Weekly Bracha 32

This week in the Messianic blogosphere, plus relevant items from the Jewish world. 

• Review of Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism – A “One Law” Messianic reviews the book that introduced Bilateral Ecclesiology. He does so fairly and charitably. Good on him.
• The Gospel Code – Daniel Lancaster has an amusing pitch on the FFOZ commentary on the gospels, Chronicles of the Messiah. In it, he touches on the Beatles, The Davinci Code, The Last Supper, and much more:

  Throughout the ages, the church has endeavored to conceal certain truths about Jesus. But it would be unfair to characterize this effort as a conspiracy. The real Christian conspiracy is more a collusion of prejudice, anti-Semitism and theological confusion than it is a sinister, secret plot. The embarrassing secret about Jesus that the historical Christian church would have preferred to leave behind long ago is the Jewishness of Jesus.

• Acts I Scene 2 – David examines Shavu’ot, how both Jews and gentiles were present (both converts and non-converts), and how it mirrors the giving of the Torah to both Israel and the multitude attached to them.
• Big Top Play Church – Amusing imagery from Sacred Sandwich. Plus, a golden nugget in the comments: “A pastor with circus church is usually in tent to deceive.”
  
  
• Why can't we make images of God? – A non-Messianic blog has an interesting take on whether God can appear to humanity, as a man or otherwise, writing,

  It can’t be that [God] has no form…the Hebrew Bible has dozens of verses which suggest strongly that God appears and can be seen.

  God also takes a human form in a great many aggadot, and there is reason to believe that Rashi, among other Rishonim, were corporealists, too (or at least that they didn't consider it heresy to hold this view of God.) Deeply uncomfortable with these facts? That's because the victory of the Geonim and Rambam on this point was [an] absolute [one].

  Interesting implications for the divinity of Yeshua, I say.

• The Reason – James looks at the struggles of those fine One Law folks and the real reason so many gentiles are drawn to Torah and the Messianic movement: neither anger, nor disillusionment, nor ego. No, even though some adherents of Bilateral Ecclesiology have been quick to accuse and condemn us of those things, the truth is we’re here because God has drawn us to Torah life and the Messianic movement. As James put it, “There are those of us who are associated with the Messianic movement as identified by one label or another, who are attracted to this walk, not for the sake of anger, disillusionment, or the need to feed our egos, but because we are trying to find the source of a "homing signal" God seems to have set off within us.”
• Boycott the Israeli Rabbanut – Oh boy. I don’t quite know what to think of this, but a religious Jewish (non-Messianic) blog is calling for the boycott of the Israeli rabbinate. The author says:

  Israel was founded as a haven for Jews and as a Jewish state. But why does that mean that the Israeli Rabbanut should have the right to dictate what Judaism is for everyone?

J-BOM (Jewish Book of the Month club)

• Derek4Messiah - Lamed Vov
• MessiahConnection - The Lost, Part II

Enjoy the tasty bracha bits, fine blog readers!