other reports from the scene said the incident was ongoing and shots were still being fired.

A large number of police and emergency medical personnel had either arrived or were en route to the scene, with some 20-30 ambulances involved.

UPDATE at 3/6/08 11:44:40 am:

Israellycool is liveblogging as news comes in.

Several readers have emailed to say that Palestinians are celebrating and handing out candy.

UPDATE at 3/6/08 12:50:33 pm:

Haaretz has a report from the scene: Witnesses describe ‘horrific’ scene inside Jerusalem yeshiva.

The gunmen entered a dining hall where about 80 people were gathered, witnesses said, and opened fire. There are at least seven killed and 10 people wounded, said Eli Dein, director of Israel’s rescue service.

Medic Yaron Tzuker said he arrived as the gunfire was still going on. “They were still shooting when we got here, he told Channel 10 TV. We took cover and the ambulance was hit. It’s horrible inside - dead bodies and wounded - it’s horrific.”

Yitzhak Dadon, a student, said he was armed with a rifle and waited on the roof of a nearby building. “He came out of the library spraying automatic fire ... the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head, he said.”

Another witness told Israel TV that he heard both single shots and automatic gunfire from inside the building, and it went on about 10 minutes.

The seminar is the Merkaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe quarter at the entrance to Jerusalem, a well-known center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank. Most of the students are high school age.

And the Gaza branch of the Religion of Peace is celebrating and gloating:

In Gaza City, residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in celebration in the air after hearing news of the attack on the seminary. “This is God’s vengeance,” blared a loudspeaker in a Gaza City mosque.

Aviad Cohen Speaks Yeshua on Jewish Radio

Aviad Cohen, the Jewish hip hop guy formerly known as "50 Shekel", who recently discovered that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah, is interviewed on a Hebrew radio station:



(Don't worry, English speakers, the Hebrew lasts only into the first few seconds of the interview, it's English the rest of the way out.)

Aviad speaks plainly about Yeshua to the Jewish host and to the listening audience. Really great interview - well done Avi!

I really like the part where the Jewish host asks, paraphrasing here,

"How is your relationship with God? ... Do you keep kosher?"

Aviad's answer to that is excellent and confronts the oft-held Jewish stance that keeping God's commandments, such as the kosher laws, and good works defines your stance with God. While we should not fall into gentile Christian foolishness where God's commandments are irrelevant, we likewise cannot fall into the Jewish thinking that good works alone define our standing with God.

Check out Avi's website, AviadCohen.com