[CS-FSLUG] Persecution in Israel

[Nigel Ridley]

Don Parris wrote:
> On 5/2/05, Nigel Ridley <nigel at rmk.co.il> wrote:
> 
>>Christopher Rose wrote:
>>
>>>If you ask me, based upon this article, anti-missionaries are really just missionaries who seek to an agenda that even the Torah would not support. In my opinion, they aren't really about the Jewish faith, rather they are merely about a political view.
>>>
>>
>>It's a bit more complicated than that. Religious Jews don't see much of
>>a difference between their faith (Judaism) and politics, the two are
>>intertwined because of the teachings contained in the Torah and the Talmud.
>>They also see a converted Jew as a lost Jew and a depreciation of the
>>Jewish People. Their viewpoint is that if conversions and assimilation
>>continues then eventually there won't be a *Jewish People* anymore and
>>so they are therefore trying to *protect* the future of the Jewish People.
>>
> 
> 
> IOW, kind of similar to the Evangelical Right getting into bed with
> the Republican Party here in the US?

Not quite, the religious [parties] here (in Israel) get the rest of the 
government into their bed.
The political system works on proportional representation and as such 
the minority parties can have enormous power and can politically 
blackmail (calling a spade a spade) the ruling party.
The religious, especially the orthodox, view everything in the light of 
the Torah -- actually the handed down interpretation of the Torah known 
as the Talmud. Everything in their lives is governed by religious codes 
known as Halachah. It is what keeps them separate from the world, it's 
what makes the Jewish (and of course if you are not an Orthodox Jew then 
you are not really truly a Jew -- well you are but it's not the same).
It's complicated, such that there are never ending arguments as to *who 
is a Jew?*.

> 
> 
>>Of course they are spiritually blind to the truth that a Jew that
>>believes in Yeshua as the Messiah is still a Jew.
>>
> 
> I tend to think of Believers as "Jews in spirit".

Depends on your theology (hot topic) but a Jew can only be a Jew if he 
was born one -- we believers in Jesus are outsiders grafted into the 
olive tree; sharing in the root but still outsiders.

> 
> 
>>There were parts of the article that reminded me of the early Church
>>where they/we were warned that there would be wolves in sheep's clothing
>>and how by persecuting believers, they think that they are doing God's work.
>>We must pray for them to receive the same kind of revelation that Paul
>>did when he was in the process of persecuting the believers.
>>
>>Blessings,
>>
>>Nigel
>>
>>
> Prayers are underway!

Bless you!

Nigel

-- 
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