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Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Non-Evangelical Catholicism Even Inadvertently Admits That It's Not Christianity

Google "Catholicism and fundamentalism". For example, the Catholics admit that they don't believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, and that do so is "fundamentalist" in a derogatory sense according to Catholicism. The Catholics even criticize Evangelical Catholics:

"Fundamentalism is a relatively new brand of Protestantism started in America that has attracted a tremendous following, including many fallen away Catholics. How did this popular movement originate? The history of Fundamentalism may be viewed as having three main phases. The first lasted a generation, from the 1890s to the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925. In this period, Fundamentalism emerged as a reaction to liberalizing trends in American Protestantism; it broke off, but never completely, from Evangelicalism, of which it may be considered one wing. In its second phase, it passed from public view, but never actually disappeared or even lost ground. Finally, Fundamentalism came to the nation’s attention again around 1970, and it has enjoyed considerable growth. 
"What has been particularly surprising is that Catholics seem to constitute a disproportionate share of the new recruits. The Catholic Church in America includes about a quarter of the country’s inhabitants, so one might expect about a quarter of new Fundamentalists to have been Catholics at one time. But in many Fundamentalist congregations, anywhere from one-third to one-half of the members once belonged to the Catholic Church. This varies around the country, depending on how large the native Catholic population is."

Many of these Evangelical Catholics are Protestants who are Evangelical (Christian) and still Catholic at heart, just Evangelical Catholics and Protestants who would be still Catholic if the Catholic Church were Evangelical.  Evangelical Catholics do not like the following criticized by the Catholic Church:

The fundamental doctrines identified in the series can be reduced to five: (I) the inspiration and what the writers call infallibility of Scripture, (2) the deity of Christ (including his virgin birth), (3) the substitutionary atonement of his death, (4) his literal resurrection from the dead, and (5) his literal return at the Second Coming. 

Catholics particularly hate the following:

"Although the doctrine of the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible is most commonly cited as the essential cornerstone of the Fundamentalist beliefs, the logically prior doctrine is the deity of Christ. For the Catholic, his deity is accepted either on the word of the authoritative and infallible Church or because a dispassionate examination of the Bible and early Christian history shows that he must have been just what he claimed to be—God. 
"Most Catholics, as a practical matter, accept his divinity based upon the former method; many—the apologist Arnold Lunn is a good example—use the latter. In either case, there is a certain reasoning involved in the Catholic’s embrace of this teaching. For many Fundamentalists, the assurance of Christ’s divinity comes not through reason, or even through faith in the Catholic meaning of the word, but through an inner, personal experience."

In other words, Catholics have to lie about what Protestants and Evangelical Catholics believe. Protestants and Evangelical Catholics believe in grace through faith alone, and vice versa, based on what the Bible says. Protestants and Evangelical Catholics do not believe in a New Age "inner, personal experience". And the experience is not personal-- for "there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one." 
There is nothing personal in salvation-- one must answer to and be saved by the Spirit. Salvation is not a choice, but an election and calling which all the members of Eloheinu Echad choose to confer on someone-- and thus the saved have no individual choice and are held accountable in regards to salvation:
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses,“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”[f] 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”[g] 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 

The blood, by the way, is the witness of and for particularly Jesus; and the water of baptism, and of particularly the Father and the Spirit-- maybe just particularly the Father, though (which is a long discussion). 






Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sometimes I Wonder If I'm Good Enough...

As I said yesterday, my mom jokes that I ought to become Catholic. She jokes this partly because I joke and am actually sometimes sure that I'm going to Hell for (as the old confessional goes) "what I have done, and what I have left undone; I have not truly loved [G-d] with my whole heart." I can see in the way that the miracles that I wanted for Christmas came out. The ones that I even partially got are highlighted in yellow. The final score? A whopping "You're not good enough" 30%.

