Truth Insults Those Who Despise It
Paul, I am surprised that you would send an email
to me. You certainly know that I think that the claims of Christianity
are no more true then those of Buddhism.
Moshe Shulman 718-436-7705 outreach@messiahtruth.com
Messiah Truth: http://www.messiahtruth.com/
Judaism's Answer: http://www.judaismsanswer.com/
Paul's reply:
Moshe, your present ignorance is all the more reason you need
to hear these things. You are walking in the greatest of darknesses
when comparing the relevance and validity of your Messiah, Jesus
Christ, the Holy One of Israel, to Buddha. Above all, you are walking
in the offense of your fathers, still having the blood of Messiah
on your hands.
As for the claims of Christianity, much of what goes
by that name is false, even diabolical.
Clearly you have not red our site or the writings and letters
in Israel
and the Jew. You need to read
that and much more on our site. If you realized it was the
same God Who spoke to Abraham, Moses, and David, speaking through
us, I am sure you would be eager to do that, wouldn't you? At
least you would claim to be eager.
Has the God of Abraham spoken to you, Moshe? No, He has not.
He has not spoken to you because He doesn't hear your prayers,
otherwise
He would answer you. Don't you know there is a reason for that,
according to your own prophets, whom you also persecuted, rebelling
against the Word of God in their mouths?
Isaiah 59:1-5 JPS
(1) Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear;
(2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will
not hear.
(3) For your hands are defiled with blood, and
your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue muttereth wickedness.
(4) None sueth in righteousness, and none pleadeth in truth;
they trust in vanity, and speak lies, they conceive mischief,
and bring
forth iniquity.
(5) They hatch basilisks' eggs, and weave the spider's web;
he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed
breaketh
out into a viper. Your doctrines and "theological" constructs from Holy
Scripture mean nothing to the Almighty. You are on the wrong
track altogether. If you continue to choose to remain in ignorance,
you
will be held responsible and brought into judgment for what we
have spoken to you.
Thus says the LORD God of Israel.
Paul Cohen
Moshe's reply:
It is interesting you call your site the 'Path of Truth' when
you proclaim lies. Do you really think that I will be receptive
to what you say when all you seem to do is insult me? I would welcome
a dialogue, but without mutual respect I see little point in it.
As
to what I said: When I said 'claims of Christianity' I meant
the historical claims of the NT and things like the resurrection.
The G-d of the NT and his nature and teachings are not what is
in the Tenach. This is to be expected from a work which distorts
the context of virtually every verse that it quotes, and especially
those quoted to support alleged prophetic fulfillments.
You can
rest assured that G-d hears my prayers, and I have been many
times answered. He guides my life and I see openly how this
is happening.
As far as your quoting of Isaiah 59, it is an
example of the Christian distortion of G-d's Holy Word. There
are two problems
with your
quoting that as if it is accusing me. 1. That was said to
the people in Isaiah's time. 2. That was said with regards to the
NATION as
a whole not to individuals. Are you saying that it applied
to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel among others I could
mention?
From
Tenach it states EXPLICITLY that Menashah, who lived later,
had his prayers heard by G-d.
It is sad, but although you
seem to me to be sincere, you have strayed very far from the
truth.
Moshe Shulman 718-436-7705 outreach@messiahtruth.com
Messiah Truth: http://www.messiahtruth.com/
Judaism's Answer: http://www.judaismsanswer.com/
Paul's reply:
Moshe, where is the insult? Were you insulted when I said you
are grossly ignorant of the truth when you make such a darkened
and foolish statement as this?
"You certainly know that I think that
the claims of Christianity are no more true then those of Buddhism."
I
respect you by telling you the truth:
"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an
enemy are deceitful" (Proverbs 27:6 MKJV).
If you find
the truth about yourself insulting, you need to consider
it is because you have been insulting the Truth.
This
is why
God has sent us to speak to you, because you are and have
been at enmity
with Him. He is being gracious by having us give you the
key to reconciliation with Him. Despising what we have
told you
from God
is very foolish and wicked of you.
Rather than choosing
to remain proud of your ignorance and destroying yourself thereby,
it would be better to
open your
ears to the
truth, receive instruction, obey God, and have peace
with Him and with
all men.
We have told you the truth that has been verified
by many witnesses. You boast against the truth, calling
it lies
based on the unsubstantiated
evidence of your fathers, who rejected the God of Israel.
In this you are also playing the fool, which is much
worse than
being ignorant.
An ignorant person can be corrected and enlightened,
but a stubborn fool remains in his foolishness:
"Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain,
yet his foolishness will not be removed from him" (Proverbs
27:22 HNV).
The Jewish believers who testified of Jesus Christ
by His resurrection power were persecuted by your fathers.
Stephen,
for example,
rebuked your fathers for constantly rejecting the messengers
He sent them,
culminating with the Messiah:
Acts 7:51-53 HNV
(51) "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you
do.
(52) Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute?
They killed those who foretold the coming of the
Righteous One,
of Whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.
(53) You received the Torah as it was ordained by
angels, and didn't keep it!"
Why do you think
Jerusalem and the Temple fell, as Jesus said they
would, except for the reason Stephen
gave,
which your
fathers confirmed
as true by murdering Stephen and cementing their
judgment?
And now you insist on following your fathers.
How wise is that?
As Jesus said of you:
Matthew 23:31-33 HNV
(31) Therefore you testify to yourselves that you
are children of those who killed the prophets.
(32) Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
(33) You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how
will you escape the judgment of Gehinnom?
Your
fathers had no evidence to counter the proofs of Yeshua
HaMashiach and His resurrection, which
was witnessed
and
faithfully reported
by the Jews who saw the Anointed of God raised
from the dead. When your fathers couldn't deny
or disprove
His
resurrection, they persecuted
the faithful followers of God, as with Stephen.
Surely
you must know that evidence and reliable witnesses would have
been readily available to
refute the resurrection,
had
it not happened. And surely Stephen's hearers
could have easily refuted him, rather than
being compelled
by their
lower natures
to try
to rid themselves of his testimony by killing
him. That in itself
says it all, does it not? But not one piece
of evidence or one credible witness ever emerged
to contradict
the testimony
of
the Jewish believers of Messiah. Not
a one!
Are you not aware of what
your fathers did, and of the legacy you have
inherited?
Matthew 28:11-15 EMTV
(11) Now while they were going, behold, some
of the guard came into the city and reported
to the
chief
priests
everything that had happened.
(12) When they had assembled with the elders
and taking counsel, they gave sufficient
silver coins
to the soldiers,
(13) saying, "Tell them, 'His disciples
came at night and stole Him away while we were
sleeping.'
(14) "And if this reaches the governor's
ears, we will influence him and make you secure."
(15) So they took the silver and did as they
were instructed. And this saying has been
widely spread
among the Jews
until this day.
God sent other witnesses
to testify to your fathers, yet they continued to reject
Him,
so He turned
from them:
"But Paul and Barnabas, speaking boldly said, 'It was necessary
for the Word of God to be spoken to you first;
but since you thrust It away, and judge yourselves not worthy of eternal life;
behold,
we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord
has commanded us: 'I have set You to be a light of the nations, that You should
be for salvation
to the end of the earth'" (Acts 13:46-47
EMTV).
