Digging with Darren

Following on the heels of Boaz’s comments (http://www.diggingwithdarren.com/blog/index.php?p=154#comment-423), I thought we could move the discussion over to this post and keep it focused. If you have sources that you believe to prove the Messiahship of Yeshua, then please post them here.

Jay – I know you will enjoy playing devil’s advocate here. Feel free to post your prooftexts of why you feel that he is not.

Everyone – please keep your comments focused to the topic, and keep personalities out of the way. This is a great exercise for being able to actually back up what we believe, as Peter encourages us to do

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
1 Peter 3:15,16

Lastly, Mr. Benzvi – I appreciate your concern. However, I believe you would do well to heed the words of Peter, also.

I look forward to a healthy discussion on a vital topic.

Shalom,
-Darren

This weekend we are staying with relatives since we are back in our hometown. We are here for the weekend, because our family is giving us a baby shower this Sunday. Although they love us and love Hashem, they do not honor the Sabbath. This always presents some difficulty. Today is Shabbat and we just ran into this dilemma. Being in someone else’s home, we are not in control of what takes place. It is always a delicate balance of honoring Torah and being careful to not be a stumbling block to those whom might eventually find validity in Torah. With this situation in mind, I am very proud of my five-year-old son right now. (continue reading…)

I need your help. Recently, someone wrote this “defense” for their reasons they reject the notion of submitting to Torah, along with a few burning accusations, which I think are completely inaccurate, and actually a reversal of what I perceive. How would you gently respond to this?

The whole understanding of scripture Old and New is more based on the Holy Spirit. All the Apostles recognized what had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to be scripture and on the same level as all other scripture. When Jesus speaks a rhema word to us it is still from Jesus and equal to all other revelation from Jesus. The difference that we will have is our point of reference. The Jews had the old testament but because of the rebellion of the Jews and the grace of God for the Gentiles, God blinded the hearts of the Jews so that even though they had the Old Testament that foretold of the Gospel of God through His son Jesus, they didn’t even recognize Jesus when He stood right in front of them. The Jews were blinded for a reason and there will come a time when their blindness will be removed.

[People who live according to the Torah], however, willfully blinded themselves to the Gospel taught in the New Testament. Christ revealed many new things in the New Testament that can not be understood by containing it in the box of the Old Testament. (Read the parable of the new and old wine skin) These new things were a building towards where God is and moving away from where man was. The OT was God taking Himself and putting Himself on man’s level. Coming to dwell on earth and having man worship God in a physical way. The NT is God moving things closer to where He is and having man worship in spirit and truth. Remember Jesus saying that a time is coming and now is when man will neither worship here nor there but in spirit and truth. Moving things to a spiritual level is why you really can eat anything. Jesus himself says that nothing entering a man corrupts him but what comes out of the heart corrupts the man. Now this teaching doesn’t blend with the OT thought because in the OT it was physical so God had purity on a physical level. Now it is on a spiritual level. Does that mean all of the OT is cancelled out? – no. Does this mean Christians don’t obey the commandments of God – no way. For God wrote His law on our hearts. He tells us that. The concept that is different is very much contained in the life of Paul. He was a Jew, a very zealous Jew that killed the Christians because of the Law. Did he finally come to the realization that the Christians were right and he was wrong by studying the law more? No. By studying the law more he persecuted the Christians even more. It wasn’t until Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and revealed the new covenant to Paul that he was forever changed. This new covenant is covered in Jeremiah 31 and again in Hebrews 8. The new covenant comes into place because the Jews broke the old covenant and God turned away from them. If [this group of Torah-observant people] turns from the new covenant and places themselves back under the old covenant then you won’t be able to understand the mystery revealed in Jesus Christ. Mainly because it just won’t fit. What I saw in the old testament jews was pride, arrogance and anger when Jesus and the apostles tried to reason with them concerning the new covenant. Ironically that is the same thing I saw in [these people]…isn’t that incredible.

Recently Boaz Michael posted some emails he had received and asked for some input on how to respond to them. Here is one of the letters, and my response. I would like to hear how YOU would have responded.

“Hi, I have a question about you people. I’m reform Jewish and not too religious. I have a friend who is not Jewish but wears a yarmulke around, acts like the orthodox and he says I should believe in the Jewish messiah just like him so that I can be “complete”. How can you expect to trick us into believing that? Even though I don’t care that much, it seems wrong to walk around looking like religious Jews and teaching Christian things. He mentioned that you could answer my questions.”

Dear Levy,

Thank you for your letter. Through your taking the time to write to us with your concerns, it shows me that you are serious about this matter, and I intend on giving you a genuine response.

First, let me say that it is not the intent of our organization (and presumably of your friend) to proselytize Jews—especially to a religion which condemns the righteous Torah of your forefathers. Unlike other organizations who use Jewish-type symbolism only in order to attract unsuspecting Jews for conversion attempts, our motives for Torah-observance are entirely different. Let me share a Scripture with you. The prophet Y’shayahu (Isaiah) says,

“And the foreigners who join themselves to Hashem to serve Him and to love the Name of Hashem to become servants unto Him, all who guard the Sabbath against desecration, and grasp My covenant tightly—I will bring them to My holy mountain, and I will gladden them in My house of prayer; their elevation offerings and their feast-offerings will find favor on My Altar, for My House will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” (Isaiah 56:6-8)

Through this passage Hashem tells us that if we (non-Jews) bind ourselves to Hashem and His covenant (Torah), then we will find favor before Him. Yes, for the last two thousand years Christianity has been a religion in opposition to and in competition with Judaism. There is no question of this. Countless Jewish lives have been lost in the name of “Christianity.” And for us to lure you into a religion which is against the Torah or would lead you to serve “gods whom you have not known” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 13) would be unthinkable.