And no matter how I try, I still can't get over some certain vicious people at a certain church, one of whom did not do his or her job and does not meet the qualifications of his or her office-- and G-d hasn't had that the page be restored yet, even though those people unfairly and unjustly reported it.






  1. To find the one for me-- self explanatory
  2. To have dreams and visions that I need-- even the loner is content with dreams and visions; and if he or she uses them right, won't be lonely in the end. Yosef ben-Ya'akov wasn't.
  3. To have the Rapture come-- self explanatory if you think about it
  4. The fourth would be for more interaction and popularity at least on  Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter-- self explanatory  (I got the tiniest bit, but not much at all; and I even got some unfollows on Twitter.).
  5. To find more relatives and family information-- you can't be lonely knowing that you're part of a family and having at least some relatives who care and, for once, believe you about at least certain things.
  6. To have a pet-- self explanatory
  7. To have some political cartoons published-- you can't be too lonely with some fame.
  8.  To get my novels finished and published--  you can't be too lonely with some fame.
  9. To firmly confirm the establishment of my Jewish lineage and find more family info, and have the unsaved in my dad's and mom's families saved while the saved ones grow in faith--  you can't be lonely knowing that you're part of a mishpacha and having at least some relatives who care and, for once, believe you about at least certain things; especially if your relatives are going to Heaven with you. (The confirmation isn't firm, though; and my cousin Marek hasn't recontacted me since Christmas.).
  10.  To get through college successfully and to make aliyah if I can-- you can't be too lonely with some potential and success, and being where 'amikha are.



Monday, December 26, 2011

My Mom Jokes That I Ought To Become Catholic...

Yeah; I've been down that road before. I was baptized Roman Catholic, raised English Catholic (Episcopalian), went to a Roman Catholic college that.... I'd better stop before I talk about a certain church to which it could be paralleled. I also still have Anusi Catholic and Non-Catholic (and openly-Jewish and Non-Jewish Catholic) family members. So, I get the gist of being Catholic, and I'm far from becoming Catholic any time soon.


That doesn't mean that I don't think that there are Evangelical Catholics, though-- my cousin Sue is an Evangelical Catholic. My maternal grandma, as far as I know, is an Evangelical Catholic. My late, seminary-educated granddad was an Evangelical Catholic and actually getting ready to leave the Roman Catholic Church before he died; and his sister Margaret studied the Bible quite a bit if not every day (Her GNT version has markings in it, bookmarks and other placeholders, etc.). There are other Evangelical Catholics; but being Catholic, even an Evangelical Catholic, is not for me. In order to be considered a good Catholic and not a "fundamentalist", one has to:



  • Disbelieve the inerrancy of the Word of G-d. I keep coming back to Reform Judaism and Amy Scheinerman on this because Reform Judaism is the Catholicism of Judaism in many senses:
"Reform Jews, however, understand the texts to have been written by human beings -- our ancestors. In my personal opinion, the texts are certainly divinely inspired and reflect our ancestors' best understanding of God and their covenant with God, as well as their view of God's will, but that is not the same as being divinely-authored. Hence, Reform Jews read the texts through the spectacles not only of a religious person, but those of the scholar as well. Some institutions are considered to be a product of the cultural milieu and societal norms of the ancient Near East when the Hebrew Scriptures were written down, and do not speak to our lives today." 

Take those words and Catholicize them, and you'll have stolen them right from the mouths of "Doctor" Lyle Weiss, Marcus J. Borg, Sisters Sharon Kanis and Eileen Eppig, etc.. "Dr." Weiss once said that the Bible is (or at least he said something like) "Man's experiencing G-d... with some nuances." 