Through Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach,
God has appeared to the peoples of the nations
around the
world. Because
of His
coming and the sending of His apostles, the
Bible has also gone into
all
the world. There is not a more famous Name
than that of Christ, or famous Book than
the
Bible.
Whether
They are
believed
or not, the testimony of Both convicts the
world of sin.
You say, "The G-d of the
NT [New Testament] and his nature and teachings
are not what
is in the Tenach."
A greater lie could not be told.
In every way, Jesus Christ taught the Law of God,
which He
fulfilled in His own Person,
as only
the Son of God, Who embodies the Nature of
God in
human flesh, could.
By what nitpicking will
you convict the Son of God of sin? As He said to your fathers:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay
tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and you have
left undone the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. You
ought to have
done these and not to leave the other undone" (Matthew
23:23 MKJV).
So what did your fathers do?
They confirmed His words by killing Him,
their Messiah,
breaking the Ten Commandments,
but making
sure to keep the Passover by getting rid
of His
body before
the sun
set:
"Therefore the Jews, since it was the Preparation Day, that
the bodies should not remain on the cross on
the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might
be
broken, and they might be taken away" (John
19:31 EMTV).
How can you, with the blood of Messiah
on your hands, judge righteously? You must
first
be
judged, and
so we have been
sent to speak to
you. Resist, and your neck will be broken.
But submit, and the peace and honor of
God will be
yours. It
is your choice,
Moshe.
You write:
"As far as your quoting of Isaiah 59,
it is an example of the Christian distortion of G-d's Holy Word.
There are
two problems with your quoting that as if it is accusing me. 1. That was said
to
the people
in Isaiah's time. 2. That was said with
regards to the NATION as a whole not to individuals. Are you saying that it
applied to
Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel among others
I could mention? From Tenach it states EXPLICITLY that Menashah, who lived
later, had
his prayers heard by G-d."
Yes,
those words were spoken to the nation
of Israel; and have we not shown that
you are one
with your
fathers, the
same rejecters
of God who were being addressed here
by His prophet? As for those Jews who
did
not follow
in their
wicked ways,
of course
those
words did not apply to them. I never
said the words applied to Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Peter, or Paul. They were with God and one with Isaiah as he spoke
those words
to
your fathers.
You
really
have no idea at all of how things work,
yet you speak as if you know
so much.
We can answer all such protests
in similar fashion, but if you want to further converse,
you need
to first responsibly
read
and consider what we have already said
concerning these matters.
We
have answered many (if not all) of
your objections. You can begin by reading
Israel, Is
Your God Unjust? Continue
with
The 76
Jewish Questions, and then read the rest of
the writings in Israel and the Jew.
By the way, I don't doubt that
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is guiding your
life.
He is
God of all
people, unbelievers
and believers
alike.
The difference is that you, as
an unbeliever, don't know Who is arranging your life.
You are like Saul
of Tarsus
who, when
God
stopped him short in his madness,
said, "Who
are You, Lord?"
Are you claiming
that you have heard from God,
as did Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel?
If so,
then tell
us
what He has
told you. If not,
you should hold your tongue and
listen for your life to those He has sent
to speak His
words.
Paul Cohen
Moshe's reply:
It is an insult because the point is not ME. The point is whether
my saying Christianity lacks truth is a fact. For example,
I gave an answer to you on Isaiah 59, but you ignored Scripture
and changed the subject to me. This indicates that you seem
to
not want to discuss what is true and what is not, but maintain
a diatribe about me. I am aware that you believe that my beliefs
will send me to hell. I believe that yours will send you to
hell. So what does that get us? We are no closer to the truth.
Your
threats mean nothing to me, just as those of Muslims who claim
that I am going to hell mean nothing. (Although their threats
of having an obligation to send me there, do bother me.)
Let's
keep this on an adult and Scriptural basis, and not in mutual
recriminations. I have told you that Christianity is
not more truthful
then Buddhism. Are you willing to see the fallibility of Christianity?
The resurrection never occurred and there is no proof of it.
Jesus' rising from the grave is as false as Matthews claim
of many saints
rising and going to Jerusalem and speaking to people. There
are irreconcilable differences in the stories of the crucifixion,
and resurrection, like which day the crucifixion occurred?
(John and
possibly Paul understood it as the day before Passover, when
they sacrificed the paschal lamb, but the synoptics see it
as the day
after this lamb was eaten. They cannot both be true.) There
is
many more serious problems, but unless you are interested in
the truth, what value is there? Moshe Shulman
Paul's reply:
Moshe, you are being dishonest on several counts, whether consciously
so or not.
Number one, I have based what I wrote on the Scriptures,
but you have not bothered to carefully read or consider what
I sent you.
Until you do, we can’t have a serious two-way conversation,
because you are not dealing with what has already been put forth.
Your objections have been preempted. They are baseless; it is
irresponsible of you to conduct yourself this way.
Number two,
I am not ignoring anything you said. Your statements
have either been answered in what I have already sent you as
links or directly answered in my letters to you.
For example,
regarding Isaiah 59, I replied that it is written to the nation
of Israel, of which you are a member, and therefore
it is personal for all those of Israel to whom it applies.
And no, it does not apply to those walking in the same spirit
as
the prophet. You are not of the prophet's spirit, but are
part of those
separated from God by their sins, ones to whom the prophet
was sent to rebuke. You prove it by your reaction to what
I sent
you. You continue in your father's rejection and denial of
your Messiah
by citing lies and using irresponsible arguments against
Him, which we have answered and exposed.
Number three, there are
no recriminations on my part. I sent you a writing that establishes
your need for repentance of
the crime
committed against the Messiah and God of Israel. You made
the matter personal by taking offense at the applicability
of the
charge,
and in turn, you have become offensive. This strategy is
not working well for you, though, because I have Truth
and facts
to back up
what I have said, whereas you have nothing but hearsay,
false assumptions, and error.
Number four, I do not believe your
beliefs will send you to hell and never said so. I see that you
are already in
the place
of
death and darkness. There is no light or life coming
from you in what
you say or do. That is hell, and it is why we are sent
to speak to you and all Jews. You trust in your intellect
and what
you have heard from others who are misdirected and grossly
in error,
geared as you are towards disproving Life Himself. We
have proved your foundation are false, and will once again.
You
compare the resurrection of Christ to the resurrection of saints
who allegedly came out of their graves and
were seen by
many in
Jerusalem. Since the latter is false, you say the former
is no different. Regarding the resurrection of Christ,
however, there
are many witnesses who reported seeing the Lord after
He was
raised from the dead. There is also the testimony of
others, like Luke,
of the transformation that took place in the lives
of those who saw the resurrected Lord and received His Spirit
after
His ascension
at Shavu'ot.
This transforming power of God has continued
in the lives of all those who received the risen Lord ever
since,
as we are
witnesses, even today, of His saving work and the
Good News we preach through
Jesus Christ, King of the Jews.
On the other hand,
regarding the alleged resurrection of the saints in Jerusalem,
there are no accounts of this
event other than the two brief verses inserted
into Matthew's
gospel. If, as reported, these raised-from-the-dead
saints "appeared
to many," why have no other witnesses spoken
of this momentous event? We say there are no other
corroborating Scriptural witnesses
because some scallywag inserted this text at a
later time.
