When does your day begin and when begins God His day

All over the world, we can find several calendars which have the week beginning on another day. But when wants one to start a day?

In a certain way, we need some agreement on an arrangement for choosing a system for dividing time over extended periods, such as days, months, or years, and arranging such divisions in a definite order.
Here in West Europe for practical reasons, the standard week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, and for the Catholics and most Protestant denominations, Sunday is considered the day of rest and ‘Day of the Lord’.

For the majority, the day also commences when they wake up and go to do their daily busyness. Getting up in time is for most of us the most important event of the day. When we hear our alarm clock, that means we are still alive, and we can face again another day.

Frank Hubeny is a Christian who moved to Miami Beach, Florida. He voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and is a pro-life and pro-Israel, and loves Catholics. By hearing those things, we may assume he is one of those conservative and perhaps fundamentalist American Christians. He suspects most people are aware that the biblical day begins at sunset

or early evening sometime if one can’t see the sun actually set. {Exploration 103 – The Day Begins At Sunset}

Though, I think most people do not relate the day setting to something which is indicated in the Bible or any other ‘holy Scriptures‘. But he agrees that

Skyline of Kaohsiung harbour, Taiwan at sunrise.

there are people who would disagree with this biblical interpretation promoting sunrise rather than sunset as the starting point. {Exploration 103 – The Day Begins At Sunset}

There are those who refer to Jeshua, the Messiah who would have brought some new ‘Covenant Calendar’ or would have done away with the Torah, which is not so at all.

Jeshua, or Jesus as a Jew held himself to the Torah and was very well aware of God’s Law given to mankind for good reason. He went to the synagogue on Friday night, which is at the beginning of the Sabbath. From sunset on Friday to nightfall of the following day Jeshua or Jesus also kept himself to the regulations for that day of the week, which was the closing day of the week. The day after was the first day of the week and would be our Sunday. By most Christians, that day is considered to be “the Lord’s Day”, or the weekly memorial of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. The title of that day can be very misleading because it can insinuate that it is God His day, though all days belong to God and those Christians holding on to that Day of the Lord mean with it that it is the day of Christ, or even worse, as their day of their god, namely having Jesus as their god.

In our present time or modern culture, most people have been raised to believe that a new day begins at midnight. The majority of people are not interested in the Bible and as such never looked for being in agreement with such a book, which is taken by others as their guide for life. Not following an Al-Haadi or such Guide for life, they just go by their feeling and custom to stand up after a night’s rest.

For them, there is no reason to think about a Scriptural reason and as such, there is no scriptural precedent for their belief, and the way that midnight is reckoned today would be impossible without mechanical clocks.

Others, such as myself, are more than willing to set them straight since fixing the other guy is more entertaining than fixing oneself. {Exploration 103 – The Day Begins At Sunset}

EliYah Ministries claims to be a place for people to read more about the Hebrew Roots of their faith, and has its name chosen because YLiYah means it means “My Mighty One is Yahweh” and this is the message that they seem to want to proclaim. Strangely enough they give the impression that they are Jewish but seem to take Jeshua or Jesus also as their god Yahweh. Though Jesus or Jeshua is not Jehovah, the God of Israel, but is the son of God and son of man, a human being.

“40 ولكنكم الآن تطلبون ان تقتلوني وانا انسان قد كلمكم بالحق الذي سمعه من الله.هذا لم يعمله ابراهيم. 41 انتم تعملون اعمال ابيكم.فقالوا له اننا لم نولد من زنا.لنا اب واحد وهو الله.” (يو 8:40-41 Arabic)

“40 But now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard from God: this did not Abraham. 41 You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” (Joh 8:40-41 KJBPNV)

Funny also that those writers of that site also recognise that

the translators admit they substituted Yahweh’s name for a title. All for the sake of an tradition. Yahweh’s name is in scripture nearly 7000 times. And nearly 7000 times they replaced it (not translated it) with “the LORD”, or “GOD”. Imagine that? They took His name out of His own book! {Yahushua is the True Name of the Messiah}

Also, they agree with Matthew Henry’s Commentary (on Matthew 1:21)

“Jesus is the same name with Joshua, the termination only being changed, for the sake of conforming it to the greek.” {Yahushua is the True Name of the Messiah}

Though somehow they begin to use those two different names Jehovah/Yahweh and Yahushua/Yahusha/Jeshua/Jesus interchangeably and say that Jeshua – for them: god –  changed the ‘day’. Even when they say themselves

I wouldn’t want someone to change my name unless it was Yahweh, and it is clear that according to the third commandment Yahweh doesn’t want anyone to change or falsify His name either.

Think about this for a moment. What makes man think he has the authority to change the name of the one who created him, and who created all things? We don’t have that right! For instance, in the scriptures we see that one who changes the name of another is always in authority over them. The Messiah renamed Simon. Yahweh renamed Abram to Abraham. He renamed Jacob to Israel. Adam named the animals. Even we name our children, not the other way around. Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, named His Son ‘Yahushua’ in Matt 1:22. {Why people of all languages must call upon the name of Yahweh}

So, why do they change the name of Jehovah in Yahwe and in Yahushua? Clearly, they themselves say God named His son Yahushua or (in short or as a call sign) Jeshua. Furthermore, that site indicates:

Also, notice that Matthew 28:1 says it is “after the Sabbath” which indicates the first day of the week has begun. The sun had not yet risen though because it says that it was “toward dawn.”

Matthew 28:1(ISR) Now after the Sabbath, toward dawn on the first day of the week, Miryam from Magdala and the other Miryam came to see the tomb. {When Does the Sabbath Start?}

Toward dawn, means close to dawn, which is after the darkest point of night; and that moment they considered already to be the first day of the week. They also notice

the word used in Matthew 28:1 “toward dawn” describes same period of time as John 20:1– the time when they started heading toward the tomb. It was still technically dark outside, but the light of dawn was on the horizon. {When Does the Sabbath Start?}

We should remember:

So based on the … accounts, it is evident that the chronology was that the women started heading to the tomb before the sun rose on the first day of the week, they bought spices “after the Sabbath” yet before sunrise, and they arrived at the tomb at sunrise.

Here is a summary of how these accounts actually contradict “sunrise to sunrise” Sabbath keeping:

1. John 20:1 says that it was “on the first day of the week”, yet it was “still dark.” Therefore the first day of the week had already begun prior to sunrise.
2. Mark 16:1 says that they bought spices “when the Sabbath was passed,” yet it was before the sun had risen, proving the Sabbath ended at sundown.
3. Matthew 28:1 says that it was “after the Sabbath” during the period of time that it began to “grow light,” a word that describes the period of time just before sunrise.

Therefore, these verses clearly support the fact that the Sabbath ends at sundown and the first day of the week was already in motion prior to sunrise.

EVENING TO EVENING

Scripture plainly commands “from evening to evening you shall celebrate your Sabbath.”

Leviticus 23:27-Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 28 – And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your Elohim. 29 – For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30 – And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 – You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 – It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

Numbers 29:7- On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls; you shall not do any work.

Since Yahweh doesn’t contradict Himself, it is no contradiction that the 10th day of the month is “Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement” while also commanding that we begin and end this day at evening. Since the 10th day began and ended at evening, the days surrounding it would need to begin and end at evening as well. Thus, all days begin and end at evening.

Another example:

Exodus 12:15-Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 – On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat — that only may be prepared by you. 17 – So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 – In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 – For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.

Notice that the same language which described the timing of the tenth day of the seventh month (Day of Atonement) is also used to describe when the fifteenth day of the first month (the Feast of Unleavened Bread).

EliYah Ministries agrees with the fact that we should best look at a day from evening to evening.

The scriptures seem pretty clear to me that Yahweh reckons days from evening to evening. While modern reckoning is from midnight to midnight, we need to submit ourselves to the daily heavenly clock that Yahweh Himself established at creation. It makes perfect sense that a day ends when a day ends…at evening. {When Does the Sabbath Start?}

That seems very clear, though several Messianic groups have their Sabbath service on Saturday afternoon. But in Wintertime than the sun has already gone down (like in West of Europe or in the Northern Hemisphere from October to March). For us, it is then no Sabbath anymore but the first day of the week, the Sunday.

There are also groups which say Jeshua/Jesus with his blood made a new covenant so that the old covenant is of no value anymore.

The studies of Covenant Calendar must take time to reflect how this full and complete understanding was born – basically through the most important study of the Melchizedek Priesthood.  The Priesthood study provided the platform that declares this Covenant Calendar is indeed blood-ratified and eternally sealed by Yahusha in His witness through the gospel – especially in His death, burial, resurrection and two ascensions.  Therefore, our most sincere thanks go out to the Supreme Provider Yahusha Ha Mashiach for His guidance and direction through this incredible study.  {What in the world is a Biblical the Torah Yahuwah’s Covenant Calendar}

Seemingly in the United States, there are many groups who find people have to keep the Sabbath, but their interpretation of what has to be the Sabbath seems so different from what we can find in the bible and by standard Jewish people.

Frank Hubeny writes

However, the fourth commandment expects us to keep the Sabbath (aka Sunday) holy. How are we going to do that if we don’t know when He wants the Sabbath to start and end? It is after all His commandment, not ours, to get some rest. Others think their acceptance of Yeshua (Jesus) allows them do what they want. They might be right. It might not be a salvation issue, but we may still be making a mess of our lives by not doing what He wants while we have the opportunity. {Exploration 103 – The Day Begins At Sunset}

That are the big questions:

How can we keep a holy day before God?

&

What is a holy day in God’s Eyes?

Next to the question:

When is the holy day for God?

Or

When is the Sabbath?

Another question may arise as well. According to many Jehudim or Jews and Jeshuaists the Day of God must start with prayer, and as such has to start with prayers at home, followed by prayers at the synagogue or temple. For them, it is not that

Every day begins with the first LIGHT in the “dawn” sky called twilight.  While the sunrise may be very close behind, the day does NOT begin with sunrise, but with light.  Everything on Day 1 of Creation began with LIGHT … and do remember there was no sunrise “or” sunset until the 4^th day of creation.   {What in the world is a Biblical the Torah Yahuwah’s Covenant Calendar}

That looks like twisting the words of the bible. It was out of the void that the world was created. And when there was chaos there was also darkness.

“و“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Ge 1:2 KJBPNV)

So first, the formless earth had darkness around it. A few verses later we come to read that there came to be evening, and as such came to pass a first day by the rising of the morning.

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Ge 1:5 KJBPNV)

You see:

the Evening and the morning formded the first day

and not

the morning and the evening formde the day.

It is Jehovah God Who starts with everything; He starts His moment of creation by bringing order in the chaos. It was God Who said to have luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens, to make a division between the day and the night.

“14  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” (Ge 1:14-19 KJBPNV)

For God it came to completion after He had giving vegetation to man. By the sun going down, heavens and the earth and all their army had come to completion. So God proceeded to rest on the seventh day, from all His work that He had made.

“31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 2:1  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” (Ge 1:31-2:1 KJBPNV)

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” (Ge 2:2 KJBPNV)

It was that seventh day that God blessed and made sacred, not the first day.

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (Ge 2:3 KJBPNV)

The Bible present us by God doing its first Work, when there is darkness. Light came only afterwards. We have a set of periods which always end by darkness coming in again. And as such to me that looks clearly like a new period to come into the picture. A new day.

The sunset-start day puts what God does first. It makes sure what we do later during daylight hours is subordinate to what He wants, not what we want, not even what we think is possible for us to do. {Exploration 103 – The Day Begins At Sunset}

writes Hubeny. And for him, that’s the main reason why he favours having the day begin at sunset,

the time we stop working and acknowledge He is in control to begin  the new day as the old one ends. {Exploration 103 – The Day Begins At Sunset}

This also seems logical, when you consider that at the moment of creation, one is busy. During the day, we have to do our daily job. Often we do not find enough time to honour God (except with our work). But when we have done our daily duties, then comes the moment we can take more time for God. As such, there is also the Friday night, when most of us can put work down and forget it for one or two days.

At sunset, we can come to rest, like God also came to rest. Then arrives the moment we can give all our time to Allah Al-Aliyy, in recognition and respect for all the things He has done and still does for us.

+++

Related

1. Rav Avigdor Miller on Shabbos and Yetzias Mitzrayim
2. Shabbat Rest – The Completion of Creation
3. Rav Avigdor Miller on The Additional Shabbos Soul
4. Refuah on Shabbos
5. Hatzolah on Shabbos
6. Menachem Bluming Muses: How To Welcome Shabbat
7. Seder Night on Shabbos
8. A Restful Day with God
9. Understanding Sunday and the Sabbath
10. Responsible Rest
11. Biblical Foundations for Sabbatical
12. Worshipping a Holy God
13. Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep it Holy
14. Christians and the Sabbath
15. The Pastor’s Personal Life – Part 6 – Your Sabbath
16. LORD’s Day #26 (2022)
17. Remember the Sabbath and Keep it Holy
18. Sabbath and Sailing
19. The God of Rest (1/3)
20. Sabbath Part 2
21. Sabbath for the Whole Congregation
22. July 3: Community Sabbath (No Gathering)
23. The Sabbath–Our Gift from God
24. The Necessity of Rest
25. LORD’s Day #27 (2022)
26. Christ Our Sabbath Rest
27. A Sabbath Practice
28. Why Sabbaticals are Good for Your Church
29. Restoration of the Sabbath
30. LORD’s Day #28 (2022)
31. The Fourth Commandment
32. For God’s sake (and Yours) Stop!
33. Principles of Work: Rest.
34. The God of Rest (2/3)
35. Heritage Baptist Church Service 7-10-22 (Sabbath)
36. Keeping Sabbath
37. Twilight of The World, Gross Darkness The People
38. Sabbath, Feasts, Kosher Will Be What Aids the End-Time Saints? – Today’s McKee Moment
39. Reflections – Summer Sabbath, 2: Where Are You?
40. Just Checking…
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42. Jesus Is Our Sabbath
43. LORD’s Day #29 (2022)
44. What is Your (Pharisaical) Sabbath?
45. Rabbi Jesus
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48. Sensible negroes agree
49. Babylon is Fallen: Pope Francis Participates in a Pure Pagan Celebration of Mother Earth
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51. AY Program Idea: The Call by the Sea, God’s Call for You
52. Rome Speaks Again: Away with Digital Publishings, up with candles; away with Bibles, and up with beads;Away with KJV up with James Webb Telescope: The Role of Art in a Time of War
53. Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem: Leading churches of the United States, unite in common points of doctrine, influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions: IMAGE of the Roman hierarchy, civil penalties upon dissenters result

On this day in history: Burning of Holy Scriptures

On April 16, 2017 the radical Orthodox Jewish rabbi Shneur Odze burned a copy of the New Testament

On June 16, 1242, two dozen carloads of Jewish Talmud were burned in Paris

From 2017 April 17

UK: Rabbi burns New Testament as Passover ritual

On April 16, UK’s Jewish-owned online newspaper Daily Mail reported that Rabbi Shneur Odze burned a copy of the New Testament (Christian Bible canonized by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 CE) in public as his Chametz (burning of useless or left-over food). He then posted images of it on social media on Good Friday.

Shneur Odze is a candidate for the mayor of British city of Manchester which has second largest Jewish community in the country after London. He is contesting the election as member of pro-Israel, anti-Muslim White Supremacist UK Independence Party (UKIP). Earlier this year, UKIP’s former leader Nigel Paul Farage (2006-2016) supported Donald Trump’s visa ban against seven Muslim-majority nations – claiming that there are several Muslim countries which have banned Israeli Jew tourists.

Shneur Odze claims that he found the Hebrew language copy of the New Testament in his synagogue left by some proselytizing Christian missionary.

Rabbi took it out into the street and set it alight, according to the report. He then posted photos of the book burning and wrote on Twitter:

“Was wondering what I’d burn my Chametz with.”

Rabbi told reporters that he felt he had no choice but to burn the book because he did not want to pass on what he believes is false religion to someone else and said that throwing a religious text in the garbage was distasteful, especially because it also contains the Five Books of Moses (Torah).

