Oh but I did believe the New Testament for over 45 years. You are having great difficulty coming to terms with the idea that someone could really and truly be a Christian and just have their faith fall apart. If you want the bare bones of what happened, I’ll give you that, but I’m most certainly not going to go into detail. You want to know why? Because I don’t care to undermine your faith. Your journey is your journey. But I can tell you that I am not unusual at all. The classes that I take at my synagogue are absolutely FULL of people like me who spent their lives loving Jesus, only to find to their bewilderment that Jesus wasn’t God or messiah after all, but the God they loved and served was still there, and was still Lord and Master and Savior, baruch Hashem.
Actually no, it’s not surprising to me that a Catholic becomes something else, falls away. Some “minimalise” into becoming protestants, others find the law-structure they think they need in Islam, some others become Jewish. The similarity is that they dont feel filled up where they are… somehow. And so they long for something deeper, something more to get closer to the unseen God. Unfortunately I think many Catholic parishes are experts in creating apostates because of the tepidity and the lack of Holy Spirit work in our assemblies.
I will admit I have ever only met one who became a believer in rabbinical Judaism. This was a German woman who had had no previous personal relationship with Jesus, she was only nominal Christian and her reasons for wanting to join Judaism were mainly cultural fascination.
I have lived in the Holy Land (Jerusalem) for an extensive time and also talked alot about religion with people there. I do admire and respect Judaism deeply. Why would I not, its the faith of our fathers, and Christ is the fulfilment and continuation of that faith.
But its a stinging feeling for me… of course, to see a brother fall away. Its stinging in all of the Body.
I have met quite a few messianic Jews… Jews that believe Yeshua is Messiah… also people who used to believe that Christianity was paganism and to become a Jesus-believer would be to betray their own people. Thorough studies and prayer led them to Jesus.
I see you are not answering what you might do with the links and books I recommended. if you were indeed a firm Christian then you must have already heard and witnessed thousands testimonies about lives changed through Christ. So why not listen to some postmodern Jews who became messianic through divine intervention? You are not afraid, are you? I hope you are not…
You say you dont want to harm my way. Come on… you cannot actually think its worthwhile for me to base my life on a lie. Is that judaism, to think so? My life is Christ, He is the Loving Face of God, the Manna that came down onto my desert. If my life is thus a joke, dont you think it would serve me to know this?
I have sought Truth and He revealed Himself to me. He has answered everything… and I dont mean just in academic/intellectual sense (which He does, but that is the lesser) but through transforming my life and that I /we actually experience Him. I think this is often missing in many Catholic churches why I fear you have become a believer, at any rate, by head instead of by experience.
But… Please do save me from error. Maybe God sent you to me, since I always pray “Father, Your will be done”. Untill now He has been abundantly willing to tell me very clearly what He means about many things. Besides His communication, I have felt the power of His Spirit, I have more people in my near friendsgroup than I can count, who have seen Christ, actually seen Him (Even one dear lady died and went to heaven and met him and she was resucitated). I know numerous people who have seen the mother of Jesus and angels. Numerous who have been healed… I even met people who were healed from cancer in the last stage in the Name of Jesus.
When I became a believer a few years ago after having been a walking dead all my life of being a nominal Christian, Scripture now opened itself to me. I could read it… It became my food, regenerated life in me as a personal love letter does. the Holy Spirit explained things to me that I never understood and all things fell into place. I have a new identity. I have come to know Love and beauty and in Him I have my identity. Kol akavod.
So please, do share with me your testimony without being condescending. I would love to hear it. Challenge us all… dont leave us in the dark if you truly believe we are in error.
Again I urge you:
salvationisfromthejews.com/audioconverts.html
Baruch Hashem.
Peace.
My original post (#438) was in response to Ben’s claim that Jesus didn’t teach the resurrection and (by implication) that Jesus wasn’t divine. Accordingly, I brought out evidence that Jesus both claimed divine status and that teachings regarding the resurrection can be traced to as early as the late 30’s in Jerusalem. You then effectively attacked one of the eight prongs of my Jesus’ claims to divinity argument. Grace, in post #472, then raised the issue of the virgin birth of Jesus. However, I believe she mistakenly added that to the list of arguments concerning Jesus’ claim to divinity, where I believe it doesn’t belong. I replied back with my list of prophetic fulfillments, where I believe Grace’s point about the virgin birth should be placed. So although my arguments haven’t responded to the topic of the thread, i.e., the Missing Passover, they have responded to various issues raised by various people on the thread.
I’m going to address your first argument now, and I’ll get back to you on your others, as I have limitted time tonight.