Furthermore, there are Scriptural witnesses
against
the claim that the saints in Jerusalem came out
of their
graves. For
example, Peter, testifying to the Jews at Shavu'ot
of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, said:
"Men, brothers, let me speak with boldness to you about the
patriarch David, that he both died and was buried,
and his tomb is with us
to this day" (Acts 2:29 EMTV).
If David, or
any other saints had been raised from their graves,
Peter could not, and would not, have
said those
words. The
point of his statement was the uniqueness of Christ's
resurrection, fulfilling the prophecy of King David:
"Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins,
according to the
flesh, He would raise up the Christ to seat Him
on his throne, foreseeing this, he spoke about the resurrection
of the Christ,
'that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His
flesh see corruption.' This Jesus God has raised up, of which we
all are witnesses" (Acts 2:30-32 EMTV).
So, while we hear many
witnesses testifying of Christ's resurrection, there are none
of the saints
whose
dead bodies were presumably
raised from the dead. This latter resurrection
has yet to come, as also indicated in the Scriptures:
1
Corinthians 15:12-18 MKJV
(12) But if Christ is proclaimed, that He was
raised from the dead, how do some among you
say that there
is no resurrection
of the
dead?
(13) But if there is no resurrection of the
dead, neither has Christ been raised.
(14) And if Christ has not been raised, then
our proclamation is worthless, and your faith
is also
worthless.
(15) And we are also found to be false witnesses
of God, because we testified of God that He
raised Christ;
Whom
He did not
raise if the dead are not raised.
(16) For if the dead are not raised, then Christ
is not raised.
(17) And if Christ is not raised, your faith
is foolish; you are yet in your sins.
(18) Then also those that fell asleep in Christ
were lost.
If some were already raised from
the dead, the Corinthians would have known about it, and
Paul
would have reminded
them. But no
such event had yet happened. It remained to
happen at the appropriate time:
1 Corinthians
15:51-53 MKJV
(51) Behold, I speak a mystery to you; we shall
not all fall asleep, but we shall all be
changed;
(52) in a moment, in a glance of an eye,
at the last trumpet. For a trumpet shall
sound,
and
the dead
shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.
(53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
In
another place, Paul rebuked the notions of some "who
have erred concerning the truth, saying that the
resurrection is already past, and who overthrow
the faith of some" (2 Timothy 2:18).
He called such talk "profane, vain babblings," that
would "increase
to more ungodliness" (verse 16).
Equating
the two events of Christ's resurrection and
this spurious report, therefore, is obviously
a ploy
on your
part to discredit
the true happening by hitching its credibility
to a false one.
As for your other objection,
there is no contradiction between the three Gospels and
the Gospel of
John about the timing
of the crucifixion. It only appears that
way to the unlearned and ignorant,
and those such as you who are motivated
to find fault.
The crucifixion occurred on the Passover,
the fourteenth day of the month, "between
the evenings," at
the very time designated by God for the
sacrifice of the lamb.
The crucifixion was
not the day before, as
you say John's Gospel reports. John affirms
it
was the
day of the
Passover offering:
"But you have a custom that I should release one to you at the Passover.
Then do you desire that I release to you
the King of the Jews?" (John
18:39 MKJV)
"Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth
hour. And he said to the Jews, 'Behold
your King!'" (John
19:14 EMTV)
"Therefore the Jews, since it was the Preparation Day, that
the bodies should not remain on the cross on
the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day) [the upcoming
night was the first
day of
the Feast, when the Passover would be eaten
(Exodus 12:8)], asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and they might
be taken
away" (John 19:31 EMTV).
Leviticus
23:5-7 MKJV
(5) In the fourteenth day of the first
month, between the evenings, is
the LORD's Passover,
(6) and on the fifteenth day of the same
month is the Feast of Unleavened
Bread to the LORD.
You must
eat
unleavened bread seven
days.
(7) On the first day you shall have a holy
convocation. You shall do no work of labor.
Numbers
28:16-18 JPS
(16) And in the first month, on the fourteenth
day of the month, is the
LORD's Passover.
(17) And on the fifteenth day of this month
shall be a feast; seven days shall unleavened
bread
be eaten.
(18) In the first day shall be a holy convocation;
ye shall do no manner of servile work.
The
fourteenth day being the LORD's Passover, there is no mistaking
the fact that Yeshua
HaMashiach, coming from God
and being
that Passover Himself, kept the Preparation
Day with His disciples as He was made ready
for His
sacrifice.
Nor was the crucifixion the day
after the Passover, as you claim Matthew, Mark, and
Luke report:
Mark 15:5-6 MKJV
(5) But Jesus still answered nothing,
so that Pilate marveled.
(6) And at that feast he released to
them one prisoner, whomever they desired.
Mark
15:37, 42-43 EMTV
(37) And Jesus, uttering a loud cry,
expired…
(42) And now evening having come, since
it was Preparation Day [14th], which
is the
day before
the Sabbath [15th,
Feast of Unleavened
Bread],
(43) Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent
council member, who was himself waiting
for the
Kingdom of God,
coming and
taking courage,
he went
in to Pilate and asked for the body
of Jesus.
Matthew 27:59-60, 62 MKJV
(59) When Joseph had taken the body,
he wrapped it in clean linen,
(60) and laid it in his new tomb,
which he had cut out of the rock.
And he
rolled a
great stone
to the
door
of the
tomb and
departed.
(62) And on the next day, which was
after the Preparation, the chief
priests and
the Pharisees
gathered to
Pilate.
"And that day was the Preparation [the
14th, the day of sacrificing the Passover lamb], and the Sabbath
[the 15th, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread
and a holy convocation]
drew on" (Luke
23:54 MKJV).
Jesus was offered up
on the same day as the Passover lamb, a point
on which
all
gospels
agree.
Jesus Christ is the Passover
Feast. As the LORD's Passover, those who
come to
the God
of Israel
and partake of
His flesh and His
blood no longer receive temporary
absolution for their sins, as
was the case with
animal sacrifices, but now
they have
their sins
put away permanently, being made
new creatures according to His
new covenant:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
JPS
(31) Behold, the days come, saith
the LORD, that I will make
a new covenant
with the
house of
Israel, and with
the house
of Judah;
(32) not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers
in the day
that I
took them
by the
hand to bring
them out of
the land of Egypt; forasmuch
as they broke My covenant,
although I
was a lord over them, saith
the LORD.
(33) But this is the covenant
that I will make with the house
of Israel
after
those
days,
saith the LORD,
I will
put My
law in their
inward parts, and in their
heart will I write it; and
I will be
their God,
and
they shall
be My people;
(34) and they shall teach no
more every man his neighbour,
and every
man his
brother, saying: 'Know the
LORD'; for they shall
all know Me, from the least
of them unto the greatest of
them,
saith
the LORD;
for I will
forgive their
iniquity, and their
sin will I remember no more.
Are
you not aware, Moshe, that God has put away the necessary
elements
according
to
His Law for
the prescribed
outward keeping of the
Passover? You broke His covenant,
so He has made a new one by
fulfilling all that
the
old one
required. He has
done
it for
us and in us.
Your own prophets and Writings
tell you this, but you
do not believe Them.
