SCRIPTURAL EVILS
While the examples are numerous and I�m trying to keep it relative to the subject, one example of a scriptural supported evil might be slavery. This might be a poor example but in response to the feeling that the Bible endorsed slavery, one could look at Paul�s discussion of slavery we see in Colosians. Here he states, �Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a master in heaven� (Col 5). The word master as presented in Christ is a servant of selflessness. The just and fair treatment of slaves is paralleled in Levitical law where it states �If one of your countrymen becomes poor.and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave�He is to be treated as a hired worker until the year of Jubilee. Then he and this children are to be released�Israelites are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves�You shall not rule over them with harshness� (Lev 25).
During the year of Jubilee was the Day of Atonement. Colosians states that religious festivals are �A foreshadowing of things to come, the reality however is found in Christ� (Col 3:7), Christ died on the cross paying the atonement for our sins. God became a God of more than Israelites under the New Covenant. God is also said to have �no favoritism (Col 3:25)� Therefore the definition of fair treatment would seem to be a release of those who are one in Christ with the masters.
The thing is that history often cannot be a radical break from the past. If the slaves were to break away, start a revolution, or act negatively toward their masters, there would be less willingness for the master to change the structure of the system. The first step was not for the slave to protest and create hostility, but to act as an agent of God in brining conversion, respect, and spiritual growth to the master. True salvation would not be short-lived salvation but would include the individual eternal salvation and a stable means by which to remove slavery as a system. So the purpose of the suggestions would not be to �legitimize and evil institution� but for the slaves to work with the masters in bringing about a spiritual condition that would allow for this stable transformation. It is stated to the slave �then know that you will receive inheritance from the Lord as reward (Col3:24).� This perhaps could be a promise of eventual liberation.
ISLAM EXPERIENCE-
One of the numerous Groups of people I encountered were Muslims whom would come in opposition. Not all were attacking, but many were and their main arguments included such things as those of the �Islamic world� web-site�s � 50,000 Errors in the Bible. � These were at times nice, but often an attempt to show errors of my beliefs in attempts at conversion. I responded by trying to figure their alleged problems and conflicts out. This would include attempts to explain the trinity and so forth as well as just about anything imaginable.
Not until recently did I read in the Qur�an that mounting opposition from the Jews over a Messiah that did not meet their expectations, led to their siding with Muhammad�s enemies. In response, Muhammad declared that the �hypocrites� had deviated from true faith. He declared that the Jews had �falsified their scriptures to conceal the foretelling of his mission as the prophet of God. � +Contradictions--more
In looking at �contraditictions,� in pretty much any topic one can look back at previous material and find a different explanation than what one takes when taking things at face value. It is obviously not just Islam whom argues against �contradictions� but that is one Islam�s main lines of argument. In answering them, there is usually a qualification, specific addresses, explanation, etc. For many cases, it is very tedious and there is a general spirit to the Bible when taken as a whole. But there are times when it can be important to look through with precision and trace it to its original language, see how various words are used elsewhere, and see how it applied to whom it addresses. At one time, I even remember answering a �contradiction� within either the number of angels or women in the resurrection stories. It might sound absurd, but I have never encountered a true �contradiction.� I would obviously agree that the inspired authors were presenting different angles of what they saw, but that they work together into a unified whole.
HISTORICALLY
In answering thing such as prophesy which never occurred historically, I would simply rely on the Bible and look up some history. My process was probably very similar to that of Wright whom states �history is a matter of looking through one�s spectacles�.historical evidence was as well if not better interpreted within a different framework. � Some people say simply do not take these things as literal. I do not necessarily take as �literal� but I do not think that �metaphor� is completely right either. Often times that which is addressed involves more than merely a natural level perhaps where �myth� includes a parallel transcendence that aligns with the historical reality. I can no longer remember the first one I looked up, but it was something on a prophecy of Tyre and I think that I found the Island boats interesting. There was an Old Tyre and a New Tyre. To see the prophecy fulfilled was a somewhat intricate process. Someone says �no it didn�t happen� and then I would look again, �oh but look here.� It is very in-depth and intricate. It was like a little puzzle. This extended into the numerous issues on Christ
HISTORY DARKENED- EXPERIENCE .
Along with contradictions, evils of scripture and historical inaccuracies was the evil Christian church. Events which were once heroic in Christian conscience, it often seems that they have become the opposite. I am not saying that Christians have not sinned in their history, but so often, it appears that Christianity is now perceived and treated as solely and completely guilty. Apologies can overextend themselves or somewhat blur the picture. They often look at things gone wrong and point them out upon a linear path. However, they do not point out the broader context or Christian orientation and development They do not look at what the true problem is. If it is something with the human condition and Christ is the savior then misappropriation can end up standing in the way of the cure.
Why do they keep talking about the crusades as being a positive part of western consciousness, when no body thinks that any more? In my experience, they are typically perceived as another evil element within the long and wicked Christian history. It is as though they were a completely uninstigated response by a completely Evil Christendom. This isn�t saying that the crusaders handled all things well, nor that people within the movements didn�t do horrible things, but simply seeing that they were in part responding to a warring aspect of Islam brings a broader perspective.
BLACK
Later in this period, I was supposed to pick up his mother�s new boyfriend down on Lake Street. The husband was not there but I ran across this other guy/kid in his upper 20s and smehow ended up driving around the neighborhood with him. He wondered why I was not afraid of a black man. He would look outside and think something looked like a bible and then his eyes would fall down in a certain sorrow and he would jump to saying something else. I was unprepared when he and some of his friends started smoking crack in my car but he essentially did not want to be there. After I dropped him off he was surprised to hear me ask him if he was all right. Soon a police officer pulled me over looking very upset from a distance. He asked for my license and I showed it to him and he became very warm and concerned telling me I should get out of the dangerous neighborhood. Is this Christianity or a culture that happens to be primarily Christian? Looking for hope, what does he have and what does he see?
HEBREW SCRIPTURES - CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP-
Years later, my initial response to viewing critical scholarship in the Hebrew Scriptures was not possitive due to the breaking of text according to �contradictions� as well as what appeared to be a deminishment of the mythical reality (while I wouldn�t hold that Moses necessarily parted the �literal� red sea he at least parted the chaos as the �mythical� or transcendent reality encompassed his entire reality.� Here is the culprit, I thought presented by my favorite professor.
OTHER WORLDLY --TAB-MOSAIC AUTHORSHIP-TEXT UNITY/INSPIRATION-COVANENT- LAND.
Not all scholars agree upon a historical tabernacle. Within a very long and complex argument RE Friedman argued that the tabernacle did exist historically. I already believed that there was a historical tabernacle. I did not start from a methodology to see if or if not, but sorted through their arguments to show my position. I looked and found the argument that the instructions for and travels of the tabernacle could provide a basis for various authors (and while not getting any further in my look perhaps other writers as well) thus providing a textual unity, inspiration, as well as a form of Mosaic authorship. This was to me not only a thematic but textual parallel for at least within Exodus and Genesis scenes. The textual parallel was especially strong between Exodus 25 and instructions for the ark and Genesis 2:1-8 which might have some bearing in the relation to the covenant and land. The ark and tabernacle is largely about Hebrew unity and thus this would be a fairly understandable element in bringing about textual unity as well.
�Friedman places the priestly writer following the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. but prior to the fall of the kingdoms of Judah 587 B.C.. The strongest argument seems to be that the tabernacle was not an invention during the second temple period. The pre-exilic existence of the priestly writer puts him in a time in which he experience with the actual tabernacle was possible. It is the mistaken, who�s pattern God showed Moses on the mountain (25:9, 26:30). It displays a plan and tells a story. It is this which Moses authors. Moses�s tent is absorbed into the tabernacle in a similar fashion to the tabernacle later moving into the temple. I had also argued that the authors used may have responded to and shared terminology with other ancient societies but that he DID NOT BUILD his notions of fruitility, unity, and creation UPON them.
I already believed that there was a historical tabernacle. I did not start from a methodology to see if or if not, but sorted through their arguments to show my position. Would not get to this through historical study to derive at that. I think that my personal intention may have been to use their scholars within the methodology of critical scholarship into my same point of divine inspiration, textual unity, and historical accuracy.
�The Documentary Hypothesis holds in one of its assumptions that there are Biblical contradictions. One of these concerns the tabernacle (see �Torah� Anchor Bible Dictionary p. 611) The problem exists as follows: After Moses is given instructions for the tabernacle, he descends from the mountain to experience the Israelites worshipping the golden calf (Ex 32). Shortly after this, it is stated, �now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside of the camp some distance away, calling it the �tent of meeting� (Ex 33:7). This occurs before the Israelites began building the tabernacle that God instructs Moses to build on the Mountain. The anchor Bible dictionary thus replies �in an apparent contradiction or confusion of sequence, it is reported that the tabernacle is moved outside the camp in the wake of the golden calf episode (Ex. 33:7-8) but this relocation comes before the report of the Tabernacle actually being built. �
A common answer to this apparent contradiction is that the instructions for the Tabernacle belong to the priestly writer, while the golden calf episode belongs to the Elloist writer. In reality, however, there is no contradiction. The tent of Moses in Exodus 33:7 is only the �ohel. The word mishkan is not used here. �Ohel does not represent the tabernacle�s entirety nor is it specific to any one physical object. During the golden calf episode in the Elloist section, the Israelites had not held the unity nor faith needed in efforts to bring about the tabernacle (mishkan).�
WORLDLY
I would not necessarily rule out that such authors existed as it asserts but I was not fully agreeing with the methodology of critical scholarship. Scholarly methods sometimes work backwards. This is overly harsh but it expresses the point, �rather than a creation expanding outward from within the deeper dimensions of God�s spirit, these settlers were seeking to build a tower to the heavens or from the outside inward to the divine realm� There seem to me to be great limitations to how far human processes can go and that they can easily be swayed by human sentiment and reason if not for the mere limitations of human reason. either on the pre-exilic preistly writer nor the -------
II Hebrew OPRESSION-4 ELEMENTS OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES (borrowed/altered/shortened prev paper)
HUMAN CONDITION
Unfair treatment of the Jews (or people of the Hebrew scriptures) in the Bible was essentially the human condition and humans and rooting security in worldly or humanistic processes. �Man moved out of faith and God�s presence to have knowledge apart from it. He moved from faith in God to faith in himself. And so the petals of the self closed around the flower as man separated himself from the source of his life. Man was banished from Eden to the earth �to work the ground� (Gen. 3:23) which had been cursed for him (Gen. 3:17). Eve was given her name because she would become the mother of the living (Gen. 3:20)� (previous paper except).
Cain was essentially the originator of oppressive societal structures. Cain is closely related to the ground (Genesis 4:2, 4:3). The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar� (Genesis 10:10)�
WORLD
Oppression developed in human based societal structures and wisdom in attempts to maintain security in Mesopotamia. �Rather than man placed in Eden and remaining through faith, they sought to build an Eden through human efforts. Their theology sought to develop unity through humanity and build a tower to the heavens. The tower of Babel emerged within these efforts to secure fertility. The historical reality of such a tower in this area is not difficult to recognize. �The tower in Genesis 11:1-9 refers to a ziggurat. ��(previous paper)
The actual development of the Ziggurat form was a building process. �The earliest Mesopotamian shrines were built flush with the ground. � Ziggurats often began with these small Ubaidian shrines. As with one building upon a confused premise or base, the developing Ziggurats had a core of mud bricks within which earlier buildings were often encompassed. �The sacredness of the shrine structure lead to new temples being built on platforms, within which earlier versions were entombed. �
The development of cities aligned with the construction of ziggurats. There was no separation of church and state in these days and the ziggurats were a symbol which encompassed the entirety of society These human based efforts to secure enduring fruitility converged in the focal point of the ziggurats.
