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A View From the Cross

A View From the Cross

 

A Must See! A 10 minute video meditation on the various wounds of sin which plague humanity, wounds that were borne by Jesus on the Cross. The drama of Christ's Passion shows how Divine Mercy bore our wounds and wants to heal us. An Excellent Lenten preparation for the Sacred Triduum!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrFBX03Bnno

 

526,332 views 398 replies
Reply #276 Top

OK, saying this shows you don't understand.   

Actually, it merely shows that you and I disagree.

 

But let's continue.

Let's.

 

Believe it or not, our human destiny is eternal.  This is where the theological sense comes in for Jews, Catholics, non-Catholics, non-believers...in other words for all people since Adam.

Is that "eternal" in the long sense or "eternal" in the short sense?

I.e. is this "eternal" like the land of Israel being the homeland of the people of Israel or is this some other kind of eternal?

 

Death is the universal, natural and inevitable end for all of us and our eternal destiny is set forth in  "the last things",  Death, particular Judgment, Heaven or Hell.     

Grand.

 

The discussion has been focused on Redemption, Salvation and the Endtimes. And we know from Almighty God's revelation through the Sacred Scriptures (OT and NT), the Jews figure in through the Coming of the Messias Christ. So, it can't be denied the Jews and their holy religion, Biblical Judaism, are forever linked to Christ and His holy religion, Christianity.

I deny it.

Obviously it can be denied.

Judaism says nothing about Jesus, it merely predicted a person like him, as did Zoroastrianism. Whether that makes the two religions "forever linked" to "Christ" or any of the other Messiah candidates is subject to belief. I don't believe it.

 

Christ redeemed all mankind and made possible the salvation of many (including the Jews, Leauki).  As opposed to KFC, my point is the Millennium time of our salvation is NOW and will continue until Christ comes again. But in the meantime, death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.  

 Too complicated...

 

If a Jew becomes a Catholic does he still remain a Jew is like asking if a Mohammedan becomes a Jew, does he still remain a Mohammedan?

If a Jew becomes a Catholic he remains a Jew, just like an Italian or German who becomes a Catholic remains an Italian or German. If a Jew becomes an atheist, he also remains a Jew.

If a Mohammedan becomes a Jew, he will seize to be a Mohammedan because becoming part of the Jewish people requires a ritual belief in the Jewish religion (or the Samaritan or Karaite religion as those conversions are also accepted). But if a born Jew (or the same converted Jew) becomes a Mohammedan, he will remain a Jew.

 

If being a Jew  means living the Mosaic way of life, the answer is no. Yet, there is a difference between a follower of Mohammed becoming a Jew and a follower of Moses becoming a Catholic. One repudiates Mohammed as his spiritual leader, while the other continues in the faith of Abraham, in his love of Moses and adherance to many of his teachings, pluse the spiritual guidance of Christ. While the convert from the Synagaogue to the Church is no longer a Jew in the religious sense of the term, he continues as a Catholic, in his love of the faith of the ancient fathers of old in Israel, seeing in Catholic principles and practices Judaism full-blossomed.  

No, there is no such difference between a follower of Mohammed becoming a Jew and a follower of Moses becoming a Catholic.

And no, Catholic principles have nothing to do with Judaism.

And no, being a Jew does not mean living the Mosaic way of life (although it should).

If a follower of Moses, a religious Jew or gentile believing in the Torah, becomes a Catholic, his faith changes. He starts believing in a god who has walked the earth and a Messiah who has already arrived. Judaism does not believe in those things.

A follower of Mohammed can become a (religious) Jew by conversion to Judaism and a change in his beliefs. He will not believe that Mohammed and Jesus were prophets any more and he will not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. But the core belief in the one G-d will not change because Islam and Judaism have the same idea of what G-d is (i.e. one, no Trinity, no son etc.).

I believe Mel Brooks converted to Catholicism (although I am not sure), but he remained a Jew.

Woody Allen is an atheist but remains a Jew.

Many Zionists were and are atheists but they remain Jews.

One of my best friends in Israel is an avowed atheist who would deny the existence of G-d any day yet he is a proud Jew and wears a necklace with the Shield of David and he would never ever denounce his heritage or deny King David's legitimacy as the king of Israel in Biblical times.

You are talking about the modern concept of multi-ethnic religions, a concept that doesn't exist in bronze age religions like Judaism. That's why and I constantly misunderstand each other. I follow a bronze age tribal religion, you follow a modern multi-national religion.

There is nothing wrong with you following whatever religion you want. But it NEVER gives you the right to redefine what other religions are about or what a Jew is.

A Jew is, in the strictest sense, a member of the tribe of Judah, in the wider sense a descendant of the tribes of Judaea, and in the widest sense a member of the people of Israel (although this last usage is technically incorrect).

The definition does NOT include a belief in a god or gods or holy books or anything like that.

A Jew who has never heard of the Torah is still a Jew. Just like an German who has never read any German legends or believed in any German gods is still a German.

 

 

Reply #277 Top

One repudiates Mohammed as his spiritual leader, while the other continues in the faith of Abraham, in his love of Moses and adherance to many of his teachings, pluse the spiritual guidance of Christ.