No religious or political Jewish group condemned or apologized for Rabbi Shneur Odze’s anti-Christian act nor Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby dared to ask Manchester police to arrest the rabbi for insulting Church of England.

UK’s press called the Bible burning an act of a lone radical Orthodox Jew for whose action the world Jewry don’t need to apologize.

Rehmat wrote

I bet my Canadian Looney if the religious fanatic had been a Muslim – every Jewish-owned newspaper and all British lawmakers would had demanded an apology from UK’s Muslim leaders and condemnation of the jihadi.

Christians, Jews and Hindus have a long history of burning religious scriptures of other faiths, especially Holy Qur’an. In Islam such action is considered blasphemy, a sin and serious crime.

On June 16, 1242, two dozen carloads of Jewish Talmud were burned in Paris on the orders of Pope Gregory IX and King Louis IX of France (here).

Christian Crusaders burned tens of thousands of copies of Holy Qur’an in Jerusalem (1099) and during the Spanish Inquisition (1492).

In December 2015, a Danish Jew, 42, was charged over burning a copy of Holy Qur’an and posting the image on his Facebook page with message:

Yes to freedom – no to Islam. Consider your neighbor: it stinks when it burns.

On May 20, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Jewish students in Israeli town of Or Yehuda burned several hundreds copies of New Testament in Hebrew.

Talmud commands Jews to destroy Christian religious books which is fully practiced in the only democracy in the Middle East.

In order to hide Talmud’s hateful teachings towards non-Jewish people and especially Christians – Rabbis have resisted its translation into languages other than Hebrew. In 2012, when Talmud was published in Arabic language for the first time – several pro-Israel Jewish groups lead by Abraham Foxman urged Jordanian government to take action to ensure that the Arabic translation of Jewish Talmud shouldn’t become a source of hatred of Jews and Israel among the Arabs.

The invasion of Ukraine is personal for me…as it is for many of us

Just Bear With Me...

We are all gripped – feeling both horror at Russian president Vladimir Putin and immense pride in the strength of the Ukrainians – by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Readers of this website are likely aware of my personal connections to the sovereign democratic nation of Ukraine. My mother’s father – the man who became Samuel Joseph Kohn – was born in the central town of Shpola in 1904. This is during the period when the eastern edge of the Russian Empire was a vast Jewish region called The Pale of Settlement.

And while my mother’s mother – born Ida Gurmankin, though she later became Irene Goldman – was born in Philadelphia in 1914, Ida’s mother Rachel Debra Shore was born in Uman in 1895. Her first husband, my maternal great-grandfather Jacob “Jack” Gurmankin, was born in Kherson in 1893. This photograph was taken at the wedding of Jack…

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As West Bank Settlers Try to Take More Palestinian Land

Rabbi Arik Ascherman lets us know

I am actually in a bit of pain. I have barely felt most of the blows I have received in recent days from settler youth sent by their elders to accompany cows and sheep on a rampage of theft in the fields of the Taibe junction we had planted with Bedouin shepherds. These are mere children trying to be tough. However, a week ago Tuesday one of them managed to hit me in the back with the stick he was brandishing. I am trying to avoid overuse of pain killers, except for the adrenalin every day when I return to keep the cows and sheep out of the fields.

In addition to the physical pain, there is the great sadness that adults are corrupting these children in this way. I have been oscillating between telling them that they are thieves, and we have nothing to talk about, and telling them that I pray they will find an uncorrupted corner of their souls that will inspire them to return to what God asks of them. Almost every day I ask them if they wish to act like the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, or like Amalek, summarizing the words of Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch I cited on my Times of Israel blog two weeks ago on the reading for the Shabbat before Purim, Deuteronomy 25: 17 – 19:

Don’t Forget:

Don’t forget a thing if the day will come when you will want to be like Amalek, and like Amalek you won’t want to remember your obligations or to know God, but will look for the opportunity in small or big matters to exploit your advantage to harm other human beings. Don’t forget this when the day will come, and you will want to rid yourself of your role and mission as the Jewish people that you accepted among humanity.

This week I have been suggesting to some of these troubled youth that we set up a “Reish Lakish club.” Reish Lakish was a thief who changed his ways and became a scholar frequently cited in the Talmud.

Last Thursday night, immediately after the reading of the Purim Megillah, we had an emergency meeting postponed from the previous night with a representative of the Taibe Municipality, a leading Palestinian activist, and legal counsel. As I will explain, the Book of Esther came to life for me.

For much of the past three years the struggle has primarily been that of Torat Tzedek and the Bedouin shepherds, with some support from the Municipality. Landowners have taken action when settlers tried to set up additional outposts on their lands. However, from the additional outpost Neriya Ben Pazi successfully set up on “State Land,” the settlers have taken their incursions, intimidation and theft of everything the shepherds plant for their flocks, to a new level. Our successes in 2019 to significantly cut down the level of theft were reversed in 2020 both because of this outpost, and because of incredibly heightened State support for settler aggression this past year. In 2020 settlers forced many Bedouin off the land, and now have begun to plow some of it themselves. Between fear of what the State can do to those who raise their heads, and tensions between the landowners and the Bedouin working and living on the lands, the landowners have been overly slow to take the steps necessary to save their lands.

Day after day, we have literally been holding them off. We stood guard as those shepherds who have not been totally intimidated planted. In areas where the fear was too great, we did the planting as well. We have been in constant conversation with the legal authorities, demanding that they do their job. Because last year’s losses have left family’s financially strapped, we helped secure financing for seed and tractors and contributed ourselves. Settlers have savagely responded by intensifying their attempts to ensure that their flocks eat everything that has been planted just as it is beginning to grow. They want the shepherds who dare to resist to believe that they will not benefit from even one stalk of the barley that was to feed their flocks from May through September. They call or “visit” the shepherds to warn them that they will pay a price for any connection with us. We call the security forces, who say they will do nothing until they see ownership papers, but have taken no action when owners have lodged complaints and even discouraged owners from doing so. They usually refuse to identify suspects, but last year froze a case by claiming that the perpetrators were not known. When there are enough of us, we can successfully keep the settler flocks out of the planted areas. I admit there have been days when I have broken the rules and been there alone, because I can’t bear to watch what happens otherwise. Expelling flocks alone is physically more challenging, and we are less likely to be attacked when the settlers know that we are filming them from several angles. I was alone when hit in the back on Tuesday.

Then, there have been the days I have just walked away and expelled flocks when the police have refused to do anything, and then had the audacity to order me not to do anything.

At the meeting, the lawyer explained the hard facts. With the settlers acting as if the land is theirs, and even plowing some of it, the next step will be to claim that it is theirs legally. They are already smirking and crowing that the Bedouin have fled, and won’t be coming back. On Friday, one of them scoffed at the idea that the ownership papers of “goyim” mean anything. At the meeting the Palestinian activist assured that many would support the Municipality and the owners and the Bedouin if they take the decisive legal and other steps that must now be taken.

For me the meeting was a Megillah moment. The most dramatic scene for me in Megillat Esther is the back and forth messages between Mordechai and Esther that transform her from a passive woman doing what she is told to a bold and brave leader:

Esther told Hathach to take back to Mordecai the following reply:

“All the king’s courtiers and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any person, man or woman, enters the king’s presence in the inner court without having been summoned, there is but one law for him—that he be put to death. Only if the king extends the golden scepter to him may he live. Now I have not been summoned to visit the king for the last thirty days.”

When Mordecai was told what Esther had said, Mordecai had this message delivered to Esther:

“Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace. On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.”

Then Esther sent back this answer to Mordecai:

“Go, assemble all the Jews who live in Shushan, and fast in my behalf; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens will observe the same fast. Then I shall go to the king, though it is contrary to the law; and if I am to perish, I shall perish!”

So Mordecai went about [the city] and did just as Esther had commanded him. (Esther 4: 10 -17)

Like Mordechai, I as a privileged Israeli Jew can paternalistically instruct Palestinians or Israelis in need of public housing, or whoever, what to do. Or, there can be a magic moment when the oppressed become empowered to be partners in fighting for their rights and dignity. We may have reached such a moment on Thursday – a moment in which we all realized that there is a reason why we are here. I use the word “partners.” Mordechai speaks of the salvation that can come from another quarter if Esther does not act. We spoke of all the aid that would come from other quarters if the villagers do act.

Ken Yehi Ratzon May it be the Will of God, Who is never mentioned in the Book of Esther, but was present. Together –– the privileged, the oppressed and God –– in partnership for a better world.

B’Vrakha (In Blessing),

Arik

Turning Your Home into a Sacred Space

Lots of Jews in our regions, for Sabbath keep the lights on from Friday afternoon, having no television or internet facilities and now being confronted with difficulties for feeling a togetherness and a feeling of having the right service for the Elohim, because they wonder if it would be all right to have a service via the modern tools and internet.

Having the Beis HaElohim and shuls already four months closed for study and prayer because of the corona lockdown, many feel 9 Av as an extra special day of sadness this year, them not having a meeting place, like our parents and grandparents were not able to gather because of the Nazi’s in the previous century. But this time it is not man but nature that keeps them and us in its grip.

*

To remember

• Take advantage of these unusual circumstances to experience something new.

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Preceding

Social Distanced but Spiritually Close

Hineni for our Virtual Services

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Find also to read:

1. Eykhah – How can it be?
2. Dark times looking like death is around the corner – but Light given to us
3. Israel celebrates Purim amid Coronavirus outbreak – ILTV Israel news – Mar. 9, 2020
4. Even in Corona time You are called on to have the seder
5. One Passover tradition asking to provide the less fortunate with foods and help
6. In a time when we must remain in our place
7. 2020 A Passover seder meeting limited to members of the family
8. 9 Av: Tisha B’Av 2020
9. 9 Av 2020 en Dagen van droefheid
10. Geestelijke affaires in CoViD-19 afzonderingstijden
11. Voor het eerst in jaren weer een Pesach in isolatie
12. Isolatietijd vrij te nemen voor jezelf
13. Ontnomen van een gebedshuis #1 Doodveroorzakers
14. Ontnomen van een gebedshuis #2 In de greep van een coronavirus

Cantor Matt Axelrod

וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם

They will make me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.

For months now, we’ve all become accustomed to working from home–it’s gone more smoothly for some than for others. Social media has been replete with work-from-home fails: toddlers barging in on important calls, dogs and landscapers disrupting meetings with intrusive background noise, and even partially clad family members being caught on camera. Convenience aside, there’s a reason why work is kept in the workplace.

What we haven’t heard nearly as much about is praying from home. With synagogues shuttered, congregants have had to avail themselves of the various live feeds, streaming, and Zoom services that their temples have created. Furthermore, the pandemic and its continuing restrictions have forced us to begin planning extensively for the High Holidays considerably earlier than usual.

Be assured that your synagogue–wherever you belong–has already been thinking, planning, strategizing…

View original post 917 more words

Aalst Carnival and Unia analyses reports

Area of action: Society

Grounds of discrimination: Racism

In December 2018 Unia pressed in anti-Semitism hearings in the Belgian Senate for the reintroduction of an anti-Semitism watchdog. The organisation asked Minister Kris Peeters, at that time responsible for Equal Opportunities, to take the first steps towards an inter-federal action plan against discrimination and racism. Anti-Semitism remains a persistent problem. The calls being made by Unia in 2018 were in response to a large-scale survey of 16,000 Jews in twelve EU countries by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), a human rights agency of the EU.

The findings of the report make for a sobering read. They underscore that antisemitism remains pervasive across the EU – and has, in many ways, become disturbingly normalised. Already in 2018 an overwhelming majority of survey participants felt that antisemitism was getting worse. They also feared for their own safety, and that of their loved ones. Though we also could notice not only the monotheist Hebrews or Jehudi were targeted. Jeshuaists and Muslims, worshipping the same God were not loved either and felt the pressure. Jeshuaists and Jews belonging to different Judaic denominations protect themselves by not coming out to much in the open and by leaving their kippa at home, only discreetly displaying mezuzas, avoiding certain areas in their cities or skipping Jewish events.

The many graphs contained in the report reveal a sobering picture of Belgium. Except for France, Jews do not experience anywhere in the EU as much hostility on the streets as they do in Belgium. Among those surveyed, 81 percent mentioned public spaces as the place with the most hatred of Jews. The European average is about 70 percent.

“These are figures that require a structural approach in the form of a vigilance unit and a plan that overarches policy areas,’

stressed Unia director at that time, Els Keytsman.

Already in 2018, a shocking statistic sended a clear message:

in the past five years, across twelve EU Member States where Jews have been living for centuries, more than one third say that they consider emigrating because they no longer feel safe as Jews.

In the meantime, we know about many Jews and Jeshuaists who left Belgium.

Much too many people seem to forget how antisemitic acts can have a profound impact not only on individuals and those close to them, but also on the Jewish community as a whole. Several manifestations may bring forward all sorts of the types of antisemitic acts which we see increasing since a decade and by the growing popularity of two Flemish National parties, the right-wing populist Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, with a strong anti-immigrant message that succeeded the right-wing Vlaams Block, and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA – New Flemish Alliance), a movement that self-identifies with the promotion of civic nationalism, which strives for the secession of Flanders from Belgium.

The last few years in Belgium and France we have seen an increase in desecration of Jewish cemeteries, vandalism of Jewish buildings or institutions, expressions of hostility towards Jews and Jeshuaists in the street and other public places, but also an enormous antisemitism in the media. It is incredible what we can find on the internet, including social media, where nobody seems to be willing or able to silence the hate-speech.
In 2018 antisemitism online was already seen as a particularly widespread problem: a large majority of all respondents in the 12 survey countries (89 %) consider this either ‘a very big’ or a ‘fairly big’ problem, and as many (88 %) believed that it had increased over the past five years. The percentage of respondents indicating that antisemitism on the internet is problematic is especially high (at least 90 %) in Belgium, France, Italy, and Poland. In Belgium and France, a majority of respondents rated almost all antisemitic manifestations that the survey asked about as ‘a very big’ or ‘a fairly big’ problem. These are also the countries with the highest proportion of respondents indicating antisemitism in general as a problem.

The majority of respondents of that survey are aware of legislation that forbids discrimination based on ethnic origin or religion – some 64 %–87 %, depending on the area, indicated knowing about it. They are most aware of anti-discrimination legislation in employment and least aware of protection related to housing. Most respondents (71 %) also say they are aware of an organisation in the country that offers advice or support for people who are discriminated against, but we should be aware that out of self-protection most Jews and Jeshuaists do not dare to react or bring the problem into the public. Respondents most often referred to Jewish organisations specialising in the safety and security of the Jewish community and/or antisemitism, and national equal-ity or human rights bodies. Lots of Jews and Jeshuaists lost their trust in the Belgian State and in Belgian politicians.

Fortunatelyserious incidents are today punishable by law. For example, in 2018 Unia was a civil party in the case against the vandal who caused serious damage in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp.

“Unia was also a civil party in the case concerning the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels.”

Last November Unia was calling for a more inclusive image for folkloric events and intangible heritage such as the pre-Lent merrymaking and festivity carnival. Unia said local organisers and partners can play an important role in this. That is one of Unia’s recommendations in a report drawn up following the controversy about the anti-Semitic float in the municipality Aalst, on the Dender River, 24 km (15 miles) northwest of Brussels.

Unia feels that dialogue and awareness must be a priority.

“What is offensive to one person is apparently folklore for another. Showing consideration for other people’s sensitivities can never be simply imposed by law. Only through dialogue can we take into account the feelings of others and learn to see things from their point of view. “

That is why Unia organised meetings between Belgium’s Forum of Jewish Organisations and a group of Aalst carnivalists.

“Their float – depicting anti-Semitic stereotypes – was unintentionally reminiscent of Nazi propaganda. We understand that many people were shocked by this connotation, and it led to a highly polarised conflict. We have seen that both parties now have an understanding of each other’s position and context. Talking to each other does not guarantee that stereotypes will never crop up again, but it is a start.”

It could have gone the right way, but this year, it uncovered the hidden agenda more clearly. From what was presented at the cortège was more than just laughing with something that bothered them. It was showing their disgust for another culture and other religion than theirs.