NATURAL WISDOM
Myth as human wisdom was one more element in the paradigm of oppression. attempt to secure themselves and in it were contained other societal developments. Yet, what the Sumerians and later Babylonians often felt was the origins of creation and the quest for fruitility, the Yahwist sections referred to as the cumulation of negative human effort in Genesis 11. In Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, creation aligned with the formation of ziggurats. Their wisdom paradigm stemmed from the beginning of the tower of Babel�s evolution. The development of their mythology was contained within the growth of the ziggurats.
Eridu is often the suggested site of the "Garden of Eden. It is here at Eridu where the Sumerian Adapa, thought to be a prototype of Adam, resided. Yet paralleling this story to the Yahwist creation story poses a grave danger. Eridu seems best fit as the Yahwist�s �garden of Babel. Eridu was the cult center cult center of Ea the god of wisdom . Ea conversed with the Sumerian Adam (Adapa), who �was a faithful priest and servant of Ea, who ran Ea�s house (sanctuary). � Eridu was also the site of the first Ziggurat.
This paradigm continued. The Babylonian myths built upon Sumerian mythology as well. They continued with the Sumerian argument. In �Creation of the world by Marduk,� dated to the 6th century BC , creation also begins with the Eridu Ziggurat. "All lands were sea, the spring which is in the sea was a water pipe, then Eridu was made, Eglasia was built. �
WORLDLY GOVERNMENT
Oppression was contained government and in efforts for stability as the Suzerains developed a monarchical hierarchy. �The Sumerians seemed to have at first justified the monarch's authority based on some sort of divine selection, but later began to assert that the monarch himself was divine and worthy of worship. � It would be highly likely that attitudes existed such that the persons at the bottom of the hierarchy were seen created to cultivate the land with the purpose of securing rest for those over glorified noblemen at the top. Projecting this concept in to their theology or mythology, the social structure would be given a greater authenticity and power. The problem is that this seems to create an oppressive and inflexible caste system. Those at the top of the hierarchy would in effect be saying it was the divinely appointed purpose for those at the bottom to serve them. Another dimension adds to the argument that this mythological paradigm was building an oppressive system. Within a system resting on human power and ambition, the developing Ziggurat included a legal code of strict retribution. In our world, it can be seen that a system of pure retribution seldomly recognizes the injustices and struggles of people in disadvantaged positions. �Scholars agree that the Code of Hammurabi, written by a Babylonian monarch, reproduces Sumerian law fairly exactly. � This legal code was one of �exact revenge, which we call lex talionis. �
The world and its government had problems. The Mesopotamians were struggling for a unified security and tightened their hands� grip. Their efforts closely related to the Yahwist depiction of the building of early cities and of the tower of Babel. With divided allegiances, the city-states were frequently at war with one another. They were restless like the Yahwist story said Cain would be. The tower was growing as �the more powerful swallowed up the smaller city-states. � In efforts for stability and thus fruitility, the Sumerians soon developed a monarchy. The Yahwist refers to this effort in the building of Babel saying, �otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.� (Genesis 11. The Yahwist�s reference, �and let us make a name for ourselves� (Genesis 11) can be seen in efforts to glorify kings into gods.
The ground was not fruitful as the first Sumerian Dynasty fell. Niebuhr mentions how �none of these values can save us from ultimate meaningless existence. � Moving from sea god to sea god they were eventually opened to the void. The flood was upon them as they caught a glimpse of the rain
OTHER WORLDLY REDEMPTION-(txt unity-borrowed/shortened/altered)
In Genesis 8:13, Noah stands in another realm from the rest of the world. He stands in contrast to the ground which in the previous story was to be infertile for Cain. Noah stands in contrast to Cain and the beginning of city building in the previous story. Noah is also presented in contrast to the tower of Babel which is the following story. The Yahwist certainly does not say Noah was searching out the wisdom of Ea nor does he continue in the Sumerian argument. Noah seems to stand in contrast to their understanding of human existence and attempts at securing a fruitful stability.
After the flood it is written, �And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], the first [day] of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry� (Gen. 8:13). A peculiarity of this verse is that while it is attributed to the Yahwist writer, it holds a language which is attributed frequently to the Priestly writer.
The word covering in Genesis 8:13 is translated from the word mikceh . It is used only once in the Yahwist writing, yet is repeated fifteen times in the Priestly writer�s discussion of the ark and tabernacle. The word is used in no other sections.. If there truly are the authors that the Documentary Hypothesis asserts it would appear to me that the priestly writer was drawing or growing in the meaning of this terminology through the expansion in the tabernacle. This word seems to promote a unity or connection between the passages attributed to the Yahwist and Priestly writers.
LAW
In the priestly writing, this terminology represents the outer two layers of the covering used in the tent of the tabernacle. These are layers of ram�s skin dyed red covered by a layer of badger skin. These two layers can be seen to represent a layer of flesh and blood that encompasses a spiritual dimension. Inside the Holiest of Hollies one would be on a different side of the Mikceh than the rest of the world. Here, one would be in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. Here is the law. .
The Yahwist writer presents an awareness of a different source for fertility and stability beneath the covering of the ark and a different means by which to achieve it. This is not something, which humanity builds up to or is created to provide, but something that stems from within Eden where a garden was planted. God promised Noah that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood. Yet it is from within this that when Moses reaches the sea, he parts it and walks through. Hidden, the Israelites could not see behind the cloud. Yet as they followed the waters were held back and did not consume them. The Egyptians attempted to follow, but with their eyes not fixed upon the cloud all that they saw were the waves or perhaps the man in front of them who they grasped to stay afloat. It is from within the depths of this place behind the covering that a tent is drawn and a tabernacle given.
TABERNACLE-UNITY
The sections of Exodus attributed to the priestly writer picture the Israelites traveling the wilderness in tents (Ex 16:16). Moses, it appears, had a special tent as well. In the Elloist section (Exodus 33:7) he called it �the tent (�ohel) of meeting.� A pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance to this tent while the lord spoke with Moses. Within Moses�s experience on Mount Sinai, the Priestly writer testifies that God gave Moses instructions for constructing His Sanctuary. The word �ohel is again used in describing this sanctuary. However, we are introduced to a new word which is used for the first time in the Torah. This word is mishkan or eth hammishcan and is often translated tabernacle.
The Mishkan represents unity. It is listed as being of or for the tent of the congregation (39:40, 40:2, 6). Tatches of brass are put through loops to couple the �ohel together that it be �one. (26:11, 36:18).� Many preachers would say that this embodiment is representative of the spiritual man. Yet in the instructions for the tabernacle, �ohel is not a word used for individual tents. It continuously exists along side the word congregation. Thus, it is called the Tent of the Congregation (27:21-33:7, 35:21, 38:8-39-32, 39:40-40:12, 40:22-40:35).
CONTINUED ANTI-Hebrew-world
Opression containing anti-semitism continued after the flood. In a section of the Biblical flood story attributed to the priestly writer, God states �Never again will I curse the ground because of man even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood� (Gen. 8:21). The fall did not mean the end. Closely after a time when the Bible states God promised never again to destroy the earth by a flood, the Akkadians speaking a new language moved into the land and the building of Ziggurats continued. They attempted to secure themselves through their development of myth. The sought to patch the confusion.
After Persia conquered Babylonia in 539, King Cyrus allowed the exiles from the Northern territory to return to their homelands. There is beginning hellinization. In 198 BC King Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire took over the territory of Judah. The authorities of this empire attempted to Hellenize Jerusalem, outlaw the Jewish faith, and eventually turn the temple a pagan shrine.
After the Macabee revolt, the Hasmonians combined royal and priestly powers into the person of the king. The entered into the elements of oppression through their connection of faith and government. The Pharisees of the time felt that it was �wrong to combine kingship with the antique high priesthood. � Yet in response, Hyrcanus II and his Pharisee supporters opened the gates for Romans help. The Romans Herod and Pilate were cruel to the Jews. .
ANTI-SEMITISM
Both natural based methods of investigation and viewing the evils of the Christian tradition along a particular perspective or line are often with hopes to move away from anti-Semitism, but where does anti-Semitism primarily reside? Small groups of Neo-Nazis and skinheads still exist in America, but for the most part, Christian religious policy has reflected a reaction against the Nazi experience and a desire to eliminate the religious bases of prejudice. �At the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the Roman Catholic church formally repudiated the charge that all Jews are responsible for the death of Christ and condemned genocide and racism as un-Christian. � The Christian �church� is purifying its errors in and of itself is not the primary source of anti-Semitism in America.
Yet, �beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1990s, a new phase of anti-Semitism, involving the antagonism of some African Americans toward Jews, emerged in a series of urban encounters. �
ISLAM
Louis Fericohn is not to be associated with the larger Islam as vast numbers of Muslims do not care for him. However, he is a self-declared leader of the nation of Islam and he is influenced by the current situation in Palestine which does bring about a larger Islamic bitterness. Palestine is probably the primary source for hostility towards Jews. It is impossible to look at Christian-Judaic relations without considering the particular African American Groups in America, but especially in relationship to Palestine and the religion of Islam.
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIANITY-JUDAISM
John states that there is �Salvation only in Christ� and Paul is against partiality (ie Gal 3:27) �There is neither Jew nor Greek.� �Knowledge is never neutral� and when looking through history we are biased against Islam or Palestinians in part by our efforts to be hospitable to the Jews. It is impossible to embrace both Judaic and Islamic redemptive religious identities in entirety when they so often center on the same place. On the Christian right, there is a tendency to apply scripture to the state of Israel. On the Christian left, there is a move to embrace various forms of religious redemption. Both are with honest and truthful concerns. However, in some areas is this anything other than our own human answers? Historical studies start showing themselves again as there are many similar parallels today.
The major group that is hostile to Jews today is not Christians, but Arabs so if we overextend ourselves in natural concern and sentiments to change scripture or to apply scripture would we decrease or increase anti-Semitism? If we overextend ourselves in apologies void of Christian context do we darken the church and hurt redemptive hopes?
If we look to the Palestinian and Israeli situation, I personally think that Palestinians have some argument that we are biased against them in support of the Jews. I know I am naturally. On the Christian left, we wish to change scripture based on human sentiment and scientific processes. On the right, we throw some scripture on to our support
If we attach religious support to US or western governmental action through support of the final Judaic eschatology either as a tendency towards religious relativism or adding scripture are we doing anything different than a crusade or western expansion in which Jews got hurt along with Muslims years ago? Has anything really changed?
LAND
While I had no understanding of what it was about, at the time prior to studying religion in school I heard that the Jews returned to Israel in 1948 I felt that this must be a good thing and if they formed an independent nation it might have a particularly large significance in the divine plan. It is the Promised Land and they are returning! like everyone was horrified by the holocaust. I naturally liked the Jews more than I liked the Muslim religion. I am not saying that is right, but I think that is fairly typical amongst today�s Christian population. At the time of my experiences I defended the Biblical claim to the Holy Land.
