Wednesday, June 26, 2019

LifeSiteNews goes Noahide


According to their "About" page, www.LifeSiteNews.com "is a non-profit Internet service dedicated to issues of culture, life, and family" which "emphasizes the social worth of traditional Judeo-Christian principles." In their opinion, the "conflict is between radically opposed views of the worth and dignity of every human life and of family life and community. It has been caused by secularists attempting to eliminate Christian morality and natural law principles which are seen as the primary obstacles to implementing their new world order." The term "natural law" is very important in this sentence as "natural law" in this context does not refer to physical laws but laws which a religious body (ie. the Catholic Church) have deemed to be so fundamental that to break them would be a crime against nature, though this is an opinion. The Natural Law Association (http://www.naturallawassociation.org) is a non-profit organization which promotes the Noahide Laws under the banner of "natural law". In this vein, LifeSiteNews has published two articles promoting the Noahide Laws, regardless of the fact that the website professes to care for Christian values, but under Noahide Law, Christianity is considered idolatry and Jesus a blasphemer and sorcerer, verdicts which bring death under Noahide Law (here).

LifeSiteNews seems to agree with the statements in Public Law 102-14 (here) that the American nation was founded upon the principles of the Seven Noahide Laws (not the Constitution?) The author of one article calls for a coalition of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) under an umbrella of Noahide Law; the Catholic Church (here) and elements of Sunni Islam (here) have already sworn themselves to the mandatory Noahide Laws. The author also attempts to deceive the reader by stating the Seven Noahide Laws are "biblical", meanwhile, the Noahide Laws in their entirety are not found within the Bible (here) but inside the Babylonian Talmud (here); calling them "Talmudic" values would likely not be very popular among Christians or Muslims. It is a little hypocritical for LifeSiteNews to cite the Noahide Laws in reference to the pro-life movement in that according to Noahide leader Rabbi Schneerson, non-Jews are not permitted to have abortions not because it is immoral but because the fetus belongs to Jews who non-Jews are here to serve (here); under Noahide Law, Jews may kill non-Jews without penalty (here), so it would only be logical that if a Jew wished a non-Jew to abort their child for any reason, it would be possible. This follows the logic of pro-Noahide Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg who states that under Jews law it is legal for a Jew to take the organs from an unwilling non-Jew in order to save a Jewish life (here). While the article focuses on sexual immorality the writers forget to mention that while non-Jews may not commit adultery under Noahide Law, Jews may commit adultery with the wives of non-Jews without penalty (here). A second article describes a Jewish sexual counseling service which was accused of emotionally abusing homosexuals, homosexuals are also to be killed under Noahide Law (here). The counseling service is now committed to creating an organization which again is a "coalition" of the Abrahamic faiths under Noahide Law and restoring "biblical" values to America. LifeSiteNews has obviously become part of the Noahide deception. 

Noahide Laws Are "Biblical" values and foundation of America
"As I have written in a previous Public Discourse essay, the founding fathers of America recognized that the dual foundations of faith and family were the key to establishing this great country. We have abandoned that ideal, founded on principles found in the Seven Noahide Laws, in favor of a culture that has become largely secular and hedonistic.

Because each of the Seven Noahide Commandments has a negative aspect ("Thou Shalt Not …") while simultaneously incorporating a positive aspect, it is instructive to understand the specific commandment relevant to parental rights that is being abandoned. The positive aspect of forbidding sexual immorality and certain sexual relations is protecting the family unit, the initial building block of communal social life. Family life initiates one into societal life. The stability of the community depends on the stability of the families composing it. As head of the family unit, parents represent on earth the ultimate Father in Heaven.

The sanctity of marriage and family reflects the oneness of G-d and His creations. When we override this structure, we ignore G-d's eternal truths and our own common sense. We are witnessing foundational elements of American society as envisioned by our founders being destroyed. There are consequences for disobeying covenants between G-d and society, illustrated by the many social and emotional consequences attendant on the destruction of traditional family units.

We must return to the universal moral Biblical values found in the seven Noahide laws and reestablish a G-d-centered family-based culture. This can only be accomplished if we who embrace the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) form a coalition that abhors social and moral chaos, overthrows our sexually degenerate values, and recalls America to its biblical origins. " 
- LifeSiteNews.com, "Western civilization depends on parental rights. Time to restore them" by Arthur Goldberg, Retrieved 6/26/2019 From https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/western-civilization-depends-on-parental-rights.-time-to-restore-them

A Noahide coalition against homosexuality 

JONAH lost its defense against the SPLC last summer, when a jury ruled that its reparative therapy program for people with unwanted same-sex attractions was fraudulent. JONAH was found guilty of 17 of 20 claims leveled by SPLC on behalf of former JONAH clients, who claim they were emotionally abused by JONAH and had to seek therapy after leaving its services...

