In reading this week's Torah portion, I was reminded of a true story of how some Jewish counter-missionaries twist Scripture to make people believe THEY have all the "right" answers."
A couple years ago I encountered some counter-missionaries who arrogantly insisted that "messianic" and "study" were an oxymoron; and that they – unlike me - have a personal relationship with God which began with the patriarchs “because God spoke directly to 3 million” of their ancestors at Sinai.
One woman told me: “We don’t believe because of some stories we have heard or some book we have read. We believe because our own fathers were there, witnessed Him and have passed the information to us from one generation to the next. Praying to or ‘through’ Jesus was not a spiritual experience known to our ancestors at Mount Sinai – hence it is obviously idolatry.”
Well, okay. However - Scripture also tells us that more than 500 people saw Yeshua after His death, including Peter, Paul and all the Apostles! (See 1 Corinthians 15:6.) Granted, that’s far fewer than the 3 million at Mt. Sinai, but hey – eye witnesses are eye witnesses – and (sorry but I have to say this!) at least the ones who saw Yeshua weren’t busy building a golden calf to worship behind his back. You wanna talk about idolatry?
This same person tried to downplay the golden calf issue by suggesting the people who participated in making the golden calf were not GOD’s people doing these things; rather, it was the “non-Jews” who followed Moses out of Egypt….
Why did she say that? Because in Exodus 32:7-8 God said to Moshe “Go, descend to YOUR people that YOU (Moses) have brought up from Egypt….” In other words, God didn’t at that point, refer to them as MY people.….
Sounds convincing, doesn’t it? Well, if you will read the REST of that passage you’ll discover something very interesting:
Moshe’s brother, Aaron, the High Priest – who, like Moshe, was a LEVITE – was instrumental in the building of that golden calf! As a matter of fact, he ORCHESTRATED it and then tried to downplay it when confronted by Moshe! Please read all of Exodus 32 to see exactly what happened, so you can recognize this BLATANT attempt at Scripture twisting….
Counter-missionaries: If you’re going to accuse someone’s faith of being “oxymoronic” then perhaps you should make sure you properly know your own, first.
Fashioning of the calf. No where does it refer only to those pesky mixed multitude. Oh another thought, I was taught by my orthodox friends that a "convert" to the faith was to be treated with utmost respect since they willingly took on all the problems that historically come with being Jewish, they were not born to it so they made a conscious decision. I love to listen to how they waffle back and forth and never see or hear what they are saying.
ReplyDeleteFashioning of the calf. No where does it refer only to those pesky mixed multitude. Oh another thought, I was taught by my orthodox friends that a "convert" to the faith was to be treated with utmost respect since they willingly took on all the problems that historically come with being Jewish, they were not born to it so they made a conscious decision. I love to listen to how they waffle back and forth and never see or hear what they are saying.
ReplyDeleteRight, Joan! :)
ReplyDelete