Post by morningstar on Apr 8, 2014 16:40:35 GMT
Very interesting article which gave me an insight into how the Hasidic Jews interpret the coming of the Messiah and what their expectation are.
Rapture Ready
The Coming Hasidic Messiah
By Joe Southerland
During the three to five hour flights I often take as part of my work, I get to literally bump elbows with complete strangers. Knowing this, I pray for an opportunity to witness and plant seeds for Christ’s Kingdom. Typically I settle in, open my Bible and begin reading. If the passenger next to me doesn’t want to interface, I use the time to catch up on my Bible reading. However, more often than not we strike up a conversation which usually moves towards my reading of the Bible and faith.
I don’t push hard-sell salvation, but instead focus on planting a seed for future growth concerning God’s grace and love. My prayers have been blessed with the opportunity to plant seeds with agonistics and non-believers, and other times I have enjoyed dogma and doctrine discussions with people from other denominations. Each experience allows me to grow by spurring me to learn more, but more important, I get their names and pray that seeds are planted for God’s Kingdom.
On a recent flight, God threw me a curve ball when a Hasidic Jew sat next to me. Now that may be a common occurrence for some, but in my over fifty years of life, and well over a million miles of travel to nearly fifty countries I had never had the pleasure to set next to a Hasidic Jew. Being in “witness mode” I already had my Bible out, and as he prepared to sit down, he glanced at my Bible and said, “God meant for us to set next to each other.” I could not have agreed more.
Over the next four hours Moseh and I discussed a broad range of biblical topics, some of which you shall see are prophetically eye-opening, at least they were for me. Despite both of us being convicted in our faiths, we cordially exchanged biblical world views, though at times our debate was very pointed. One of the most interesting points in our time together occurred when he needed to break our conversation because he had to perform his daily Psalms reading prior to sunset.
I flipped my Bible to the Psalms and asked if I could join him, and where he was reading from today. “Psalms 113 through 118,” he said. I looked down and my Bible was already turned to that exact verse. What a coincidence, right?
I was told by Moseh (as many will already know), that Hasidic Jews practice a very structured faith composed of 613 laws: 248 on what not to do, and 365 on what you can’t do. In addition to the Torah and prophets being divinely inspired by God, he also believed the Talmud is equally divinely inspired. The Talmud is a collection of nearly 1,900 years of interpretation on Torah compiled by Jewish holy men of God.
Yes, I did use this opportunity to sow the seeds of grace versus works, but he was well aware of this concept and was dismissive. He also held blunt views that: Jesus was just a man who died; man was inherently good/no original sin; Satan was a “good guy” who simply carried out his part of God’s plan; and that God was in everything as he pointed to the plastic and cloth airline seat to our front. I presented opposing views by pointing out contradicting OT scriptures, which he rebuffed as misapplication of the Scriptures taken out of context, or countered with the Talmudic interpretation – quotes which held no merit with me.
We are both wide men using every inch of the undersized airline seats, and the conversation occurred in what would normally be our private personal space. Our faces were less than two feet apart; this was a personal conversation. After two hours my neck was stiff as I leaned my body to the left and craning my neck back to the right in order to look him in the face. We kept on.
It became apparent Moseh’s personal mission became to enlighten me on the Hassidic interpretation of God, and His Plan. I only made him waver in silence once when I outlined the break in the Messianic line of the throne of Judah through the curse of Jehoiachin in Jeremiah 22:30; the only means of resolution which could come through the virgin birth of Isaiah 7:14 by a woman of the line of Judah.
FULL ARTICLE LINK
Fair Use for Discussion Purposes.
Rapture Ready
The Coming Hasidic Messiah
By Joe Southerland
During the three to five hour flights I often take as part of my work, I get to literally bump elbows with complete strangers. Knowing this, I pray for an opportunity to witness and plant seeds for Christ’s Kingdom. Typically I settle in, open my Bible and begin reading. If the passenger next to me doesn’t want to interface, I use the time to catch up on my Bible reading. However, more often than not we strike up a conversation which usually moves towards my reading of the Bible and faith.
I don’t push hard-sell salvation, but instead focus on planting a seed for future growth concerning God’s grace and love. My prayers have been blessed with the opportunity to plant seeds with agonistics and non-believers, and other times I have enjoyed dogma and doctrine discussions with people from other denominations. Each experience allows me to grow by spurring me to learn more, but more important, I get their names and pray that seeds are planted for God’s Kingdom.
On a recent flight, God threw me a curve ball when a Hasidic Jew sat next to me. Now that may be a common occurrence for some, but in my over fifty years of life, and well over a million miles of travel to nearly fifty countries I had never had the pleasure to set next to a Hasidic Jew. Being in “witness mode” I already had my Bible out, and as he prepared to sit down, he glanced at my Bible and said, “God meant for us to set next to each other.” I could not have agreed more.
Over the next four hours Moseh and I discussed a broad range of biblical topics, some of which you shall see are prophetically eye-opening, at least they were for me. Despite both of us being convicted in our faiths, we cordially exchanged biblical world views, though at times our debate was very pointed. One of the most interesting points in our time together occurred when he needed to break our conversation because he had to perform his daily Psalms reading prior to sunset.
I flipped my Bible to the Psalms and asked if I could join him, and where he was reading from today. “Psalms 113 through 118,” he said. I looked down and my Bible was already turned to that exact verse. What a coincidence, right?
I was told by Moseh (as many will already know), that Hasidic Jews practice a very structured faith composed of 613 laws: 248 on what not to do, and 365 on what you can’t do. In addition to the Torah and prophets being divinely inspired by God, he also believed the Talmud is equally divinely inspired. The Talmud is a collection of nearly 1,900 years of interpretation on Torah compiled by Jewish holy men of God.
Yes, I did use this opportunity to sow the seeds of grace versus works, but he was well aware of this concept and was dismissive. He also held blunt views that: Jesus was just a man who died; man was inherently good/no original sin; Satan was a “good guy” who simply carried out his part of God’s plan; and that God was in everything as he pointed to the plastic and cloth airline seat to our front. I presented opposing views by pointing out contradicting OT scriptures, which he rebuffed as misapplication of the Scriptures taken out of context, or countered with the Talmudic interpretation – quotes which held no merit with me.
We are both wide men using every inch of the undersized airline seats, and the conversation occurred in what would normally be our private personal space. Our faces were less than two feet apart; this was a personal conversation. After two hours my neck was stiff as I leaned my body to the left and craning my neck back to the right in order to look him in the face. We kept on.
It became apparent Moseh’s personal mission became to enlighten me on the Hassidic interpretation of God, and His Plan. I only made him waver in silence once when I outlined the break in the Messianic line of the throne of Judah through the curse of Jehoiachin in Jeremiah 22:30; the only means of resolution which could come through the virgin birth of Isaiah 7:14 by a woman of the line of Judah.
FULL ARTICLE LINK
Fair Use for Discussion Purposes.