Much too often we hear the excuse

“For carnivalists, freedom of expression means the freedom to make fun of anything and anyone.”

Though, one should question how far one can go with mockery. Unia says

“Conversely, that freedom also means that you are bound to provoke controversy now and then, and you have to be able to deal with criticism.”

People from Aalst seem to have lots of difficulty with the criticism they received over the last twelve months.

Lots of events happening in Aalst real lovers of God would never come to know if they were not shown on television and brought into social media.
Thanks to social media, images of parades and festivities are reaching the general public on an unprecedented scale and are thus amplified and sometimes, or more than once, may be taken out of context. Moreover, while in the past, traditions were not called into question, this questioning has now become appropriate, Unia notes.

“As such, that is a positive thing. Folkloristic events can evolve according to changing attitudes and new insights, allowing them to become celebrations in which no one is left out”,

according to Keytsman.

We do find politicians and organisations for protecting civilians, should recognise historical similarities and see the dangers behind certain events, which, in the beginning may look harmless and childish, but have a very deep and dangerous undertone. Puerile actions may develop into actions out of frustration and dissatisfaction which generates aggression against certain population groups.

This year out of frustration, how they were treated by Unesco, everal people in the parade mocked the specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), using Jewish caricatures as well.

But, from what we came to see and hear in the media, it went much further.

Unia promises to collect all the information and will investigate whether criminal offences were committed. For this, they are in contact with the prosecutor’s office and the police.

We wonder how Unia is going to act or take juridical prosecution against the group who had their float a sign labelled

“regulations for the Jewish party committee,”

and it included a not to misunderstand sarcastic:

“Do not mock Jews”

and a shocking

“Certainly do not tell the truth about the Jew.”

which clearly indicates they have formed an idea about Jews in general and do want others to believe that Jews have something to hide or do not want to have the truth about them told. This means those carnavalists understand the truth about the Jews is not or may not be told!?!

Rudi Roth, a journalist for the Antwerp-based Joods Actueel Jewish paper, said the expressions of anti-Semitism in Aalst this year were more numerous and prominent than last year. He called it a

“backlash effect.”

Coming closer to the event celebrities gave notice not having free time to come to the parade. Several politicians backed out of appearances with Aalst’s mayor, who has defended the parade displays.

According to Christophe D’Haese of the right-wing New Flemish Alliance, carnival is not an anti-Semitic event and should be seen in its context of

“everything is allowed”.

He said the event

“certainly has anti-Semitic elements,”

the likes of which he said had not been on display since the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945.

With good reason Rubinfeld said

“Aalst’s name is now associated with anti-Semitism,and that’s partly because of the mayor’s inaction.”

With questioning eyes, we are very curious to see whether Unia this year will make a real effort to go to court and make it clear that what has been shown this year in Aalst has been far out of proportion in our society and cannot be admitted.

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Preceding

What to do in the Face of Global Anti-semitism

Anti-Semitic pressure driving Jews out of Europe

Perhaps Anti-Semitism for lots of people isn’t always easy to see

What makes you following Christ and Facebook Groups

A Jew and Muslim walking together side by side down USA city streets

Speaking up and Celebration of Purim

Numbers 10:10 Make Your Rejoicing Heard

Niet te negeren gebeurtenissen rond Joden in België

Hoe ver kan men gaan om zich te beroepen op Vrije meningsuiting

Aalst Carnaval: Unia analyseert meldingen

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How a British ‘Master Spy’ Saved Thousands of Jews in the Holocaust

In 2005, the United Nations designated 27 January as an International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. On Monday 27 January 2020 it was a more special International Holocaust Remembrance Day because of the 75th anniversary of the Jewish liberation from Auschwitz.

Underneath you may find a list of articles looking at the commemorations and reactions which were made to those who were allowed to speak at those commemorations. In those articles you shall come to see how we are developing again to a dangerous situation where certain people with ‘other ideas’ and another religion than the ‘main stream’ are again considered as to be outcast and to be silenced or not having the right to speak.

When looking at that horrible period of cruelty and the many years that people stood aside not daring to open their mouth, we luckily may find also dome positive notes of people who dared to help others, risking their own life.

Despite the horrors that occurred at Auschwitz and other concentration camps, thousands of Jewish lives were spared because of the covert operations of unsung heroes.

One such man was Major Francis “Frank” Edward Foley CMG , a passport control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, who “bent the rules” and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Major Francis “Frank” Edward Foley (1884-1958) recognised as a British Hero of the Holocaust and as a Righteous Among the Nations.

Though most saw Foley as a “low-level British bureaucrat serving in Berlin” just before World War II, ^{[1 Gragg, Rod. My Brother’s Keeper: Christians Who Risked All to Protect Jewish Targets of the Nazi Holocaust, “Francis Foley,” (Center Street Publishing, 2017). ]} he was actually a master spy in the MI6, the British intelligence service. He focused his efforts on the rise of German Communists, then on Hitler’s campaign to reactivate and expand the German military — until he learned what was happening in the Nazi concentration camps.^{[2 Gradd, 2017]} He went on to secretly save thousands of Jewish lives.

To remember the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, we offer this reflection on Frank Foley’s selfless rescue missions, adapted from My Brother’s Keeper: Christians Who Risked All to Protect Jewish Targets of the Nazi Holocaust. 

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Foley’s intelligence operation . . . revealed evidence that Jewish inmates imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps being erected throughout Germany were suffering horrors. Despite his protests, however, his London superiors waved away the accounts as ridiculous exaggerations. Foley then appealed to British immigration officials, asking them to expedite Jewish requests for asylum in Great Britain and its colonies, but encountered more bureaucratic apathy.

Frustrated but determined, Foley decided to help Germany’s Jews himself. Using his official cover as the British passport control officer in Berlin, he began issuing droves of passports to Jews seeking escape from Germany. Like Feng Shan Ho, his Chinese counterpart in Austria, Foley was motivated by more than just humanitarian concerns: his faith as a Christian compelled him to act, he believed—especially when so many of those who were persecuting the Jews claimed that they were Christians.

. . .

The pogrom against the Jews which left thousands of premises, homes and synagogues destroyed and therefore became widely known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass – its meaning taken from the smashed windows and shards of broken glass strewn across German streets.

After Kristallnacht in 1938, the desperation increased within Germany’s Jewish community. Determined to escape the Nazis and save their families, German Jews began showing up unannounced at Foley’s Berlin flat. As a passport officer, he did not have diplomatic immunity, and he knew what could happen to him if Nazi authorities learned he was issuing thousands of passports or personally harbouring Jews. Despite the danger, he continued his mission. . . . Every month, hundreds of Jews came to Foley seeking escape from Nazi Germany. He realized that most of them would be hauled off to concentration camps before they could be processed by the ponderous, bureaucratic British immigration system — so he developed a streamlined process that severely stretched regulations but still complied with British law.

As relations deteriorated between Nazi Germany and Britain and France, Foley realized that war was imminent and redoubled his efforts to help Jews escape Germany. When warfare erupted in September 1939, Foley disappeared — off on the first of many wartime espionage assignments in which he would distinguish himself as one of the key allied intelligence operatives of World War II.

Obituary of Leo Baeck

A few days before the war began, Leo Baeck, a leading German rabbi and one of Foley’s chief Jewish contacts, received a message to pick up a package from Foley’s office in the British consulate. Foley was gone when Baeck arrived, but the package awaited him. It was Frank Foley’s final outreach to the imperilled Jews of Germany. Inside were more than eighty British passports officially stamped and approved for travel outside Germany, each with the spaces for name and address left blank — to be filled in by escaping Jews whom Frank Foley had never met.

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9. Seventy-five years ago on January 27
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11. 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
12. 5th World Holocaust Forum
13. Dedication ceremony for a memorial at Jerusalem’s Sachar Park in honour of the casualties of the Siege of Leningrad
14. Auschwitz survivors providing a warning of rising anti-Semitism and exclusion of free thinking
15. What’s the Future of Holocaust Remembrance?
16. Christadelphians’ role in the rescue of Jewish children from Nazi Germany
17. Christadelphians, the Kindertransport, and Rescue from the Holocaust

the Soup will not be eaten as hot as it is served

“Are they really bringing people to workplaces to give them a better life?”

It was known or said that even if Jews were converted to the Christian faith, they remained “different” because of their bloodline. It was also known that many were jealous for the lifestyle and family feeling which could  be found in the Klal Yisrael or Jewish communities. Many goyim found the Jews separated themselves from the society, but they did not often see it were goyim who themselves gave enough reason not to mix too much with them.

Samuel Morgenstern was one of those shopkeepers who was one of the most loyal buyers of Hitler’s paintings in Vienna, by which Hitler could receive enough money not to be a tramp. Naturally there were also rumours Hitler could not stand Jews because he got a disease from regularly going to some ‘Jewish harlots’.

Portrait of Karl Lueger (ca. 1900), mayor of Vienna. He used anti-Semitism as a political strategy. Collection: Austrian National Library / painter: Alois Delug. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Rights: Public Domain

Mein Kampf, (German: “My Struggle”) political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book and became the bible of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany’s Third Reich. It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1927, and an abridged edition appeared in 1930. By 1939 it had sold 5,200,000 copies and had been translated into 11 languages.

It perhaps were not just rumours that the politician, co-founder and leader of the Austrian Christian Social Party, and mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger (1844-1910), used anti-Semitism as a political strategy, and that he was also praised as “the greatest German mayor of all time” by Adolf Hitler (In Mein Kampf) who did not mind following his ideas.

The prejudices about the role of the Jews in the Great War were incorrect, but as with many rumours, it spread like a virus. Many Germans did not want to believe how more than one hundred thousand German and Austrian Jews had fought for their homeland, one of them being Otto Frank, the German-born merchant best known as the father of Anne Frank, who witnessed the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

In the 1920ies our family members could already hear how our brethren were compared with germs. It was as if our people had been infecting generations for ages. That Hitler never thought his people were not strong enough to live according to the wishes of their god or according to the mitzvot of the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. Lots of our friends could not believe that those who said they were “Christian” and as such would, or should, be following the Nazarene Jewish rabbi who preached brotherly love, could do such atrocious things, as others told about them. Perhaps it was to set up Jehudiem against Christians, so that the goyim had all the reason to tell

religion is the cause of war.

The words spread that Hitler said that you cannot fight a disease without destroying the person who caused it, and as such according to him, the influence of the Jews would never disappear without removing the perpetrator, the Jude, from the midst of the Arian race.

Radical ideas paved the way for the mass murder of the Jews in the 1940s, but not many of the Bnei Yisroel or Chosen People of God wanted to believe the rumours at first.

In many families, like ours, it was the saying

“the Soup will not be eaten as hot as it is served”.

They heard about plans which would be taken, but they seemed so unbelievable that they could not be true or would have been exaggerated, as by a circling fire. Others were not so much at ease, and warned

“to be aware of a silent dog and still water”.

Should we look askance at him? Now we can easily say they had much better looked at him out of the tail of their eyes. By not believing the many rumours, lots were woken up with a start, when it was too late.

For a long time, many wondered if it was within the odds, whilst others said

“He is not likely to go.”

Others wanted to be a friend to all, forgetting that then they would be a friend to none. Many debates about what went on in Germany and Austria could bring lots of talks after the children were sent to bed. For sure that what was to be spoken about was not for children’s ears.

It was, and is still, known that there was and is, an existing prejudice that Jews associate with financial power and monetary gain. Many are also convinced Jews are “foefelaars“, who make their pile on the poor white people. Lots of Jews may be looked at as a ramay / nokhel, a fiddler or cheater whilst there was no oysnarn at all.

White movement propaganda poster from the Russian Civil War era (1919), a caricature of Leon Trotsky, who was viewed as a symbol of Jewish Bolshevism.

In many countries people also looked at the Jehudi as the originators or conspirators and spreaders of communism. The vast majority of the communist leaders at that time were Jewish. However, it is only a small part of the Jews that were communists, and what a lot of people did not see is that several Jews were promoting or aiming for social equality, this being considered by many liberals and capitalists a danger for the economy and consumption gain. During the war with the Soviet Union, from 1941 on, it will be the idea of the ‘Jewish communism’ (sometimes also called Marxian-communism or meant to be Jewish Bolshevism, also Judeo–Bolshevism) with terrible consequences. The population and the prisoners of war being brutally treated by the Germans.

When Hitler got into power rumours got stronger, but still many did not want to believe what went around. Others were smart enough to be at the safe site by sending their beloved far away from Germany and Austria. Some thought they would be safe in Holland, but how they were mistaken. Having gone to Holland luckily several managed to cross the channel and find a safe haven in the United Kingdom, but the others got taken and deported.

At the Schalkland, in the “Klein-Brabant” region, less than 25 kilometres from the centre of Brussels and 19 kilometres from Antwerp, to the south of the Dendermonde highway (Mechelen – Dendermonde) was build the “Willebroeck Fort” as a fortified defence to protect the port and city of Antwerp, which by Royal Order dated 12 January 1907 rechristened the fort “Breendonck Fort”. On september 20th 1940 Sturmbannführer Philip Schmitt brought his first victims to Breendonk. The Fort officially became the Auffanglager Breendonk, a transit camp; a major centre for the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst (SIPO/SD), the german political police.

Words spread that in Breendonk the kaze-the mats were to be removed from the earth in which they were covered. Three or four men had to push a railway carriage that was loaded with the earth. It was not the best marterial the prisoners had to use. Of these vehicles, the wheels were worn out, having to be pushed on worn-out rails, so that a person would have more than it is possible. Was it a rumour or was it true that the SS guards, with their weapons beated on the upper arms, the backs of the heads of the unfortunate ones until the latter were exhausted, but also fell dead?

Former working site at the camp of Breendonk. The regime set up here by the Nazis hardly differed from that of an official concentration camp. The undernourishment and the forced labour wore down the body and mind. The ever-present physical cruelty sometimes caused the death of prisoners. Initially, the camp was only guarded by a few German SS and a detachment of the Wehrmacht. In September 1941, the Wachtgruppe of the SD arrived as back up. This time, these were no longer German SS but mainly Flemings.

Some of the prisoners were to be buried up to the neck, after they were first on a ferocious manner, beaten. The S, S. jailers were there, then settled for the pitiful earth at the face of them. The game lasted sometimes for 1 or 2 hours, and when the victims were about to die, they did not stop to punch and to death. During the singing of the song of Breendonk, the text of which these words were placed on the grave:

” Wir werden nie mehr Breendonk vergessen, das Paradies-tier Juden…’.”

Sturmbannführer (majoor) Schmitt had created and placed a pulley on the ceiling in a folterbunker (torture bunker or blockhouse) of the camp, to make, that the victim’s hands at the back tied up would be drawn to the ceiling.

After that, it was a pizzle of the shot, he was then beaten with a bullepees (bullenpees: baton between a whip and a stick made from dried penis of a bull). When the hoist was released, the unfortunate person fell on two angular boards. Kachelpoken or stove pokers were glowed for immediate use,… because the Jews were not worth the bullet. They had to be sent to death during work and by torture.

When the words rang true for most of the Jews still living in the region, it was too late to find a safe place for their children and for themselves.

After the camps in Belgium or Holland as “Musselmen” (completely emaciated) thousands were deported to Germany to find an end to their unbearable suffering, either of starvation, giving up, or in the gas chambers.

The remaining Jews in Belgium were unable to follow the course of events that their fellow believers underwent elsewhere. Their own concerns were too overwhelming for this and contact with neighbouring countries was too incomplete. The seeping job tidings were considered exaggerated …

Commissioned by the notorious member of Heinrich Himmler’s SS, the Nazi paramilitary corps, Adolf Eichmann, the Sicherheits polizei in Berlin, wrote the following urgent letter, in which the word “Secret” is not missing (22 June 1942):

“From mid-July and early August this year, special trains of 1,000 people each day are planned, first of all about 40,000 Jews from the occupied French territory,
Send 40,000 Jews from the Netherlands and 10,000 Jews from Belgium to employment in the Auschwitz camp.
“The circle of persons to be included extends primarily to Jews who are skilled in work, insofar as they do not live in mixed marriages and do not have the nationality of the British Empire, of the U.S.A., of Mexico, from the enemy states, from Central and South America, as well as from the neutral and related states.