A good Catholic also has to:
  • Be Anti Death Penalty.
  • Be Democrat or Socialist (Look at how Speaker John Boehener was excoriated for being a Republican by Catholic universities.).
  • Believe in transubstantiation.
  • Allow that priests, nuns, and other clergy not marry.
  • Believe in Miryam bat-Eli as the daughter of a Joachim and Anna who stayed a Virgin after Jesus was born, and that Miryam is the Queen of Heaven who can intercede for us just because she gave birth to Yeshua; regardless of what Scripture says.
  • At least observe Christmas and Easter if not also the Feast Days, Days of Solemnity, Sunday mass, etc.
  • Go through baptism, confirmation, etc. if he or she can.
  • Go to Pre Confirmation and Confirmation Preparation classes.
  • Go to Sunday school and even Catholic school if he or she can.
  • Pray the rosary at least once in his or her lifetime.
  • Believe that he or she can lose his or her salvation by doing a bad work and has to get it back by confession and penance.
The list goes on, but the point is that being a Non-Evangelical (Non-"Fundamentalist"), good-enough Catholic entails being a "good enough" person and doing works that are good within the context of Catholic thinking. Catholicism isn't about faith through grace alone, salvation through mercy alone, etc..

So no matter how much I joke or say that I'm going to Hell for doing something bad or seemingly bad, I won't be a Catholic.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

What Does "Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged" Really Mean?


Luke 6:37-38


37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” 

So is Jesus contradictory when he says the following?

Leviticus 19:15-16



15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. 

And

Leviticus 20:1-3


 1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name.

Leviticus 19:15-16 calls for that "[y]ou shall do no injustice in judgment... In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor". Meanwhile, Leviticus 20:1-3 calls for that "'[w]hoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death.'" Isn't that judging (Leviticus 19:15-16) and taking a stand against the life of a neighbor (Leviticus 20:1-3)?

So what does "Judge not" mean, besides that Jesus is not at all contradictory? Don't be a hypocrite! After all, "...He repays man according to his work, And makes man to find a reward according to his way." (Job 34:11); and "...if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is." (1 Corinthians 3:12-13)


So, judge but don't be a hypocrite. "[']For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.'" Paul then was not contradictory when he said the following about a young Corinthian national:


1 Corinthians 5 (Emphasis mine)

Immorality Defiles the Church
 1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named[a] among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.[b]
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.[c] 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Immorality Must Be Judged
   
9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet Icertainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 
12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”[d]


I Will Never Talk About Chapelgate Presbyterian Church After This Again...

I have blogged all too copiously and extensively about Chapelgate. I have made my point unequivocally clear. I will never talk about Chapelgate again and do not want anyone here to talk about it unless you absolutely must-- which I assure that you probably musn't. If you'd had a bad experience with Chapelgate, however, feel free to share your experience on your own volition-- I will not pursue anyone to share anything and will also not publish anything that anyone does not want me to share.


As with Notre Dame, I once loved Chapelgate, was once a member of its community, and was very stunned to learn that it defines its own motto differently than I thought that its motto meant. Even though I now rank Notre Dame and Chapelgate as similar and a harbor a dislike for them in general, I still have to love and pray for them; and I certainly do not dislike or expect everyone there to hold themselves to account-- not everyone there has wronged me and my family, and anyone else. I can tell you that others besides me were wronged both at Notre Dame and Chapelgate, by the way; which is all I will further say besides that I draw parallels between Notre Dame and Chapelgate for good reasons.


I stand by everything which I have said about both Notre Dame and Chapelgate, even if I could've been more patient and civil in my tone. I mean only to be honest about both, especially Chapelgate at this time. An honest person is obviously about those about those who he or she loves, for good or bad. "Open rebuke is better [t]han love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, [b]ut the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." (Proverbs 27:5-6) 


But as I stated, I will never talk about Chapelgate Presbyterian Church after this again. Even if I lose friends over what I have said and over not talking about Chapelgate anymore, so be that "[t]he poor man is hated even by his own neighbor, [b]ut the rich has many friends." (Proverbs 14:20).

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I Can Only Bear So Much For So Long, And Am Extremely Patient Considering...