Religious Jew -> Christian

- has to accept Jesus as Messiah

- has to accept Jesus as G-d and son of G-d

- has to accept the "Holy Trinity"

- has to accept the truth of the "New Testament"

- remains Jewish, like Petrus

 

Mohammedan -> Christian

- retains Jesus as Messiah

- has to accept Jesus as G-d and son of G-d

- has to accept the "Holy Trinity"

- has to deny the truth of the Quran

 

Mohammedan -> Religious Jew

- keeps his view of G-d

- has to deny Jesus as the Messiah

- has to deny Mohammed as a prophet in the Jewish sense

- has to deny as truth the "New Testament" and the Quran

 

Religious Jew -> Mohammedan

- keeps his view of G-d

- accepts Jesus as the Messiah

- accept Mohammed as a prophet in the Islamic sense

- accepts the truth of the "New Testament" and the Quran

- remains Jewish, like Safiyyah

 

All this assumes a non-organised Christianity bowing to no man and classical Islam.

 

Reply #278 Top

My teacher, Marv is a Jew.  He's also a Christian.  He loves to teach us his Jewish heritage.  He never stopped becoming a Jew when he became a Christian.  He's a Messianic Jew.  Plain and simple.  It's not complicated.   He travels all over the world and is very sought out especially for the Passover Seder every year as he puts those on to show us what each thing represented and how it all pointed to the Messiah and how the Jews had Christ right in their commeration the whole time. 

He goes to Israel twice-three times a year and has done so every single year for 39 years.  I'm hoping to go with him in September.  If anyone knows anything about the Jewish Faith and Israel it's Marv.   I'd love Leauki to hear his CD on "Israel Under Seige"  (you can get this from his site Leauki as well as a free year of  his magazine"Zion's Fire." )   Gary Cohen, a frequent writer in the magazine is probably the most intelligent speaker on Hebrew/Israel that I've ever heard of or met.  We get him as a substitute when Marv has a speaking engagment somewhere else.   He's a language guy, proficient in many languages.  Leauki you would love it.  On the CD Marv goes thru the whole history of Israel going all the way back to biblical times right up to the present. He spends alot of time during WWI and WWII.   The miraculous story behind the birth of the Nation Israel both then and now is more than fascinating and how it lines up with scripture is amazing. 

You can be a Jew and a Christian at the same time.  As a Chistian Jew you recognize that the Torah and writings of the Prophets (the OT to us) was all about the Messiah that came.  When He came, He was indeed the Messiah that Moses and Isaiah and the rest were anticipating. He proved it.   The problem was the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day did all they could to deny this and fought against it.  They turned many away painting Christ as nothing more than a lunatic.  Some believed in Christ some didn't.  The nation as a whole because of the leadership did not accept Christ as the anticipated Messiah.  Jesus didn't come for the leaders anyhow.  He came for the lowly.  He came to those who had ears to hear and eyes to see.  Today that is still going on in the movement we call the Messianic Jewish movement. 

And today the religious mucky mucks whether they be of "Christian" persuasion or Jewish are still fighting against Christ.  Nothing different; nothing new under the sun.  They are still doing alot of damage in NOT drawing people closer to God.  Instead they are driving people away with their hypocrisy and malice. 

Reply #279 Top

My teacher, Marv is a Jew.  He's also a Christian.  He loves to teach us his Jewish heritage.  He never stopped becoming a Jew when he became a Christian.  He's a Messianic Jew.  Plain and simple.  It's not complicated. 

Exactly.

And if he can manage to teach some Judaism to Christians, more power to him! (I don't think teaching some Christianity to Jews can hurt either. I am all for teaching.)

I really don't know where the big problem is.

70 years ago the very people who created the Vatican told us that Jews are a distinct "race". And today, apparently, Jews have lost the right to be a people.

But if you read the Bible you will notice that it often speaks of a "people of Israel". It doesn't speak of a religion or sect or a Church waiting to become Roman, it simply speaks of the people of Israel and its connection to the land of Israel and the god of Israel.

 

Reply #280 Top

....As a Chistian Jew you recognize that the Torah and writings of the Prophets (the OT to us) was all about the Messiah that came. When He came, He was indeed the Messiah that Moses and Isaiah and the rest were anticipating. He proved it. The problem was the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day did all they could to deny this and fought against it. They turned many away painting Christ as nothing more than a lunatic. Some believed in Christ some didn't. The nation as a whole because of the leadership did not accept Christ as the anticipated Messiah.

I agree.

leauki posts:

Judaism says nothing about Jesus, it merely predicted a person like

And picking up from there, we learn in St.Luke 19: 28-44 that as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem being greeted with the prophetic words referred to the enthronment of the Messias, Psalm 118:26, "Blessed is He who enters in the name of the Lord", He looked over the city and wept for Jerusalem. He explains why He is weeping by prophecying the destruction of Jerusalem which was fulfilled in 70AD when Titus razed the city and the Temple was destroyed.  

"And when He drew near and saw the city He wept over it, saying, "would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. And dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, becasue you did not know the time of your visitation."