Surely
you are aware of these things. You know that you cannot
keep the
Passover according to the
Law, the only
way acceptable
to God. You know that you
are in spiritual no man's land,
but are
too proud to
admit it.
Instead,
you
are trying
to "protect
all the Jews" from believing
the Good News about their
God and Savior, not because
you
care
about the Jews, but in order
to keep them in the same
darkness and ignorance that
you are in.
We have news for
you from
God. The Jews will come to
receive
their Lord
and Savior:
"And I will pour on the house of David, and on those living
in Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of
prayers. And they shall look on Me Whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn
for Him, as one mourns
for an only son, and they
shall be bitter over Him, like the bitterness over the first-born" (Zechariah
12:10 LITV).
Are you not also aware that
the prophet Daniel prophesied
the
coming of Messiah
at the precise
time of Christ?
Oh yes, you
have your
arguments to try to prove
otherwise, but you have
no other viable
candidate to fulfill
the
Scripture,
which
must be
fulfilled.
Why would you
argue against the Word of God, except
for your
pride? You
are only
denying
yourself the
goodness of God
by adhering to
a form of religion based
on your own understanding,
works,
and righteousness. All
of which are putrid and
unacceptable
to
God.
When I tell you
what is in store for you, I
am not
threatening
you, Moshe,
any more
than
Moses
was
threatening the
Israelites when
he told them what
would happen to them in their
rebellion
and
unbelief.
But
it has
been your
way, and the way
of your fathers,
to complain
against all of God's
prophets and falsely
accuse them
of such
things, as you do
with me. You did
that with Moses,
so
why should
it be any different
today, when you have not changed
one bit?
Paul Cohen
Moshe sent six replies, which Paul answered:
Moshe, for ease of use I have copied your several emails into
one segment, interspersed with my answers.
Your first response:
"There is certainly no desire to be
dishonest on my part. Let me address your issues. I will address
them one at a time.
The problem here is that you have NOT been
quoting 'Scripture'.
You have been quoting from the New Testament, which is not
the word of God. Why should I even answer to something which
has
no authority? Would you do so with the Quran? I think that
since we both Agree that the Tenach (OT) is from God we should
only
use that as authority. If there is something from the NT that
you want to quote that is fine, but it is not authoritative
and I will not treat it that way."
Paul: I don't believe you are being purposely
dishonest, Moshe, or am at least willing to give you the benefit
of a doubt. I
have not been strictly quoting from the New Testament, however.
You have not answered the many Scriptures from the Tenach
in the writings I gave you.
Furthermore, if you have the truth on
your side, you should easily be able to answer anything from
the New Testament.
Contrary to
your rhetorical question about the Quran, we do indeed
answer those who present it to us, with quotes from the authentic
Scriptures that prove the Quran is a fraud (see Islam).
You should be able to do the same, and should even be desirous
to do so, given the
opportunity we have afforded you, with the New Testament.
But you are not able to answer us directly, because the
New Testament
is the truth, fulfilling all that went before and is recorded
in the Tenach, as we prove in our writings and letters
to you.
I wrote you a couple letters back:
"We have answered many (if not all)
of your objections. You can begin by reading Israel,
Is Your God Unjust? Continue with
The
76 Jewish Questions and then read the rest of the writings
in
Israel and the Jew."
Will
you be answering these things?
It is not a problem to
answer you from the Tenach, however. I will continue to answer
your points by quoting
from It, showing
you your error. Your second response:
"I am now in Israel for a few weeks,
and since Shabbos is coming soon, I will leave some responses
for
after Shabbos.
As to Isaiah 59, there are a few points.
1.
You cant seriously be taking the unbiblical position that when
God holds the 'people Israel' as sinful that means that
each and everyone of Israel has sinned. In Joshua, God
says that all of Israel has sinned, but we see that only one
person
did.
You see, in the Tenach there are two types of categories:
National Sin, and Individual Sin. In Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy
28
God is explaining 'National Sin'. Which is what applies
in Isaiah
59. There were Jews who were sinful and this imparts sin
in the nation. (The talmud refers to this as the principal
of
'arvos'.)
But that does not mean every Jew needed to be a sinner.
We see clearly that even though Josiah brought in a spirit of
repentance
as seen in 2 Kings 23, even so the decree had been made
on
the whole people, irregardless of what would be done, and
they were
sent in exile. (verses 26 and 27)
2. Isaiah was speaking
to that generation and I am not that old.
3. Since Jesus was
not the Messiah, whose purpose was to rule over Israel when
National Sin had been ended,
I think
your
comments are just hateful words."
Paul: "None calls
for justice, nor does anyone plead for truth; they
trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief
and bring out iniquity" (Isaiah 59:4 MKJV).
Isaiah
59:15-16 MKJV
(15) Yea, truth fails; and he who departs from evil
makes himself a prey. And the LORD saw, and it displeased
Him that there
was no judgment.
(16) And He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore
His own arm brought salvation
to Him; and His righteousness sustained Him.
I am serious
- as serious as God's Word that there is none who calls
for justice or who exercises true
judgment.
What does "none" mean
to you? Do you think that man's nature has changed?
You
would say that despite what these words mean, they
only applied to those who heard them in Isaiah's day.
Is that
so? Is that
how you treat the Tenach, picking the parts you think
apply to you, and the rest is "history"?
Tell me, then, when was Israel turned, permanently,
from its
unbelief to walking
in faith, honoring God with all its heart, mind, and
soul? If that has not happened, neither are the
words
of the prophet
no longer applicable.
In fact, as His children, the
words of the prophets are in our mouths by the promise
of our God, Who has
kept His covenant
with
you, despite your not keeping it with Him:
"As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the LORD;
My Spirit that is on you, and My Words which I have put in your
mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out
of the mouth of
your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed,
says the LORD, from now on and forever" (Isaiah 59:21 MKJV).
What
we are hearing from you is a lot of fancy tap-dancing around the facts,
Moshe.
Josiah proves my point. He was zealous for God, but
that didn't deliver the people from their sins. They
were not yet repentant
as they needed to be, despite Josiah's zeal, which
all the more sealed their judgment because they stood
up for his oath
to keep
the covenant, but didn't keep it. Had they kept it,
do you think God would have given them up to
the sword and sent
them to
flight and into servitude? That would be against
His Word and Nature.
God's judgment came for the same
reason it is here now, even as we have said to you:
"Surely at
the commandment of the LORD this came on Judah, to remove them
out of His sight, for the
sins of Manasseh, according
to all that he did; and also for the innocent
blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem
with innocent blood, which the LORD would not
pardon" (2
Kings 24:3-4 MKJV).
Israel and the Jews have the
blood of the Innocent One on their hands, and today He has sent
us
to tell you so, not to condemn
you, but in order for you to turn from your
sin and be reconciled to God. The blood of the One
you shed,
Yeshua HaMashiach, was
shed for you to accomplish what all other blood
could not, which is the putting away of your
sin once and
for all so that
God
could give you the new heart He promised. Jesus
Christ is your Ruler Who has come to put away
your national
sin. As long as
you reject Him, you will never be able to keep
the covenant of God, as has been proven by
a very long
history to this day.
So, yes, the judgment is
national, as it needs to be. You cannot be justified by my works
of faith.