In Jewish and Christian scriptures, God�s covenant is later given to Abraham�s son Isaac, �and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him� (Gen 17:19). The covenant continues to follow through the children of Isaac to Jacob (Israel).
Hebrew scriptures say that when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, that He said �take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest� (Gen 22:2). It is a general argument that Ishmael and his descendents were not considered part of this covenant. Ishmael is often considered an illegitimate heir, (or the human defined son) in contrast to Isaac the true son of Abraham and his wife Sarai.
The largest issue in all of this seemed to be the �contradiction� of God calling Isaac Abraham�s only son while Ishmael is referred to as a son as well in other places. Muslims thus held to the inheritance law where the eldest son Ishmael received the promise. They consider Ishmael to be included in divine promise that the �seed of Abraham� and as his descendents. My answer was to the contradiction. God said, �my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways not your ways.� I took this as saying that there was a potential difference to what God called son and what humans called son.
CONFLICT
Tracing their roots to ancient times, Muslims believe that the rock of Abraham�s intended sacrifice is the same spot where the temple once stood. While it is a matter of interpretation of the Qur�an, it has usually been thought to be the spot where Muhammad was believed to have made an ascension to heaven. It is now where the third most sacred shrine of Islam, the Dome of the Rock, stands.
Within a Jewish synagogue today. A raised platform (bimah) is where the Torah is read, and in traditional synagogues, there was a separate courtroom for women. The Torah, mosaic covenant, and ultimately the Jerusalem temple is the focus.
Last summer when looking into the middle east and the State of Israel for the first time, I remember watching the Camp David Peace accords and thinking that it will take two months before there is an outbreak of violence. Perhaps it was not that difficult to realize. I have been called both a �Jew lover� and an �Arab lover� with the connotation that one would refer to a �nigger lover� a hundred years ago and so hopefully, it won�t appear like I am picking on a particular group of people.
Land ---look at verses and what specifically\--land? Ark and genesis in textual unity-
The image of God�s creative spirit continues in the next verse of the priestly description, �cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other� (Exodus25:12). The gold spiritual wealth of the rings relates to the rivers in Genesis. �Metaphorically, rivers or streams of flowing (living) water symbolize salvation of the Spirit of God. � The Yahwist continues this thought stating �a river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters� (Gen. 2:10). It is interesting that the first of the rivers mentioned, the Pishon has a position that is physically hard to decipher. It is also this river that winds �where there is gold. The gold of that land is good� (Gen. 2:11-12) The gold of this river along with the three others seems to added dimension to its connection with the four rings of the ark.
Abe �To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates�19the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites� (Gen 15:18). What is the land? No decisive statement here.
LOST-WHERE DID HE GO?
In 2nd Chronicles 1:3-6 the Ark is in David�s tent in Jerusalem, but the people go to sacrifice at the Tabernacle in Gibeon. However, when Solomon dedicates the first temple, he brings both the ark and the tent of meeting into it. The tabernacle (mishkan) is said to have existed in the temple (2Chron29:5-7). It is said to have been destroyed when the tabernacle was burned down (Psalm 74:7) by the Babylonians in 587BC.
CHRIST-MESSIAH-tab other worldy
The tabernacle with the law, the ark of the covanent and the Judaic unity does not arise in the second temple after the Babylonian exile except in Christ. As for the tabernacle it is said, �After this I will return and rebuild David�s fallen tent/tabernacle� (Acts 15:16). This does not seem new (ex-nihilo) but rather as something emerging. In Hebrews 9:11 �he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man made� the image of a fuller realization seems presented. As for the continued covenant of the revisionist view, while perhaps lacking a real analysis and am somewhat reluctant to mention, this seems hard to reconcile with Hebrews 8:13 �By calling this covenant �new� he has made the first one obsolete and aging will soon disappear. It perhaps bears some weight to eschatological themes regarding the earth or land or of human finitude standing in contrast to an internal and eternal �new� covenant and �kingdom.� God did not reject the Jews, but I think that their salvation is still only in the same messiah we have
While I would currently see the Old Covenant emerging in the New, this is not a replacement theology. The �Suppersessionist logic, � or thinking that the Jews because of their rejection and murder of the messiah, were to survive as a witness people through suffering is certainly nothing that I would agree with. There are elements within Church history which have led to the mistreatement of the Jews, but have we gone to far the other way now?
+ abuse-lib/conss
God had stated, �never again will I curse the ground because of man even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood� (Gen. 8:21. This was the ground through which Christians emerged.
I would take Paul�s writing as inspired. His unique vocation is apparent. He was in a different position from Christians within a dominant societal position. He is moving in and through Judaism but not standing on top looking down upon. The Jews were human. That is their problem.
While oppressed themselves at the time, Paul was spreading a movement from within the dominant religious culture. After the the Semeon bar Kokhba (135CE) the new Jewish cannon was translated. At Javneh, the Sanhedrin was re-established under Rabban Gamaliel II and Rabbi Joshua. � Catholics believe that the new Jewish cannon was translated with the bias of non-Christians and was in part a response to the new Christian writings.
In the early 4th century, Christians made the mistake of attaching religion and government through the person of Constantine and thus departing from the �in the world but not of the world� Kingdom of Christ. They became in the world and the world. The Christian redeemer became the state and Christians became the dominant group.
I obviously would agree that things within the Christian history has contributed to horrifying treatment of Jews. Yet, I would think that those elements within it which were contributors to Jewish oppression are the same elements that contributed to it the times of the ancient Summarians. These would include such things as Christianities attachment to government in its praise of Constantine (Christianity or religion attaching to government). In looking at Luther�s later writings, it might include something such as a concern falling into frustration to the cultural sinfulness created by Christianity�s prior attachment to government as the curruption of the church become apparent. They would include taking scripture and attaching it to a cultural bias or taking a piece out of the larger Biblical whole. It could be something in the human condition. The point is, it would be something other than the Christian faith or Bible. The devil quoted scripture to tempt Christ by which Christ replied with scripture.
It is excessively easy to end up a list of Christian evils and end up vilifying the cure. �Woe to those who call darkness light and light darkness.�
ISLAM-Government
Islam will argue that their religion is less oppressive, but Jews (or anyone else) cannot live under the government of another religion without the expectation of oppression. The relation of Government and religion are hard thing to separate with Islam. In later times, Islamic law became known as Sharia. �Sharia, spells out the moral goals of the community. In Islamic society, therefore, the term law has a wider significance than it does in the modern secular West, because Islamic law includes both legal and moral imperatives. � The Qur�an states" Whoever oppresses any Dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen of the Islamic state), I shall be his prosecutor on the Day of Judgment. " However, a Jewish source states, �The Golden Age of equal rights was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam. �
Mention a few things.
Response-Purify
MISSAPROPRIATION-problem Move towards religious relativism. Move towards religious relativism or other means of salvation can look good. NOW-history�wrong perspective .
The numerous examples currently fail my memory. This was a while ago now and I am a bit dispirited. In relation to our apologies to Judaism there are a couple more recent examples. They are not as distorted as many examples, however, they do somewhat demonstrate the situation.
Later I hear of Luther �one think I�ve learned is to never to trust anything Martin Luther said. From what I know of him, he was 45% sincere monk and 65% fraud. He said some good stuff, but he also tore the book of James out of his bible, deleted other passages he did not like (or understand), and said awful things about the Jews. Not really someone who sounds to me like Jesus, and frankly I'm ashamed that most of Protestantism comes from him and Calvin� (28 year old UCLA Graduate in religion).
�The simple fact is that, at first, Luther DID try to convert the Jews. However, when he had no success in this endeavor, THEN he felt free to express his TRUE feelings about them. Also, the so-called "love" shown by Luther when he was trying to convert them, was not love at all. It was disrespect. It was disrespect. It was saying, "unless you believe like I believe, then you are going to hell." This so-called "love" says "your beliefs and your religion are wrong, and only my beliefs and my religion are right."
These are perhaps not the best examples and I�m not defending Luther�s later writings but I think that he is often a scapegoat. These are not accurate. Lets look at Luther in his place and time. What was the historical context? What was the current mindset? Where did this current mindset originate? Did it have anything to do with the human condition or with Christianities attachment to government in becoming a dominant element of society? What was Luther�s true intention, orientation, and what went wrong? Was he also a positive element in the relief of the actual problem through his reforming tendencies or understandings of the human condition? What societal mainframe did he have to fall back upon in his frustration and certain despair? Luther�s later writings were definitely wrong, but were they actually that influential to the church in the upcoming days? Alternatively, did the Nazi�s find them in their obscurity and then use them to support their own ends? What is the true problem with Luther and society? I am sure that Luther�s later writings did have an effect on the consciousness of the people. However, how did it compare to the positive influences? And quite honestly Luther did love the Jews to start with and perhaps he did in the end as well and his concern became a part of his frustration. I am not meaning to put these as questions because I am not making any statement but that perspectives are distorted more often than not. What was the true problem?
I would not say that Christianity led in such a straight path to the holocaust. Rather it was Christianity�s back and forth involvement with the human condition. There was a cultural hostility towards the Jews amongst the Greeks. There were Christians within this
TABLE�S TURNED
PRESENT III
Point being, does this get added to the evil Christian heritage which I encountered. In something like anti-Semitism could just lining everything up as what Christianity did wrong and looking at it from this particular perspective actually solve the problems or just create a darkened church image.We can look at these things in various ways and is just lining up everything that went wrong really getting at the problems and what went wrong. ---ML
PALESTINE BIAS-
The Qur�an is written not in Hebrew or Greek, but in Arabic which the Qur�an calls the �Language of angels. � Officially, it was not to be translated into other languages. However, special editions have been authorized with notices that only the original Arabic can truly represent it. Muslim�s believe that the Qur�an rests in the 7th heaven. It has been a matter of Muslim debate over whether its archetype in heaven was created or had always been uncreated. Yet it seems its uncreatedness is the common view
In the Qur�an mounting opposition from the Jews over a Messiah that did not meet their expectations, led to their siding with Muhammad�s enemies. In response Muhammad declared that the �hypocrites� had deviated from true faith. He declared that the Jews had �falsified their scriptures to conceal the foretelling of his mission as the prophet of God. �
My first real experience with Islam was bad. As a little kid, I thought of the Jews as basically everybody in the Bible. I primarily associated Jews with David who slew Goliath, Moses who brought the 10 commandments, and Joseph who gave birth to Jesus. They stood for the Jews and were a part of our tradition as well. When I first heard that the Jews returned to Israel in 1948 I felt that this must be a good thing and if they formed an independent nation it might have a particularly large significance. It is the promised land and they are returning!! I think I even saw in the Bible where Israel looked like a sword hitting a mark down at Ezion Gebber that stood right at what looked like a dragon�s heart and thinking along these lines.
PRESENT 6
The other anti-semitic and group hostile to Jews today is in the middle east. Angry Muslims here, will again point to the 10,000 errrors contadictions as their first argument and palestinians and numerous muslims don�t particularly care for the Jews Where the Jewish temple and where Jewish temples point is a Mosque where Muslims believe Muhammad departed after his final revelation. There comes a point where how much we can we embrace both redemptive identities?
