Dec. 27, 2019 - Brother Nathanael
04:07
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| I grew up as a Jew and attended Sabbath school at an early age. | |
| We studied the Torah, Talmud, and the Siddur, Jewish prayers, but I always felt something was missing. | |
| At the same time, I felt a strong attraction to Jesus Christ. | |
| For in the 50s, the general culture still had a strong Christian component. | |
| Like many Jews, I love Christmas carols, and this fueled my interest in Jesus Christ. | |
| I often wondered, what happens when we die? | |
| I asked my rabbi for an answer, and all I got back was, we Jews live through our children. | |
| This left me high and dry. | |
| I asked another rabbi who said, all Jews have a holy nefesh, that is soul, and are destined for eternal life. | |
| But how could this be? | |
| I knew of Jews who were cheats and addicted to pornography. | |
| Nothing holy in their nephesis, for sure. | |
| With half-baked answers, I came to the conclusion that Judaism was bankrupt. | |
| The rabbis simply couldn't answer serious questions. | |
| And they certainly can't deal with questions about Jesus Christ. | |
| How can I help you? | |
| Well, we're looking for an honest response to the teachings of Jesus. | |
| Okay, let me explain to you. | |
| An honest response. | |
| The man you call Yashka, this guy... | |
| Stop there. What kind of honest response could possibly follow when the rabbi starts by bad-mouthing Jesus? | |
| You see, Talmudic Jews won't say the holy name of Yeshua, Jesus, but instead call him Yashka, in order to curse him, avoiding saying salvation, which is what Yeshua means. | |
| Well, let me ask you this. | |
| I mean, Jesus said of himself, he said, before Abraham was born, I am. | |
| Why did people pick up stones to stone him when he said that? | |
| It says in the Torah, you should know this day and take it to your heart. | |
| The Lord is God. In the heaven above and on the earth below, there's nothing else. | |
| There's nothing besides God. | |
| God is the I am. | |
| Over in Hinduism, they say that man is God. | |
| That's idolatry. | |
| God is all. So it's idolatry for a man to claim to be God. | |
| God is all. | |
| If he says that it's all God, including me, that's not idolatry. | |
| God is unlimited. | |
| God is infinite. That man is not infinite. | |
| He's limited. You simpleton! | |
| The Old Testament describes many instances of God appearing in limited forms as theophanies. | |
| In one instance, God appeared to Abraham and even ate with him, having the appearance of a limited mouth. | |
| These were pre-incarnate appearances of the Son of God, who, as predicted by Moses and the prophets, would come as a man, having both a human and divine nature. | |
| This is way too profound for the Rebbe with his Torah. | |
| All he can come up with is that the universe is God, pure pantheism. | |
| No one dies, they just dissolve into the universe. | |
| The Christian answer is better. | |
| Jesus Christ came as a man to conquer death. | |
| By his humanity he suffered death, and thus put away our sins on the cross. | |
| And by his divinity he arose from the dead, and thus grants life beyond the grave. | |
| For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. | |
| I was perishing in the synagogue, but now have eternal life in the church. | |
| The rabbis have no answers. | |
| All they can do is curse, fudge, and put serious inquirers on the road to hell. | |
| But Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. |
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