You must
have your own faith
from God with commensurate works of righteousness,
or His judgment is still necessary and will
come upon you:
Ezekiel 14:13-23 BBE
(13) Son of man, when a land, sinning against
Me, does wrong, and My hand is stretched
out against
it, and
the support of
its bread is broken, and I make it short
of food, cutting off man
and beast from it:
(14) Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel,
and Job, were in it, only themselves would
they keep
safe
by their righteousness,
says the Lord.
(15) Or if I send evil beasts through the
land causing destruction and making it
waste, so
that no man may
go through because
of the beasts:
(16) Even if these three men were in it,
by My life, says the Lord, they would not
keep
safe
their sons
or daughters, but
only themselves, and the land would be
made waste.
(17) Or if I send a sword against that
land, and say, Sword, go through the land,
cutting
off from
it man
and beast:
(18) Even if these three men were in it,
by My life, says the Lord, they would not
keep
safe
their sons
or daughters, but
only themselves.
(19) Or if I send disease into that land,
letting loose My wrath on it in blood,
cutting off
from it man and
beast:
(20) Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were
in it, by My life, says the Lord, they
would
not keep
son or
daughter
safe; only
themselves
would they keep safe through their righteousness.
(21) For this is what the Lord has said:
How much more when I send My four bitter
punishments
on
Jerusalem, the sword and
need
of food and evil beasts and disease, cutting
off from
it man and beast?
(22) But truly, there will still be a small
band who will be safe, even sons and daughters:
and
they will
come out to you,
and you will see their ways and their doings:
and you will be comforted about the evil
which I have
sent
on Jerusalem,
even
about everything I have sent on it.
(23) They will give you comfort when you
see their ways and their doings: and you
will be
certain
that not for nothing
have I done
all the things I have done in it, says
the Lord.
Your example of Achan's sin in
the days of Joshua also applies to our present situation.
Although
one man
sinned, God held
the whole nation to account for this sin.
Had Israel rebelled against
Joshua, who was given authority from God
to deal with the sin, then the judgment
would
not have
been removed
from the people.
By God's grace, however, they submitted
to the judgment administered by Joshua,
and
God
put
away the sin.
In the days of Joshua the
Messiah, Israel, led by their religious leaders, handed
Him over to
the Romans
for
execution, saying, "His
blood be on us and our children." There
has never been national recognition or
repentance from this sin,
so the blood continues to be on the nation
to this day. God has not forgiven the
shedding of innocent blood, but He is
willing to
do so,
and thus He has sent us to tell you so.
The ball is now
in your court.
God has brought Israel
back as a nation in our time, not because
the Jews have
repented
or been
righteous,
but to bring them
together in order to confront them
nationally on their sin. He would have
you confess your sin, that you might
be forgiven and reconciled to Him and
to all
men, no
longer the tail,
but the head of the
nations.
God is gracious and patient,
though you have not been, Moshe. On the contrary,
you have
been boastful
and
proud. But He knows
how to humble the proud. Your response 2a:
"3. Even were there any truth to my
being sinful due to that verse, God still hears my prayers as
we
see from Menasha (2
chron 33:12)
So there does not appear to be any point, God is still close
to me, even were I to agree to your incorrect view. (Psalm
145:18)"
Paul: 2 Chronicles 33:12-13 JPS
(12) And when he was in distress, he besought the LORD his
God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
(13) And he prayed unto Him; and He was entreated of him,
and heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem
into
his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD He was God.
You
can't take these words and apply them to yourself. Because
God brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and into
his kingdom
has nothing at all to do with you, or the fact that you
might be
in Jerusalem today. That is sheer superstition on your
part, and plain nonsense.
Is every Jew in Jerusalem today
in favor with God because he or she resides or visits there?
We both know that is
not true,
and it has never been the case. If Jerusalem had the
power to confer holiness and favor with God, why then did He
have
it ransacked,
more than once, indeed, several times?
There were Jews
in Jerusalem at the times of the conquest of the Babylonians
and of the Romans, who had the same
thoughts as you do, and they were disillusioned, as
you will be. I
am
not saying Jerusalem will fall again, but your confidence
in it and
all things external must and will fail.
Besides all
this, you fault me for applying Isaiah 59 to you, claiming those
words were meant only for
the
Jews
at that time,
but here you are misapplying the words of Second
Chronicles to yourself. You are employing a faulty double standard,
something God finds detestable:
"Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them alike
are an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 20:10 JPS).
You need
to repent, Moshe.
Your third response:
"What 'crime' have I done? So now I am a Christ Killer?????"
Paul: Indeed you are, as we have already established,
and as this letter brings to the fore again. The blood of the
Messiah
is on your hands. Have you not red anything I have given you?
Your fourth response:
"It is not my 'intellect' but my trust
in God and His promises, which Jesus did not ever fulfill. And
if living in the light of
his love and guidance is 'hell' then I never want to leave it.
I see openly daily His hand supporting me and leading me to be
closer to Him. I can read His revelation in the Tenach and not
have to do mental gymnastics and make it say things it doesn't
based on a book of falsehoods. (NT) I have a true knowledge and
hope based on His truth."
Paul: Saul of Tarsus would have said the same
thing, no doubt, before God met with him on the road to Damascus.
Jesus said that those
who killed His followers would think they did God service (John
16:2).
David spoke of those such as you, his Jewish brethren
who thought God was with them because they prospered in their
ways (for
a time):
Psalms 17:9-15 GW
(9) Hide me from wicked people who violently attack me, from
my deadly enemies who surround me.
(10) They have shut out all feeling. Their mouths have
spoken arrogantly.
(11) They have tracked me down. They have surrounded me.
They have focused their attention on throwing me to the
ground.
(12) Each one of them is like a lion eager to tear its
prey apart and like a young lion crouching in hiding places.
(13) Arise, O LORD; confront them! Bring them to their
knees! With Your sword rescue my life from wicked people.
(14) With Your power rescue me from mortals, O LORD, from
mortals who enjoy their inheritance only in this life.
You fill their
bellies with Your treasure. Their children are satisfied
with it, and they leave what remains to their children.
(15) I will see Your Face when I am declared innocent.
When I wake up, I will be satisfied with seeing You. And Asaph spoke of the false foundation of your confidence:
Psalms
73:1-20 MKJV
(1) A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to the pure
of heart.
(2) And I, my foot had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly
slipped.
(3) For I was jealous of the proud, when I saw the peace
of the wicked.
(4) For there are no bands in their death; but their strength
is fat.
(5) They are not in trouble like other men; neither are they
plagued like other men.
(6) Therefore pride enchains them; violence covers them like
a robe.
(7) Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than
the heart could imagine.
(8) They scoff and speak in malice of cruelty; from on high
they speak.
(9) They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue
walks through the earth.
(10) Therefore His people return here, and waters of a full
cup are wrung out to them.
(11) And they say, How does God know? And is there knowledge
in the Most High?
(12) Behold, these are the ungodly, who are at ease in the
world; they increase in riches.
(13) Surely I have made my heart pure in vain, and washed
my hands in innocence.
(14) For all the day long I have been plagued, and chastened
every morning.
(15) If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I would deceive
a generation of Your sons.
(16) When I thought deeply in order to understand this, it
was painful for me,
(17) until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood
their end.
(18) Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them
down into ruin.