70AD was punishment for the Jews and Jerusalem failure to recognize the time of its visitation, that is, for closing its gates to the salvific coming of the Redeemer. Jesus loved the Jews with a special love, and they were the first to whom the Gospel was preached, and to themspecially He directed His ministry. He showed by His word and by His miracles that He was the Son of God and the Messias foretold in the Scriptures. But the Jews for the most part failed to appreciate the grace the Lord was offering them and their leaders led them to the extreme of calling for Jesus to be crucified. The chief priests, the heads of the Jewish nation and the official guardians and exponents of the Jewish religion told Pilate, "We (the Jewish people...the chosen people of God) have no king but Caesar". At that moment, the chosen people of God reject what they were chosen for. They officially merged their nation into the pagan Roman Empire. After that as Pilate washed his hands before the people, they answered, "His blood be upon us and upon our children!" St.Matt. 27:24-25.   

Leauki's post 276 testifies that the debate over who the "Jews" are never ends.

As to who the Jews are, I'd say Christ is the dividing line. The Jews define themselves in encounters with Christ in St.John's Gospel 5 and 8 where the issue of lineage and patrimony is disputed.  When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, it was decision time. Some Jews accepted Christ and are known as Christians. Those Jews who reject CHrist are still waiting for the Messias on their terms.

 

 

 

Reply #281 Top

My teacher, Marv is a Jew. He's also a Christian. He loves to teach us his Jewish heritage. He never stopped becoming a Jew when he became a Christian. He's a Messianic Jew.

So Marv is a Jew, a Christian and a Messianic Jew.

Hmmm...maybe you can get his help in answering my questions...

178

kfc posts: Three are related to sin and three are related to righteousness. The first three have to do with his first coming, the second set of three have to do with his second coming. So we would disagree here. Again, because you are backdating everything. 1. to finish the transgression........(to end aposty of the Jews) 2. To make an end of sins.........(atone for sin) 3. to make reconciliation for iniquity....(refers to the death of Christ on the cross which is the basis for Israel's future forgiveness) 1. to bring in everlasting righteousness 2. To seal up the vision and prophecy 3. To anoint the mosty Holy.

Lula posts:

No doubt whatsoever that all six blessings of the 70 weeks have been bestowed by Christ already. C'mon KFC....If not for the Passion how could we realistically ever even hope for these last three?

So how do you figure the last three pertain to Christ's Second Coming?

228

So when does your idea of the 1,000 year physical reign of Christ figure in with Christ's Second Coming at the end of the world?

229

In Apoc, 21:1 St.John sees a new heaven and New Earth appear before him while the first heaven and earth "was gone" DR....your KJV has "passed away". So what does "was gone" or "passed away" mean?

 

Reply #282 Top

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Reply #283 Top

Lula,

For the last time, the Christian "New Testament" does NOT define Judaism.

Leauki's post 276 testifies that the debate over who the "Jews" are never ends.

No, it testifies that the debate has ended thousands of years ago. The people of Israel are the only people defined by a book recognised as G-d's word by the vast majority of the earth's population (namely Christians and Jews and Muslims).

The "debate" you are talking about is some people's inability to accept that truth.

You don't even have to believe in G-d or the Bible to accept that truth. Even without belief the Bible remains an ancient text that clearly tells the story of a nation.

Reply #284 Top

[

lula posts:

You are interpreting Scripture according to your belief in Dispensationalism, Millennialism, Christian Zionism. You imagine the Jews, en masse, are in some kind of holding pattern until the end of the world to accept Christ....even if most of them are long dead before this supposedly takes place!! The entire idea is false and destructive. The Jews are no more privileged than anyone else in the world who has not repented and accepted Christ as God and Savior.

I'm speaking of the Jews in a theological sense and although you may not understand, my saying, "even if most of them are long dead before this supposedly takes place" indicates my charity and love of Jews.

leauki posts:

There are no "Jews in a theological sense".  

OK, saying this shows you don't understand.

Actually, it merely shows that you and I disagree.

Ha, that too!

 

Reply #285 Top

Ha, that too!

No, it shows only that.

You have so little knowledge of Judaism that it is preposterous for you to claim that my disagreeing with you shows that I don't understand.

I recommend you finally sit down and learn what Judaism actually is. Read a few books. Start with the Bible (NOT a commentary on the Bible, but the Bible, and I mean the "Old Testament" because the "New Testament" isn't about Judaism).

 

Reply #286 Top

quote]Lula,

For the last time, the Christian "New Testament" does NOT define Judaism.[/quote]

Why? Because you (and other revolutionary Jews who refuse to accept Christ as the Messias) say it doesn't?  

The Scriptures show that Christ intended the perfect development of the Mosaic religion (Christianity..Catholicism) to be distinct from the religion of the Synagaogue which has ended. Christ said, I will build My Chruch at the time the Synagague was already established. Christ prescribed new doctrines, new modes of worship, and a new form of authority. He even predicted to His Apostles, in the synagogue you shall be beaten." St.Mark 13:9. The intended disctinction of His Chruch from the prefigurative Synagague is most clear.

CHRIST WAS FULLY AWARE OF THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS 2:2, THAT ALL NATIONS WOULD BE CALLED TO HIS CHURCH. He did intend that His doctrines should be preached to the Jews first and only afterwards to the Gentiles and for this reason He told His disciples not to preach it to the time reserved to the Jews. But in St.Matt. 16:19, Christ Himself tell sthe Apostles to go, teach all nations. That's what is happening now.

The New Testament is the New Covenant in the Blood of Christ and it does indeed define Judaism.  

The people of Israel are the only people defined by a book recognised as G-d's word by the vast majority of the earth's population (namely Christians and Jews and Muslims).