Isaiah 42:13-15

New King James Version (NKJV)
13 The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man;
      He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
      He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud;
      He shall prevail against His enemies.

Promise of the LORD’s Help
    14 “ I have held My peace a long time,
      I have been still and restrained Myself.
      Now I will cry like a woman in labor,
      I will pant and gasp at once.
       15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
      And dry up all their vegetation;
      I will make the rivers coastlands,
      And I will dry up the pools. 

Since the L-rd will get impatient, how much more a human? "‘The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’" (Numbers 14:18) Humans aren't like this, and I'm not the most-patient person in the world; and I can only take so much.

For example, at Notre Dame: I talked to Dr. Weiss, Dr. Berry, et. al. before telling Dr. Weiss "I'm tired of your Anti Semitism". I long had to hear how the Exodus was merely "an ancient peasant rebellion" according to Dr. Lyle Weiss, STD (who is no such position to be a Sacrae Theologiae doctor). I had to hear how the prophets may've been possibly inspired by the devil when a girl asked if that the prophets may have been so inspired was possible. And when my mom came in, I had her stay out of it until that awful conference with Dr. Franklin, Sister Sharon Kanis, and hoodwinking Melissa Lees (who made herself seem like she was against Drs. Weiss and Berry, and the whole RST Department, were teaching).

Also re Chapelgate: the only thing that I regret is ever apologizing to Mike Khandjian when he called the Ark of the Covenant "a holy piece of furniture" and I apologized for confronting him. Never will I apologize for confronting someone when they call what held the Ten Commandments and the Mercy Seat "a holy piece of furniture" again. And Cathy Dallwig (as far as I know) was in church that day. Where was the Caring Coordinator when Jewish members had to face an Anti-Semitic attack from the pastor? How caring is to say to Jews, in other words, "Your Ark of the Covenant was nothing more than a piece of furniture"?

And then the ride thing, of course. Imagine that I not to come to church for so long because I committed suicide or died of a disability-related accident? Can the dead reach out and ask for help? A Caring Coordinator or Director of Caring is supposed to notice when a member doesn't show up for a while, care that the member's not showing up, reach out to the member, and say, "Hey; you haven't shown up to church for a while. Is everything okay?"

I am more than patient; I just don't tolerate b***s***. 

Is the NIV Apostate? By Its Own Admission In Its Latest Version, Yes....

"Since it was first created in the 1970s, the goal of the New International Version of the Bible has been to allow Bible readers to see as much of the form and structure of the original languages as possible, while at the same time making the meaning of the Bible clear in modern English. In every verse the NIV uses the best available evangelical scholarship and the best available data on contemporary English usage to communicate God's unchanging Word as clearly as possible. Working directly from the best-attested ancient biblical manuscripts, NIV translators meet yearly to monitor changes in biblical scholarship.  The latest edition of the NIV Bible represents the fruit of this constant quest for accuracy. 
"One area on which the translators concentrated in particular for the 2011 update to the NIV was gender language. Whenever the original languages use words that are clearly intended to communicate to men and women equally, the updated NIV uses words that will be understood that way in English, like 'humans', 'people' or 'mankind'. Whenever the original languages use words that are intended to communicate specifically male ideas, like the names of God for example, the updated NIV uses words like 'he' and 'him'."