(19) How have they been brought into grief, as in a moment!
They are fully eaten up with terrors,
(20) like a dream when one awakens; so, O LORD, when You
awake, You shall despise their image.
You are also wrong,
Moshe, about mental gymnastics with the Tenach. You are
indeed twisting it at every turn. Besides, I am
also hearing from one of your converts (not personal, but
a convert to orthodox Judaism), a Justin White (I will
send you
the correspondence),
who at every turn is referring to the mishnah or oral tradition
or Rashi or Rambam or some other outside source that does
nothing but complicate, distort, and contradict the Tenach.
Are you
telling me that you renounce these heretical "gymnasts"?
Your
fifth response:
"I am glad to see that you think Matthew
is bunk and he lied when he said that the saints were resurrected
and seen by many in Jerusalem.
Maybe you are starting to see how false Matthew and the others
books of the gospels are."
Paul: I never said Matthew is bunk. I said
someone slipped something into his Gospel, some time after
the original manuscript
had
been written. It is also known, for example, that Matthew
28:19 has been tampered with, in order to support the heathen and
blasphemous doctrine of the
trinity.
Your sixth
response:
"That the NT is filled with contradictions
and problems due to their ignorance is not really an issue with
me. However Mark 14:12
has the last supper AFTER the slaughter of the Passover Sacrifice.
The other Synoptics agree. If you have any familiarity with works
by Evangelical Christian scholars, they all need to deal with this
issue. Any many are honest enough to admit the seriousness of the
problem. Your answer indicates that you have not considered the
seriousness of this problem. I am now in Israel and do not have
all my apologetic books with me, but when I return home I can give
you a few to look at. You cannot have Jesus taken at the Passover
meal (as in the Synoptics) and also the day the Passover lamb was
slaughtered (John). They could not have the meal a day earlier
as the priests in the temple would not perform the sacrifice for
them as it would be contrary to the law. There is no way in truth
out of this problem."
Paul: Not a problem at all, Moshe. You gave the
answer yourself, albeit inadvertently. You are exactly right that
the priests
would not have sacrificed a lamb for the disciples a day before
the sacrifice was ordered by God to take place. And, above
that, the Lord Jesus said that He had come to fulfill the Law,
not
to change it, which He never did, and which didn't happen here.
The Passover was kept precisely according to the Law of Moses.
You
also must be careful to report what the Gospels do not say. The
Gospels do not say that the disciples and the Lord
ate the
Passover lamb, because they didn't, and couldn't.
No one familiar with the facts would ever read into the texts
what you are reading
into them.
What those gathered together with the Lord had
that evening was the Passover meal of the 14th of Nisan,
the Day of Preparation
(as the quotes I gave you from the "synoptic" Gospels
plainly show). The disciples had prepared the designated
place (de-leavening it, as stipulated by the Law) for what
they expected to have the following evening, the Passover
lamb. Besides the de-leavening and preparation for the
Passover Sabbath,
this turned out to be a very special meal and occasion
because it commemorated the sacrifice the Lord was about
to make.
Read the Gospels again, and you will see that what
I am
saying is true. At least, you will not be able to argue
against
it.
Paul
Moshe's response:
I am responding to this one first ["I
never said Matthew is bunk. I said someone slipped something
into his Gospel, some time after
the original manuscript had been written. It is also known, for
example, that Matthew 28:19 has been tampered with, in order to
support the heathen and blasphemous doctrine of 'the trinity.'"]
as it is absolutely necessary. When you say 'someone slipped
something into his Gospel' you have
made a claim that you cannot prove. You admit the story is false,
cannot accept that the author of Matthew is a liar. But he is.
What about his bogus genealogy at the beginning, where he leaves
out a number of generations? That they are missing is not really
the issue, but that he tries to make a point that there are three
groups of 14, shows, again, that he is false. There are not 3x14
(42) generation but 45. (It is true that some texts have the
missing names and others don't, but that is irrelevant, as the
missing
names are not the issue, but the LIE that there are 3x14 is.
) So when we look at how Matthew lies about what our Holy Tenach
says, with his bogus prophecies, like Matthew 2:15, or the 'Nazarene',
or various and sundry other ones, we are on firm group in rejecting
any of his rants, including the one you have used to accuse me
of being a Christ Killer.
In fact, were it not that our Rabbis assumed that Jesus existed,
I would doubt any facts about him, even to the point of doubting
his existence.
I will address your other comments to me later, and likewise
those to Justin. But I must repeat this point, whether it is
Matthew
or the other gospels, or the Paul, they are not trustworthy,
and I do not waste my time in discussions of fiction. While you
may
do so, that is not a surprise, since you base your faith on fiction.
One more minor issue, It is probably a waste of your time to
throw stupid threats about my eternal condition, as according
to my beliefs,
your are toast after you die. So since we both have similar views,
it is best to stick to serious discussions and stop the Christ
Killer, and Hellfire stuff.
Paul's reply:
"One more minor issue, It is probably
a waste of your time to throw stupid threats about my eternal
condition, as according
to my beliefs, your are toast after you die. So since we both have
similar views, it is best to stick to serious discussions and stop
the Christ Killer, and Hellfire stuff."
What are you talking about, Moshe? Supply specific quotes, because
in a recent letter I corrected your previous false interpretations
of things I had said and told you that you are already in hell,
which is not a threat. It is reality.
Paul replied again:
I did prove the claim, Moshe, but you do not accept proof from
the New Testament, backed up by the Old. You find superficial fault
that is readily disproven from the whole of Its contents, but you
will not consider any such proof that corrects your irresponsible
and erroneous interpretations and conclusions. You obviously don't
recognize the gross contradiction and hypocrisy of your standards.
Someone
could easily find fault with the Old Testament on the same grounds
you use for analyzing the New Testament, picking at it
without allowing the larger text to answer the criticisms. Such
an approach is ignorant and prejudiced, an evil mindset that
represents the real fault in this situation. And then you, as a
Jew, wonder
why Gentiles find fault with you and oppose you in the same manner
and spirit?
Except that your rabbis assume Jesus existed, you
would doubt the fact. Don't you know that there is no verifiable
physical
proof that Moses existed, or that the children
of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness under his leadership?
Do you
therefore throw out the Law of God and any discussion of Its
beneficial application
in our lives?
You are majoring on the minors while tossing out
the majors. There is no problem with Matthew's genealogy, but
why should
I explain
it to you, when you have already made it known you will not
listen? It is an open and shut case for you.
Meanwhile, on
the larger issue of your guilt in supporting the murder of an
innocent man (which at least your colleague
is willing
to own up to), you avoid answering anything at all. How
typical! You are just like your fathers:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay
tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and you have left undone the
weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. You ought to have
done these and not to leave the other undone. Blind guides
who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" (Matthew 23:23-24
MKJV).
As for the other prophecies that Matthew alluded
to, we see no problem there, and have explained them in The
76 Jewish
Questions.
You should review this list of the many Old
Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by and in Yeshua. I
give one of the
many sites on the internet where such fulfillments
are compiled:
http://www.messianic-prophecy.net
Paul
Moshe's next response:
I see that you have used that tried and true technique of ignoring
the main points and questioning something that is minor and of
no consequence.