“I may request willing access and assume that there are no objections to these measures on the part of the foreign office either.
Commissioned get. Eichman “

On 12 July 1942 the last restriction on freedom before the local raids started was put visible on billboards. From the onward Jews were no longer allowed to visit cinemas, theatres, sports grounds or public institutions. In the trams they were only allowed to stand on the front platform of the trailer.

Such regulations still did not unbalance many of the Jewish diluted community. According to many the German measures only wanted to deprive the Jews of public pleasures … (Few will then have immediately known that the first nocturnal masses in Paris on Friday July 17, 1942 raffle had taken place.)

Pennant for Organisation Todt

Woman with Ostarbeiter OT badge at Auschwitz

The second Jewish labour team was also confidently leaving the civil and military engineering organisation “Organization Todt” to Charleville-Mèzières (18 July), until on July 22 the second deception beared its bitter fruit.(It was the day that the memorial of the destruction of the Temple took place in Jerusalem in the evening – Tischa be’af – -). Jews were arrested without any excuse! When that day the trains from Brussels and Antwerp stopped at Mechelen as usual, Feldgendarmen were on the platform. All the Jews, both men and women, were taken out. The same happened at the Antwerp and Brussels North terminus stations. (The Brussels-North-South connection did not yet exist.) Their freedom had ended. Some went to Breendonk. Most were sent to the 18^th century Dossin barracks, where between 1942 and 1944, 25,484 Jews, 352 Roma and Sinti were deported. Just over 5% returned from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Kazerne Dossin, Goswin de Stassartstraat 153, B. 2800 Mechelen, where in the old barracks, visitors will find a memorial, which commemorates countless people who stayed there in despair and fear and who died later in unspeakable circumstances.

From the onward the Jews throughout Belgium were being seized by panic. Being an ode alone was therefore sufficient here to be arrested … The Jewish Council was powerless … followed by a reaction of partial sobering among the Jewish population. They forged new flight plans that were kept secret even from close acquaintances.
The panic mood was tempered after a few days. When  people received mail from the internees in Mechelen it all looked not as bad as the rumours went around.

They are not nearly as bad there … Fruits are missing … They may receive packages …

Faces from those who lost their life after being brought to the Dosin Kazerne in Mechelen

These days we remember all those who lost their life in a struggle to survive in a hatefull world.

Let us not forget how politicians can use disinformation and propaganda to mislead many and to create unwanted scapegoats.
We also may not let ourselves be fooled this time that it would not be as bad today with what was happening in the 1930ies. There are people who say

That can never repeat again

but after the Great War all people agreed also that such a horror should never take place again. Only a few years later the world found itself again in such time or terror.

This time let us be more careful, notice the signs of people bringing others on the wrong path, and react wisely to those who want us to believe we are ridiculous seeing ghosts or bad things in what are just jokes or carnavalesc activities.

 

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Preceding

Remembrance and freedom in the Netherlands – Dodenherdenking and Bevrijdingsdag

Niet te negeren gebeurtenissen rond Joden in België

The danger of having less than 25 000 Jews in Belgium

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Additional reading

1. The Great War changed everything
2. Reformed Churches Muzzled but Protest at Barmen
3. 2019 was #4 a Year of much deceit in Belgium and the rest of Europe
4. Signs of the times – “An object of scorn and ridicule”

How to Go Forward without Fear

Lots of our brethren and sisters do not dare to come in the open. Most Jeshuaists prefer to stay in the darkness of this world hidden. They are afraid of being discovered or unmasked as Jew or Jeshuaist.

Many of our friends wonder how we live life when the world seems to be spinning in ways we did not expect it to be and where so many are against other religious people. Many Jews in Belgium and France are afraid. Several already left these regions, because they did not find it safe any-more for their kids to grow up here, and remembering what happened to those who wanted to leave Europe in the 1930ies too late.

Perhaps we should go to the Scriptures to find some advice, for being able to cope with our fear.

The first chapter of the book of Habakkuk is essentially a long complaint followed by God’s response. It then continues with yet another complaint and another response from God. The book concludes with a prayer or a Psalm from Habakkuk. This book was written, proceeding the fall of Babylon, yet the date of composition of the book cannot be guaranteed just by perusing the book itself. Most likely, individuals who lived after the fall Babylonia in 539 BCE understood much of this book is a meditation on life in an unjust world. They wondered how to relate to God when nations “slays nations without pity,” and “seize homes not their own.”

Today we can see many places in the world where nations are slain. We can see that political leaders do not mind what happens to those living in their country. Some even not having a blush on their face when they use gas-bombs on areas where many innocent people (inclusive many children) live.
We find lots of places where there are people who say they fight in the name of Allah (= God) but do the most atrocious things one can think of. Often they say it is the suffering people their own fault, not trusting in the right god.

What do we do when individuals do not place their trust in God, and how can a pious person deal with this unwieldy situation?

God responds that the answer is clearly written on tablets, perhaps as described in the book of Deuteronomy.

He then says:

הִנֵּ֣ה עֻפְּלָ֔ה לֹא־יָשְׁרָ֥ה נַפְשׁ֖וֹ בּ֑וֹ וְצַדִּ֖יק בֶּאֱמוּנָת֥וֹ יִחְיֶֽה׃

“Lo, his spirit within him is puffed up, not upright, But the righteous man is rewarded with life For his fidelity.” (Habakkuk 2:4)

This verse, initially describes a person whose life is swollen with not good things and who lives a twisted or unjust life. Perhaps it is one full of deception or one full of egotism. It then moves to a pious person whose faith is in God even under the most dire circumstances. Even though they must live life where justice is delayed or denied, that time according to God will be short-lived. Habakkuk goes on to draw a parallel with Isaiah chapter 11:9, that there will be a time when everyone will know God…

We agree today does not seem to be such a time, because not many are knowing God. Several people may say they believe in God, but they do not worship God, or many even believing in a three-headed god, they call the Trinity, and as such not believing in the God of Moshe, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Christ and his disciples.

Today sometimes it looks like we are living in a world where everything is permitted, as long as it is not a matter of religious expression. Then suddenly no religious symbols are allowed or persons are not allowed to wear what their religion demands. In several countries we can see demonic people offering themselves as the leader who shall make their nation great again. With the stroke of a pen those men think they themselves can play for god and decide what to do with other people and with other nations. Every occasion, be it even the national day they use for putting themselves in the picture and throwing hate words against others.

Today many people are confronted with difficulties to come around, not earning enough, but working hard enough to have not much time for the rest of the day. Several people in Europe are wondering and struggling, what can they could do to make this world a better place and to assure it to make Europe a safe haven for all sorts of people.

In a world of greed, where materialistic values often take first place, money or financial gain and pleasure have become the gods of today next to the many starlets and idols from entertainment and sports.

In this world today there seems not much place for integrity, the moral value that makes people the same on the inside as they are on the outside — with no discrepancy between what they say and what they do, between their walk and their talk. Many people around us prefer to wear a mask and present themselves differently on social media than they are in reality. that is also an important factor why so many in our community are so afraid to show themselves in public.

Though I believe we should not hide, but come out of our cocoon and show people that it might go different ánd better. The answer is that the most impact we will have is on those who surround us. It is their lives that we can make better. We can and should speak up when we see injustices, and we can remove blind spots by becoming more aware of the world around us and the systems that work in it – systemic poverty and racism for example. We need to focus our energies on walking in the footsteps of God as a community. The book of Habakkuk ends by saying:

“my Elohim Hashem Jehovah is my strength: he makes my feet like the deer’s and lets me stride upon the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:19).

You should know it is inside of us all  that God is found and when we unite our hands together we can bring the divine into this world through our very actions.

Those who believe in God should join hands and show the world their unity. It may not always be easy to live our lives full of tackling difficult and challenging issues, but let those experiences cause ourselves to grow and become better individuals and communities more focused on God and assisting those around us.

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Additional reading

1. If some of us do not feel safe
2. Speciesism and racism
3. Governments need to be more proactive to ensure racism is kept in check
4. Christian fundamentalists feeding Into the Toxic Partisanship and driving countries into the Dark Ages… #1
5. Faith related boycotts
6. Rome mobilisation to say no to fascism and racism
7. On French beach French police forces woman to undress in public
8. Allowing dress code according liberty of religion
9. Today’s thought “When approaching the battle against your enemies today” (May 03)
10. Religious Freedom in a Multicultural World
11. Jewish and Gentile Disciples
12. Martin Luther King’s Dream Today
13. God Our Refuge

Racist tirade on Columbia’s university campus

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Related

1. In The Grip Of The Politics Of Disimagination And The Pathologies Of Power
2. Religious Freedom
3. On religious freedom
4. Christian values; Porn stars and religious freedoms
5. The biggest difference between Israeli and American Jews
6. Deconstructing Scotty
7. Where Does It End???
8. Lansman’s Extraordinary Attempt to Smear Anti-Semitism Whistleblowers
9. The fight against anti-Semitism on the arena of international sports
10. Critics who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones about anti-semitism. Chaos arrived at Labour HQ before Corbyn did
11. Jeremy Corbyn’s time has run out to solve Labor’s anti-Semitism crisis
12. The Bigotry Of The ‘Anti-Racists’
13. Jennie Formby goes to Tom Watson’s home in union anti-Semitism
14. Corbyn Criticizes the “Inaccuracies” of the BBC Concerning Labor Anti-Semitism | politics
15. Jewish figures stubbornly resist Labor’s treatment of anti-Semitism charges | Policy
16. Hopefully, the Labor nightmare will be over soon, for Jews and for the country
17. “HATE: The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France (and What It Means for Us),” by Marc Weitzmann
18. Jewish German group says news article els fueled anti-Semitism ‘
19. A Question of American Values
20. “Who Is My Neighbor?” – Sermon on Luke 10:25-37: The Good Samaritan
21. From Whence Anti-Semitism?
22. Muslim Women Debate Anti-Semitism
23. Abandon Ship!
24. Snakes Slithering From ‘Neath The Rocks …
25. Muslims seek voice in a changing Uzbekistan
26. 25-Year-Old Woman Says She Was Kicked Out Of Golden Corral For Dressing ‘Too Provocatively’
27. Normal, Odd, and Different
28. Florida father wears ‘short shorts’ to teach daughter dress code lesson
29. Black & Yellow for the festive ready at the office!!
30. No Hats in School: This is Not a Bar-B-Que
31. This School Now Has One Dress Code for All Genders — But Why Doesn’t Every School?
32. Combating Racism, One Day at a Time
33. After the Trump attack: “US President’s blatant racist attack” – Politics
34. For Trump It Is About Skin Color
35. Tuesday’s Quick Hits
36. Quacks like a duck
37. Trumpian Hypocrisy: Rep. Ilhan Omar Has Been A U.S. Citizen Longer Than Melania Trump
38. Why the Republican silence talks about Trump’s racist tweets volumes – France 24
39. Donald Trump: Graceless Under No Pressure
40. Racial injustice in America
41. Donald Trump branded ‘racist’ by Humza Yousaf over ‘hate crime’ comments about US Congresswomen
42. Opinion: I learned a valuable life lesson at the barbershop. It takes courage to speak out against hatred.>
43. Integrity Takes Effort
44. Dignity Check

For Jews wanting to learn more about Jeshua and of other Jews following Jeshua

Many Jews prefer to stay in the background or in the shadow. Some Jews become curious in the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua and would love to come to know more about him and his followers.

In Israel, Great-Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are Jewish brethren and sisters who would not mind to tell about this incredible master teacher. As followers of Jeshua or Jeshuaists, in the Netherlands also some calling themselves Jesjoeaansen or Jesjoeaist (from another Dutch way of writing Jeshua’s name: Jesjoea), are hoping to bring more people to see that Jeshua or Jesus Christ is the way to God and the long awaited promised sent one from God, the anointed or Messiah (the Moshiach = Kristos or Christ).

On the web you may find

From the Flemish part of Belgium and the Brussels region there is published the general website: Jeshuaisten / Jeshuaists Volgers van de Nazarener Joodse rebbe Jeshua – Followers of the Nazarene Jewish rebbe Jeshua

and additional two more personal sites of a Jeshuaist and of Immanuel Verbondskind

From the Walloon site of Belgium you may find: Jeshuaists (from Genvalin mainly in english and some French) and the site discussing Jeshuaism (from Genval in Dutch)

with its blog

with its blog

and both also with a Forum

Naturally both Jews and non-Jews are very welcome to those sites which want to shed a light on the set apart or Holy Scriptures and our way of life, in the prospect of our hope in the Messiah and the coming Kingdom of God.

Need to reject an archaic, racist inspired interpretation of the Bible and animosity against other believers

In Belgium and France we see a growing hatred against lovers of the One and Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. Several Jews have been attacked physically or were made afraid by all kinds of threats or intimidations. That made many of our brethren and sisters leave for Israel. In France Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bible Students and Christadelphians are prohibited to proclaim the Good News or the Gospel of the Kingdom in public, for example by speaking to people on the street or by billing leaflets. In several regions people look down at Muslims or show their hate, giving the impression that they must be all so terrible or be believers of the faith IS promotes.

The Netherlands for years already had their very conservative Calvinist groups, but the last 30 years they were joined by other radical Christians. Many of those follow the Bible literally and can’t read in between the lines nor showing understanding Hebrew thinking or Hebrew way of talk.

As a college professor, the writer of Help from Heaven looks at this world and sees how we have come to a period people want to have eye-flaps, but also finds that the present youngsters could perhaps be more interested in and learning from stories that illustrated the teachings he was bringing but also about the teaching the Holy Scriptures wants to bring to mankind.

Is it

Archaic, bygone, ancient, passe, primitive, old. {Bonkers away blog: daily-prompt: Archaic}

that makes us not fitting in this world any more, giving us the impression it is becoming less accepting, more limited of views, less free thinking, more prudent, less receptive to other opinions. We clearly feel how youngsters today look more hostile to different thinking people, otherwise believers and to those who belong to a different culture.

Also certain communities are guilty of bringing limitations to free thinking. We even do not have to go far. In our own regions we have very conservative Jews who want to have the children over protected and also want them to believe in literal Biblical interpretation, holding fast on a six day creation and as such with their thought on the same line as the growing group of Christian Creationists. You may call it a response to modern evolutionary theory, which explains the emergence and diversity of life without recourse to the doctrine of God or any other divine power. Mainstream scientists generally rejecting creationism may find several believers in God joining them too, but worse is to see how by the growing pressure of certain religious groups trying to get diversion or war between other religious groups, we can see many more people getting fed up with religion and putting it aside.

Certain people want to to overwrite history and think they can make for it a better picture that covers the archaic marks and portray a new picture. They have the impression the strokes that they shall strike this time shall be much stronger and sharper just like the person they have become in the journey of their life … {“Life is like an Old Sketch”}

The article “The Racist Bible” brings a view of the recent problems our world is facing. There is written:

We live with such an archaic interpretation of the Bible. People interpreted the Bible in different ways 100 years ago, 500 years ago, and 1500 years ago. We need to know why those interpretations came into being. Once we do, we can see how it is hurting us. Only then can we move on to a powerful Biblical interpretation, one that is vibrant and appeals to the modern non-Christian. {The Racist Bible}

In several of the Jeshuaists their articles they try to bring a view how the ancient Hebrews saw the beginning of the world and how the Adonai handled the rebellion of man. We can see how by the years ‘Church‘ made use to bend words or twist interpretations to get people under the spell or in their ban. Several religious groups love to have control over their flock and found it most appropriate to do that with fearmongering and with hard language (sometimes even going so far to use abusive language or enormity). Scaring people or trying to intimidate them has become more popular these days. We can find certain preachers (like Mr. Dave Norris) happy to present all sorts of lies about other religious groups than their own church, (for Mr Norris: the Bible Church), which must be the only one true church every one should have to become a member, because otherwise they shall have to burn in hell for ever. Strangely enough in several articles he attacks groups which say we are saved but still have to do works.  He then claims (like Mr. Cross Roman)  we do not have to do any works any more because we are saved by Christ his blood. Norris also knows about the problems of human tradition and writes

All this is ridiculous and pits Apostolic Authority against scripture. Judaism regards the Torah or the first five books of the Bible highly but not quite as high as the Talmud which is Jewish tradition. Tradition can be classified as a philosophy written by men. Whether you believe it or not the Bible was not written by men per se but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Christadelphians and Bible students also follow their own traditions which supersedes the word of God and each Congregation of those bodies believe differently as there is no uniform Doctrine. Just like in the Book of Judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes yes. I follow the word of God and place very little impetus on tradition. {Precious Spiritual Children- 2}

He tells others lies about the Belgian Biblestudents and Christadelphians, so called claiming Jesus would return a certain day or year (what they certainly do not)  but he himself writes that the Jewish people will accept a guaranteed peace covenant secured by the countries of the now 80% Islamic Roman Empire.

