http://www.ccel.org/contrib/exec_outlines/ba.htm

Don

First off, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I haven’t really blogged this month until yesterday. I was on a vacation, and a blog break.

Now let me get right to this. Thanks for coming here and commenting. I appreciate all views.

You jump into a critique of the sinner’s prayer methodology with 2 main issues. Christianity if it was really true would be more uniform than it currently is, and it would result in a firm unbendable law. At least that is what seems to grab me from your comment.

You and I both agree that the Torah is given by inspiration of God. It is Holy, perfect–the very Word of God. The giving of the Law was accompanied by glorious miracles (I’m assuming you’re still with me).

Nothing short of a stupendous miracle that would attest to the intervention of God would suffice for supplanting the Torah. Only an absolute surety that God was again speaking would move many of His people to move away from all the intricacies of Torah’s legal/ceremonial system.

Ah, but with the miracles of Jesus, and His personal resurrection, we have just such a miracle. There is abundant proof for the miracles. How else could 12 uneducated men change the course of history? Why would so many willingly be martyred for a resurrection myth?

Aside from the miracles is the unparalleled fulfillment of scores of specific prophecies in the Torah/Old Testament. The suffering servant prophesied in Isaiah and Zechariah, among other places, has indeed come. In the words of the epistle to the Hebrews: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Judaism admits that God intervenes in human history, that He speaks and reveals His will. So with the advent of Christ, a Jew must examine the evidence and make sure it does not contradict the truths previously revealed in the Torah. Many a Jew before yourself has made such an examination and discovered Jesus is Messiah.

Your points about dis-unity and differing positions on certain legal matters are not as clinching as you claim. Judaism is hardly uniform and there are various interpretations of how binding each law is.

Christianity is about more than a code of righteousness. It is about the advent of the Lamb of God who was slain as the ultimate Passover sacrifice, whose blood covers us. The true Day of Atonement was once and forever made on Calvary, when God offered His own son to bear the iniquity of our sins and make atonement for us. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. Good works cannot cancel out the true guilt which is ours for each of our sins.

If you are sincere and open, I’d be glad to point you to some further resources which can help to answer some of your questions. I am open to interacting further with you if such an interaction would prove beneficial to both of us.

May God grant you eyes to see Jesus as Messiah,

Bob Hayton

How is it that we can call a sinner from their way, tell them to renounce the world, and then give them nothing except lists of doctrines to believe as some kind of “proof” that they are “really saved”? How is it that one denomination can condemn TV, pop music and short hair on women while another can not only allow but ENCOURAGE these things as totally innocuous? What are the FRUITS that the C-ristian evanjellyfish ministers are always trying to call people to bear? Love? Goodness? Kindness? Patience? I see those in people of every religion and none, every day. Belief in “J-sus C-rist” as a man/g-d? The Catholics believe that; so do the Toronto Revival crowd. Oh, wait… I see. So, your C-ristian religion IS really just the struggle to make people capitulate to your particular denominational doctrines; otherwise, First, Second, Missionary and Reformed Baptists in the same town would all have to pool their funds and become one big happy, right? Ha. I’ll not live to see that day.

Fact is, C-ristianity is a mish-mosh of people who all “felt led” to believe this or “got spoken to” by some ghost about founding a new c-urch. “I don’t have a witness on that”… what a crock. “It seemed like G-d spoke to me”… please. The Eternal does not SEEM to speak; He has spoken through His Word. Those who think that their inner feelings are the promptings of the Almighty are unstable and looking for answers somewhere other than where they can be found; His Torah. C-ristianity is the result of founding a religion on the authority of pagan men who taught perverted doctrines to uneducated people and blended them with the practices of the other religions in the Roman Empire. Make up all the Replacement Theology you want; the reason C-ristian altar-calls don’t work is that G-d doesn’t want those offerings or those altars. You want to invite people to repentance? Invite them to stop breaking the commandments they have been ignoring for their whole lives, and then let them return to His way, the only way there has ever been.

One last question before the hoop-jumping and logic-leaping and tap-dancing begin:

Many people say they have “liberty in Jayzis” to smoke or drink alcohol or listen to C-ristian rock, and others claim liberty to dress or behave socially and denominationally (separation or lack of it) as they please.

Why, then, can another person not have “liberty in Jayzis” to observe the 7th day “Sabbath” (Elizabethan Anglicizations of Hebrew words are damn funny)? Why can’t a guy wear a skullcap? Why can’t a person have “liberty” in the name of your Gentile Jayzis to behave as the historical Rebbe from the Galilee behaved? Is it because the only “liberty” you want is one from the obvious and plain meaning of the commandments? Is it because people want liberty to act like everyone else? I guess the denim-jumper/head-scarf homeschool crowd has it a little right; they make you suburban, upwardly-mobile “liberty” freaks uncomfortable, and it makes you mad.

Thanks for your kind comments. I am glad this blog has been a blessing to you.

God bless,

Bob