The reason we do these things is not as a lure, but out of our genuine desire to express our devotion to the Almighty. And in our expression, if we are truly desiring to serve the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, how can it help but look Jewish? When we begin to follow the ways of Torah, the expressions of our faith will inevitably have similarities with you and your brothers and sisters. Although we do not deny our belief in our Messiah who himself said “I have not come to do away with the Torah…” (Matthew 5:17), we do not agree with historical Christianity in regard to positions of our relationship with the Jewish people or Torah-observance. We do not wish for you to think we are in any way a threat to our Jewish brothers and sisters. It is our desire that we would all serve Hashem sincerely, rather than seeing one another as a threat. We seek to understand your position, and to act in ways that honor the Name of Hashem, rather than damage it.

The Shmonei also says, “May Your compassion be aroused, Hashem, our G-d, and give goodly reward to all who sincerely believe in Your Name. Put our lot with them forever, and we will not feel ashamed, for we trust in You. Blessed are You, Hashem, Mainstay and Assurance of the Righteous.” This is our prayer—that Hashem would put our lot with your people and that we might serve Him in love and in fear throughout our days.

Last, we have an open-door policy. If you wish to continue dialogue on this subject or any other, we welcome your comments, your criticism and your insights. I hope that this might give you at least a small glimpse into understanding where we are coming from, and hope that it helps you understand your friend a little better. Again, we appreciate you taking the time to write to us. Please feel free to contact us anytime.

I recently came across an article on aish.com entitled “The Conversion Vaccine,” subtitled The best defense to the ambitious “Jews for Jesus” missionary campaign. It’s an article on the attempts of Jews for Jesus to “evangelize” Jews in order to convert them to Christianity. The article accurately points out that the best resistance to such missionaries is to simply be educated in the spiritual aspects of Judaism and to practice Judaism itself. They also accurately pointed out that Jews for Jesus does not have any power of influence over observant Jews in regard to conversion. Why? Because observant Jews know the Torah, and Jews for Jesus do not. Although Jews for Jesus makes up for its Torah ignorance in zeal, it does not carry enough weight for observant Jews to turn away from the Biblical mandate to beware of those who will lead you astray to serve “gods you do not know” (Deut 13, e.g. this one named “Jesus”).

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying Jews don’t need to know their long awaited Messiah. What I am saying, however, is that they don’t need to be convinced into thinking the law-breaking, Sabbath-violating Jesus that JFJ has created is their savior. He is not. The true Savior of all mankind, particularly of the Jews, is the Torah-loving, Sabbath-keeping Yeshua who is accurately portrayed in the Apostolic Scriptures if one reads them without an anti-nomian, anti-Semetic bias.

Unfortunately, the damage JFJ has done in regard to Jews in regard to their search for Messiah has been catastrophic. Their blatant rejection of the Ways of the Almighty (found in His Torah) have pierced the hearts of Jews (and G-d fearing non-Jews) around the world. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

One of my very good friends’ father is an elder in a local evangelical church. He doesn’t agree with the Torah-based lifestyle of his son. And in order to illustrate the point that the Law “really is done away with” he told the story of the JFJ missionary that came to their church. When he came, he specifically requested to be taken out to eat catfish…on Yom Kippur. Let’s just say I’m glad that I wasn’t around, because I would have been looking for a bomb-shelter. But it’s amazing the mercy our Heavenly Father has on us—even in our rebellion.

But here lies my question. How do you think his actions reflect to any Jew who is even slightly observant, much less devout? It would be like calling up a pastor to get spiritual counseling, and told to hang on while he stokes the fire in order to finish offering his child up to Molech. His credibility not only went out the window, but he was understood to be exactly what he was—a false prophet.

Sadly, JFJ has forced the majority of Jews into believing that everyone who believes in Yeshua as Messiah has the same anti-Law mentality. It has also caused them to create anti-missionary tactics and programs in order to combat this introduction of a false religion (the one that rejects the Law of G-d). Although the education of Jews to know their spiritual heritage is quite valuable, the downside of this is the staunch rejection of any idea that their Messiah has indeed come.

I have to admit, we need to be thankful to Jews for Jesus for at least one thing. With their introduction of the bait-and-switch Torah tactics that have been used time and again in order to trick some poor Jew into converting to their brand of Christianity based on the “common thread” of the Torah, many have come to realize the validity of the Torah (even though JFJ does not). It has created a rebirth of the Torah movement in our day (Baruch Hashem!), and created an environment to which we could recognize that the original Biblical faith is a Jewish one.

The JFJ addition to the equation is a double-edged sword of which only the Almighty will be able to sort out in the end.

Thanks, JFJ, for your life-touching ministry.

I’d like to hear your comments. Feel free to post them on this article with the comments link.

Good news! There are actually some Christians in the world who are speaking out on behalf of Israel! The Jerusalem Summit convened, where over a thousand Christian leaders met together for the sole reason to support Israel, and made the following declarations:

We have convened this conference to reaffirm the Christian position that the Holy Land and its eternal capital, Jerusalem are the inheritance of the Jewish people forever.

We request that the implementation of the resolutions below be placed on the Christian agenda around the world.

Toward this end, the Jerusalem Summit proclaims:

• We commit to petitioning our respective governments to move their embassies to Jerusalem.
• We commit to petitioning our respective governments to stop supporting biased UN resolutions that are anti-Israel.
• We commit to petitioning our respective governments to cease funding the Palestinian Authority or to place effective restrictions on such funding to prevent its use for terror.

Full story here.