Norris on return of Christ + Jews+ Islamic world + doctrine of imminence+end-time prophesies

Some preachers, because they believe the world shall come to an end, try to call others false prophets and try their believers to belief that those groups would have prophesied such dates for the end of the world, whilst those groups, like the Belgian Bible Students and the Christadelphians already have spend many articles saying that we should be careful with people claiming that Jesus would return on such or such a day, because even Jesus did not know it and we also can not know the exact day of the return of Jesus. But for sure we may be sure that the world shall not come to an end, not because the Belgian Bible students and the Christadelphians belief so , but because that is just the biblical truth and God’s promise  to our Patriarch Abraham, that we may look forward to a big state of united people under God’s King his reign her on earth and in heaven.

Lots of present teachers attacking Jews, Non-Trinitarian Christians and Muslims do have much self-esteem and though they seem to recognise it as part of the possible signs of the end-times do not see the beam in their own eyes but blame the splinters in someone else’s skin, claiming that at all dates setters fail to do is to rely on the words of the scripture which they only are able to do, them being able to see how fast Satan is working to cause chaos and evil, deceiving this world (like Mr. Norris is doing), because all others are “kindergartners” or “have no brains” (Norris his words).

The kettle blames the pot that it looks black but does not see the beam in its own eyes while it complains about the splinters in someone else’s skin. Mr. Dave Norris blaming others to tell and warn about end-times sings, but giving himself also some recognition to those signs in his series over the The End Times (namely part 4)

It might look honourable when people try to talk about that nice prospect of their Messiah coming back. But then they would have to follow the footsteps of that Nazarene master teacher Jeshua, Jesus Christ, who preached peace and not war, like they are doing. So many preachers may be happy with the contemporary technology making it very easy to bring the Word of God all over the nations. To our regret we also find lots of people finding in it a tool to spit their gal and to do everything to have their poisonous words to obscure all reality and decency.

Internet evangelism is how the nations will have an opportunity to hear and receive the Good News. No longer can one person reach only as many as he knows or comes into contact with. Today one person, right out of the comfort of his home, can reach millions of people in places he has never been and most likely, never will go. One person can invest a little time, without investing thousands of dollars in travel expenses, and can do much more, plant more seeds, and encourage more brethren than if he were to board a plane and go somewhere. {Today’s “Roman Road” – the Internet}

But at the same time we can see how one person can manage to bring all sorts of writings on the different denominations which exist in the world of religion, to break them. He even attacks the people of God and let his readers believe that we give more attention to human teachings and traditions than to the Torah.

Dave Norris of the Bible Church on Jews + Talmud + Rabbinical teaching

Mr Dave Norris of an American bible Church wanting his readers and all people in the world to believe the Jews are using the goyim as their slaves and would find raping women and killing whites ok, clearly wanting to create hatred against the Jewish people (Picture from The Shocking Jewish Talmud Revealed)

Concerning founders Mr. Norris has shown, about other denominations too, he also has a strange view, him believing it were the Hebrews who founded Judaism, though it was the Most Almighty Elohim Who has chosen us as His people and promised us by the seed of Abraham a great nation.

He also seems to forget one of the main points of a monotheist religion, which according to him our ancestors would have created. In Judaism part 101-1 he mentions the essence of a monotheist religion, namely worshipping only One True God above all gods, whilst he is a worshipper not of “One and Unique” God, but of the trinity and as such worships three gods: a God the Father, god the son and god the Holy Spirit, and by doing so should fall under the polytheists. When he considers the Hebrew religion as the mother religion of his religion, we would like to ask him why he went so far away from his mother and betrayed her?

Judaism – Jews chosen by God practising and teaching monotheism

For Mr. Norris it seems to be clear that all those who preach peace between Jews, Christians, Muslims and non believers are oxymorons.

Mr Dave Norris finds all those who want to live in peace together and accept the other religious groups “biblical oxymoron” finding they falter between two opinions following Baal considering that (according to him) God and Baal are oxymorons as is this question of the agreement the temple of God has with idols. (Though he himself belongs to a church with several idols or gods.) (picture of his article: The Coexist Movement- 2)

Like he does not seem to see the many differences between the Bible students he also does not seem to know much about the different forms of Judaism, only mentioning three.

Dave Norris limited vision on Jewish groups

Though people like him are being followed by many as if they are the gurus of truth.

Perhaps he, living in the United States, feels united with the many creationists and conservative and fundamentalist Christians. Him also for the whites, thinking Jews love to kill them, can find  confirmation in the writing of the professor who writes

In fact, it was not until Luther that people started taking the Bible more literally. The Creationist movement, though, including the world-wide flood didn’t really take root until the southerners of 1850+ started promoting it. Thus, we had a racist theology demand that their interpretation was the only one. Many were convinced to write on it, without referring to slavery. Slowly the arguments strengthened, until many who are not racist accept the arguments. This, though has saddled us with a theology that contradicts science. Now, we have to invent miracles that are not mentioned in the Bible to fit this theology. For example, a single flood doesn’t leave layers, it jumbles up everything.  {The Racist Bible}

For the professor it might be clear that certain Western Christians have perhaps taken a too restricted look at the Scriptures and perhaps in their thought that the King James Bible is the only true Bible, many Americans even thinking those Hebrews, like Abraham, Isaiah and Jesus all had English Names and as such find, it can not be that the rebbe his name is Jeshua or that God is called Jehovah.

Perhaps it is getting time that people from the West Northern hemisphere start looking at the Bible with other eyes. They also should start questioning their attitude to Jews, real Christians, Muslims, other and non-believers. If they want to win souls or if they want to convert people, loving to see them as members of their Christian faith, it will certainly come down not to follow the way of preachers like Dave Norris serves his community of the Bible Church, because I think he is at the moment getting more people away from faith and religion than getting them in his group or into becoming a Christian. The way we see many Christians act against other Christians and how there is a growing number of Christians reacting cruel against other faith groups or pushing others not to believe in the existence of dinosaurs or that the earth is flat and that NASA would be fooling us about the round earth, it is understandable why so many Christians are leaving the Christian Faith.

We need to reject the archaic, racist inspired interpretation of the Bible. We need to look at it afresh. The interpretation I suggested is not necessarily right, but is a reasonable alternative. Right now, because we are stuck with the racist inspired creationism, we are losing Christians when they go to High School and college and study science. They see how the two conflict, and are rejecting the Bible in great numbers. If we study the Bible fresh, we will see that there are literal interpretations that do not conflict with science, and we can then focus on talking about Jesus without people saying, “I don’t believe that stuff. It is just an archaic myth that science has shown to be wrong.” {The Racist Bible}

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Preceding

Confrontation by people telling lies to force others to avoid the targetted groups

The written, the spoken, and the audible a part of the soul and a blessing to humanity but also the trigger to those who love Crusades and the Inquisition

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Additional reading

1. Dave Norris and his writings on the Belgian Bible Students
2. Trusting present youngsters who are not necessary evil
3. Overprotection and making youngsters drifting away
4. The way of looking at the Scriptures and the people in this world
5. Knife-trust in democratic sore back
6. Pushing people in a corner danger for indoctrination and loss of democratic values

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Related

1. The Watchtower Belgian Biblestudents
2. Belgian Biblestudent Deception- 1
3. Comfort Zone Gospel
4. Jonah; Wake Up
5. The Missing Piece to Salvation
6. Saved From What?
7. Selling Jesus
8. Think About It…
9. Entering the Trail to True Freedom
10. Main Reason to Share the Gospel
11. Evangelism as a lifestyle
12. How to Overcome Fear of Sharing the Gospel – The Story of the Waldensians
13. Forgetting that the Gospel is Good News, Romans 1:7
14. Salty Agape
15. Communicating the Wondrous Truth of God’s Love and Mercy
16. Eschatology for beginners (part 1)
17. The Return of Yeshua Ben Joseph, also known as Jesus – by New Dimension – 12-23-17
18. Exit Strategy End Times: “Unforgiveness and the Band Aid of agreement.” “
19. This is NOT the Time to be SILENT
20. Eastern Lightning | The Awakening of a Deceived Spirit (Part 2)
21. Keep Racing!
22. How to Teach About the Second Coming
23. Today’s “Roman Road” – the Internet
24. The Antichrist in the Holy Place Church
25. The Historical Lesson Historians Need to Learn
26. Scoffers
27. Why Is Christ’s Return Not Widely Taught?
28. The Beginning and the Ending
29. Seven Reasons For Six Day Creation
30. The Creationism
31. Elmore Fundamentalism, Part 1: Matter
32. More on Evolution: From the Mail Room, by Fred Reed
33. Is There Biological Evidence of Life’s Recent Creation? – Part I
34. Scientists Identify a Key Cognitive Error that Could Explain Why People Believe in Creationism and Conspiracy Theories
35. Why Evolution is True Review
36. Teleogical views predict not just creationism, but conspiracy theories
37. A Creationist Surprise
38. Is Creationism racist?
39. God and Science
40. Eric Hedin, prohibited from teaching intelligent design at Ball State, retires and moves to a Christian university
41. Claim of creationism taught in school linked to National
42. School response on creationism, claims evolution ‘controversies’
43. School response on creationism, claims evolution ‘controversies’ — Your NZ
44. Origin Story: A Big History of Everything
45. There IS Purpose!
46. Your Mythology is not Science
47. Where Were You Radicalized?
48. The Ends of the World
49. Civil Debate? Catcall? Or Creationist Ruse?
50. Faith abates reason at Edmonton’s first Flat-Earth International Conference
51. #1: Inexplicable Species and the Theory of Evolution
52. Evolutionary psychology: The naturalistic and agency fallacies
53. A creationist makes the dumbest criticism of evolution ever
54. Noah’s ark: the most ridiculed story in the Bible
55. Tel Aviv’s new natural history museum (built to look like Noah’s Ark) deliberately omits mentioning evolution
56. Why Do the Fundamentalists Love Tracey Ullman Now?
57. InfightingNon-Physical Fighting 2
58. Sikh Radicalisation in Britain
59. Waitress Denied Tip for ‘not loving Jesus’
60. Christian-hating transgender VT gubernatorial candidate DUPED by satire site: ‘Some evangelists just crazy!’
61. The Nashville Statement (A Plain Language Translation)
62. Love and Hate

Martin Luther “Last Words of David” (1543) a polemical work bearing the same ugly language as in “On the Jews and their Lies” (1543)

Many people do forget how Luther did not like women, Jews and Muslims.
A Lutheran pastor but not a Lutheran scholar dares to look at the works of Luther in an attempt

to go through Luther’s works interpreting scriptures which may not be as concise as many of his theological works but give me as a reader some exposure to the evolution of Luther’s thought and theology in conversation with the Word that he cherished. {An Ongoing Reference to Luther’s Works}

He also thinks

it is useful as we approach each volume to honestly look at what Luther’s interpretation over 500 years ago in his earliest works might have to still contribute in our time (and some books will be better handled by Luther’s theology than others). {An Ongoing Reference to Luther’s Works}

Last Words of David (1543) – This is a polemical work and it bears the same ugly language of On the Jews and their Lies which appeared in the same year. This is the dark side of Luther’s Christocentric way of approaching scripture.
If you want to learn about Luther’s later views on the Jewish people and Muslims this is one of the places where his anti-Jewish views are clearly exhibited.
Luther spends a lot of time revisiting the Christological debates of the early church and attempting to argue in a way that would be unlikely to convince anyone who wasn’t already a Christian. Perhaps he was trying to erase any perception that he could have been an ally to the Jewish people from some of his earlier writings, but this is really an ugly piece.
~An Ongoing Reference to Luther’s Works

Martin Luther (1523) by Lucas Cranach

Men who believed and had faith in a Higher Power they could not see

In the ancient past there were men who did know where to go. They could have followed their own path, but they choose to follow the directions given to them by a much higher Power than any human being.

Today there are many people who believe their patriarch Abraham got there where he had to be by the Power of the One Who directed him and Who he was prepared to follow. By his act of faith Abraham received a blessing which may come over to his progeny. The Jews believe they are the rightful descendants of the patriarch Abraham. Muslims also take Abraham as their most important patriarch and ‘father’. In him they all see a man of faith,like there have been many people of faith who went before us and showed us what we too should belief and do.

In the ancient books we come to see that faith led Abel to offer God a better sacrifice than Cain’s sacrifice. Scripture also tells us about Enoch who was taken by God because He had found in him a man of faith and because He was pleased with him. We also should see that no one can please God without faith. Whoever goes to God must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

It was also faith that led Noah to listen when God warned him about the things in the future that he could not see. This man came to build an ark in a place were there was no big water and found people laughing at him. No matter how they ridiculed him he obeyed God and built a ship to save his family. Through faith Noah condemned the world and received God’s approval that comes through faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

Can you imagine someone would tell you in your old age that you can still get children or would ask you to some place you do not know?  Again in the Old Testament we come to know about a man with faith which led him to obey when God called him to go to a place that he would receive as an inheritance. Abraham left his own country without knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8) It led him to live as a foreigner in the country that the Elohim Hashem Jehovah had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God the Most High.  Abraham trusted God and was waiting for the city that God had designed and built, the city with permanent foundations. (Hebrews 11:9)

All those pepole showed they had strong belief in that Unseen Power. they were convinced that they could fully trust that Voice that reached them from the unknown. For them That Voice was much more important than any human voice. they were convinced there was a better substance for them when the would follow that Incredible Voice, than what man could offer them. They had the feeling that what would come over them or would given to them when they would follow that Voice was much more important than what the world could or would give them. They did not first demand evidence. They had not to see a thing or set of things helpful in forming a conclusion or judgment. The means by which an allegation could have been proven, such as oral testimony, documents, or physical objects, were not necessary for them. By faith they followed what was deep in their heart.

We can see that it was faith that enabled Abraham to become a father, even though he was old and Sarah had never been able to have children. Abraham trusted that God would keep his promise. We should remember that Abraham was as good as dead. Yet, from this man came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore. (Hebrews 11:11)

Looking at those men we should know that they didn’t receive the things that God had promised them, but they saw these things coming in the distant future and rejoiced. They acknowledged that they were living as strangers with no permanent home on earth.

We too today, should consider ourselves as tenants in this world; Sojourners, travelling in this time space.  We reside temporarily on this earth where mankind tries to make something of it, but has proven not to succeed in it. Therefore we should trust God and look forward to the coming times and the coming Kingdom of God.

Through faith Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets conquered kingdoms, did what God approved, and received what God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, and escaped death. They found strength when they were weak. They were powerful in battle and defeated other armies.(Hebrews 11:32-33)

All these people, mentioned above, were known for their faith, but none of them received what God had promised. God planned to give us something very special so that we would gain eternal life with them. It is in those promises which are made we should have faith.

As faith convinces us that God created the world through his word, we also believe that He guided His people all the time and that He does not abandon any one who is willing to belief in Him. We should put our hope and trust in the Unseen and put our hope on Him and on His son who paved the way to the entrance of the great Kingdom. Without faith we shall never be able to reach the right goal or to run and finish the race.