First, with the language cosmetics: unacceptable. "Whenever the original languages use words that are clearly intended to communicate to men and women equally" is understood in the original language; and when, as in most languages, the male tense is used to refer to either a masculine, or both- or neither-gender tenses. Also, "changes in biblical scholarship", which is often fickle at best nowadays, should not dictate a translation. The Holy Spirit first and foremost should (as even the Non-Messianic Jews at Yavneh recognized). Most biblical scholarship looks to discredit, not prove, the Bible.
Secondly, per Biblical scholarship itself: "Rabbi" Amy Scheinerman of the Union for Reform Judaism gives us insight into this:
"Reform Jews, however, understand the texts to have been written by human beings -- our ancestors. In my personal opinion, the texts are certainly divinely inspired and reflect our ancestors' best understanding of God and their covenant with God, as well as their view of God's will, but that is not the same as being divinely-authored. Hence, Reform Jews read the texts through the spectacles not only of a religious person, but those of the scholar as well. Some institutions are considered to be a product of the cultural milieu and societal norms of the ancient Near East when the Hebrew Scriptures were written down, and do not speak to our lives today."
"Rabbi" Scheinerman's and most Reform Jews' views reflect the purpose of Biblical scholarship in this day and age: to "read the texts through the spectacles not only of a religious person, but those of the scholar as well"; not read the texts through the Holy Spirit and test everything against the Holy Spirit. Scripture is very clear:
  1. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. (From 1 Thessalonians 5, NKJV)
  2.  1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 4:1-3, NKJV)




For Any Jew, Disabled Person, and Divorcee or Child Thereof, I Do Not Recommend Chapelgate Presbyterian Church...

Being a Jewish child of divorce with Diplegic Spastia Cerebral Palsy, I actually recommend against Chapelgate Presbyterian Church. Having experienced quite the opposite of "Healing, Renewal, Peace"; I can tell you that I experienced hurt, apostasy, and chaos. I vowed not to run from Chapelgate; but as stands, I more than consider myself churchless at this point, and for good reason as many other people (including fellow Messianic Jews) do. By the way, I leave apostate Chapelgate with the following from the non-apostate New King James Version (since the NIV has been proven to be utmostly apostate):


The Lukewarm Church
   
14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans[f] write, 
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,[g] I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 
22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’”


Friday, December 16, 2011

New Blog Layout For More Emphasis On My Posts and To Declutter

Tell me what you think about my new blog layout. I'm trying to put more emphasis on my posts and less on the other Blogger feautres. I'm also trying to (perhaps inappropriately for a Christian, though) self promote a little more. In other words, I'm trying to focus on content and promotion of the blog, though I honestly feel guilty about putting the "Yerushalayim Time" clock in a lower position-- as a Jewish Christian, my priorities ought to be concerned with Yerushalayim, Y'hudah, v'kol Yisra'el, even though-- and perhaps, in at least some ways, especially-- I'm b'HaGalut.

By the way, I don't put the ads on the "Yerushalayim Time" clock-- the ads come with the application from which I got the "Yerushalayim Time" clock.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Staying Silent Is Yielding To the Apostates and Legalists, So...



Since Paul openly rebuked Peter for giving up on something "pagan", I am not afraid to do the same to some others regarding Christmas (cf. Galatians 2:5). I know that if Christmas were pagan, it would not be attacked as such. Because Christmas was deliberately designed to celebrate the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), and as a redemption of and counter to the Winter Solstice, it is attacked as pagan (cf. Galatians 1:6-2:4, 5:7-12 Romans 14, Acts 15, Colossians 2:16-17, Hebrews 6:4-6). If I have to name names of those who are attacking Christmas as pagan, I will start naming names. 

If I have to lose friends and "friends", so be it. If I make enemies, good: that means that I stood up for something, sometime in my life. I'll stand up for this:

In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring (why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia. Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.

And:

Why do we have a decorated Christmas Tree? In the 7th century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to teach the Word of God. He did many good works there, and spent much time in Thuringia, an area which was to become the cradle of the Christmas Decoration Industry.
Legend has it that he used the triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to revere the Fir tree as God's Tree, as they had previously revered the Oak. By the 12th century it was being hung, upside-down, from ceilings at Christmastime in Central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity.
The first decorated tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510. In the early 16th century, Martin Luther is said to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to show his children how the stars twinkled through the dark night.