ISLAM MID EAST
CHRISTIAN RESPONSE AT FIRST- positive ZIONISM-Israel CHRISTIAN SUPPORT/Bias/natural CRUSADE HOSTILITY AND ANTI-SEMITISM SOLUTION Plant some flowers. World, sin, human cond is antisemitic �of the world=opp ! TH 2:13 For ye who became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in JC have suffereed 2:14 like things even as they of the jews: who both killed Jesus, their own countrymen, even as have of the Jews. ..and are
Christian appologies List all errors of Christian history up
While I had no understanding of what it was about, I heard that the Jews returned to Israel in 1948 I felt that this must be a good thing and if they formed an independent nation it might have a particularly large significance in the divine plan. It is the promised land and they are returning! I really didn�t think much about the Jews at this time. As a little kid, I associated the Jews with the heros in the Bible and not the villins. They were and are essentially nice and friendly people. I also knew of the sorrow of the holocost and within my memory and anti-semitism was a great evil ------
MUSLIMS errors -EXPERIENCE
Groups of people, including Muslims would often attack and I mean cruel and mean attacks. The Muslims were probably not the majority group attacking, but those who came were plenty and they included such main arguments as those of the �Islamic world� web-site�s � 50,000 Errors in the Bible. � These were not usually the expressions of a friendly discussion of differences but strong attempts to show the inadequacy of my Faith at their superiority.
At the time-hoping for eternal salvation�
I responded by trying to figure their alleged problems and conflicts out. This would include attempts to explain the trinity and so forth as well as just about anything imaginable. While I�m not perfect, anger was in unrelated conversations primarily with those whom claimed some sort of Christian authority (arrogantly) yet really were only able to quote a lot of sources. I was able to answer these �contradictions,� errors, evils of scripture, and so forth of the Bible and I didn�t have any real background in Biblical studies beyond Jr. High confirmation. I actually enjoyed it at times. Most of the �historical inacuracies� are often times just relying on secular conditioned understandings of terminology and just lacking depth.
CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP-
Much later in college, my initial response to viewing critical scholarship in the old testiment was a shock due to the breaking of text according to �contradictions�. One might be expecting a change in me here and while their was some, I ended up looking for a method of Old Testiment Biblical scholarship that accounts for this textual unity.
�The Documentary Hypothesis holds in one of its assumptions that there are Biblical contradictions. One of these concerns the tabernacle (see �Torah� Anchor Bible Dictionary p. 611) The problem exists as follows: After Moses is given instructions for the tabernacle, he descends from the mountain to experience the Israelites worshipping the golden calf (Ex 32). Shortly after this, it is stated, �now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside of the camp some distance away, calling it the �tent of meeting� (Ex 33:7). This occurs before the Israelites began building the tabernacle that God instructs Moses to build on the Mountain. The anchor Bible dictionary thus replies �in an apparent contradiction or confusion of sequence, it is reported that the tabernacle is moved outside the camp in the wake of the golden calf episode (Ex. 33:7-8) but this relocation comes before the report of the Tabernacle actually being built. �
A common answer to this apparent contradiction is that the instructions for the Tabernacle belong to the priestly writer, while the golden calf episode belongs to the Elloist writer. In reality, however, there is no contradiction. The tent of Moses in Exodus 33:7 is only the �ohel. The word mishkan is not used here. �Ohel does not represent the tabernacle�s entirety nor is it specific to any one physical object. During the golden calf episode in the Elloist section, the Israelites had not held the unity nor faith needed in efforts to bring about the tabernacle (mishkan).�
REVELATION-
Within a very long and complex argument RE Friedman argued that the tabernacle did exist historically. Wading through various scholars and folowing the tabernacle through the Hebrew scritptures, essentially I looked and found the argument that the tabernacle could provide a basis for the various authors in the Documentary Hypothesis thus providing a textual unity, inspiration, as well as a form of Mosaic authorship.� Friedman places the priestly writer following the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. but prior to the fall of the kingdoms of Judah 587 B.C.. The strongest argument seems to be that the tabernacle was not an invention during the second temple period. The pre-exilic existence of the priestly writer puts him in a time in which he experience with the actual tabernacle was possible.�This was to me not only a thematic but textual parallel for at least within Exodus and Genesis sceenes. It is the mishkan, who�s pattern God showed Moses on the mountain (25:9, 26:30). It displays a plan and tells a story. It is this which Moses authors. Moses�s tent is absorbed into the tabernacle in a similar fashion to the tabernacle later moving into the temple. I had also argued that the authors used may have responded to and shared terminology with other ancient societies but that he did not build his notions of fruitility, unity, and creation upon them
Scripture NT
I am just continually am at difference and this is frustrating. Scholarly methods sometimes work backwards. While I�m not here going to call scholarly methods without merit, it does somewhat resemble babel �Rather than a creation expanding outward from within the deeper dimensions of God�s spirit, these settlers were seeking to build a tower to the heavens or from the outside inward to the divine realm� That might be overly harsh, but there seem to me to be great limitations to how far human processes can go and these problems can easily be swayed by human sentiment and reason. There is a difference between seeing the Bible in historical context to get at an understanding of what was occuring in the world and discover context than deciding how it came to be . Hall states,
Can human wisdom or processes understand revealed wisdom? John calling of Jews How do Biblical concepts such as �the beginning of wisdom is fear of the lord� or the Augustinian tradition of �faith proceeds understanding� fall in line with some methods of contemporary scholarship? -faith in Bible----Or how do they fall in line with Luther who held to the authority of scritpure but saw no room in theology for reason in such things as opposition to the platonic interpretation of the Eucharist in presenting Christ�s true presence and was one of the main issues which kept Lutheranism and Catholocism from reuniting? F
PRESENT IV At the same time, a friend of mine got into Louis Ferion and eventually separated himself from his white family and attacked two police officers with knives. His main point again looked at how Christianity was evil because of slavery amongst other things, he would explain how Jesus never claimed to be God, and how the Bible was flawed and simply invented. Louis Ferichon is probably the biggest anti-semite I have heard and anti-semitism is probably largest in america amongst certain african american groups. What is the reason for Christian wrongs? Because their scritptures are wrong. Look at all these contradictions and errors. Look at all of these poor responses. They still think the world was created in 7 days or they agree with us. Of course, their church invented their faith. Look at our scriptures they are infalible, we believe in Jesus too and consider him a very great prophet too, but we have no errors in ours and they relate better to science too. Jews live happily under us and have been kinder to them.
At this time, my malado friend dissasociated from his family and all white people. As a part of its evil and unreliable heritage, Christianity was a white religion that was responsible for slavery. I probably figured that this was a bit of a twisted perception and that Islam probably had slaves at one time as well. Humerously he kept me as a friend because I was Italian and therefore black. Actually, I�m not Italian but he insisted that I was. He didn�t want to conflict with his beliefs and separate because of our ethnicities. He eventually attacked two police officers throwing down his knives once jumping on top of their car.
HOPE
At the same time I went down to Minneapolis because I was supposed to pick up my friends father. I ran across instead a black man in his mid 20s and somehow he ended up driving around with me in my car. It turns out that he was essentially homeless. He would look outside and then his eyes would fall down in a certain sorrw. Looking for hope, what does he have and what does he see?
Later in this period I was supposed to pick up his mother�s new boyfriend down on lake street. The husband wasn�t there but I ran across this other guy/kid in his upper 20s and somehow ended up driving around the neighborhood with him. He wondered why I wasn�t afraid of a black man. He would look outside and think something looked like a bible and then his eyes would fall down and he would jump to saying something else. I was unprepared when he and some of his friends started smoking crack in my car but he esentially didn�t want to be there. After I dropped him off he was surprised to hear me ask him if he was alright. Soon a police officer pulled me over looking very upset from a distance. He asked for my liscence and I showed it to him and he became very warm and concearned telling me I should get out of the dangerous neighbohood. Is this Christianity or a culture that happens to be primarily Christian? What d
SCRIPTURE
ANTI-SEMITISM TODAY
Small groups of Neo-Nazis and skinheads still exist in America, but for the most part, Christian religious policy has reflected a reaction against the Nazi experience and a desire to eliminate the religious bases of prejudice. �At the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the Roman Catholic church formally repudiated the charge that all Jews are responsible for the death of Christ and condemned genocide and racism as un-Christian. � The Christian �church� is purifying its errors in and of itself is not the primary source of anti-semitism in America.
Yet, �beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1990s, a new phase of anti-Semitism, involving the antagonism of some African Americans toward Jews, emerged in a series of urban encounters. � InPalestinians are another primary source for Jewish hostility or anti-semitism. This stems from a response to the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 which encroached on where they were living at the time. This also holds a relationship to the religion of Islam which is the primary religion of Palestinians. In brevity, the Muslim dome on the rock is the third holiest site of Islam that stands on the traditional site of the Temple of Solomon (the first Jewish temple). Within a Jewish synagogue today. A raised platform (bimah) is where the Torah is read, and in traditional synagogues there was a separate courtroom for women. The Torah, mosaic covenant, and ultimately the Jerusalem temple is the focus. It is impossible to look at Christian-Judaic relations fully without considering the particular African American Groups in America, but especially in relationship to Palestine and the religion of Islam.
SOME ELEMENTS OF OPRESSION.
FIRST THOUGHT OF ISRAEL
1 TH 2:14 You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. This displeases God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that may be saved in this way they always heep up sins to their limit
It is not the verse as much as taking it out of context or misapplying it. It is farily straightforward that this is addressing a particular situation within a particular historical situation. People probably did take such a verse out of context and use it to atrocious ends against the Jews. But it is the way a culture perceived or rather used this verse rather than the verse itself which caused any problems..
If one now takes this verse in an effort to show how the Bible is wicked, it is also using it to support some purpose, rather than taking it for what it is.
If one looks at the movie we saw on history what we see are allot of Christian horrors. But rather than a true context or look at the problems within Christianity they somewhat are put together to paint a string of negative Christianity.
We all have a desire to help the Jews, but when scholars take their natural sentiments and this becomes involved in a depiction of how the Bible came about to be.
Acts 4:8 Peter said to them, then know this, you and all the people of israel it is by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised that this man stands before you healed.
Who are the real anti-semites today? They are not Christians but we put them there, nice answer. In something like this
As a little kid, I thought of the Jews as basically everybody in the Bible. I primarily associated Jews with David who slew Goliath, Moses who brought the 10 commandments, and Joseph who gave birth to Jesus. They stood for the Jews and were a part of our tradition as well. When I first heard that the Jews returned to Israel in 1948 I felt that this must be a good thing and if they formed an independent nation it might have a particularly large significance. It is the promised land and they are returning!! I think I even saw in the Bible where Israel looked like a sword hitting a mark down at Ezion Gebber that stood right at what looked like a dragon�s heart and thinking along these lines.
Last summer when looking into the middle east and the State of Israel for the first time, I remember watching the Camp David Peace accords and thinking that it will take two months before there is an outbreak of violence. Perhaps this wasn�t that difficult to figure out. I also have a hard time with my perspective. But this seems a point where Christianity can�t cross without attaching itself to a religious reletivism with disasterous consequences. We want a place for the Jews to be safe. We hope for the wellbeing of the Jews but can�t take it to the point of biased support for their primary escatalogical vision. It isn�t working and it can�t work as long as there is another religion whose escatology conflicts. We can�t favor the Jews based on the common perception or understanding of the promise, only be concearned for them as a historically opressed people whom God is guiding. �Salvation only in Christ� & �Partiality�
I don�t want to associate Louis Fericon with the majority of Islam who don�t always care for him, or make an over generalization because there are many wonderful and loving Muslims, but with or without Fericohn, in todays� world Islam as a whole is more hostile to Jews than Christians especially in relation to Palestine. In our attempts to help them, we could hurt them, others, and ourselves.
