Bible: Illumination or Support?

Recently, I received a comment on my blog by the author of thefaithofabel.blogspot.com. Rather than just allow the comment to appear as a comment, I decided to use it as a post, as the questions deserve an answer. The questions in this comment will be answered in more detail in future posts. Here is the comment in its entirety:

Why is it so bizarre that G-d would take on human form? He did it when he appeared to Abraham (Genesis 18). What does it mean in Genesis 3, when G-d promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent? Is that refering to a mere mortal, or a Divine Human? What about Isaiah 7? Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and they shall call his name Immanuel (G-d with us).

Why is it unbelievable that the G-d of Abraham would accept a human sacrifice for the atonement of sin? Does not Isaiah say,

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have each turned to our own way, and Hashem has laid on Him the iniquity of us all"

These unbelievable, "pagan" Christian doctrines are found in your own Hebrew scriptures.

thefaithofabel.blogspot.com

The first question was: “Why is it so bizarre that G-d would take on human form?”
Well, the answer is simple. It is simple because G-d Himself gave us the answer:

"Then the L-rd spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form--only a voice.” (Deu 4:12)

But, G-d doesn’t leave us wondering WHY we never saw a form, He explains WHY:

"So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. "And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” (Deu 4:15-19)

G-d makes it very clear that the reason He did not take on any form when He spoke to us from the mountain was that we might worship that form.

Worshipping a “form” of G-d…

Hmmm….sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Isn’t that EXACTLY what Christianity does? In worshipping Jesus, Christians are worshipping a “form” of G-d, which is forbidden – its idolatry!

No, faithofabel, G-d would not take on human form and He did not ever take on ANY form. Genesis 18 tells us that G-d appeared to Abraham, but it does not say that he appeared in a form. To make the jump between verse 1 and 2 and say that the three visitors that Abraham received were G-d in human form is not only a leap and an arrogant assumption, it is one made with bias, coming from a Christian viewpoint. You assume that when “the L-rd” spoke, it had to be one of the visitors, rather than G-d speaking to Avraham aside from the conversation with the visitors. Its all in how you read it. But herein lies the circular reasoning of Christianity: Jesus is G-d in human form, therefore whenever G-d speaks to people, it must be Jesus, it must be in a form, etc. Re-read Genesis 18, looking at it with Avraham having two completely separate interactions – one with G-d and one with the visitors – you might see something completely different.

What about Isaiah 7? That’s a whole book in and of itself, but the bottom line is this: Again, read the verse in context. Isaiah 7 is not a prophecy about the birth of a divine being, its about King Ahaz being told by Isaiah that the King of Israel (Northern Kingdom) and the King of Assyria who are about to launch an attack, will not overcome him. The child spoken of in the prophecy is not the sign, it is a marker for the sign:

"For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.” (Isa 7:16)

In addition, the Hebrew word translated by the Christian bible as Virgin, does not mean virgin. It means a young woman.

The truth is that I read the Hebrew bible for an understanding of what G-d is trying to say to us and you read it to support your already established beliefs. To quote a friend:

Christians use the bible much as a drunk uses a lamp post; not so much for illumination as for support.

I will address Isaiah 7 in more detail in a future post.

Messianic Judaism is Christianity

It’s not like I have a lot of time to be surfing the web and reading blogs. I wish I did; there’s certainly some very interesting stuff out there. But, after I’ve read one or two of my favorite most uplifting Jewish blogs, there is one Hebrew Christian or “messianic” blog that I frequent. I have to say that it is one of the most prolific and varied blogs I’ve ever read. I first discovered it when a “google alert” told me that my name had appeared in the blog!

In today’s offering in this blog (which shall remain nameless – not because of loshon hara but because I don’t want to give them any free advertising), in the article of the day, the author indicates that it is an erroneous Jewish idea that a “Messianic Jew” is essentially an evangelical Christian.

Most, if not all, Hebrew Christians believe that they are practicing a form of Judaism, not Christianity. In fact, push a Hebrew Christian into a corner and he’ll admit that he believes that he is observing the “true” form of Judaism. That is, that Hebrew Christianity is where G-d intended for Judaism to go in the first place and that traditional Jews are the ones that have lost their way.

It is questionable whether they are moved to want to be identified as Jews because it quells a deep-rooted sense that they’ve betrayed their people and their G-d, and therefore assuages a sense of guilt, or if it is simply an attempt to “out” the “in” group so that they can become the new “in” group. Either way, one thing is clear, they’ve missed the point completely.

No amount of Jewish words, Carlebach tunes or Shabbat candles can make a pig kosher. Once one crosses the line and embraces a belief system which espouses the idea that G-d would take on physical form (see the admonition in Devarim 4:12-19), to make a sacrifice for sin (has G-d ever accepted human sacrifice?), because without such sacrifice atonement is impossible (btw, atonement has always only been through teshuvah, not the sacrifices – see my post on sacrifice and atonement), and that without believing that this sacrifice was made, one cannot have a relationship with G-d, nor receive forgiveness for sins, one has removed himself from Judaism and entered a world based on mythological and pagan concepts which are completely foreign to Judaism.

If a Jew wants to become a Christian, that’s between them and G-d, but don’t call it Judaism, ‘cause it aint.