*

Please do read the faith-chapter of the apostate Paul, his letter to the Hebrews: Hebrews 11

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Preceding

How to Live Beyond the Ordinary

How to set your mind

9 Adar and bickering or loving followers of the Torah preparing for Pesach

Knowing The Truth and Loving The Truth

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Additional reading

1. Faith
2. Issue 116 of Faith alive
3. Assimilation of the mind to the divine ideas, principles, and affections exhibited in the Scriptures
4. Honest-hearted people are losing faith in humanity and humanity losing faith in God
5. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
6. Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
7. Hope by faith and free gift

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Related

1. Pistis ( πίστις)
2. By faith Enoch
3. What to do to Grow in the Spirit
4. Be a God Pleaser
5. Oh Mighty God! by Penny Chavers
6. It is impossible to please God without faith. (today’s verse) 
7. A List Of Ten Things That God Is Pleased About
8. Please God, and not people
9. The Seen And The Unseen
10. When You Want to Step out but You’re Afraid to Fail
11. Personal Victories
12. Leadership Insight…
13. We should learn from each other
14. Holding on to God
15. Hey God…Meditation Monday
16. Inside the Mind: The Human Soul
17. Today is One PartDivine Providence
18. Lessons from Hopelessness

French rabbis of the suburbs confront anti-Semitism

Last year 50 000  Jews left France for better pastures. In Belgium we also find many who preferred to go to Israel and to face the difficulties there between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

When rabbi Prosper Abenaim first arrived at La Courneuve’s Ahavat Chalom synagogue in 1992 there were over 4,000 Jews in the neighbourhood then and at that time it was a struggle to fit them all into the synagogue on Yom Kippur. Today, at this Paris suburb’s only Jewish facility, he serves sweet tea to his synagogue’s most frequent and reliable guests: machine gun-toting troops of the French Legion which entered the seen on January 2016 to defend Jews in this heavily Muslim and crime-stricken municipality bordering the capital. This dwindling community, which has lost thousands of congregants over the past two decades to Israel and safer areas of Paris has now on some mornings, troops outnumbering worshippers.

That wasn’t the case when Abenaim first arrived at La Courneuve’s Ahavat Chalom synagogue in 1992. There were over 4,000 Jews in the neighbourhood then and it was a struggle to fit them all into the synagogue on Yom Kippur.

“The shul overflowed onto the street,”

Abenaim recalled.

Since then, improved economic fortunes and repeated anti-Semitic attacks have driven out all but 100 Jewish families from the neighbourhood, where drug dealers operate openly on streets that residents say police are too afraid to patrol. The remaining Jews are mostly a greying bunch, stuck here for financial reasons.

“We have two big problems, extremism and criminality, and they often mix,”

said Abenaim, who lives in Paris’ affluent and heavily Jewish 17th arrondisement and has encouraged his congregants to leave for Israel.

“I understand why people don’t want to raise children here. I’m here myself only because of my duties. Otherwise, I’d be in Israel.”

Rudy Abecassis, a Marseille-born computer specialist who moved to the Paris region in 2009 to find work, had a good job at a time of rising unemployment. In 2016 his family also left behind their comfortable lives and moved to Israel, joining nearly 8,000 French Jews who Abecassis said

immigrated to Israel in 2015.

“We’re not fleeing,”

He had found a nice life in France and he loved France for it,  leaving it with sorrow. For him it being important

“to live in a Jewish country of our own, where we are not outsiders who need to be tolerated.”

Tolerance is the big word we have to look for these days. When we hear small children saying Jews are dangerous people we can wonder what they hear their Muslim parents telling about Jews.

Most Jews in France are not affiliated with any synagogue, while the majority of those who are belong to Orthodox synagogues. The third major current of Judaism in France is the Conservative or Massorti movement (with a.o. rabbi Haim Fabrizio Ciprian in Marseille). Next to them there are the Liberal and Reform Jews. The “Libérale” in French corresponds to the Reform movement in the UK and the US, though for some Americans its approach might appear to be midway between Reform and Conservative.

‘For French who do not have the American connection, if you’re Jewish, Israel is the easy place to go. Otherwise the other ambitious entrepreneurs of that age who are not Jewish and are not going to think of going to Israel tend to go to London, which is now the seventh largest ‘French’ city.”

says the American Rabbi Tom Cohen from the synagogue Kehilat Gesher in Paris’s 17th arrondissement.

In those suburbs Rabbi Michel Serfaty is not afraid to go to talk to the Muslims and to create events for Muslim kids. He also created a community or “French Jewish Muslim Friendship Association” for which he hopes to recruit several more young people to help with community outreach in the largely Muslim, immigrant communities where most people have never even met a Jewish person.

A poster for the French Jewish Muslim Friendship Association, which works in many poor, immigrant neighborhoods. – Eleanor Beardsley/NPR

 

It’s Time real lovers of God to Stand and Speak Out!

On one article we reblogged over here (and as such did not write it ourselves) and in which there were used popular words by youngsters, somebody felt offended. It looks like she could not feel any empathy with the generation we and the author of the original article were talking about and brought herself calling us stupid people, though missing the whole point of that article and the discussion around it.

Extended Coloured family from South Africa showing some spectrum of human skin colouration

In our world we see still too many people who want to differentiate between skin colour and race. They continue to demand that there would be called or named the differences between people who live at the same place, instead of accepting everybody who lives there for what he is and for how he looks like. They insist that people who live already for many generations in a certain country or area would still have a referral to that long ago place of origin as if that place of origin of so many generations ago brought a blemish on that person. It looks like many do want that lots of people keep running around with the stain of their past and long death ancestors.

Today we see again a movement going on to put on all people labels, like Moroco, Turkish,  Arabic, Berber, Afro-American, etc.. Though those people may already live here for the 3rd, 4th or even 5th generation. As we spoke about the trend the Dutch Press requesting not to use the word ‘blank’ (fair) but now to use ‘wit’ (white) opposite ‘zwart’ (black) instead of ‘kleurling (coloured). Whilst certain newspapers still shall continue words as ‘blank’ and ‘kleurling’ (coloured) not looking at the different skin colour as something negative. Clearly the colour of the skin has become again a point of discussion and we are back to the way of return and pre-Martin Luther King-times, or the time of racial segregation with Apartheid.

Iranian-Belgian human rights activist Darya Safai playtoy of the rightwing political parties trying to limit the freedom of expression and freedom of religion

Several politicians are doing their best to come back to such a time and many migrants are helping them without them having a proper knowledge of what is happening. As such we may find the Iranian dentist Darya Safai who is used as a plaything by the Flemish Nationalists and/or right-wing political parties. The Iranian-Belgian human rights activist grew up in the Islamic Republic of Iran after the revolution of 1979. We can clearly see how she got traumatised with her experiences in Iran. There she experienced at first hand how it was to live as an oppressed woman in a religious dictatorship. But now she thinks this would also be so in Belgium or the countries around us. She insist that parents would have no say on the religious education they want to give at home and want to prohibit any person in our country to wear religious symbols or to have traditional attire.  She finds the schools must prohibit any religious dress-code. By doing so she wants the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression and the freedom of clothing restricted. By doing so see also endangers our democratic freedom.

After she was temporarily released on bail, she decided to flee Iran together with husband via Turkey to Belgium.  Instead of seeing that we want to be a free country where everybody should be able to live next to each other she now wants to create an other Iran where she shall be on the side of the dictators or decision makers. Though she says she wants to fight against discrimination she tries to bring in discriminating  measures, having children nor their parents the right to choose their own religion and how they want to be religious.

In December 2016, Darya Safai was awarded the title ‘Women Of Peace’ by the Belgian Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities at the Belgian Senate, for her fight for women’s rights, though at that time it was already clear she had a more unpleasant agenda.

Last week when  a state school was ordered to let 11 young girls (age 12) to wear their hijab to school inspite their ban on all religious symbols Safai went into heavy reaction again helping to have a growing stir in the debate

because when a judge rules that specific people can ignore a rule that counts for everyone, it will cause more division.

It is true that now other Muslim, Sikh, Jewish parents can go to court and achieve the same override for their kid. On the other hand by Safai her actions to forbid head-covering we now have Sikh kids in Sint-Truiden (Haspengouw Hesbaye), who cannot go any more to a state- or to a Catholic school because they are not allowed in with their head covering. For them and for those who want to wear a head-covering the only solution is to go to a private school. Safai forgets that this would cost the parents a lot more and that such private schools of a certain religion endangers our society more, because than there is no control by the school directorate and then the way to indoctrination is totally free and would be unnoticed. We also could see what happened already in one of the Antwerp Jewish schools a few weeks ago. We must be very careful with an overprotection and giving the opportunity to have youngsters drifting away.

Safai seems to think the same rules count over here as in her birthplace. She argues that the choice to wear a headscarf is not made by girls themselves. By this she underestimate the strong will of many Belgian girls. She says

“It’s not a free choice, when I see six-year-old girls wearing headscarves, I really wonder how they could decide that for themselves-it’s imposed on you and you live with them.”

For Safai the girls their head-covering is indeed a symbol of oppression.

“Men do not wear headscarves, that’s the best proof,”

Orthodox Christian pilgrim

said Safai, to which Vanhecke replied

“With Jews, only the men wear a yarmulke, and that is not seen as a symbol of oppression,”

Safai also forgets or probably does not know that in West Europe all kids from the 1940ies to 1960ies have had to cover their head as girls and we as boys had to cover (like the girls also) our limbs. No bare arms or are knees where to be seen and women at to sit on the left side of the church.  It is all still clear in our head also, how our parents and when we went swimming in the sea we had to cover most of our body. (Later, as hippies we went against those restrictions and ran even naked in nature.) And now a few years later what had to happen then suddenly should not be allowed any more. She also does it as if the head-covering is only a Muslim matter, forgetting that still today many religious Christian groups prescribe head-covering for their members.

Roman Catholic nuns – Roman Catholic nuns singing in choir. – Smith2006

Throughout the centuries of Church history, women have worn head coverings during the meetings of the church – that is, when “praying or prophesying” take place. In Europe the wearing of fabric head coverings in worship was also universally the practice of Christian women until the twentieth century and in several Reformed churches, Baptists, Christadelphian, Brethren and various Mennonites it is still the custom for young and old. In the South of Europe we may find lots of nuns of the Roman Catholic churches with a covering of their heads, whilst many women in the South (like Spain and Italy) still often have the head covering by means of a headscarf. In Eastern Orthodox churches, all women still cover their heads. With the old believers this may only be a headscarf, with the other Eastern Orthodox it may also be a veil.

Vanhecke, with good reason, thinks girls are also oppressed if they are not allowed to wear the headscarf.

“A religion obliges the headscarf, a society forbids it, that is the same principle.”

“You interfere in a fundamental right of parents to make choices for their children,”

says Vanhecke.

That what Safai tries to avoid she helps to create. One should avoid that we get such private religious schools as only possibility for religious people to give their kids an education. When we would have such specific Jewish, Hindu and/or Islam schools we make it much easier to have them a specific religious education or indoctrination and creating a generation which would be less adapted in our culture than those who grow up together with all sorts of kids from different nationalities and different religions. Instead of integrating them in a multicultural society Safai shall help to create a divided society with lots of racism.

So needless to say this situation actually causes the very religious division that the ban on head-covering tries to avoid.

Mieke Vanhecke (CD & V), ex-top woman of Catholic education, pleaded in Terzake for the right to wear a headscarf at school. Darya Safai (N-VA) continues to see it as a symbol of oppression. Vanhecke argues that not only Muslims are victims of the headscarf debate.

“A ban on headgear not only affects Muslims,”

says Vanhecke.

“In Sint-Truiden there were never any problems, the Sikh boys came to school with a turban, because of the ban they no longer have access to our school.”

Safia is convinced that children and young women can not make up their own mind what to wear. For her children nor women who wear the hijab impossibly can do that of their own will and impossibly can be happy clothing themself that way. Many like her she see misogyny and are convinced that they must be under dictation of a male dictator or male bully. Often we hear voices like

‘Her husband must have forced her’

‘Poor girl, she may not dress like she wants’

Safia like many right wing people can only think of suppression, seeing men’s orders and their power over women. Others love to shout

‘Unveil yourself’,

‘Hide not yourself”

‘Let us see your beauty’

Why should they have such a need to see the beauty of that woman? Why can they not respect that woman like she wants to dress herself?

Those people thinking women or girls who like to wear a head scarf of hijab are pushed by their family, do forget that there are enough strong women in Belgium who can make up their mind themselves. They do not need their fathers or their male partner to dictate what they should wear but even less should they have others to dictate what they should wear or may not wear. That last bit is what Darya Safai and many Nationalists and Neo-Nazis love to do.

Lots of those who call themselves Christian but oppose the freedom of other lovers of God, do forget that by doing so they go in against the Law of God. Their strong actions against Muslims and Jews also clearly show that they do not bear Jesus his teachings of love in their heart. Lots of them also do not understand that wearing a covering on the head may represent an ordainment from God and a submitting to the Most High. There are enough places in Scriptures which talk about such covering and reasons why and when to do it.

Those who are an atheist or do not believe in the One True God should not try to put their law above the Laws of God nor should they urge all others to live like them and to dress like them.

Many also do forget the use of a head-covering can just mean those women liberated themselves from the world and its attitudes. For many believers in the One True God it can mean just empowerment, liberation and freedom. Too many underestimate the European female and think they would be like the women in the Middle East used as slaves by the male figures around them. But we can see strong women who have made up their own mind and by their own choice and by their own intentions they dare to show their faith to others and are not afraid to be mocked at or to be looked at as of ‘not of this world’. They do not want to be of this world but of the world of God. For them that is more important than being a slave of this world where every body assumes he or she is free when they can have sex with as many as they can or drink as much as they want to do all the funniest things one can think of.

Mrs. Safai does as if those girls, when they would wear a head dress, never would be able to integrate in our society or would never be able to get work. When they would not get work because they wear a head covering, does that not tell more about the party who does not want to give her work? And does that not show how certain people do not want others to integrate in our community?

By the way, lots of right wing people do as if those Muslim girls who want to cover their head are foreigners, but a lot are girls and ladies who were before ‘white Belgian citizens’ and even belonging to Catholic families.

That many people are so much afraid that there would be so many converts to Mohammedanism tells also a lot about the weakness of most members of that faith. Lots of Roman Catholics and Protestants even not knowing the Name of God and never having read the Bible. If they would be standing strong in the faith we see no reason why they and others should be so afraid. The other way, Christians should come out and proclaim their faith to those who are no Christian. They should show people that Jesus is the way and show that Jesus his teaching is one of love and of comprehension and compassion. But most Belgians, Dutch and French people just show the opposite, showing their hate against immigrants and people who are different than they or who think differently than they.

Lots of people seem to have forgotten how we and our parents had to cover our body a few decades ago. Lots of them also forget that just because their western values don’t fit with a woman covering her hair and beauty, it still could be a personal choice for that person covering herself. Many do forget that their Western values are way out from our Christian Western values and norms.

Today so many oppose people who have an other opinion. We also see the right wing people wanting so much that every body would dance to their will.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

These days we are going backwards because several people want to push their will unto others. They want an exclusive white state for themselves with only believers in that what they believe and in that what they call Christian values, but are not at all Christian values.

In Belgium we can find  more and more Muslim children in community education, especially with regard to other educational networks we may find a larger influx of students from other cultures in general in the state schools. When these children want to show their own faith in the form of clothing, they often do so out of their own convictions, but because these young people are not yet adults, they often take over the prevailing morality of their immediate environment and of society. If we compare this with the Flemish youths of indigenous origin, we notice a big difference, but according to us that is easy to explain. After all, with many Flemish young people there is a great ignorance of the church, while the Muslim children are more often socialized in their ideology.
The total banning of religious signs would thus be a violation of religious freedom. We should resist such a thing.
That a lot of inhabitants of Belgium, Holland and France do not want to stand open for other cultures we should try to avoid in the next generations by introducing the various cultures from the early years in childhood.

Dyab Abou Jahjah in 2008.

The Belgian-Lebanese Arab political activist and writer Dyab Abou Jahjah, claims that

‘hatred in Flanders is mainstream’

and

‘racism determines the agenda’.

When you follow certain reactions and talks it gives the impression not enough people want to react against that dangerous trend.