I somewhat hate discussiong this because it is such a sensative issue. Like most people I feel sick when thinking about the holocost. I also am disgusted by the fact that Jews were in earlier times depicted as people eating animal feces and that such things were done by Christians. But I�m also upset by the way we tend to deal with it.
But by overapologies void of context and lack of explanation don�t we just add fuel for anti-semitism in other groups whom sense bias and engage their hostility as well as darkening the sight of the church in the world. A holocost is not what we are looking at.
Hitler was the devil and we want the Jews to have a home.But our major problem today is not a holocost but a war in the middle east. The major group that is hostile to Jews today is not Christians but Muslims.
These examples seem overly harsh so don�t jump to any conclusions, but if look at the original promise to Abraham God told him to sacrifice his son or if we look to Peter whom doesn�t want Jesus to die and Christ says get behind me Satan. The point is that these aren�t as we typically think evil things that Peter not want Christ to die. But they are natural sentiments and aren�t seeing the greater promise
.If critical methods of scholarship are based more in science than in faith or secular science or historical methods as opposed to Augustinian tradition that �faith proceeds understanding� then our lens would naturally be open to the sway of our natural humanistic sentiments. Hall states �ANTI-JUDAIC EXEGESIS HAD BEEN WOVEN TINTO THE VERY PATTERNS OF THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION AND PUT INTO THE MOUTH OF JESUS HIMSELF.� This seems to be secular humanism. Can human wisdom understand revealed wisdom. �There is a road which seems right to man but the end of it is death.�
Jewish temples are pointed towards Jerusalem and to where the temple once stood. But here is a Mosque where Muslims believe that Mohammad ascended to the heavens. There is esentially an impossible conflict between Islamic and Jewish escatologies. While both the Christian left and the Christian right seem support the notion that essentially Jews don�t need Christ or that Jews have a covanent which is not in Christ, is this is a form of religious relitivism. .
The major group that is hostile to Jews today is not Christians, but Arabs so if we overextend ourselves in natural concern and sentiments to change scripture as to make it less anti-semitic or apply scriptture would we decrease or increase anti-semitism. If we overextend ourselves in appologies void of Christian context do we darken the church and hurt any hopes at all.
If we look to the Palestianian and Israeli situation, I personally think that Palestians have some argument that we are biased against them in support of the Jews. I know I am naturally. On the Christian left, we wish to change scripture based on human sentiment and scientific processes. On the right we throw some scripture on to our support
If we attach religious support to US or western governmental action through support of Judaic escatology either as a tendency towards religious relativism or adding scritpure are we doing anything different than a crusade or western expansion in which Jews got hurt along with Muslims years ago? Has anything really changed?
I�m not a rejectionist. I don�t think God abandoned the Jews. But the Promise an interesting thing. The ark of the Covanent which contains the 10 commandments was destroyed in the Jewish exile by the Babylonians. The tabernacle was essentially what in Hebrew scriptures taught brought about Jewish unity and solidarity. In Christianity it is believed to re-emerge in Christ. The Jews have a hard and troubled past, why don�t we just invite them in to our country, we�ve got room. Or into our faith, we don�t need to force it. They are humans not subhuman and not superhuman but sometimes it seems that we make them one or the other. ---
What is the real issue within anti-semitism? It is the world and it is humanity, why do we move to it? In Christianity it seems a frustration in our concern for the Jews and saving them and giving up hope and becoming bitter. In large part it was Christianites attachment to the world or government through Constantine.
It has included a lack of faith in God�s willingness to save the Jews that becomes a madding frustration. Martin Luther wanted to save them from hell but got frustrated and wrote some really crappy stuff. It is an attachment to worldly sentiment for if the world is anti-semitic. Ie luther�s day. what is there left to go to? Sentiment alter scholarship?
PART III JUDAISM AND ISLAM-bias of historical? Christians can take them in and reduce anti-semitism without�
THE PROMISE
While studying the Hebrew scriptures, I did not touch on Rabinnic Judaism until quite recently. I come from a place of natural love and concern for Judaism and the Jews and enjoy learning about their beliefs, customs, and holidays. But what got me was that there is often dishonesty when Christians present as positive view point of Judaism. This is like an apologetic whom tries to come up with a quick answer. This can actually end up causing more harm than good for the Jews as it can come to bring anger to people such as Arabs or fringe groups. This is just the here and now conflict brought about by a bias without the mention the darkening of the church for the long term redemption of the Jews. PALESTINIANS---
It is often argued that Jews fared better in Arab lands than Christian lands and the Qur�an states" Whoever oppresses any Dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen of the Islamic state), I shall be his prosecutor on the Day of Judgment. " However, a Jewish source states, �The Golden Age of equal rights was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam. � It appears to me that the negative historic actions of Islam were less blunt than Christian ones.
Islamic law became known as Sharia. �Sharia, spells out the moral goals of the community. In Islamic society, therefore, the term law has a wider significance than it does in the modern secular West, because Islamic law includes both legal and moral imperatives. �. Yet, it also appears that moves against the oppression of Jews would be less flexible in Islam than in Christianity for the reason that politics and military are inbedded in the policies of the central prophet
If the Bible says, �Moses wrote� I ask, �how did he write?.� It wasn�t necessarily with a pen but perhaps one can say he wrote �as a pen.� Perhaps he wrote through the Tabernacle that God instucted him to build. What did he specifically write? ----- . I just think people need to look deeper. ---- Within the human attempts to
Islam�s opression is more subtle
My main concerns within Christian-Jewish relations would be that we become dishonest in attempts to reduce Christian-antisemitism, become not only embrasing but biased within our concern for the Jews in such things as historical scholarship, and that we overstep concern into a counter-productive form of religious reletivism. This would be due to a Christian concern for the salvation of Jews in Christ in a world where at ever turn it seems turn to religious relitivism, as well as a more natural form of this seen as conflicts in current day Jerusalem and the outbreak of anti-semitism amongst non-Christian groups.
This is probably more sightful when we bring in the picture of the state of Israel.
My perception of Islam is not as dark as it once was, for when looking at the origins of the Islamic faith within the prophet Muhammad, one sees a person concerned about relieving opression and injustice for a hurting people. The difficulties that it seems to me to present in interfaith matters include elements incorporated by the prophet that still remain with their faith.
In later times, Islamic law became known as Sharia. �Sharia, spells out the moral goals of the community. In Islamic society, therefore, the term law has a wider significance than it does in the modern secular West, because Islamic law includes both legal and moral imperatives. � Within Islam is the Zakat or alms giving, the third pillar
�Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo Allah loveth not aggressors.
And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter� (Qur�an 2:190-191).�
Muhammad then pretended to attack a Meccan caravan returning from Syria in order to instigate an attack from the Quraysh . . This strongly parallels many attitudes over the situation in Palestine today. It is interesting that while Jihad is a defensive action, that Muhammad sought to instigate an attack from the government that he found to be corrupt. Where did opression of Jews really come GOVERNMENT Yet on a mere worldly level, is not Religious relitivism ISLAM & JUDAISM CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM--state
JEWS ANTI-SEMITISM AND TRUE PROBLEMS WITH CHRISTIANS ??????????
LUTHER -
Look at Martin Luther, says the protestant he was a grouchy man who was evil and wicked. Well he wasn�t all bad�.� Are you defending him? No, I just wasn�t making him a scapegoat. I can�t fully explain it, there were so many different experiences.
?? Could a unified Torah help the Jews or could the notion of the tabernacle�s absorption into a fruitful and unified society extend into the inclusion of other groups of people such as Islam? Consider a methodology of scholarship for the New Testiment that emerges from the old. In other words, as the Tabernacle drew the Israelites in to a societal unity and through the Tabernacle there was absorbed a textual unity, perhaps there is a similar methodology within the New Testiment to account for its unity. It would be Christ. ?? ------
xxxx reduce divinity we increase Islam whom is more anti-semitic ----- -----
The last discussion that I had on the internet was with a presbyterian elder who essentially said there were no miracles because it contradicted science and the Bible was only a book to give moral lessons. He was really arogant. I didn�t mention any personal experiences and was not allowed to use John Knox Press in arguing to the contrary. When I felt ready to return to school I took the religion course in science and religion. I wasn�t used to the �Big words� but essentially liked the course. Durring this course, I spent a weekend with an older friend who graduated from Olaf with a degree in philosophy and a girl whom graduated from Olaf and then recently graduated from Harvard Divinity school where she got employment proofreading disertations. Her thesis was that man was better than God cause any loving parent would want this. She thought Greg love�s disertation was crap because she thought that he could only make it into Princeton. I really liked Loves discertation on Barth, aside from the fact that it used words that were way too big for me to figure out without looking just about ever one up in a dictionary. My philosphy major�s grandfather was a wise farmer whom had no idea what she was talking about and gave us a little wiskey.
I then entered a course in wisdom literature where I picked up some Job and Solomon. I developed the eden flower imagry previously discussed in relation to solomon�s temple. Right after this paper was completed, a friend spent the night (who had no idea of the paper) and told of a dream in which he was being chased by demons and the only way he could stop them was by planting flowers. The professor suggested that I add the major. While I said that I was a math major, I really wasn�t going anywhere else but it was really nice to have the invitation. -----
JERUSALEM---luther vocation �coriniathians holocost-lib theo
currently believe that God has something good in store for the Jews for no other reason than most everyone in the Bible are Jews. God didn�t reject the Jews. He is still calling them and guiding them. However, you do have to wonder if there is some sort of lesson in modern Jerusalem.
Perhaps it is the impossibility of religious reletivism seen in conflicting escatologies and a certain superfisciality in approach that seems like secular humanism? How can we support another religion�s own ways for redemption without supporting the state of Israel? How then can we do the same for the Muslims own means for salvation? If we support religious relativism do we support a war that will not end?
I think it is impossible to support both. No one wants another holocost and most all of today�s Christians want the best for Jews, but biased support for the third largest nuclear weapon superpower who we put in the middle of a bunch of really pissed off Arabs who really don�t like it when treaties are broken for this reminds them of some events with their central prophet? It is better than a holocost but I don�t think that this was an outstanding solution. We like that the Jews are returning, but is it right for us to like it?
Kicking Palestinians out of their homes and taking away their voice for a few years and labeling them terrorists when they speak out? The Jews didn�t do this, we did, or the Brittish did. But the Jews are only human too despite what everybody says and were basically left with little choice after much horror. A few athiests are upset at the church do to the insensitivity to Palestianians and an almost care-free attitude. They will call it ignorance. Generally speaking, Christians aren�t the major group that I see today that stand in hostility to the Jews. But In our biased concern it seems that we only create more anti-semitism and anger amongst various groups. Louis Ferichon, Palestinians, and Arabs. This anger often extends itself towards Christianity as well.
While not without fault, Christian history not quite as exclusively dark as it seems to be perceived sometimes�apologies sometimes overextend themselves and we loose sight of the equally needed explanations and contexts. For example, Luther was ultimately looking to aid the human condition which included the Jews and even wrote letters in his attempts to help them. He got frustrated in his efforts, a bit dispairing, and without our modern consciousnss to support him, he wrote some relly crappy stuff. But he was ultimately part of a tradition that was moving in a positive direction. How come in Hall we don�t hear about how his letters got taken into obscurity for x years only to then be taken out of obsurity and used in reaching all our desire to see scandal and specticle to support something with an entirely different orientation. Now he is an evil and wicked element of Christian history in many circles. I keep reading about how the crusades are often a positive event in western consciousness. WHERE IS THIS WESTERN CONSCIOUSNESS? Nobody thinks that they were positive anymore and usually without knowing anything about them.