The "debate" you are talking about is some people's inability to accept that truth.

You don't even have to believe in G-d or the Bible to accept that truth. Even without belief the Bible remains an ancient text that clearly tells the story of a nation.

The Jews were God's first chosen people until the coming of Christ and they could/can be among His chosen people now had they remained true to God's will. Almighty God is faithful and did not change His attitude toward them. In Genesis, Almighty God promised a Redeemer that would come and save them...and all through the Book that you reference above, the Jews had been taught to look for Him (and we know a remnant of 7,000 Jews did). But when He came, the revolutionary Jews rejected Him (as you do now with the same revolutionary spirit) becasue they wished Him to bring temporal things, not spiritual gifts to save their eternal souls.

(Again, this is speaking of Jews in the theological sense).

Why didn't/don't/won't the Jews accept Christ? We know that many individual Jews did, but as a race the Jews did not. You refuse to believe the infallible New Testament Scriptures....well, then read Jewish history and you'll find it wasn't becasue Christ didn't sufficiently prove His mission, but becasue the Jewish leaders and teachers had lost the true religious spirit, had selfishly transferred their affections from God and His prophets to a love of their own high places, and had substituted the idea of a magnificant temporal ruler for the spiritual Savior. They wanted deliverance from tyranny of the Romans and help to trample them. Christ, the suffering and dying Christ, did not/does not fit in with their earthly notions and ambitions, and that's why the leaders then and revolutionary Jews today reject Him.

Then the majority of the people depended upon the Scribes and Pharisees for religious direction, and the majority of Jewish people today depend upon leaders of the same revolutionary spirit found in Rabbinical Talmudic Judaism.

The modern Jew take Judaism for granted without inquiring deeply into the question.

Reply #287 Top

Why? Because you (and other revolutionary Jews who refuse to accept Christ as the Messias) say it doesn't?

Because, obviously, it was written when Judaism already existed.

It has nothing to do with a "refusal" to accept "Christ" as the Messias.

And I am not revolutionary. The term for those who refuse to change is "stubborn", if you will.

 

CHRIST WAS FULLY AWARE OF THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS 2:2, THAT ALL NATIONS WOULD BE CALLED TO HIS CHURCH.

And here we go again. Iasaias 2:2 says nothing about a "church". There isn't even a "calling".

 

The New Testament is the New Covenant in the Blood of Christ and it does indeed define Judaism. 

Says the non-Jew.

Fact is that Judaism as a religion already existed long before Jesus' birth. What Jesus taught is good and might be true. But even if it is G-d's truth, it does NOT define Judaism, which exists and existed independently of Jesus of Nazareth.

 

The Jews were God's first chosen people until the coming of Christ and they could/can be among His chosen people now had they remained true to God's will.

G-d's choice was eternal and was made with the knowledge that the people of Israel will not always be faithful.

And time and time again the rest of the world proves to us that Jews indeed remain the chosen people. Open a news paper. Do you see any other nation as often the centre of everyone's attention relative to numbers?

I just typed "Jews", "Germans", and "Arabs" into Google, just to count the hits.

Jews: About 39,600,000 results

Germans: About 22,300,000 results

Arabs: About 12,300,000 results

I would have used other examples, but those are the ones with only one common English word to describe the individuals ("Frenchmen" only gives 2,890,000 results).

Weird, isn't it?

How would a people of 15 million be discussed so often when other peoples numbering 80 million and more are discussed so rarely, in comparison?

Whatever effect G-d's choice had on human choices, it appears that English-speaking humans chose Jews TEN TIMES MORE often than Germans in conversation and articles.

 

(Again, this is speaking of Jews in the theological sense).

There are no "Jews in the theological sense".

 

Why didn't/don't/won't the Jews accept Christ?

That's easy. He didn't do what the Messiah was supposed to do and he cannot be G-d because Jews are not allowed to pray to a man. (If Jesus is both, Jews cannot legally pray to him.)

 

The modern Jew take Judaism for granted without inquiring deeply into the question.

Yes. It's true. But bronze age Jews also took their religion for granted without inquiring deeply.

It's called faith.

Jews keep believing now what they believed then, regardless of reasons not to believe it. You found that out correctly.

Judaism was granted.

By G-d.

And while Islam and Christianity have converted almost any nation they ever met or attacked, the people of Israel stuck to their own faith.

You CANNOT replace what G-d has already willed.

 

 

 

Reply #288 Top

quote]Lula, For the last time, the Christian "New Testament" does NOT define Judaism.

.................

The Scriptures show that Christ intended the perfect development of the Mosaic religion (Christianity..Catholicism) to be distinct from the religion of the Synagaogue which has ended. Christ said, I will build My Chruch at the time the Synagague was already established. Christ prescribed new doctrines, new modes of worship, and a new form of authority. He even predicted to His Apostles, in the synagogue you shall be beaten." St.Mark 13:9. The intended disctinction of His Chruch from the prefigurative Synagague is most clear.

CHRIST WAS FULLY AWARE OF THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS 2:2, THAT ALL NATIONS WOULD BE CALLED TO HIS CHURCH. He did intend that His doctrines should be preached to the Jews first and only afterwards to the Gentiles and for this reason He told His disciples not to preach it to the time reserved to the Jews. But in St.Matt. 16:19, Christ Himself tell sthe Apostles to go, teach all nations. That's what is happening now.

