by Rich Robinson
To re-phrase Chaucer,
“When April with her sweet showers,
the drought of March has parched to the root,…
Then do folk get expelled…”
Yes, this April marks two expulsions, in a manner of speaking. Passover (beginning the night of April 19) is not really an expulsion like the bad ones when Jews were kicked out of Spain, Portugal, and other countries. It’s really about liberation, which came about when Pharaoh, having had it up to here with the plagues, essentially said, “Get out of here already!” His expelling us was God’s way of freeing us—a good expulsion.
The day before Passover, April 18, marks the release of Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, one of the latest in a series of advocacy films. Ben is talking about the expulsion that comes when proponents of Intelligent Design are “persecuted” in academic settings and denied the right of free inquiry, expelled from the academic establishment. In this case, expulsion is the opposite of freedom—a bad expulsion. (Check out the film’s web site, by the way, it is really quite funny and thought-provoking.)
There’s a third “expulsion” worth mentioning at this time of year. Jews who declare that they believe in Jesus are routinely “expelled” from among the Jewish people. I put “expelled” in quotes because there is really no authority that can expel or excommunicate Jews from the Jewish people. For every rabbi who might have excommunicated someone for something, one can find another rabbi who doesn’t agree with the first rabbi. Jewishness comes from God via parents, and one’s people are one’s people by virtue of a common history, culture, and destiny. A Jew can no more be expelled from the Jewish people than someone can be expelled from the human race because they believe the Creator is a frog from Neptune…or because they believe in Intelligent Design. But there are still some who would like to see such an expulsion, and good riddance to those pesky Jews for Jesus.
People can be expelled from countries, and they can be expelled from academia. This is a good time of year to contemplate what freedom means: freedom from slavery, freedom of inquiry, freedom of religion. I don’t know what your seder will be like this year, but at mine I am thinking of celebrating not only our redemption from Pharaoh, but the possibilities of redemption from suppression of thought of all kinds. Will anyone join me? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
8 comments:
The fact is that Christianity is founded around the concept of the Trinity. Jews and Judaism have rejeted both of thise concepts, and therefore reject Jesus.
G-d gave the Jews a list of goals and conditions to recognize the true Messiah, and Jesus did not fulfill these requirements. So the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus rejected him outright!
When a Jew chooses to accpet Jesus, he accpets the Trinity, and dismisses the idea of one indivisible G-d. This idea is totally incompatible with Judaism.
The final result being that when a Jew accepts Jesus, he becomes a Christina. It doesn't matter if the new Christian celebrates some Jewish festivals, that does nothing to connect them to Judaism.
Jews have a set of rules that define who is Jewish, and accpetance of Jesus and the Trinity makes one an automatic Christian.
ANd yes, the Jews have every right to deny these pseudo-Christians any participation in the Jewish community.
Thank goodness very few Jews are stupid enough to buy into your scam.
It's wonderfully convenient that you use blanket rejections and ad hominem attacks so that you don't actually have to deal with whether Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. The automatic disqualifications are not so automatic. Don't just take people's word on things. Study the scriptures and ask God to reveal His truth to you. Either Jesus is the Savior of the whole world, including the Jews, or he is Savior no one. If that's the case, we Christians should be looking elsewhere for salvation. Are you willing to find out for yourself?
In response to Jeffrey Levine, Christianity is primarily founded around the idea that Jesus is the Messiah. But Levine does not distinguish Jews from Judaism, or from his own presumably Orthodox Judaism. 21st century Jews have embraced quite a few things that Levine would probably reject - we have JUBUs, New Age Jews, secular Jews, HinJews, and the list goes on. Levine should be consistent and deny them a right to their Jewishness. When he writes that "Jews have a set of rules that define who is Jewish," that's almost ludicrously incorrect. Where is this list of rules? Is it the definition of Orthodox Judaism? What does Levine then do about other Jews. Or is it just a negative, Jews can believe anything except Jesus. "The Jews" have never gotten together at any point and decided who is in and who is out, because for every Jew who wants someone out, another one wants him in. The bottom line, to paraphrase Forrest Gump, is that "Jewish is as Jewish does." Which goes for Jews who follow Jesus as well as those who don't.
Hey Jeffrey,
You're entitled to your opinion for sure... I'm a little offended by the closing statements in which you refer to Christian Jews as "stupid" though... I happen to have a couple of very close friends who are Jewish Christians. You'd have a hard time convincing them they no longer are Jews just because "you" say so.
I was also a little disappointed that you failed to back up any of your claims and gave only broad sweeping generalizations as to your point of view.
What God given conditions for the Messiah did Jesus fail to fulfill?
Jesus was a Jew. His disciples were Jews. So why can't modern day followers of the Jewish Jesus still be Jews?
wonderfull. yea, jesus is the lord :) we love him :)
god bless you :)
strolchi :)
According to box office totals, the movie, EXPELLED, made over 3 million this, its opening weekend. It only opened in 1,052 theaters, but is number 9 in the top ten !
Wow.
Only people who are fearful of truth seek to suppress it. I heard Richard Dawkins proposed to disallow Christians from attended Oxford University. What is he afraid of? Jesus said the Truth will set you free, so we should seek truth not suppress it, or oppress those seeking to present it in public forums.
Also to Jeffery Levin, the trinity does not diminish the idea of an indivisible God. God is still one as He has always been. Jesus is prevalent all through the Old Testament.
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