...Berk and Goldberg say they are looking to the future and are "working on our vision to form a new institute that will be rooted in biblical values and express a biblical worldview."

"On December 29, 2015, we filed the articles of incorporation for our new organization, the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA)," say Berk and Goldberg, who described the new institute as an effort "to put together a coalition of those who follow the Abrahamic religions (Jews, Christians, and Muslims, which constitute more than 50% of the world's population). This coalition will advocate Divinely ordained moral imperatives and universal ethics known as the Seven Noahide Laws. We will continue to fight for core American values, including the freedom of traditional believers to live as free and equal citizens in this great country."
- LifeSiteNews,  "Jewish counselors forced out of business for helping people avoid homosexual behavior" by Dustin Siggins, Retrieved 06/26/2019 From https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/jewish-counselors-forced-out-of-business-for-helping-people-avoid-homosexua

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Jewish group CJCUC presumes to speaks for Christians, they are Noahides?


The Center for Jewish-Christain Understanding & Cooperation (CJCUC) is a Jewish organization that promotes interfaith dialogue between Jews and Christians on matters of theology. In 2011 CJCUC put out a statement entitled "CJCUC's Statement on Jewish Understanding of Christians and Christianity". Even though the statement is supposed to be about how many Jews view Christian, within the statement, CJCUC presumes to speak for Christians as to how they see themselves, and according to CJCUC, Christians view themselves as being members of the "Noahide covenant" and that they were responsible for removing idolatry from nations under the direction of the Noahide Laws. Most Christians at this time would not even know what the Noahide covenant is, let alone claim it is the impetus for their actions and beliefs. This is because the "Noahide Laws" are not found within the Old Testament of the Bible but inside the Talmud (here) a purely Jewish text. More than this, according to the Talmud where the Noahide Laws are found, Jesus is described as a blasphemer and sorcerer, distinctions which would warrant his death under Jewish Noahide Law, additionally it is stated that converting to Christianity is one of the worst sins one can commit and Christians (minuth) are said to be tortured in hell (here).  Why are Jewish groups like CJCUC speaking for Christians and stating that Noahide Law is part of Christian doctrine, especially that this logic is particularly deceptive? 


CJCUC STATEMENT




CJCUC’S STATEMENT ON A JEWISH UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY


After collaborating and working with various Christian organizations, leaders, and scholars over the past three years, the leaders of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) in Efrat and Jerusalem have released a statement of A Jewish Understanding of Christians and Christianity. CJCUC is the first Orthodox Jewish entity dedicated to engaging in dialogue with the Christian world
In partnership with The Witherspoon Institute in Princeton New Jersey, CJCUC recently publicized their scholarly work at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem and at Yale University on the topics of “Covenant & Mission” and “Hope & Responsibility in the 21st Century.” In addition, CJCUC has collaborated with scholars connected with the Hebraic Heritage Christian Center in Atlanta, GA, in discussing the issues of “Evangelization” and “Jewish Understanding of Christianity.”
CJCUC’s Founder Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin said, “This statement only represents the view of our center but should also be used as a catalyst for other orthodox Jews and Jewry worldwide to consider fostering relationships with Christian communities. Leaders within the Catholic and mainline Protestant churches as well as the non-denominational movements of Evangelical Christianity have become sincere friends of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. It is vital that we strengthen our relationship with them. We are certain that through these relational dialogues we will find far more which unites us than divides us.”
For more information, please contact CJCUC’s Media Division at 516-882-3220 or info@cjcuc.com