But what is that different between the first crusaders standing before Turks and Muslims that they saw coming at them and then fighting in triumphalism and armor and Westerners giving nuclear weapons to the Israel put in the midst of machine guns? The difference is that the name of Christ is no longer involved as we learned to separate a bit from constantine and that we not take Christ�s name down quite as far with us as we see a lot of bloodshed? If we cared, why didn�t we take them into our countries after the evil Hitler? We have room. Maybe we just let the Jews do the dirty work cause all we are really after is some oil? Christians on one side can support it with scripture on the right and on the with views on religious relitivism on the left. What picture gets painted? A fight to regain the Holy Land supported by the Christian west in association with the Jews all in their underlying greed as they murder innocent people as another part of the long chain of christian evils and western expansion. Antisemitism arises along with anti-christianism. Christians are for the most part completely removed.
�Woe to those who call darkness light and light darkness?� Diminish Christ�s divinity in attempts to be more inclusive? and support alternative methods of redempion, break up the bible often by apparent contradictions which feeds into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists and atheists (who primarily argue with the Biblcal erros and contradictions) and reconstruct the historical Jesus based on worldly methods and human efforts often swayed by human sensitivities and biases if not just limitations? Usher in a reign of peace and wonder why Islam is the fastest growing religion and Louis Fericon is saying Jews and Christians are evil? We could �play the lute in amarica� saying �all is fine,� I love you and you love me we are a happy family.� while we show are kids this television show about a purple dinosaur until in the very fragile situation when someone finally drops a pin in the tension.
Religious relativism and bias does not eliminate antisemitism, it only switches it to other people. This approach is almost circular as some fanatic group is going to argue this and see �us good� and �you evil� rush in and bomb an abortion clinic in loosing track of all rationality. It�s the anti-christ to somebody I bet. Am I right? �Peace, Peace when there is no peace� If we are biased we might even kick in some anti-semitic acts in some Christian hicks out in Alabama. When we are biased towards Jews in our remorse and concearn we might actually instigate fringe group movements to act out in hostility. Simple honesty is better than theologies twisted on human sentiments I think.
Peter cried to Christ before he was going to be crucified and wishing for it not to occur. This would seem only natural, it would seem only good. He was very close to Jesus. Yet Christ told him, "get behind me Satan.� God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. It seems wrong to us to want to sacrifice your child and kill him. This is only natural. But it is by Faith that he was accorded righteousness. Sometimes in our efforts for goodness, in our efforts of concearn for our fellow man we follow what seems right to us. Yet, the Bible claims, �there is a path which seems right to man but the end of it is death.� In Chris�ts command �love the lord your God with your whole heart and your whole mind� we have the love of God before the love of man. The best for all men is not always what appears best to our natural sentiments. --------------
At St. Olaf we secure ourselves in competetion with other schools through the money of a currupt buisness man and serving Buntrock burgers at lunch while FCA celebrates at the top of the third floor of a new structure that somewhat looks like a tower in Babylonr? Maybe St Olaf could start by not worrying quite so much about being top dog in the �best colleges report.�
Yes, I think this is a bit overboard and exhausting, I watched Bullsworth with Warren Beaty when a bit tired , but how about if Lutherans just explained and learned about their faith a little more and lived the life of the human Jesus in the world? Most students at a Lutheran college seem to side with pelagianism, at least before taking a class. There was a vote once. We could start with the humanity of Jesus, but need not sacrifice our own faith nor hope in his divinity. We could present the good with the bad in history and just be honest, �the truth will set you free.� How about if instead of when meeting doubts instead of trying to make a new theory we just tried to understand what was said. If you look at opression of the Jews or of people in general, we could look back in time to where it ultimately began. The roots of anti-semitism are not in Christianity nor is that where they are going to be in the future. They were in Cain and then Babylon or the Akadians and Summarians. In the future it is more likely to be with the Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians. They were in man.
We could come to understand the roots of opression and then move through the OT Biblical characters all the way through such people as Augustine and luther and see how they are working to remove opression progressively through their theologies and investigations of the human condition. Luther got frustrated as he wasn�t being successful with efforts to evangalize the Jews. We don�t need to ignore his later writings, but we could see this in context and in relation to the positive developments that were coming about to relieve human opression. Luther was trying to ultimately help the Jews, but he couldn�t and got frustrated and wrote some realy cruddy stuff. Maybe he got impatient and should have just trusted in God�s timing and providence. Later people took Luther�s later writings out of obsurity and said �hey look, what luther said� feeding upon the susceptible human sensabilities of the people and took these frustrated writings into their orientation to support a really terrifying and horrible thing. Now people often get the �oh look what luther said� in relation to another negative aspect of a this thing called Christianity which is actually the cure if followed and believed. We aren�t dealing with a main-stream consciousness that believes th crusades were a positive thing any more I don�t think. I don�t see anywhere in the New Testiment where it says force people to believe what you believe or destroy them if they don�t or where it says hate people if they don�t believe what you do. Perhaps there is something else at fault like doing it ourselves. That initial issue with Abraham involved sacrificing one�s son. Our human sentiments don�t always at first align with the divine goodness and plan. Ultimately our answer is faith in Christ.
Christianity has been anti-semitic. But Anti-semitism has its root in man, not Christianity. It has existed since Cain killed able. Related to the ground, cain is the first city builder. Perhaps we don�t need to see a completel negative escatology however.
Luther�s writings Perhaps we could look at what was difficult with Judaism was its part in the human condition.
It is often said that Luther�s later writings were influenced by his escatalogical mindframe and feelings that the end of the world were coming.
JERUSALEM
Trying to alter things to appeal to sentiment can sometimes bring further complications. I tend to look to Jerusalem as an example of this. My ideas on it are not fully formed and yes in this I am one of those fallible humans. It is also extremely controversial so I think I might begin first with stating my belief in God and His concern and love for all humanity. This humanity includes men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Buddists, black and white, terrorists and the terrorized and I believe God wants us to love all people as well. The Bible states that God wills that no man perish. But I pick Jerusalem and the surrounding area as a point of focus, because I don�t see this as a positive sign of our state of being and I don�t think us Americans can isolate ourselves from it.
I almost chose the topic of marriage for my Christology because at least to me it is kind of a light and airy, fun and happy topic. It wouldn�t be that controversial. I wouldn�t have to risk a possition that might sound too different from everyone else or be misperceived. Despite conflicts that arise in marriage, they are hardly the intensity of a holocost or middle east conflict. Perhaps Pauls Joy in remaining unmarried can still have some relevance. While I hope to get married some day, if I were to think about marriage for a mere paper it wouldn�t be quite as big, deep, and heavy to me as if I were to look at some of the other issues of the world. But perhaps they relate within our condition and perhaps some how they are inter-related. Perhaps�I don�t see Christianity as merely being about bringing happiness. I don�t think maryrs are having a dance in the park. But I wouldn�t equate joy and happiness as one in the same. Of course I do tend to need a break every now and then and perhaps fart in class. Otherwise one gets back in the habbit of turning in late papers, getting depressed, and so forth and so on. But to me the answers of today don�t always exist in summer camp. Sometimes in Christian mission, one needs to look at some really sad things and find truth or reality in them and sometimes we can�t go on our natural impulses.
To me it appears, that when looking at Jerusalem today that man will make no peace agreement. This summer I worked on a paper for a class in comparative monotheism. Primarily the focus was on learning about the religions of Judaism and Islam. This was fun and interesting, light and friendly. I read some on Jewish Christian relations as well. Yet, at the same time I took part in a conversation with a girl whom graduated from UCLA with a degree in religion and sociology. The girl essentialy vilified Luther in entirety out of her anger at his later writings and was thinking of departing from protestantism if not more. That some of Luther�s earlier writings may have actually provided some positive directions with the Jews which were more influential to the Lutheran church that followed was of no consequence to her nor was Luther given a fair assesment given his day, age, and experience. The point is that over-appology or rather being unfair in assesments (since sorrow over a holocost can not be fully expressed) can lead persons away from what is really working to transform and benefit Jews and Christians alike.
This all occurred durring the camp David Peace accords.
certain particulars can be very important in Paul�s writings as well. ---------------textual unity
. I don�t separate the transcendent and the hisotrical and I put faith in Biblical character�s experience with the transcendent. I do tend to put what is called �historical� in the relation to solomon�s temple or the tabernacle in the wilderness in that the Historical would see the outside of the temple. But only through faith would one see from the inside out. In the Hebrew scriptures I would see individuals such as Noah seeing from within the temple. But since only the High Priest was allowed to certain areas of Solomon�s temple, I�m not sure about all Isrealites. Post reserection I would see the temple as open in other words you don�t just see the inner walls of the temple. Ultimately this innerness is something which leaves only a few individuals in right perspective in the Hebrew scriptures, but changed by Christ . A lot of words like metaphor relate to this interpretation I think. I have I don�t think that attention to particulars and Biblical self-definitions remains unrelated to the modern world in some sort of inflexibility. It also relates to my difference with mythopoic speculation. I would have to believe that the mythical was part of Moses�s experience with the transcendent, rather than something later attributed to it. I might have believed this anyway but this all the more so. I don�t even like using the word metaphor as Yam-Sea or as it is often used in describing Biblical terms�if I don�t specifically express the story it might come across as poetry. Perhaps sometimes it is, but sometimes I don�t see it as being poetic, but trying to paint the picture of a truthful reality. Maybe in a much higher calling that�s how the author of John did it. AND stick with the typical�not necessarily outside methods�(humanism)�--when not in a class I take it and if it doesn�t make sense see what other verses exist or what flexibility---vs chpping it up�vs beginning with a textual unity--but if doesn�t make sense..also unity???
This was my Lutheran heritage.
While probably a thought earlier in life I know that Christ said something about �plucking your eye out being better than hell,� At some point the thought of death passed my mind when I was thinking about the eternally playing radio broadcasts that some rich celebrities put in their coffins. The thought at least passed once of putting a TV in mine�but that probably wouldn�t work for very long. I am not sure that this was when I would have contemplated any thought on really dying, but I do think that our Christian conceptions of an afterlife are sometimes hard to fully realize and we do tend to dissasociate from our deeper questions of human existence. However, when thinking about how to act in the world I now think we need to keep this broader perspective in mind. It definitely influences the way we act and the ideas that we develop.
Imagine that you have never met a Catholic and believe that it is 100% true the pope is the anti-Christ through the doctrine of papel-infallibility and that the Catholic church is the beast of Revelation through its emphasis on works and human rather than divine efforts and men works as demons to control and limit God�s grace through a closed Eucharist and that they recently converting numerous Lutherans and that this would ultimately lead to their destruction.