The New Testament is the New Covenant in the Blood of Christ and it does indeed define Judaism.

leauki posts:

Says the non-Jew. Fact is that Judaism as a religion already existed long before Jesus' birth. What Jesus taught is good and might be true. But even if it is G-d's truth, it does NOT define Judaism, which exists and existed independently of Jesus of Nazareth.

Regarding the highlighted....BINGO! And the Judaism which already existed long before Jesus' birth is NOT Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism which was devised in 90AD by revolutionary Jews who rejected Christ and everything concerning Christianity.

Fact is that Judaism as a religion already existed long before Jesus' birth. What Jesus taught is good and might be true. But even if it is G-d's truth, it does NOT define Judaism, which exists and existed independently of Jesus of Nazareth.

The word "exists" here is not correct.  

The point is that Judaism, the Judaism that already existed long before Jesus' birth, is the Judaism recorded in the OT, which is God's revealed, Aaronic High priestly sacrificial religion, is non-existent having been translated by the Messias instituted predicted priesthood and Sacrifice of a higher order, as seen in the New Covenant House of God, the Catholic Church.

It is therefore as unreasonable to expect the Judaism of the pre-Christian ages exists in the world today.

The only Judaism that God brought into being through Moses and Aaron, that Jews can embrace today is the Judaism full-blossomed into Catholic Christianity. Biblical Judaism was the caterpillar that evolved into the butterfly of Catholicism.  

 

Reply #289 Top

leauki posts:

Yes. It's true. But bronze age Jews also took their religion for granted without inquiring deeply. It's called faith. Jews keep believing now what they believed then, regardless of reasons not to believe it. You found that out correctly. Judaism was granted. By G-d. And while Islam and Christianity have converted almost any nation they ever met or attacked, the people of Israel stuck to their own faith.

My, my, here you are speaking of Jews in a theological sense.

Now, we are getting somewhere.....Let's continue by going back to Isaias.

I wrote:

The Scriptures show that Christ intended the perfect development of the Mosaic religion (Christianity..Catholicism) to be distinct from the religion of the Synagaogue which has ended. Christ said, I will build My Chruch at the time the Synagague was already established. Christ prescribed new doctrines, new modes of worship, and a new form of authority. He even predicted to His Apostles, in the synagogue you shall be beaten." St.Mark 13:9. The intended disctinction of His Chruch from the prefigurative Synagague is most clear. CHRIST WAS FULLY AWARE OF THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS 2:2, THAT ALL NATIONS WOULD BE CALLED TO HIS CHURCH.

to which you replied:

And here we go again. Isaias 2:2 says nothing about a "church". There isn't even a "calling".

Oh yes, the prophet Isaias chapter 2: 2-4 certainly predicted that all nations shall flow to the House of the Lord...in other word's, Christ's New Covenant Church. 

Isaias 2:2-4 "And in the last days, the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many poeple shall go and say, Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the Hous of the God of Jacob; ANd He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For the law will come forth from Sion, amd the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge the Gentiles and rebuke many people."  

In Scripture, "In the last days" is the whole time of the New Covenant, the time from Christ's First Coming till the end of the world because no other time shall come after it but only eternity.  

So, from the time of Christ until He Comes again in Judgment on the Last Day, all nations shall flow into the CC. 

"on the top of mountains" shows the perpetual visibility of Christ's Church, for a mountian on top of a mountain cannot be hid."

Christ came and He established the religion of God, Christianity. As opposed to the one chosen people of the Jews, all nations will be represented amongst its members. And they will learn from His Chruch the ways of God and will walk in His path under its guidance. This promised New Covenant religion will originate in Jerusalem. Now, the NT shows Christ fulfilled this OT prophecy of Isaias. In St.Matt. 16:18, Christ says, "I will build My Church" upon Cephas, Peter. In 28:20, He prescribed its doctrines and commissioned it to go forth from Jerusalem teaching to observe all things I have commanded you. In 28:18, He gives His Church His authority, "Amen, I say to you whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven...." In the preceeding verse, He gives the Church judicial power, "If a man will not hear the Chruch, let him be as the heathen."

And He sends that Chruch no longer to the Jews only, but to the Gentiles also, saying, "teach all nations."   His Chruch must remain one Chruch for it is to be "one fold under one shepherd". It is to last with the constitution He gave it until the end of the world and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Behold, I am with you all days until the consummation of the world.

Leauki, all this obviously indicates a very definite religion and a very definite Church.  

 

Reply #290 Top

Why didn't/don't/won't the Jews accept Christ?

Leauki posts: That's easy. He didn't do what the Messiah was supposed to do

To the smallest detail, the OT prophets foretold the true Messias, but many Jews would not listen.

Instead, they prefer to listen to Maimonides who established the criteria whereby the Jews could identify the Messias.  He wrote, "IF there arises a king from the house of David, versed in Torah (who) performs the commandments like David his ancester...and wages a war of God, it is assumed he is the Messiah. If he successfully does this and builds the Temple in its proper place and gathers the dispersed of Israel, behold he is certainly the Messiah."