A Jewish Understanding of Christians and Christianity

Many leaders of Christianity today no longer seek to displace Judaism. They recognize the Jewish people’s continuing role in God’s plan for history, and through their own understanding of the Christian Testament, they understand themselves as grafted into the living Abrahamic covenant.
Christians see themselves not merely as members of the Noahide covenant, but as spiritual partners within the Jewish covenant.  At the same time, they believe that God does not repent of his covenantal gifts and that the Jewish people continues to enjoy a unique covenantal relationship with God in accordance with its historical 2000 year traditions.
Jewish and Christian theologies are no longer engaged in a theological duel to the death and therefore Jews should not fear a sympathetic understanding of Christianity that is true to the Torah, Jewish thought and values. In today’s unprecedented reality of Christian support for the Jewish people, Jews should strive to work together with Christians toward the same spiritual goals of sacred history—universal morality, peace, and redemption under God—but under different and separate systems of commandments for each faith community and distinct theological beliefs.
Nearly all medieval and modern Jewish biblical commentators understood Abraham’s primary mission as teaching the world about God and bearing witness to His moral law. Maimonides insisted in his halakhic and philosophical writings that spreading the knowledge of the One God of Heaven and Earth throughout the world was the main vocation of Abraham.  Significantly, this understanding of Abraham’s religious mission is exactly the role and historical impact of Christianity as understood by great rabbis such as Rabbis Moses Rivkis, Yaakov Emden and Samson Raphael Hirsch.
R. Moses Rivkis (17th century Lithuania):
The gentiles in whose shadow Jews live and among whom Jews are disbursed are not idolators. Rather they believe in creatio ex nihilo and the Exodus from Egypt and the main principles of faith. Their intention is to the Creator of Heaven and Earth and we are obligated to pray for their welfare (Gloss on Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat, Section 425:5). 
And Rabbi Jacob Emden (18th century Germany):
The Nazarene brought a double goodness to the world… The Christian eradicated avodah zarah, removed idols (from the nations) and obligated them in the seven mitsvot of Noah…a congregation that works for the sake of heaven—(people) who are destined to endure, whose intent is for the sake of heaven and whose reward will not denied. (Seder Olam Rabbah 35-37; Sefer ha-Shimush 15-17.

And Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (19th century Germany):
Although disparaged because of its alleged particularism, the Jewish religion actually teaches that the upright of all peoples are headed toward the highest goal. In particular, rabbis have been at pains to stress that, while in other respects Christian views and ways of life may differ from those of Judaism, the peoples in whose midst the Jews are now living [i.e. Christians] have accepted the Jewish Bible of the Old Testament as a book of Divine revelation. They profess their belief in the God of heaven and earth as proclaimed in the Bible and they acknowledge the sovereignty of Divine Providence in both this life and the next. Their acceptance of the practical duties incumbent upon all men by the will of God distinguishes these nations from the heathen and idolatrous nations of the talmudic era (Principles of Education, “Talmudic Judaism and Society,” 225-227).

Israel…produced an offshoot [Christianity] that had to become estranged from it in great measure, in order to bring to the world—sunk in idol worship, violence, immorality and the degradation of man—at least the tidings of the One Alone, of the brotherhood of all men, and of man’s superiority over the beast. (Nineteen Letters on Judaism (Jerusalem, 1995).
When we combine this rabbinic appreciation of Christianity with today’s non-replacement Christian theologies toward Judaism, we find fresh possibilities for rethinking a Jewish relationship with Christianity and for fashioning new Jewish-Christian cooperation in pursuit of common values.  If so, Jews can view Christians as partners in spreading monotheism, peace, and morality throughout the world.
This new understanding must encompass a mutual respect of each other’s theological beliefs and eschatological convictions.  Some Christians maintain that Christianity is the most perfect revelation of God and that all will join the church when truth is revealed at the end of time.  Jews, too, are free to continue to believe, as Maimonides believed, that “all will return to the true religion” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, 12:1) and, as Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik declared, “In the ultimate truthfulness of our views, [we] pray fervently for and expect confidently the fulfillment of our eschatological vision when our faith will rise from particularity to universality and will convince our peers of the other faith community”(“Confrontation” from Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought, 1964, 6:2).
The new relationship requires that Christians respect the right of all Jewish peoples to exist as Jews with complete self-determination—free from any attempts of conversion to Christianity. At the same time, Judaism must respect Christian faithfulness to their revelation, value their role in divine history, and acknowledge that Christians have entered a relationship with the God of Israel. In our pre-eschaton days, God has more than enough blessings to bestow upon all of His children.
The prophet Micah offers a stunning description of the messianic culmination of human history:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and the God of Jacob, that He teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.…Let the peoples beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore. Let every man sit under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one shall make him afraid….Let all the people walk, each in the name of his God; and we shall walk in the name of our Lord our God forever and ever.” (4:2-5)
Jews and Christians must bear witness together to the presence of God and to His moral laws.  If Jews and Christians can become partners after nearly 2,000 years of theological delegitimization and physical conflict, then peace is possible between any two peoples anywhere.  That peace would be our most powerful witness to God’s presence in human history and to our covenantal responsibility to carry God’s blessing to the world.  It is the very essence of what makes up the messianic dream.
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin, Founder & Chancellor of CJCUC and Ohr Torah Stone
Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn, CJCUC’s North American Director
Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, CJCUC’s Associate Director
David Nekrutman, CJCUC’s Executive Director

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