I still somewhat interpret the Bible in this manner and it can be mistaken for fundamentalism. If the Bible says, �Moses wrote� I ask, �how did he write?.� It wasn�t necessarily with a pen but perhaps with some process theology you can say he wrote �as a pen.� Perhaps he wrote through the Tabernacle that God instucted him to build. What did he specifically write? I think that such particulars are especially important in Paul�s writings as well. If something doesn�t make sense I might look for another verse or see what flexibility exists in the meanings�that is when I am seriously looking. While I�d agree in looking at such writings as the gospels individually, I wouldn�t take apparent contradictions and differences and use this as a means to separate the Bible into various components to see something entirely other such as a �historical Jesus.� I would try and fit these apparent contradictions together to see a picture within a textual unity. The full reason for this hasn�t been met yet in this paper and this is probably a flimsy explanation or perhaps completely simplistic, but in a senior seminar with a favorite religion professor whom has a doll of Ezekiel, I was in part looking for a new method of Old Testiment scholarhip and continuing as normal to construct my own unique understanding (but to what end?). For me, it is perhaps more encompasing than one thinks.
In a paper for another Biblical studies class ---------
So how did I originally deal with this. One way was by trying to see what others did in such a situation. But there aren�t many (of sound mind and body) who I would feel had this experience. At first I thought Jesus (for a moment) but that�s quite a bit to think I only shared such an experience with Jesus. Then I thought of a Moses. Ok that�s not quite sharing an experience soly with God (ha ha). And I did somewhat act like him in parting the sea of chaos in internet debates and worldy and ideologies. Aside from this experiene which I seldomly mention, I think I provided responses that would be viewed as intelligent and pretty good (perhaps lacking in educational background).
I basically told the part with the witches which scared me to death with everyone I worked with. Despite the fact one person said �you know Center, there are some things you should keep to yourself� and realizing I was coming off weird, I basically thought �well, I don�t care what this does to my image it obviously has some significance. I�ll just say it.� This came to change with time and it makes a little uneasiness thinking you just told all these people such a story. I only told Greg Love at Olaf and felt weird for doing so afterwards. -
Another way of dealing with it was planting my heart or clinging to the Bible or ultimtely God to be able to walk through fire. To be able to go while the entire world might be crumbling around me in a solitudal faith in God. (solitary). The solitary part I think is a problem. It might be the problem. But who can you talk about this with? Just me and God for all eternity? Adam had an eve. I haven�t even had a date in 5 years except in not being able to say no to those whom I wasn�t interested in. And quite honestly either in my perception or in reality if I do share they would turn the other way. You either would be viewed as nuts or weird, a prophet with something to say in regaurds to the second coming, or someone with something people don�t want to deal with. I would speculate that this has fed a greater sense of isolation. ------
There are some humerous events in this also..part of my fear/meditation stage. For example driving and feeling the fear so great I have to pull over to a church. The preacher responded to me �so why did you decide to come here�you just saw the church on the side of the road.� Yes, the great and mighty Chris has come to prepare you for the aproaching appocolypse. But on a more serious note there was a lot of observing both looking for my own answers and realizing a lot of problems�perhaps interconnections. Basically I was looking around at the world around me (taking but not listening to and dropping extention classes at the U)
There was also a situation which is somewhat humerous where I was supposed to pick up this neighbor lady�s husband downtown Mineapolis on Lake Street. The husband wasn�t there but I ran across this other guy/kid in his upper 20s and somehow ended up driving around the neighborhood with him. He seemed surprised that I wasn�t afraid of him and asked about it. It turns out he was some gang leader and he and his friends started smoking crack in the back of my car. I think I was in the midst of a little potential scuffle though between two groups. I�m not sure. And in looking back I think I drove the guy around to deliver stolen merchandise. I didn�t realize this at the time. The rest didn�t really phase me. I was unhappy that they were smoking crack in my car, but I politely refused the crack pipe (a joking way of saying oh shit). One side wasn�t very happy with the other side. I was mostly observing this guy trying to figure out why he was in the situation that he was in. The main guy looked like he was hoping for a certain redemption. He knew that he shouldn�t be in the situation he was in. I did want to get rid of him from a while because by around 7AM you start to get a bit tired and would like your nice suburbian bed. I got a bit upset when the other guy stole my 20 dollars though. I tried to track him down and ran into a police officer who said I should leave the area. This probably fed something in a senior seminar on vocation when I spent a large amount of time on Johnathan Kozol�s book.
There are many situations like this which I could write a book about. I suppose you might realize what type of Christianity is peddled at the U of M student union. Particularly the notion that �we no longer sin now that we are Christians�at all� �
For me personally , I was looking for some words of advise or somethg. For part, but not all of this I went to the net�probably not the best place to look for words of advise. I found more problems and people with problems. I found people in authority positions uttering nonsense. This would be the reasonable level-headed Elca lutheran saying they spoke nonsense not the wacked out college kid. (and coming to college readings there were many problems still �however presented more intelligently maybe). Also looking for someone who might have some identificaton with this I came to think Jesus�well that�s a bit too much to think one shares an experience only with Jesus. Moses�ok a little bit better (ha ha)�he parts the sea of chaos and so I will part the sea of chaos. Jesus came later I think. If you spend any time on the net you realize its not the nicest place. People are cruel and I came to think that you have to be able to take it properly. I also relate the experience in a certain way to people around me thinking well I�ll tell it no matter what result that has on me. I really don�t know how much I want to go back to those places anymore. I did cut it from the I-net debates because it really doesn�t work to help relate ideas to most people. Generally I extended that at Olaf. I took my �myth� out and often would relate the less �bizzare� which holds great religious parallels or it aligns well (love is the only one at Olaf who has the slightest). And of course it was in a course on science and religion and the last person I argued with on the net was a protestant elder who felt that religion was �simply a moral teaching tale� and that science didn�t allow for the miraculous (no I didn�t mention the experience to the elder) However, I still think the reality is in the myth. I don�t think it was completely understood why I was so insistant that mythological speculation was not a process which later attributed mythological elements to natural stories but that the transcendent �mythological� elements surrounded or absorbed Moses�s experience
Somehow I was black because I was Italian according to him. But I�m not Italian. I probably tried bringing up some other positive influences such as MLK Jr. just hoping it might help him. He later attacked two police officers defensively with knives (he would not have seriously touched them) because they were white and became addicted to cocain for a while.
Then I had a very unusual and powerful Christian religious experience and call of some sort which I have not figured out. No funny looks.
A Jesus who is God is very significant at such a moment. An experience which ultimately led me to a religion degree. By the nature of that experience I tend to think that this time was very significant and becomes included both in papers, thoughts, etc. It was a certain moment of reality I think. My search for understanding began.
todays Jewish community.
My previous experiences with members of Islamic religion were not all, but primarily negative and before I took up a religion major. They consisted of primarily of Muslim evangalists confronting or should I say attacking me with numerous Biblical contradictions and errors and things which did not occur historically. I know all Muslims are not like this, but I just answered them and this seemed very easy to me. I don�t see Biblical contradictions or anything that does not fit reasonbly in history.
In confrontation with the world�s most horrifying events, our sentiment sometimes attempts to provide an answer. In appeal to Judaism, perhaps the Jewish return to Israel and formation of the state in 1948 is part of God�s plan for redemption, or perhaps he�ll use it in his plan for redemption. But perhaps our sentiments can lead us astray and we have complications because of it. ----------------
I say this because sometimes I think that our answers in todays world become directed by our own mind and our own sentiments.�scholarship, methods---inter-relation back to the cross. Have Chrisitans
! TH 2:13 For ye who became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in JC have suffereed 2:14 like things even as they of the jews: who both killed Jesus, their own countrymen, even as have of the Jews
MY NET�death security 1) at what point does concern for Jewish quality of life become a harmful religious relitivism 2) at what point do concerns for our closest of kin become a perspective void of context and an unnecesary darkening of the church which doesn�t increase the Jewish quality of life but threatens it on Judaism and Christianity through the bias it imposes over and against other groups of people
PROBLEM
1) historical context is important for understanding Christianity but how much are historical critical methods based in human sentiment and wisdom as opposed to faith and in conflict with the Augustinian and Biblical tradition of wisdom acquisition that faith proceeds understanding and the beginning of wisdom is fear of the lord\
2)
PART II
�Karl Bultmann, (1884-1976), was a German Lutheran New Testament scholar, who pioneered the form-critical method of studying the Synoptic Gospels. Bultmann, a skeptic in regard to the historical elements of the Bible, believed that the Scriptures, and especially the Gospels, must undergo a demythologization, or reinterpretation, of those mythical elements that have no application or relevance to contemporary concerns.� What? I probably wouldn�t have agreed with them beforehand and it isn�t my only reason, but given such an experience without any further reasons, how could I possibly agree?
1) historical context is important for understanding Christianity but how much are critical methods based in human sentiment and wisdom as opposed to faith and in conflict with the Augustinian and Biblical tradition of wisdom acquisition that faith proceeds understanding and the beginning of wisdom is fear of the lord? Is it faith in God or faith in humanity and its methods?
The net is not as completely bad as one might think. It isn�t very personal so it is hard to really help. I wouldn�t believe the majority of what anyone says , but there are some good retired priests and half-way decent sitesand you get a sense of a lot of different attitudes and opinions and a lot of arguments. Literalist Fundamentalist
SILLY THINGS
Look at it within the historical context which is somewhat unreliable because any sources are going to be biased. Not use historical context to understand it. Recently, the one boy who got terrorized got a job as an actuary. But, one of the guys making lustful passes went to prison for a while because he beat his girlfriend and another was having �behind the sceenes� sexual relations with a 16 year old after he was out of college. Might there be some modern relavance to something such as Corinthians 11 if one looks towards its deeper significance and meaning rather than just its simplistic surface?
Have some relevance to my Jr High youth group. For one of the guys making lustful passes went to prison for a while because he beat his girlfriend and the another was having sex with a 16 year old after he was out of college.
SCRIPTURE - problems
I take the Bible to be innerant. In saying that I am almost bound to receive an initial negative reaction without realizing my difference from that group that is being characterized. In looking at something like Corinthians 11 I would begin by looking to see what such words as uncovered meant in other places in the Bible. I would look to see what the Old Testiment references were in regaurds to such things. I would look to any qualifications within later parts of the chapter or in the book as a larger whole. I may regaurd Paul inspired to speak to a particular community, but was in no way innacurate and was in no way contradictory.
May have shared terminology
But that isn�t taking things at face value nor missing specifics. It is not seeing a part without the whole. Sometimes what appear as contradictions can create clarified understandings. There is no way one can trace this back to the Bible, despite what might appear as anti-semitic, because the Bible is a much fuller unit which in another paper I would explain held no contradictions. If one feels that Paul wrote something wicked and is responsible, then one feels the Bible is not innerant. But if the Bible is inerrant, than one can�t take out Paul from the rest of the whole I match History to the bible
I responded by trying to figure their alleged problems and conflicts out. This would include attempts to explain the trinity and so forth as well as just about anything imaginable. While I�m not perfect, anger was in unrelated conversations primarily with those whom claimed some sort of Christian authority (arrogantly) yet really were only able to quote a lot of sources. I was able to answer these �contradictions,� errors, evils of scripture, and so forth of the Bible and I didn�t have any real background in Biblical studies beyond Jr. High confirmation. I actually enjoyed it at times. Most of the �historical inacuracies� are often times just relying on secular conditioned understandings of terminology and just lacking depth.