Well, the true Messias Christ came to deliver Israel but instead of being a strong and powerful warrior king, the Messias endured a shameful death. No way would a suffering Messias do and so from there on, the revolutionary Jews define themselves by their rejection of Christ. This path of rejecting Christ brought on a path of revolutionary activity that brought woe to them immediately within their own generation exactly as the Son of man, the Christ predicted at His trial.....in 70AD. And from then on, it has been a Jewish revolutionary path of woe ever since.  

Maimonide's political warrior king definition of the Messias became axiomatic. If the claimant didn't fulfill certain political and revolutionary criteria, he was ipso facto, not the Messias. How many times have we heard that from you?

 

Reply #291 Top

Isaias 2:2-4 "And in the last days, the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many poeple shall go and say, Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the Hous of the God of Jacob; ANd He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For the law will come forth from Sion, amd the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge the Gentiles and rebuke many people."

So, from the time of Christ until He Comes again in Judgment on the Last Day, all nations shall flow into the CC

You have to be kidding me!  Like Leauki said Lula...you don't understand.  You just don't.  You play like you do but you really don't have a clue.  God wasn't talking with a Gentile.  He was talking to a Jewish Prophet who was writing about his own people. 

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RCC!   Remember you will be held accountable for your false teaching. 

This same vision is found with small variations in Micah 4:1-3 which concludes with every man sitting under his fruit trees in peace (4:4).  The RCC has nothing to do with peace at all... EVER! Look at the organization.  It's ANYTHING BUT  peaceful.   Joel 3:10 contains the same language with Isaiah and Micah. 

As in Micah this is a description of the millennial kingdom. You say it's now (how can that be?)  and I say it's future when the King of Peace (Jesus) comes back.  Which makes more sense?

 God's government (mountain) will be established over all the kingdoms of this world. Gentiles (nations) and Jews (people) will do the will of God; justice and peace will reign.  The two will come together as one.  Jews and Gentiles.  Your way is to make all the Jews Roman Catholics to be accepted.  Absurd! 

Temple and house represent the same HEBREW word (bet) so the NIV's "temple" in v2 is the interpretation

The phrase "the house of the God of Jacob" (should be your first clue) underlines the special relationship of the true God with historical Israel while "Zion"-Jerusalem" represents divinely ordained worship and divinely authorized government.  So this passage weds together normal OT particularism with the vision of universal worship and peace with in diff forms recurs often in Isaiah. 

I noticed you didn't include this part above in your quote even though you called it  verse 2-4????:

"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war anymore."   the end of verse 4.

How come you didn't put this in?  Is it not in YOUR bible?  Or did you just not put it because it doesn't fit?

 

 

 

 

Reply #292 Top

kfc posts:

I noticed you didn't include this part above in your quote even though you called it verse 2-4????: "They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war anymore." the end of verse 4. How come you didn't put this in? Is it not in YOUR bible? Or did you just not put it because it doesn't fit?

My mistake. I typed the passage in haste and omitting the end of verse 4 was just an oversight.

Isaias 2:2-4 "And in the last days, the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many people shall go and say, Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the House of the God of Jacob; And He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For the law will come forth from Sion, amd the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge the Gentiles and rebuke many people and they will turn their swords into ploughsharesand their spears into sickles, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war."

In Scripture, "In the last days" is the whole time of the New Covenant, the time from Christ's First Coming till the end of the world because no other time shall come after it but only eternity. So, from the time of Christ until He Comes again in Judgment on the Last Day, all nations shall flow into the CC.

"on the top of mountains" shows the perpetual visibility of Christ's Church, for a mountian on top of a mountain cannot be hid."

Christ came and He established the religion of God, Christianity. As opposed to the one chosen people of the Jews, all nations will be represented amongst its members......This promised New Covenant religion will originate in Jerusalem. Now, the NT shows Christ fulfilled this OT prophecy of Isaias.

kfc posts: 

He was talking to a Jewish Prophet who was writing about his own people.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RCC!

And this is predictable since you reject the Church and believe the utterly false fable of Millenarianism. 

Accept it or not, here, Isaias was prophecying that in the last days, God's New Covenant Church  would be prepared....the one founded by Our Lord in 33AD which the New Testament confirms. Christ fulfilled Isaias' prophecy when He established the New Law (Covenant) in His Blood and founded His Church. Of this Church, the Church of all nations, Christ said, You are the light of the world. A city situated on a mountain cannot be hid." St.Matt. 5:14-15.

It's no small thing that Isaias 2:2 begins, "And in the last days..."  

To an ancient Israelite, history fit into 3 ages. First there was the period before Moses and the Law...Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph lived during this age.

The 2nd was the time of the Law...the years from Moses until the Messias' coming. Most of the OT fits into this second age. It includes Moses and all of the major and minor prophets.

The 3rd and final age expected by the Jews was the Messianic age. The promise of a future Messianic king or Anointed One, can be traced all through the OT starting in Genesis.  The promise and that hope of Christ is the heart and soul of Biblical Judaism.

The Advent of the Messias (Christ's First Coming) signaled the start of the last age. Since it's the final stage of salvation, it's called "the last days."

In Hebrews 1:1-2 St. Paul says, "God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by a Son." Later, in 9:26, we read that Christ "has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

IN JERUSALEM, on the day of Pentecost, St. Peter quoted from the prophet Joel saying that he and the multitude of listeners were in the last days...he said this becasue the Messias had come and the last days were upon them. Both St.Paul and St.John shared this view. 2Tim 3:1 and 1John 2:18. And let's not forget St.Jude 1:18, "You must remember beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, In the last time there will be scoffers....."  