Don't you ever to my face again twist the meaning of this parsha, which is not a reference to Christmas trees:

 To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal 
      And compare Me, that we should be alike? 
       6 They lavish gold out of the bag, 
      And weigh silver on the scales; 
      They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; 
      They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship. 
       7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it 
      And set it in its place, and it stands; 
      From its place it shall not move. 
      Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer 
      Nor save him out of his trouble. 

And do not twist this, either. It is a reference to ba'alim, not Christmas trees:

 1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2 Thus says the LORD: 


      “ Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; 
      Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, 
      For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. 
       3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; 
      For one cuts a tree from the forest, 
      The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 
       4 They decorate it with silver and gold; 
      They fasten it with nails and hammers 
      So that it will not topple. 
       5 They are upright, like a palm tree, 
      And they cannot speak; 
      They must be carried, 
      Because they cannot go by themselves.
      Do not be afraid of them, 
      For they cannot do evil, 
      Nor can they do any good.” 








Saturday, December 10, 2011

Is Faceshuk Not Accepting My Blog Because I'm Messianic Jewish? Well, Wait a Minute...

I'm not a proselytizer. I'm going to be open about my faith, but not force my faith down people's throats. All of my dad's relatives but for the Trudniaks (as far as I know) died Crypto Jews in order to survive Anti Semitism in both Europe and America, and many of us live as Crypto Jews for the same. Sadly, they and others (e.g., Ashley Wojnar and Janet Rozzi) aren't proud to know that we're Jewish for good and bad. 


(Ola, Ashley; que no te gusta que somos judias y que tu abuelo Leo se parece ese un judio irani es lamentable. I'm like an elephant, Ashley-- I don't forget that you defriend me after that. Boo-hoo-- eres tu una supremista cubana, por cierto? Even if you don't like that you're a Jew first, you're a Jew first; and I'm rather proud that your grandmother Helen was Jewish, and that your granddad Leo looks like a fellow Jew. P.S. I figured out that we and he are Jewish.)


Now that I'm done ranting at Ashley (And in a way, I hope that Ashley and Brittany read this), let me get back to the categories of my family. As I said, "All of my dad's relatives but for the Trudniaks (as far as I know) died Crypto Jews in order to survive Anti Semitism in both Europe and America, and many of us live as Crypto Jews for the same. Sadly, they and others (e.g., Ashley Wojnar and Janet Rozzi) aren't proud to know that we're Jewish for good and bad."


By the way, I mean the ones born before and in the 1900s by "All". The "many of us" are descendants of the "All". Some of the "All" may have been Messianic, but never (as far as I know) admitted (though some dropped hints) that they were Jewish.


"They and others" refers to the "many of us" and "All" progeny like Ashley Wojnar who aren't proud of our Jewish heritage and that I found out that we are Jewish. Some are sadly seeming neutral on the subject or ignore it-- then again, they might fit in with the "many of us". Some of them are Messianic and nonetheless of the "many of us".


The fourth category is the descendants of the "All" who are Messianic Jews and/or are open about our Jewish heritage, even if implicitly. We even have a Non-Messianic Jewish Taoist among us (which is understandable after she was raised-- as many of us were-- in some of variant of Roman Catholicism. She was raised in regular Roman Catholicism, I in Episcopalianism until I was in fifth grade or thereabouts. We were both baptized Roman Catholic as well.).


In conclusion, Faceshuk should accept my blog because, if nothing else, of the four categories of my dad's family:



  1. The Ashkenazi Anusim from the 1770s (e.g., the Fockos, Foskos, Foczkos) to the 1900s (e.g., Anna Monkaova Trudniak), referred to as the "All".
  2. The "many of us"
  3.  The "they and others". "They and others" refers to the "many of us" and "All" progeny like Ashley Wojnar and Janet Rozzi (And Janet, I didn't forget that you defended your kapo American grandmother, my great-grandmother Mary Rusnak Gaydos.).
  4. The descendants of the "All" who are Messianic Jews and/or are open about our Jewish heritage, even if implicitly.
I might have to make a YouTube video to clarify this, by the way.