Christ Killer: "The blood
of the One you shed, Yeshua HaMashiach" or
how about: "In the days of Joshua
the Messiah, Israel, led by their religious leaders, handed Him
over
to the Romans for execution,
saying, 'His blood be on us and our children.' There
has never been national recognition or repentance from this sin,
so the blood continues to be on the nation to this day." Do
I need more?????
Or:
"What 'crime' have I done? So now I
am a Christ Killer?????"
"Paul: Indeed
you are, as we have already established, and as this letter
brings to the fore again. The blood
of the Messiah is on
your hands. Have you not red anything I have given you?"
What
about 'Indeed you are" did I misunderstand???? Paul's reply:
Moshe, you asked earlier that there not be any recriminations
in these letters, but it is apparent that you are quick to accuse
and find fault. Why do you evilly assume that I was not going to
answer your letter? I was using no technique, but was simply responding
to the blatantly false charges I had discharged in previous letters.
I quote your accusation (with my added emphasis):
"It is probably a waste of your time
to throw stupid threats about my eternal condition, as according
to my beliefs, your
are toast
after you die. So since we both have similar
views, it is best
to stick to serious discussions and stop the Christ Killer, and
Hellfire stuff."
Here are the previous answers I gave you:
"I do not believe your beliefs will
send you to hell and never said so. I see that you are already
in the place of death and darkness.
There is no light or life coming from you in what you say
or do. That is hell, and it is why we are sent to speak to you
and all Jews."
"When I tell you what is in store for
you, I am not threatening you, Moshe, any more than Moses was
threatening the Israelites
when he told them what would happen to them in their rebellion and unbelief.
But it has been your way, and the way of your fathers,
to complain against all of God's prophets and to falsely accuse
them of such
things as you do with me."
You call this a minor issue,
but is it? You falsely accuse, and when offered evidence
to the contrary, you maintain
your lies.
According to the God of Israel, this is a major issue:
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Exodus
20:16 MKJV).
If anyone is using this technique you describe
of ignoring the main issues by majoring in the minor ones, it
is you,
bringing up apparent discrepancies in a genealogy while
glossing over
your murder of the Messiah (which at least your proselyte
is willing
to admit you did).
I have not falsely accused you in this
serious matter of murder, as you have done with me by your inanities
and
misrepresentations. Far from being something minor
and of no consequence, your
rejection and persecution of the Messiah has been the
single most significant
event and issue in the history of the Jews ever since.
As Jesus
said:
Matthew 23:37-39 EMTV
(37) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and
stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered
your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing!
(38) Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
(39) For I say to you, you shall by no means see
Me from now until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes
in
the Name
of the
LORD!'"
How can you argue that your house has
not been desolate? No prophecy for 2,000 years (as
your proselyte admits),
no functioning
priesthood
or Word from God. Compare that to what the fathers
had and to what God intended for Israel and go ahead,
tell
me you
are prospering
as a people. You dare not expose yourself so directly
as a liar!
Is that recrimination or the truth? How
can you truly and effectively argue that the Jewish nation is
in good standing
with God?
You have not dared to try, though I have asked
you about these things.
You are the one who selectively chooses what to
answer, ignoring the substantive matters. Anyone can read
through my letters
and see that this is so. And many will have that
opportunity, so
go ahead and dig your hole even deeper if you wish – the
deeper, the more obvious.
Your motto is, "The
best defense is a good offense." So
you find little things to pick on, of which you
will not even allow fair discussion, meanwhile avoiding
the well-established charges
against you, which are in your best interest to
face and admit. You are presently the greatest enemy of
the Jews, bar none, including
Ahmadinejad. He tells the truth that he would destroy
Israel and the Jews, but you deny Israel its Savior, the
only One Who can
save them from destruction.
Snake! You are just
what Yeshua HaMashiach called you, which He did
not do as recrimination, but
as an accurate
description
of
your true nature, which He has come to expose
and put away. You think He came and went, a phantom
in our
minds? Think
again. You will soon see how real He is. Mark
our words.
Paul Cohen
Moshe's response:
1. Most of your quotes here are from the NT which is fiction,
I do not see any reason to discuss fiction, when dealing with such
an important issue.
2. I looked at your site and those URL's.
They are mostly about the NT, which is of no interest and has
no religious value to
it. However, if there is any issue there that you feel I
should look
at, or want, my comment on it, feel free to send it to me.
Paul's reply:
If you will treat the New Testament as fictional and will not
engage in a two-way discussion of It, we will treat your charges
against It as fictional as well.
We have nothing more to say to
you about these charges anyway, having thoroughly disposed of
every one of them, whether in our
letters or in our writings.
Paul Cohen
Moshe's response:
I can appreciate your frustration, after all, I cannot appeal
to the Rabbis or the Talmud to prove my points.
I have no problem with a discussion of the truth of the NT, but
you seem averse to such a discussion. I suppose you are afraid
to face the truth. After all, you have already been forced to admit
that Matthew has something (the resurrection of the saints) which
is not true.
It also appears that you have to admit that you cannot support
your false beliefs without appeals to the NT. The meaning of that
being that there is no support for it in the Tenach, which is the
true revelation from God.
Paul's reply:
On the contrary, Moshe, I have not rejected hearing what your
rabbis say. I have heard and answered. I received Justin's quotes
from your teachers and used the Old Testament to
show what liars they are. You received these letters. You stand
condemned by that
which you profess to believe, the Old Testament, because Its writers,
inspired by God, contradict the phonies you call "rabbis."
You
have done nothing of the kind with anything I have said to you,
whether from the New or Old Testament. You haven't proven
one Scripture I gave you to be in error, whether used against
your teacher's carnal and devilish interpretations or your own.
Not
one.
Once again you are caught in your lies.
And now that you are caught
red-handed, whatever subtlety you had is dropped and you simply
lie straight out, saying, "I
have no problem with a discussion of the truth of the NT,
but you seem
averse to such a discussion."
In reality it is
precisely the opposite, and any honest reader of these
letters, having but a modicum of intelligence, can
readily see that.
And I have not been "forced to admit" about
the falsehood inserted into Matthew. It is our pleasure
to
expose such forgeries.
In no way whatsoever does it subtract from the truth contained
in the Gospel, that Yeshua HaMashiach was crucified at
the hands of your fathers and, after being in the grave
for three days and
nights, was raised from the dead.
Not only can we support
this from the Tenach, but we have, extensively in hundreds of
writings on our site and by
our very lives. Because
you refuse to see or consider what we say does not change
the facts.
Paul
Victor's reply: Shulman, you have to be a fool to speak as you do.
One, we have no problem at all discussing Truth,
period, whether it be the New Testament, the Tenach, the Koran, Playboy, New
York Times, Jerusalem Post, or Tolstoy. Take your
pick; so much for your foolish speculations and opinions.
Two, we are the Truth in the
Messiah, Jesus Christ; we are not afraid of you, of discussion,
of ourselves, or of Him, except for
holy reverence of Him. The Truth is on our side. We have nothing
to fear.
But you do, and that is why you make false accusations and
stupid suppositions, and create straw men and smokescreens, ignoring
issues you are unable to face. You are a man without substance,
a damned
fool, Moshe, saying, "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1).