I also hate to generalize Muslims in this negative manner, but my experience for the most part was netagitve. When first encountering Islamic attack, it was easy for me to imagine Muhammad as the false prophet and the shrine sitting where the Jewish temple once stood as the desolation spoken of by Daniel. Who else would this be whom came claiming relation to the God of Israel yet removing the central element of the Christian faith, the cross, claiming their scritptures to be inaccurate and gaining such a huge following. He must have some form of special significance, I thought. Plus, I heard that they were fightinig against the Jews and claiming the Holy Land was theirs. This was my attitude of the time anyway
How do Biblical concepts such as �the beginning of wisdom is fear of the lord� or the Augustinian tradition of �faith proceeds understanding� fall in line with some methods of contemporary scholarship? -faith in Bible----Or how do they fall in line with Luther who held to the authority of scritpure but saw no room in theology for reason in such things as opposition to the platonic interpretation of the Eucharist in presenting Christ�s true presence and was one of the main issues which kept Lutheranism and Catholocism from reuniting?
HUMANISM-TO HUMAN CONDITION??
The natural human methods with concerned bias and the misapropriation of the problem within Christian tradition (or the presentation as a linear path from Christianity to holocost) both limit hope to the world and increase anti-semitism in other groups. This is falling prey again to the human condition�faith in human methodology?
Muslims are generally more anti-semitic than Christians. MY APPROACH EVILS EXAMPLES:
While a certain dispiritedness might prevent me from giving the best examples but I realize that saying what I do above creates the image of a particular type of answer and I think that I answer differently than most. There are a few brief ones that I will try to present. In response to the feeling that the Bible endorsed slavery, one could look at Paul�s disucssion of slavery we see in Colosians. Here he states, �Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a master in heaven� (Col 5). The word master as presented in Christ is a servant of selflessnes. The just and fair treatment of slaves is paralleled in Levitical law where it states �If one of your countryment becomes poor..and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave�He is to be treated as a hired worker until the year of Jubilee. Then he and this children are to be released�Israelites are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves�You shall not rule over them with harshness� (Lev 25).
During the year of Jubilee was the day of atonement. Colosians states that religious festivals are �A foreshadowing of things to come, the reality however is found in Christ� (Col 3:7), Christ died on the cross paying the atonement for our sins. God became a God of more than Israelites under the New Covanent. God is also said to have �no favoritism (Col 3:25)� Therefore the definition of fair treatment would seem to be a release of those who are one in Christ with the masters.
The thing is that history often cannot be a radical break from the past. If the slaves were to break away, start a revolution, or act negatively toward their masters, there would be less willingness for the master to change the structure of the system. The first step was not for the slave to protest and create hostility, but to act as an agent of God in brining conversion, respect, and spiritual growth to the master. True salvation would not be short lived salvation but would include the individual eternal salvation and a stable means by which to remove slavery as a system. So the purpose of the suggestions would not be to �legitimize and evil instution� but for the slaves to work with the masters in bringing about a spiritual condtion that would allow for this stable tranformation. It is stated to the slave �then know that you will receive inheritance from the Lord as reward (Col3:24).� This perhaps could be a promise of eventual liberation. MY APPROACH
EVILS EXAMPLES:
While a certain dispiritedness might prevent me from giving the best examples but I realize that saying what I do above creates the image of a particular type of answer and I think that I answer differently than most. There are a few brief ones that I will try to present. In response to the feeling that the Bible endorsed slavery, one could look at Paul�s disucssion of slavery we see in Colosians. Here he states, �Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a master in heaven� (Col 5). The word master as presented in Christ is a servant of selflessnes. The just and fair treatment of slaves is paralleled in Levitical law where it states �If one of your countryment becomes poor..and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave�He is to be treated as a hired worker until the year of Jubilee. Then he and this children are to be released�Israelites are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves�You shall not rule over them with harshness� (Lev 25).
During the year of Jubilee was the day of atonement. Colosians states that religious festivals are �A foreshadowing of things to come, the reality however is found in Christ� (Col 3:7), Christ died on the cross paying the atonement for our sins. God became a God of more than Israelites under the New Covanent. God is also said to have �no favoritism (Col 3:25)� Therefore the definition of fair treatment would seem to be a release of those who are one in Christ with the masters.
The thing is that history often cannot be a radical break from the past. If the slaves were to break away, start a revolution, or act negatively toward their masters, there would be less willingness for the master to change the structure of the system. The first step was not for the slave to protest and create hostility, but to act as an agent of God in brining conversion, respect, and spiritual growth to the master. True salvation would not be short lived salvation but would include the individual eternal salvation and a stable means by which to remove slavery as a system. So the purpose of the suggestions would not be to �legitimize and evil instution� but for the slaves to work with the masters in bringing about a spiritual condtion that would allow for this stable tranformation. It is stated to the slave �then know that you will receive inheritance from the Lord as reward (Col3:24).� This perhaps could be a promise of eventual liberation. The problem is not as much the scritpture as people applying or altering scripture to endorse something we want whether it be bad or good concern. With someone like Elizabeth Johnson whom looks to bring a positive change, there is something that I don�t like with the approach as it does seem like she wants to make God into her own liking. But for those whom like her approach, one question is whether she would bring about any change in societal attitudes or increase hostility. Would wanting to call God parent promote a change of heart or push many people the other way in thinking about those crazy feminist extremests?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, is perhaps more likely in some conservative circles are attempts to take scripture to support something illigitimate. A male might take something from Paul to make himself the prideful and opressive �king of the houshold.� If you put this male and someone like Elizabeth together, there probably won�t be much love or understanding. They bump heads.
Looking at the husband as the �head of the wife as Christ is head of the church� might appear patriarchal at face value until one comes to see that as head of the church, Christ humbled himself to the least. It goes along with Pauls concepts of mutuality. There is possible room for feminine aspects of God as well. Wisdom is personified as a female, Lady Wisdom, and wisdom becomes identified with the Holy Spirit which has a birth giving quality (John 3:6). This might be a better approach to the male shovenist and the relationship.
I have been called both a �Jew lover� and an �Arab lover� with the connatation that one would refer to a �nigger lover� a hundred years ago and so hopefully, it won�t appear like I am picking on a particular group of people in whatever I say. It is all very sensative. But �Christian� errors have at times been bluntly negative towards Jews. Islam has elements which would be more subtly opressive to Jews yet less flexible to change. While Christ said, �my Kingdom is not of this world,� Muhammad tried to unite his community under law. �While Islam says there is to be �no compulsion in religion(2:56)� this does not include government and it appears the very notion of the Islamic government calls for it. �
I was able to answer these �contradictions,� errors, evils of scripture, and so forth of the Bible and I didn�t have any real background in Biblical studies beyond Jr. High confirmation. I actually enjoyed it at times. Most of the �historical inacuracies� are often times just relying on secular conditioned understandings of terminology and just lacking depth
In these experience in colleges, involved Christians were less anti-Semitic or less likely to make a harassing comment to people of difference than people who are more consumed by culture. People naturally want to take the Bible to add strength to a particular cause. Culture is also a temptation, which can sway us Christians, and there are things in our faith that we can attach to add strength to attitudes of culture. It is culture, but it is also part of the human condition to distort what the Bible is saying
HISTORY DARKENED- EXPERIENCE
.Along with contradictions, evils of scripture and historical inaccuracies was the evil Christian church. Events which were once heroic in Christian conscience, it often seems that they have become the opposite. I am not saying that Christians have not sinned in their history, but so often, it appears that Christianity is now perceived and treated as solely and completely guilty. Apologies can overextend themselves or somewhat blur the picture. They often look at things gone wrong and point them out. However, they do not point out the broader context or Christian orientation and development They do not look at what the true problem is. If it is something with the human condition and Christ is the savior then misappropriation can end up standing in the way of the cure.
Why do they keep talking about the crusades as being a positive part of western consciousness, when no body thinks that any more? In my experience, they are typically perceived as another evil element within the long and wicked Christian history. It is as though they were a completely uninstigated response by a completely Evil Christendom. This isn�t saying that the crusaders handled all things well, nor that people within the movements didn�t do horrible things, but simply seeing that they were in part responding to a warring aspect of Islam brings a broader perspective. Perspectives can and often do become distorted. Perhaps that is because history is typically presented as being linear.
ISLAM EXPERIENCE-
One of the numerous Groups of people I encountered were Muslims whom would come in opposition. Not all were attacking, but many were and their main arguments included such things as those of the �Islamic world� web-site�s � 50,000 Errors in the Bible. � These were at times nice, but often an attempt to show errors of my beliefs in attempts at conversion. I responded by trying to figure their alleged problems and conflicts out. This would include attempts to explain the trinity and so forth as well as just about anything imaginable.
Not until recently did I read in the Qur�an that mounting opposition from the Jews over a Messiah that did not meet their expectations, led to their siding with Muhammad�s enemies. In response, Muhammad declared that the �hypocrites� had deviated from true faith. He declared that the Jews had �falsified their scriptures to conceal the foretelling of his mission as the prophet of God. �
Islam will argue that their religion is less oppressive, but Jews (or anyone else) cannot live under the government of another religion without the expectation of oppression. The relation of Government and religion are hard thing to separate with Islam. In later times, Islamic law became known as Sharia. �Sharia, spells out the moral goals of the community. In Islamic society, therefore, the term law has a wider significance than it does in the modern secular West, because Islamic law includes both legal and moral imperatives. � The Qur�an states" Whoever oppresses any Dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen of the Islamic state), I shall be his prosecutor on the Day of Judgment. " However, a Jewish source states, �The Golden Age of equal rights was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam. �
AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
At this time, my malado friend disassociated from his family and all white people. As a part of its evil and unreliable heritage and scriptures, Christianity was a white religion that was responsible for such things as slavery. He would explain how Jesus never claimed to be God and how the Bible was simply invented. I probably figured that this was a bit of a twisted perception and that Islam probably had slaves at one time as well. Humerously he kept me as a friend because I was Italian and therefore black. Actually, I�m not Italian but he insisted that I was. He didn�t want to conflict with his beliefs or separate because of our ethnicity�s. He eventually attacked two police officers throwing down his knives once jumping on top of their car. Islam will argue that it has been kinder to other religions, but it is less open to change for the fair treatment of the Jews simply for Muhammad�s tie to law and government. While I would not associate him with the whole of Islam, Louis Fericohn is not known for his love for Judaism.
Later in this period, I was supposed to pick up his mother�s new boyfriend down on Lake Street. The husband was not there but I ran across this other guy/kid in his upper 20s and somehow ended up driving around the neighborhood with him. He wondered why I was not afraid of a black man. He would look outside and think something looked like a bible and then his eyes would fall down in a certain sorrow and he would jump to saying something else. I was unprepared when he and some of his friends started smoking crack in my car but he essentially did not want to be there. After I dropped him off he was surprised to hear me ask him if he was all right. Soon a police officer pulled me over looking very upset from a distance. He asked for my license and I showed it to him and he became very warm and concerned telling me I should get out of the dangerous neighborhood. Is this Christianity or a culture that happens to be primarily Christian? Looking for hope, what does he have and what does he see?
Islam will argue that their religion is less oppressive, but Jews (or anyone else) cannot live under the government of another religion without the expectation of oppression. The relation of Government and religion are hard thing to separate with Islam. In later times, Islamic law became known as Sharia. �Sharia, spells out the moral goals of the community. In Islamic society, therefore, the term law has a wider significance than it does in the modern secular West, because Islamic law includes both legal and moral imperatives. � The Qur�an states" Whoever oppresses any Dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen of the Islamic state), I shall be his prosecutor on the Day of Judgment. " However, a Jewish source states, �The Golden Age of equal rights was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam. � While Christianity may be seen historically to have been more bluntly opressive to Judaism than Islam, Islam is less flexible to change due to its tie government.