Christian people should let others know that all people have the same value because we are created by the same One True God. We all are being allowed to live on this globe and are given talents which can be used to help others. All people in a community have to complement each other.
Each person should know that racism devalues people. Non believers should come to see that Christ has broken down racial doors and overcomes divisive thinking by creating for himself a new nation through his death and resurrection. Every Christian should help to build a loving world by showing his love for others, be them of no believe or any other believe than Christianity.
When the politicians are not doing their job properly to build a multicultural peaceful state, the Christians needs to lead the way.
When you are a Christian do not wait until it is too late!

Let your voice be heard and speak up for the weaker ones in our society and for those who humiliated and shut out.

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Preceding articles

What is important?

Enough with the Clothes Shaming of Muslim Women

Anti-Semitic pressure driving Jews out of Europe

The Mountain: Radical Love

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Additional reading

1. Vliegend spaghettimonster en Gelijke behandeling voor elke overtuiging
2. Parenthood made more difficult
3. Uncertainty, shame and no time for vacillation
4. Migrants to the West #2
5. On French beach French police forces woman to undress in public
6. Pew Research: How People in Muslim Countries Believe Women Should Dress
7. Allowing dress code according liberty of religion
8. Coverings Worn by Muslim Women
9. The Dress Code for Women in the Quran
10. Meditating Muslimah on “hijab to be a religious obligation”
11. French showing to the whole world their fear and weakness
12. Christians, secularism, morals and values
13. Trusting present youngsters who are not necessary evil
14. Overprotection and making youngsters drifting away
15. Today’s thought “And he counted it to him for righteousness” (January 12)
16. Listening to the lessons of the Bible and looking for ways to please God

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Related

1. Hijab 1
2. Hijab 2
3. The Meaning of Hijab
4. I Tried Wearing a Hijab (sort of)
5. The hijab of ignorance
6. Cultural Bias
7. An Imagined Offence
8. The Irony of Hijabs!!
9. Transition: My Hijab Story
10. Hijab: Oppression or Freedom?
11. Hijab in Islam and other religions
12. Hijab | Zanzibar, Tanzania
13. Women unite for World Hijab Day, which is Today
14. Happy World Hijab Day 2018!
15. Pearls and swines – loose priorities – the hijab-saga in perspective
16. Hidden Pearl Hijab Review
17. Hijab ‘Attack’ Condemned By Canada’s Prime Minister Was A Hoax
18. My Hijab Story
19. The Secret Hijabi
20. What My Hijab Means To Me
21. Perspective: Hijab is Oppression or Freedom?Newspeak and the politics of fear

Quiz questions, views, left- and right-wing anti-Semitism

An Orthodox Christian got confronted by a friend who recently posted a link to an article on anti-Semitism which claimed that anti-Semitism of the left was more dangerous than anti-Semitism of the right. He found the article biased and tendentious for several reasons and writes

For one thing, the author seemed to characterise “the Left” in much the same way that antisemites characterise the Jews — with stereotypes based on innuendoes. Just as for antisemites there is no need to substantiate any accusations against “the Jews”, so for those authors there is no need to substantiate any allegations against “the Left”, because those are something that “everyone knows”.

Anti-semitism from which site it may come in whatever country it may be uttered is also something which is wrong and should not be accepted. the writer of the article may have been writing about the “the Left” in the American sense, which means still a very conservative group, because the left for Americans can be a group which belongs to the Democrats.

Steve Hayes aged 9

The writer of Khanya, Steve Hayes considers himself a a liberal who believes that theological liberalism leads to political conservatism and vice versa. According to him there is primary an ascetic struggle as part of the training and discipline we need in order to engage in other aspects of the struggle. {Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)}

The primary aspect of spiritual warfare, therefore, is the struggle against the passions leading to theosis (divinisation, godliness). {Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)}

When we look at today’s society we can see al lot of ungodliness and it is just because so many people are so far away from God’s rules that there are so many problems in this world.

Soon after seeing the anti-Semitism article, someone posted one of those quizzes on Facebook that purport to show whether you are left or right. Hayes questions

Is it accurate? I don’t know, but I thought it would be interesting to do it to see what the quiz authors regarded as “left” or “right” characteristics, which can itself be revealing of social trends.

Funny to see I had exactly the same result as him, getting following result:

Your political views:

You can take the test here,and compare your results with ours.

I can assure you I am not for Tax-increases but I am for a better distribution of wealth and a better differentiation for the wages and a better performance related pay.

Hayes is anti-war, anti-abortion and anti-capital punishment and writes

Most of those who claim to be pro-life are less than solidly so, and are rather full-of-holes pro-life. If you want a more accurate test to take your political temperature, try the Political Compass.

Having tried it myself it showed my Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -6.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.67

My position plotted against the UK parties in the 2015 general election would be

which I think would not be a bad picture.

Hayes remarks

Be that as it may, very few of the characteristics ascribed to the left, either in the test or in the antisemitism article, appeared directly in the quiz questions. There was nothing about intersectionality (whatever that may be) or “identity politics” (which sounds like a pretty right-wing thing to me). But there were quite a lot of questions about Christian values. One of a group of four that I opted for was “kindness”, because it came closest to the Christian value of love, though whether the test counted that as “left” or “right” I’m not sure, but I noticed that it does place the Christian value of forgiveness on the left. {Anti-Semitism, anti-leftism and anti-Christianity}

I consider Jesus a “communist avant la lettre” and have seen several tests where the agapè love is considered to be “leftish”. The Christian value of forgiveness is also many times placed on the left.

Though what shocks me and troubles me a lot is that several people in the U.S.A. who call themselves “Christian” or “Born again Christian” have not much feeling for other people and or not much interested in sharing with those around them. Many of them oppose anything what has a smell of socialism or systems where is demanded that people help each other or provide money in a fund or system like Obama Care to help others. Lots of those so called Christians have also a very averse attitude to true or non-trinitarian Christians, Jews and Muslims. All that worship the Only One True God and not their Trinity seem to be people they would like to see to “burn in hell”.

Clearly when hearing lots of North Americans talking on the little screen, they give an impression all those who do not belong to their Christendom are disgusting people which should be thrown out of the country. Some have such weird ideas about other faiths that we in Europe can wonder if they did not learn about them in their schools and if the media does not give any good advice. Looking at some TV-station , like Fox, we see lots of de-information and no objective information.

In the American media we see a lot of anti-black racism and a lot of Islamophobia, plus the choice of many to consider those with a “white” skin (I would say an light tainted orange skin) superior to those with an other coloured skin. As such the Jew comes into the picture as well, having not the Caucasian looks. Jews all over the world comes in all shades — from blonde to black. In Israel the conflict between Jews and Palestinians isn’t about race. Nor are the tensions between Jews from Europe and those from the Muslim world — though activists and academics sometimes import the terms “black” and “white,” in defiance of their lying eyes. But on many American platforms the looks of the Jews bring sayings against them which I would prefer not to hear in a civilised country.

Already in the preparation for the previous American election we could find several lies about Obama his origin and birthplace. This was for us already an indication that there was more brewing and that a significant portion of Americans felt horror that an Afro-American could become president.

Race is the most pervasive reason that some Americans believe they can discriminate against and despise others. When you see certain Jews their body clearly shows certain marks, which are good enough a sign for those so called Christians to call them murderers of Jesus and to hate them.

Some may think anti-Semitism just isn’t as bad as other forms of racism, but it is. Worse is it when there is an attitude of

Jews don’t count as a group worth protecting.

Jonathan Taubes, a student activist at Binghamton University who worked with progressive campaigns in Binghamton, on and off campus, writes

Jewish people face bigotry in this country, and the history of institutional anti-Semitism here is real, but today we find ourselves mostly free of persecution. We should recognize that privilege and use it to fight for the vulnerable. {Dear Allies, Don’t Downplay Anti-Semitism in Trump’s America}

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showed at the beginning of this year that the number of anti-Semitic incidents remained significantly higher in 2017 compared to 2016. In addition to the significant bump in the first quarter of this year, there was also a distinct increase after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August.
Since 1979, ADL has counted anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. and reported the numbers in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. It can be said that also in the U.S.A. the amount of injustices to Jews became too high. New York State (267 incidents); California (197); Massachusetts (117); Florida (69) and Pennsylvania (58) incidents of crimes against Jews for their race.

In August, ADL recorded a “meta-event” rarely seen in America: the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., which featured shocking and violent expressions of anti-Semitism and racism, including the display of swastika flags, chants of “Jews will not replace us!” and other overt anti-Semitic acts.

There seems such a fear that they would replaced by Jews and Muslims or that their world would become Islamic. Though then why do they not question their own religion and their own religious members. In case they would be strong believers there should be no fear that they would leave their faith. When they are standing strong in their faith they should even be able to come to witness to Muslims and Jews and have them to come to Christianity.

Anti-Semitic incidents spiked on and immediately following Charlottesville. Of the 306 incidents reported in Q3, 221 took place on or after the August 11 rally.

The Charlottesville rally was one of at least 33 public white supremacist events in the U.S. so far this year, which were supplemented with 188 incidents where white supremacists used fliers to spread their message to new audiences, especially on college campuses.

Police departments and human rights groups across the United States of America and all over Europe show that there is a dramatically rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes. When the president’s chief counterterrorism advisor, Sebastian Gorka, was found to support a violent anti-Semitic militia in his parents’ native Hungary, there showed a situation where the left talks about white supremacy as if Jews aren’t affected and anti-Semitism is just a distraction from real issues – when, in fact, anti-Semitism is at the core of the white supremacist ideologies today’s leftist movements seek to upend.

The anti-Semitism article Hayes encountered, also has a significant comment on the Christian worldview — How Anti-Semitism’s True Origin Makes It Invisible To The Left – The Forward:

In addition to the belief in a shadowy group with the power to affect large-scale outcomes, conspiracy theories also reflect a worldview in which reality is the product of a timeless and cosmic struggle between good and evil. These kinds of dualistic narratives are especially enticing to groups that view themselves to be under existential duress, and as Elaine Pagels has shown, this has profoundly shaped Western culture. Jews under Roman occupation and early Christians under Jewish ostracism and gentile persecution developed theologies of the oppressed in which the devil and his demonic host squared off with God and his angels.

Hayes believes that there is a cosmic struggle between good and evil,

though I’m not sure that it is timeless. The Christian take on it is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the decisive battle was won by good, and we live in the last days of mopping up operations.

That we live in a time close to the end-times we may see in the signs given in the bible, which we can recognise clearly. But that should not have to mean we should let everything happen like it goes now.

Hayes thinks that

Western Christianity tends to be legalistic, to share the values of the Right rather than the Left, preferring punishment to forgiveness, and justice to kindness (in the left-right quiz mentioned above).

but than he forgets to see what real Christians preach.The real lovers of God recognise what the Nazarene Jew has done and do now that there is no such place as a hell to torture people for ever. Real Christians keep to the bible teachings and not to the human doctrines and human fear-mongering to have their flock under control. though Hayes recognises the appalling falsehoods that several Christian denominations

smack of perversity even to attack its perverseness.[1] And the conclusion is altogether evil. {Love the sinner, hate the sin}

For him is in his Orthodox theology the Church a hospital where sinners can be healed rather than a courtroom where they are to be judged. He should know that it is also in other Christian denominations, like the Christadelphians for example. In the Christadelphian faith it is even so that we consider no man to judge others, except those in function as judge, but still it being up to Jesus to give the end verdict.

He rightly says

if we are Christians we must love the sinner but hate the sin.

We must

• Love the oppressor but hate oppression

• Love the corrupt politician and businessman, but hate corruption

• Love the warmonger but hate war

• Love the exploiter but hate exploitation

and I would add that we should protect all those who have no voice and should come up for all those who are discriminated or done wrong.

Lest it seems that Hayes is saying that the line between good and evil runs between Eastern and Western Christianity, making “us” superior to “them”, he quotes a Western Christian, G.K. Chesterton, on this:

The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, financially corrupt.

There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to kill the rich as violators of definable justice. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to crown the rich as convenient rulers of society. It is not certainly un-Christian to rebel against the rich or to submit to the rich. But it is quite certainly un-Christian to trust the rich, to regard the rich as more morally safe than the poor.

A Christian may consistently say,

“I respect that man’s rank, although he takes bribes.”

But a Christian cannot say, as all modern men are saying at lunch and breakfast,

“a man of that rank would not take bribes.”

For it is a part of Christian dogma that any man in any rank may take bribes. It is a part of Christian dogma; it also happens by a curious coincidence that it is a part of obvious human history. When people say that a man “in that position” would be incorruptible, there is no need to bring Christianity into the discussion. Was Lord Bacon a bootblack? Was the Duke of Marlborough a crossing sweeper? In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially for my fall from my position at this moment.

Loving your neighbour as yourself and Israel and Palestine

“Loving your neighbour as yourself.”

When Nas Daily went home this time, he was fed up with the amount of hate coming out from both sides. So he  wanted to add his take to this conflict and keep it positive while also hinting at the negative.

Nas Daily writes

Making these videos has not been easy. There has been push back from both sides, and that’s great! Is this an accurate reflection of the situation? No, it’s not. I didn’t cover the settlements, violence, attacks, etc. Nas Daily is not a news organization. I wanted to make videos of what I believe in. I don’t believe in making blame-y videos because these usually go nowhere and add nothing to the conversation. I don’t believe in Kumbaya let’s all be happy and merry kind of shit either. I wanted to strike a balance: highlight the positive and the negative without making you feel negative!

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Nas Daily his experience in Jerusalem

Nas Daily finds we need to get more Jewish content in front of Arab Facebook newsfeed. It’s just as necessary.

TheLegoCraftGuy999  finds also that

There are no multiple races. There is only the Human Race. If we only realized this, there will be no wars.

Marcus Ampe writes

More people should show there is a big difference between the lesser group of extremists and fundamentalists and those who are willing to live in a multicultural society where there is place for each other to live in peace and brotherly love.

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Do those who want to follow Christ to be Jews

In these times when there are so many arguing about religion and about what faith would be the right faith or what would be the right way to worship God it is not bad to consider what the people at the time of the Jewish master teacher, Jeshua, thought.

Most of the time those seeing and hearing rebbe Jeshua belonged to the Jewish faith like the master himself. Though few belonged to Jeshua’s religious group because some considered the Essenes as a sect and several also came to see Jeshua his followers also as a sect. Being a child of Joseph and Miriam (Mary/Maria) from the tribe of David, Jeshua and his siblings where brought up in the very religious traditions of the Essenes, to which Miriam belonged. As such Jeshua received a strict thorough education in Torah knowledge and was very well aware what was written in all the different scrolls.

An other person very well educated in Jewish theology was Saul. As a devout worshipper of the God of Israel and connected to the synagogue and the priests in Jerusalem, he was convinced those teachings of that man where blasphemous and had to be stopped. He as a big fighter for Jehovah God went against those followers, until the day he was struck by lightening, feeling Jesus close to him and being blinded by the Power of God because he had become a satan or adversary of God, more than Peter who Jesus also had called a satan.

At first the majority of followers of Jeshua where Jews, but having many Romans around and travellers of other religions or not at all believing in a god or in God, some of them became attracted by the words of the rebbe and his talmidim. Several got in the ban of the doctrines of that man his group and wondered if they could join them. But having come at a certain age they did not like so much to undergo a circumcision. At the other hand lots of the Jews in the group where very concerned about the goyim entering their group and having them to allow in their synagogues. We can image the many discussions going on about the Jewish rules either to be followed by those who came into the group or having them to be free of those mitzvot. Doctor Luke tells about all the internal discussions and arguments in his book the Acts of the apostles.

In 330 CE “church father” Epiphanius of Salamis provided a detailed description of the new faith in Jeshua which started to spread over many regions, by the Netzerim in Panarion 29:

“We shall especially consider the heretics who call themselves Nazarenes; however they are simply complete Jews.
They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do…
They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion – except for their belief in Messiah, if you please! For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that God is one, and that his son is Yeshua the Messiah.