So the first part of Isaias describes the sins of the people and the disastrous situation in Judah. Then comes Is. 2:1-4 which we are discussing. Isaias gives the people a glimmer of hope..a messianic vision which shows that salvation of all nations centers on Sion, the mountain of the Lord, that is Jerusalem. Note the part highlighted above in blue and the significance of Jerusalem where the New Covenant Church began.  Read in Acts. 1:6-9..Just before Our Lord ascended into Heaven, the Apostles question Him about restoring the kingdom of Israel. which shows they are still thinking in terms of an earthly resoration of the Davidic dynasty. For them eschatological hope in the kingdom extended no further than expectation of world-embracing Jewish hedgmony.

Our Lord tells them they need the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to grasp the teaching. We know that help comes at Pentecost. verse 8, "But you shall receive the power when the HS has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

So the growth of the Church begins in Jerusalem and will spread to all nations to the end of the earth. This is the geographical structure of St.Luke's account as well. Jerusalem was the destination point of Our Lord's public life (which began in Galilee) and here it is the departure point.

Is. verse 3, is prefaced by "in the last day"..."for the law will come from Sion..." This is the New Law, KFC...it's the New Covenent in Christ's Blood which was established at the Last Supper IN JERUSALEM.  1Cor. 11: 24-26, "...This is My Body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way also the cup, after supper saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."

In the prophets, the expression "in the last days', refers to the messianic era Mic. 4:1 which brings to an end the long period of waiting for the promised Redeemer and marks the start of the Kingdom of God which will last forever. Dan. 7:14; 27; St. Luke 1:33. the fullness of time began with the coming of Christ and will reach its zenith with His return in majesty and glory for the Last Judgment. The last days, in the NT perspective, ciovers the entire period of the Christian era, it's the Church age. This is the earthly phase or stage of the Kingdom of God and is characterized by the presence of the good and the bad, side by side St. Matt. 13:47-48 and the cockle sown among the wheat. 13:24. 

 

Reply #293 Top

As in Micah this is a description of the millennial kingdom. You say it's now (how can that be?) and I say it's future when the King of Peace (Jesus) comes back. Which makes more sense?

Yes the first phase of the Millennial kingdom is now. "The last days" is the Millennial or Church age and the Church Christ established on earth is the Millennial Kingdom of God which will last forever.  

Her mission as per St.Matt. 28:16-20 is to help save souls by bringing the truth of Christ to all nations. the Gospel will be preached and salvation will be available to "all Isreal in the wake of the full number of Gentilles" until the end of the world and the very day that Christ returns. But before He returns there is going to be a final assault of evil and the Chruch will not be spared; it's going to be so intense that many may lose (apostasize)their faith.

Just as the AC and his forces "surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city, fire came down from Heaven and consumed them." Apocl 20:9. The victory will be won at the glorious appearance of Christ. "The lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him by His appearing and His coming." 2 Thess. 2:8.

The Resurrestion will follow. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." 1Cor. 15:12-22. Everyone's soul is reunited with their body and everyone (including Christians) will face the final (great white throne )Judgment. This is when the Master rewards the servants in accordance with his works and faith and the wicked will join the demons in Hell forever.

On the other side of the Final Judgment stands eternity. Time, history, along with the old Heavens and earth has been destroyed. The righteous in the Kingdom of God now have glorified bodies and will reign forever with Christ glorified in body and soul....we will be in the presence of God forever in the new heavens and the new earth, the Heavenly city of New Jerusalem.  

That's it KFC...no time, no place, no Scripture which teaches a future 1,000 year reign of Christ on this present earth. There is no Scripture which views the Church age as nothing more than a "parenthesis" in the work of Almighty God.

The literal interpretation of Apoc. 20, a future millennial kingdom of earth where Christ after He appears for His Second coming will reign in Jerusalem for 1,000 years was officially rejected by the Chruch under the reign of Pope Pius XII as a system of interpretation that "cannot be taught safely."

So back to you...remember you will be held accountable for your false teaching.

Reply #294 Top

Regarding the highlighted....BINGO! And the Judaism which already existed long before Jesus' birth is NOT Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism which was devised in 90AD by revolutionary Jews who rejected Christ and everything concerning Christianity.

Again, rejecting a revolution is not a revolutionary act.

Jews continued living their old religion.

 

Reply #295 Top

To the smallest detail, the OT prophets foretold the true Messias, but many Jews would not listen.

Everybody listened.

That's why we remain convinced that the Messiah will have to do certain things.

 

Instead, they prefer to listen to Maimonides who established the criteria whereby the Jews could identify the Messias.  He wrote, "IF there arises a king from the house of David, versed in Torah (who) performs the commandments like David his ancester...and wages a war of God, it is assumed he is the Messiah. If he successfully does this and builds the Temple in its proper place and gathers the dispersed of Israel, behold he is certainly the Messiah."

Yes. The scholar Maimonides reminded us to wait for the Messiah as foretold in the Tanakh.