Three, we have been forced to do nothing,
as you assert. We are eager to expose all falsehood, wherever
it
is found, including
the New Testament. For example, read The
Rich Man and Lazarus - A Pagan Parable and see how "forced" we
are to admit anything about the New Testament, or
even of ourselves,
if necessary – very
different from you.
You are false; your thinking is false;
your Judaism is false; you are a phony Jew who has nothing
to offer the
world but
your arrogance
and presumption, and those are not desirable to any but
sycophantic fools, like Justin White, who don’t have
a life, as you don’t
have one; therefore God will do away with your corruption,
and you will be left with nothing at all.
Four, our faith is not based on the New
Testament, but in the Author of both Old and New, the Creator
of the universe
- we know Him,
even as did Noah, Abraham, and Moses. We have the new heart
God promised by Ezekiel and other prophets, and we
are, therefore, able
to appreciate the Truth of the New Testament and the Tenach.
You
have nothing but your ideology, which is your own, presumably
based on the Tenach, yet you have no light.
You despise the
Tenach; you are an enemy of Abraham, and you are of your
father the Devil.
You are a proven liar, and Paul has shown and will show
you more of that.
Five, if we appeal to the New Testament,
it is not to the New Testament only, but also to the
Tenach. They
are one, but you, being dead,
can only see the shell and not the meat, though even
the shell is highly strange to you.
I quote the New Testament
appropriately here, as applying to you:
John 5:38-42 MKJV
(38) And you do not have His Word abiding in you, for
you do not believe Him Whom He has sent.
(39) You search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have eternal life. And they are the ones witnessing
of
Me,
(40) and you will not come to Me that you might have
life.
(41) I do not receive honor from men.
(42) But I know you, that you do not have the love
of God in you.
Six, you condemn the New Testament
and summarily dismiss It as 'fiction," ignoring,
for example, the link Paul sent you to prove that
dozens of prophecies recorded in the Tenach have
come
to be fulfilled in Yeshua. The New Testament is fully
supported by
the Tenach, and the Tenach by the New Testament;
this we know and are able and willing to prove. But
you
are the
one unwilling,
unable, and even fearful to hear and to reason, because
you will be weighed in the balance and found wanting,
having to face your
wretched state before your Creator, Whom you despise.
Seven, notice now that we have not
dismissed the Tenach - we embrace It, we love It,
we are It
in the Messiah, knowing the Lord God, the Author
of It, personally, intimately. We will quote from
It,
and do.
But you, Moshe, mock; you are a scorner;
you contradict yourself at every turn and accuse
us of the very
things you are guilty
yourself. You are a religious fool. Named as
you are, you have nothing to
do with Moses but to mock him, even as your fathers
did and perished in the wilderness.
Victor Hafichuk
Moshe's response:
I don't understand you. You reject things from the NT for which
there is NO textual support to say that they are not part of the
original, and yet you still believe a book whose originals had
things that even you reject as false??? Why do you believe the
NT at all??????
Victor's reply:
Moshe, of course you don't understand us.
The substance of Truth
is not merely found in a book or only in a book, no matter how
holy the book may be, as is the Tenach. Truth is
truth, and by knowing the Truth, Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach,
the Essence of God, we are given to know that which
is true and that which is false, regardless of where we find
it.
While we know that the New Testament writings have been inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God, we, by knowing God, know that there
has been tampering in the New Testament.
This is something that
many professing faith in Jesus Christ do not know, because they
do not know Him, though they claim
faith in Him. Many are in Bibliolatry, like you,
worshipping a book in the Name of God, rather than worshipping
God Himself.
What they have is indoctrination and religion, but they do
not have a living relationship with Him, which comes by the
new heart
of which Ezekiel spoke. This new nature by a second birth
can only come through faith in the sacrifice and finished
work
of the Son
of God, Whom you despise - One Whom I also once despised
until He delivered me from sin.
You have no way of knowing
whether even the Tenach is essentially,
spiritually true because you have never known the Author
of It. We know Him, and to you we speak of Him, by, through,
and
for Him.
Victor
It was expected, as one would expect pus and putrefaction to emerge
from a boil that was lanced. Cleansing and healing will follow,
because God has ordained it for His people. Will you, Israel, identify
with the pus or the Doctor?
Other responses to "The Key" and our replies:
- Moshe: Paul, I am surprised
that you would send an email to me. You certainly know that
I think that the claims of Christianity are no more true then...
Read full response
and Paul's reply.
- Marc: You
write something distressing in your message below, namely
equating Hitler and Muhammed's respective positions on Jews.
This is...
Read full response and
Paul's reply.
- Uri: You
must be kidding. On thepathoftruth.com, a rather unusual
Christian web-site, you list two of my friends and co-religionists,
Rabbis Ken Spiro...
Read full response and
Paul's reply.
- David: While your letter was
addressed to the Jews and the nation of Israel, it is hoped
that you, Paul, the original author, will read and, if you
open your...
Read full response and Paul's
reply.
- Ira: Paul, Thank you for your
article. How are you feeling? Take care of...
Read full response and Paul's reply.
- Michelle: Remove me from this
email list immediately. You are not a Jew...
Read full response and Paul's
reply.
- Justin: I converted to Judaism!
... idolatry is forbidden in Judaism, even...
Read full response and Paul's
reply.
- Margaret: The
reason for His killing was that a few unpopular religious nuts
were jealous of the Christ's popularity with the jews. You
can find this...
Read full response and Paul's
reply.
- HH: STOP
bothering everybody You did'nt ask permission to send us
email...
David: If you hurry up, you can return your gift in time to get
a refund...
Read full responses and
Paul's reply.
- Charlotte: It
is true that Jesus died for all people, especially came for
the Jews. But the Bible does not tell us to convert them, but
to pray for them...
Read full response and Paul's
reply.
- Ariel: I
killed jc myself, with my own hands. He was a pig and you are
a pig...
Read full response and Paul and
Victor's replies.
What the God of Israel has done for me, and what
He will do for you.
A Letter of Promise, Hope, and Exhortation
to the Dispersed and Oppressed Uncircumcised-in-Heart Seed of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
We witness the ungodly and unjust hatred for
Jews everywhere and consider there is something important going
on. We are also in awe of the marvelous historical developments
and events, knowing very well, by God’s grace, that man cannot
do what has developed concerning the Jews at any time, perhaps
especially in this last century. Here is a letter of promise to
God's chosen in the flesh, based on His faithfulness and awesome
power:
“I, even I, am He Who comforts you: who are you, that you
are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall
be made as grass; and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who stretched
forth the Heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth…?” (Isaiah
51:12-13 HNV)
“Every way of a man is right in his own
eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2 HNV).
Israel, come hear the Word of God, and let your
hearts be revealed; know the Truth and be reconciled to Your Father.
It is time. Of what value is it to continue in darkness, not knowing
Him and His heart towards you, Who has loved you from days of old
and draws you with lovingkindness?
Israel, your God knows and sees what you suffer. He is not remote,
unfamiliar, or unaffected by what is happening with you. There
is a reason for your predicament, however, a reason that holds
the key to the solution for all. There is an answer from God, which
you need to hear and know.
Jews, you have tried everything to be at peace, to
have dialogue with, and to appease, the world. You have tried everything,
and nothing has worked, because you lacked the simple solution.
Here is the key for Israel, the Jew, and the whole world. |