They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew; for they, like the Jews, read the whole law-Torah , then the Prophets. They differ from the Jews because they believe in Meshiach and from the Christians in that they are to this day bound to the Jews rites, such as circumcision, the Shabbat, and other ceremonies . Otherwise, this sect of the Nazarenes thrives most vigorously in the state of Berea, Coele-Syria, in Decapolis, around Pella, and in Bashan. After they departed from Jerusalem, they made their start from here, as all the disciples dwelt in Pella, having been warned by Meshiach to depart Yerushalayim and emigrate because of imminent danger”

Up to today the matter still bothers many, first of all because several are seriously concerned now about those who call themselves Christian but do not adhere to Jeshua his writings and even worship an other god than Jeshua, namely Jesus and his co-gods (god the father and god the holy spirit). For Jews wanting to accept Jeshua or Jesus as the Messiah this is a serious problem, because they would never want to be confused with polytheist Christians. Most of the Jews, even today, do not want to give up their Jewishness, certainly because they consider themsleves still to be part of the Chosen People of God, Israel Gods People. Thàt they do not want to give up. It would be stupid to give that up or to loose our identity with Gods People.

When we look at the history of Christianity we can see that, before the time it was transposed to Christendom and the dogmatic teachings of the trinity, already soon there came a major controversy in early Christianity concerning the role of Jewish law and traditions. As most of the first converts were Jews, some felt that the Mosaic Law and covenantal signs, such as circumcision, were still important. While others where convinced that their rebbe brought the message of God that from now on their religion had to be open to both Jews and Gentiles. Some contended that converts first had to become Jews in order to become Christians. Others considered the outward signs of Judaism to be unnecessary for Christian life.

It is known that at the beginning most of them, like Saul or Paul, how he further became known, that “Much in every way“ was the advantage of the Jew and the value of circumcision. (Romans 3:1). Several thought by allowing goyim to enter their community and not having them to subject to the same rules they where overthrowing the Law by that notion of faith? But for Paul that was by no means so. On the contrary, he felt that they upheld the Law” (Romans 3:31).

Everybody had to know that all those who just relied on works of the law were under a curse (Galatians 3:10), because we all should know that no one is justified before God by the law (Galatians 3:11).

The convert Paul went even so far to say that circumcision even did not count for anything, but that Jeshua had taken care of a new path and had opened the gates of a new creation which is everything. (Galatians 6:15). For him it had become clear that no human being will be justified in God’s sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). But that does not mean that the Law would be sin. By no means (Romans 7:7).

All that want to become a follower of Jeshua, Paul argumented had to recognise that the Law is and shall stay holy, and that the mitzvah or commandment is holy and just and good for all of us (Romans 7:12). Though he also said that to the Israelites belongs the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the Temple, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and of their race, according to the flesh (Romans 9:4). Jewishness can not be taken away by man, because it is entitled by God, engraved in the hearts of those who descent from the tribes chosen by God and protected by God.

Today there are lots of people who think that God has rejected His own people but Paul already warned for such false thinking and said that the Elohim has not rejected His people (Romans 11:1) and told even that

“All Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).

As such Jews still can bear that precious hope. When they accept Jeshua as the Messiah they do not have to give up their Jewishness, but they also shall have to accept that the goyim or those who where at first atheist, heathen or people from an other faith, that they now too can come to God by the way of Jeshua, and can call the Elohim Hashem Jehovah also their Father or Abba.

Those Jews at the time of the first followers of Jeshua came to accept the non-Jews and did not impose their laws unto them – which was not always an easy thing to do for them. In our time, we too have to be open for the non-Jews who come to accept the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua as their Saviour. But we too have to accept that those goyim become part of the Body of Christ without having to undergo all the obligations a Jew has to undergo.

Nobody may come to think the Law would have become opposed to the promises of God. Certainly not! (Galatians 3:21).

Although Paul preached justification on the basis of faith in Christ, he was himself a Pharisee and addressed the role of Jewish traditions and the status of Israel in the new covenant.

In “Paul’s Contradictions: Can They Be Resolved?” Princeton Professor John Gager looks at how Paul seems to be at war with himself on the subject of Israel. Is there a way out of his contradictions?
Yes, the author argues, but only if we first get past misconceptions about Paul that date to the earliest stages of Christianity — even to Paul’s own times.

Though when reading the book by John Gager, one must know that Paul is not the father of Christian anti-Judaism, like the great German historian Adolf Harnack wants Christians to believe. He writes:

“It was Paul who delivered the Christian religion from Judaism … It was he who confidently regarded the Gospel as a new force abolishing the religion of the law.”

Since the time of the early church fathers until recent decades, all interpreters of Paul have read him from the perspective of the triumph of Christianity, after the decisive break between Christianity and Judaism. The reigning Christian view of Judaism during this entire period has been that the Jews have been superseded as the chosen people of God by the Christians (or Christianity), that the Jews are no longer the bearers of God’s promise of salvation and that their only hope for salvation lies in becoming Christian. In this hermeneutic, it follows that Paul, too, with his canonical status, must have held to this dominant Christian view of Judaism. And this is exactly how Paul has been read throughout Christian history. Not just 80 or 90 or even 99 percent of the time, but 100 percent of the time, without exception — that is, until recently, when a few maverick scholars began not only to question that image but to reject it altogether. {Paul: Jewish Law and Early Christianity}

Biblical scholar Ben Witherington III counters the contradiction in “Laying Down the Law: A response to John Gager.” He questions Gager’s idea that Paul preached the gospel of Jesus Christ for Christians alone by asking whether his message was intended for both Jews and Christians.

Today we can see that there is a growing amount of Jews who are proud to be Jew but also want to be proud to be a follower of the Jew Jeshua, whom they often consider to be one of their own, a child of Israel. In Christendom we find that the majority are trinitarians, but may not forget that there are loads of non-trintiarian denominations as well. There are certain groups which have a similar name but differ from their belief in the trinity or in One True God. As such we can find the Nazarenes, of which some are tinritarians and others still believe the same doctrines as their first counterparts. The Nazarene Friends up to a few years ago where very active non-trinitarian Christians, but by becoming older and dying lots of ecclesiae saw their numbers reduce.

The most well known non-trinitarian groups may be the Bible Students and Jehovah’s Wtinesses, with all their teardowns or torn groups. Lots of those groups not so much respecting by God given days to celebrate or to remember certain events. Though it must be said several bible student groups and Jehovah’s Witness knowing very well that according to Jeshua and his heavenly Father, according to the Scriptures all people of God shall have to remember 14-15 Nisan or Passover (Pesach).

Some Christians also have come to the conclusion that perhaps not so many laws are abandoned as so many Christians do believe. They came to understand that Jeshua was a Jew and held to the Jewish traditions. Certain Jewish elements they now also want to see incorporated in their way of life, as a sign of being under that Jewish master teacher.
Christians who do not want to be looked at, as the same lot of trinitarian Christians, or who want to feel and show more a Jewish connection can as Messianic Christians show their love for Jeshua and his teachings by calling themselves also a Jeshuaist.

Jeshuaist do not expect converts to the faith in Jeshua to be or to become a Jew or to follow all the Jewish laws, though they want them to recognise the Jewish position of Jeshua and the Judaic followers of Jeshua, which means that certain ways of worship, songs and prayers and making church or having meetings shall be as in the first century or in the tradition of the early Christians, forming a brotherhood with acceptance of differences, but considering all as one part united under Christ and not a human organisation which would control and regulate everything.

For Jews who accept Jeshua as their Messiah and for those who prefer to see a Messianic Judaism the Jeshuaists offer a solution. With the title or name Jeshua-ist one can give honour to Jeshua and show the connection with the Jewish rebbe as well can one avoid the confusion with trinitarian Messianics or trinitarian Christians, making it clear to be a Messianic non-trinitarian Jew.

 

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You may be interested in reading:

1. Our life depending on faith
2. As there is a lot of division in Christendom there is too in Judaism
3. The Sabbatean Prophets
4. Converso Involvement in the Sabbatai Zevi Movement
5. Sabbatai Zevi (Jewish Convert To Islam)
6. Forgotten History-The Jews from Geleen 1940-1944.
7. Jewish and Christian traditions of elders
8. Today’s thought “Ability to circumcise your heart” (May 13)
9. Jeshuaists or Followers of Jeshua
10. Who is a Jeshua-ist
11. Who is or can be a Jeshuaist
12. Why to become a Jeshuaist
13. Availability of Jeshuaists on Facebook

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Read the above mentioned articles from the Biblical Archaeology Society and more in the FREE eBook Paul: Jewish Law and Early Christianity. Featuring articles taken from Bible Review and Biblical Archaeology Review, this eBook considers the relevant writings of Paul and brings to light some of the difficult theological issues for Jews and Christians that persist to this day.

Paul: Jewish Law and Early Christianity

 

Download the Free eBook

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Further reading

1. Religions and Mainliners
2. Israel must honor God or the Rule of Law is meaningless
3. The Real Wall Problem: When Will Diaspora Jews Fight For Palestinians?
4. “Qualitavely Jews are not a minority”
5. Nazarene Jews Through Out History
6. Who is Israel? And What Role, If Any, Does She Play in God’s Kingdom?
7. The Temple Connection
8. Where is the Church that Christ built?
9. The Church & The Old Testament Law
10. Christians Above the Law?
11. Why The Bible Is Divine: Christology
12. Jewish Halakha and the Rabbinic Authority in the Messianic World
13. The Not Left, Not Right, but UP Movement
14. From Rome to Corinth, and Back Again: Reclaiming What Was Taken from Us
15. Eleven Steps to Live a Messianic Nazarene Jewish life
16. The straight line connecting Donald Trump’s new tallit to “Christians for Islam,” and a best practices suggestion
17. Something great is happening in Israel
18. A sort of “sing along” songs with Messianic Jews in Israel
19. Is It A “Sign”?
20. Christ is risen! Kristus är uppstånden! Baruch HaBa Beshem Adonai!
21. Books on examples of Jewish evangelism in Israel
22. The great tree of Moreh
23. Rabbinical court rules against Jewish marriage rites for Messianic Jews
24. Sabbath as a Bride
25. Shalom in Psalms
    End Times Series: Pastor Jimmy Evans
26. Kiss the Son…
27. On an Irish Cliff

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Preventing conflicts and war

Continuation of: Scattering of peoples who delight in wars

With Rabbi David Krishef we continue to look at how we should avoid conflicts and war. In our daily life we encounter many times where we are questioned or when we are questioning others and want to find out how others want to relate to others.

The rabbi notices

In business, competitors sometime refer customers to each other when they know the other company can fulfill a particular need better than they can. Competition is good when we play fairly by the rules and when it challenges each of us to become better. {Psalm 30 – “You have lifted me up” (30:1)}

Though in this world not everybody wants to play with the fair rules or with the same rules as us. Some also consider the other as a competitor or sometimes even as an adversary. Some people prefer to exclude others because they feel threatened by them. As such some might find that their faith comes in danger by what others are telling. This can be clearly seen in the present day where several Christians take aversion against non-trinitarian Christians, Jews and Muslims, because those are against the worship of Jeshua or Jesus Christ and deny his god-ship, whilst those trinitarian Christians do know God says Jesus His is only begotten son, but do not accept it that way. For them Jesus is their god and all who deny his godship they consider a jeopardy bringing their faith at risk. Several of those trinitarian Christians also see lots of their members loosing faith and going to the Muslim faith. For them that smells to peril certainly because the world today is also confronted with fundamental Islamist fighters. Many people do not see the nuances in the many religious groups and think all of the other religion must be of the same sort as those fundamentalists, a danger for society.

Many of them consider themselves at the moment still part of the stronger nation and fear that those who leave Christendom shall weaken them.

The rabbi remarks

No one dares to attack the strong nation, because the weaker nation would face virtually certain defeat. We hope the strongest nation uses its leadership and power for kind and loving purposes. Otherwise, when the powerful begin exercising power for their own enrichment, those around them join together to take down the tyrant.{Psalm 29 – “May Adonai grant strength to God’s people; may Adonai bless God’s people with peace.” (29:11)}

At the moment we can see that in the capitalist countries, politicians take every effort to gain popularity and to enlarge their power, no matter what for in-ethical matters they do have to do. Most of them striving to power in the Western countries are on the look out for their own enrichment and some of them do want to help the weapon lobbies also to full their pockets richly.

The wealth many are aiming for, at the moment, is not a healthy wealth.

Wealth and influence can be of tremendous benefit, but at the end of our life we ought to rather be remembered for our kindness and for the good things that we’ve done and not just for the possessions we leave behind. {Psalm 33 – “Horses are a false hope for deliverance.” (33:17)}

Lovers of God should be very careful not to be taken by the treadmill, not letting themselves being carried away by those who want to blacken other religious groups than their own. Those who really love God should examine if they are following God’s Word and should examine their own way of life and way of worship. In case they call themselves Christian they should check if they worship the same God as the God of Jesus, the God of Israel.

Further they should examine if they take on the right attitude and do what Jesus also would do.

We all should see to have strength and peace in balance. Even when they are

two concepts … rooted in the classic military theory of preventing war (or winning war) through projecting power. {Psalm 29}

we should be willing to mount a horse prepared by the Most High Elohim. Allah, the God of peace wants His ‘nationals’ or His ‘children’ to be lovers of peace and lovers of each other, respecting all creatures of God.

In old Westerns, the hero swoops in and rescues the damsel in distress, throws her across a horse, and rides off into the sunset. {Psalm 33}

reminds us Rabbi David Krishef, who looks at the psalmist who speaks of a symbolic horse as the possession of a warrior, representing wealth, power and mobility. {Psalm 33}

Our wealth should be in being a possession of God, being under Allah’s wings. Even when we notice that evil doers may have it better than us, we should know it might be so  … at the moment.

Reward and punishment do not always work out perfectly. Sometimes, good people do not prosper and evil people do not suffer. {Psalm 28 “Pay them according to their deeds.” (28:4)}

writes the rabbi, reminding his readers that

However, most of the time, in the long run, goodness is recognized. {Psalm 28}

Ichthys and Psalm23 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lovers of God should stimulate others to do good by themselves being good examples. In the knowledge that people are attracted to good people, we should not mind to join those who want to do good, from whatever religion they might be. Joining good doers they may become stronger and those seeing others motivated to be kind to the evil doers and to help them, shall become more interested to learn about their reasons why they want to help those who are also bad to them.

Helping each other shall enable the people in the surroundings to have better and deeper friendships.

Good people will tend to be happier and more satisfied with their lives. Truly good people do not do good things because of recognition or reward. Goodness is not a tool to be used as a means to get something. Good deeds are an end unto themselves. {Psalm 28}

And it is the deep-rooted goodness that shall be the stronger sword, and form the better combatant of peace, when no weapons of man are taken, but the ‘sword of God‘ and the ‘sword of love‘, using the strength of God His set-apart Word. By not taking hold of it, showing patience and trust in Allah, leaving all the judging up to Him and His only begotten son, the mediator between God and man, we should not worry and hope for a better future, in the knowledge that the Saviour, the Messiah and King shall come to rule in the Land of Hope where there shall be no war any more.

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Preceding articles

Scattering of peoples who delight in wars

When Tragedy Strikes…

A Prayer for 9-11

Detachment by Family problems

Youngster all over the world with the same dream

A Positive Disposition

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Additional reading

1. Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man
2. Good and bad things in this world
3. Power in the life of certain
4. Patience is the ability to count down before blasting off
5. The Field is the World #1 Church Union
6. Germinating small seeds, pebble-stones, small and mega churches and faith
7. To whom do we want to be enslaved
8. Displeasure of יהוה , Jehovah the God of gods, and His wrath against all the gentiles their divisions
9. Bible, sword of the Spirit to come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man
10. A Jewish Woman and a Test of Faith
11. Compromise and accomodation
12. Developing new energy
13. Ability
14. Ability (part 5) Thought about the abilities to be under God’s Spirit
15. Growth in character
16. Your struggles develop your strengths
17. Count your blessings
18. The giving and protecting God
19. This was my reward
20. Belief of the things that God has promised
21. Be happy that the thorn bush has roses
22. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
23. Kindness
24. Spread love everywhere you go

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Further related

1. Geestelijke vorming tot heiligheid #2
2. Geduld is het vermogen om af te tellen voor explosieven te laten ontsteken

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