 

Well, the true Messias Christ came to deliver Israel but instead of being a strong and powerful warrior king, the Messias endured a shameful death. No way would a suffering Messias do and so from there on, the revolutionary Jews define themselves by their rejection of Christ. This path of rejecting Christ brought on a path of revolutionary activity that brought woe to them immediately within their own generation exactly as the Son of man, the Christ predicted at His trial.....in 70AD. And from then on, it has been a Jewish revolutionary path of woe ever since.  

I really don't care if the Messiah suffers. I only care whether he will do what prophecy said he would do.

 

Maimonides' political warrior king definition of the Messias became axiomatic. If the claimant didn't fulfill certain political and revolutionary criteria, he was ipso facto, not the Messias. How many times have we heard that from you?

It's Jewish belief, so you will hear it a lot.

The Messiah is an annointed king.

The definition of the Messiah as a warrior king is indeed axiomatic and has been for almost 3000 years.

That's why king Cyrus was called a messiah. He was a warrior king.

I don't see why a prophecy becomes invalid just because Maimonides believed in it.

 

Reply #296 Top

Regarding the highlighted....BINGO! And the Judaism which already existed long before Jesus' birth is NOT Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism which was devised in 90AD by revolutionary Jews who rejected Christ and everything concerning Christianity.

LEAUKI POSTS:

....... Jews continued living their old religion.

No. Leauki...after 70AD,  it was impossible for Jews to continue to "live their old religion."

"living the old religion (Biblical Judaism) required 3 holy things...High priests. Temple Altar, Torah prescribed sacrifices in that Temple. From 70AD, these are of the historic past.

Furthermore, the Jewish Encyclopedia rightly declares, that "the official genealogies disappeared with the destruction of the Temple" that this was "deplored as a calamity" vol 5, page. 597, that "it is extremely rare to find a Jewish family that even claims to trace its ancestry further back than the 16th century. vol 9 page 517.

Do you (and others) imagine that Almighty God who provided our holy forebears in Israel with an authoritative priesthood and sacrificial means of honoring Him, and obtaining forgiveness of sin, left man without such a guidance and means of atonement after the end came of those Torah-recorded blessings?

A new, universal priesthood of a higher order was instituted who offers Sacrifice on Altars all over the world (in all nations) as foretold in the OT (Jewish) Scriptures. That priesthood of God, that Sacrifice, those Altars, are found in the Catholic Church, the one and only visible, spiritual society that functions by the will of ALmighty God.

Just as it did St. Peter and Paul and all the rest throughout 2,000 years through today, it is bellief in the faith of the fathers of ancient Israel that leads Jews into the CC.  That Old testament faith fulfilled its glorious mission in and through the birth of the Son of David, Jesus Christ. He caused the Jewish acorn to blossom forth into the gloriious Oak, known as the Catholic Church, the Millennial Kingdom of God,

I pray that all Jews will be blest by being grafted onto that Oak.   

    

 

Reply #297 Top

To the smallest detail, the OT prophets foretold the true Messias, but many Jews would not listen.

LEAUKI POSTS:

Everybody listened.

Man, you are sooooooo stubborn.

Read what Moses commanded just before he died...Deut. 18:15. "Everybody listened", my eye!!! (an old saying of my mother! ).

Oh, my if the Jews had actually listened to the PROPHET that would come!!!!

But the good news is.....it's not too late. Salvaton time and Christ's true peace within our soul and heart is at hand.....Almighty God is offering His Grace.

 

Reply #298 Top

No. Leauki...after 70AD,  it was impossible for Jews to continue to "live their old religion."

How so?

Please point out any differences between today's Judaism and the Judaism of the bronze age!

And I don't mean "differences" like "Jews failed to acknowledge the Messiah" or any blabla like that. I mean actual factual differences in belief or ritual.

 

Man, you are sooooooo stubborn.

I don't see you having changed your opinion much in this discussion either.

 

Oh, my if the Jews had actually listened to the PROPHET that would come!!!!

We listened to the prophets that did come, not to the self-proclaimed prophets that came afterwards.

 

But the good news is.....it's not too late. Salvaton time and Christ's true peace within our soul and heart is at hand.....Almighty God is offering His Grace.

Are you not running out of clean priests?

 

Reply #299 Top

No. Leauki...after 70AD, it was impossible for Jews to continue to "live their old religion."

leauki posts:

How so?

Please point out any differences between today's Judaism and the Judaism of the bronze age!

I have already done that.

"living the old religion (Biblical Judaism) required 3 holy things...High priests. Temple Altar, Torah prescribed sacrifices in that Temple. From 70AD, these are of the historic past.

None of the forms of Judaism that were established after 70AD have these 3 holy things...and, if by some chance a Temple is built...it won't be holy as Our Lord God won't be there.

 

 

Reply #300 Top

We listened to the prophets that did come, not to the self-proclaimed prophets that came afterwards.

Actually, the OT Scriptures tell something different.....that only a remant of Jews actually listened to Almighty God's prophets  and remained faithful.

If the majority of Jews had listened to the prophets, including the one that Moses spoke of (Christ Himself), they would not have missed the Messias Christ's visitation.

The simplest way to understand the prophecies is that it's meant to encourage the Jews at the time of the prophet. Take Zacharias for example whose prophecy encourages the Jews of the 6th century BC with the promised coming of the Messias. It starts with that time and culminates with the events of Christ's First Coming.    

Anyway, we've been round and round on that.