Go to the Source

Today I watched a video by a man associated with The Last Reformation. His name is Peter Ahlman, and he’s from Sweden. He was in Israel talking to a Messianic Jew named Ariel Hyde. Hyde has a hard job, which may be a crime in Israel. He tries to get Jews to accept Jesus.

It’s not easy to figure out whether proselytizing is truly a crime in Israel. The official government position is that it’s legal, but if Wikipedia is correct, the government is not quite honest about it. They arrest and detain people deemed to be missionaries, and they forbid them to enter the country. They also force people to pledge not to proselytize. Also, it is illegal to try to convert a minor unless the minor has a parent belonging to the faith in question.

It looks like the issue is not really settled. I don’t know the answer. I suppose the government of Israel is like many secular governments. It probably makes a lot of compromises when dealing with religion, leaving everyone concerned feeling cheated.

Ariel Hyde tells Jews about Isaiah 53, which is a Bible passage that describes the Messiah. I am not saying this is the Jewish position on the matter; it’s what Christians believe. It describes the life of Jesus very accurately. The video describes Isaiah 53 as a “forbidden” passage which Jews have tried to play down. It is not read in synagogues.

Isaiah 53 says the Messiah will be rejected and put to death. It clearly says he will be punished for the sins of others.

Hyde says Jewish scholars used to say Isaiah 53 was about the Messiah, and he mentions Maimonides as an authority who held this belief. Is that true? It appears to be. Maimonides referred to part of Isaiah 53 in connection with the Messiah. On the other hand, in another work, he said that if a candidate was killed, he was not the Messiah promised by the Bible. Isaiah 53 expressly states that the person it describes was “cut off from the land of the living.”

My best guess is that Maimonides simply made a mistake. He had many things to study, and it may well be that he took inconsistent positions because something slipped his mind. Alternatively, maybe his beliefs concerning Isaiah 53 changed. Maybe he believed it was about the Messiah at one time, and then he changed his mind. Maybe that’s not the answer; maybe he thought part of Isaiah 53 was about the Messiah and part was not.

It does appear clear that he thought part of it was a Messianic prophecy.

If the figure in Isaiah 53 isn’t the Messiah, who could it be? Who else was put to death for our sins? Nobody. No human being.

It has to be about SOMEONE.

As for the censorship issue, I don’t think you can call a passage “forbidden” when it’s still included in Torah scrolls and printed versions of Isaiah. Religious Jews say less than 5% of the prophets’ writings are read in synagogues, and they claim Isaiah 53 has never been included. They say they can debunk sources that claim otherwise.

It was interesting to watch Hyde talk to Jews. He spoke to several in the video, and at least three were religious. Two wore yarmulkes, and one appeared to be some type of Orthodox Jew. He wore a black suit and a black hat, and he had a full beard. None of the people Hyde spoke to seemed familiar with Isaiah 53. When he showed it to them, they expressed surprise. That’s very strange. I can understand why random Israelis would be ignorant; most Jews are atheists. I would expect religious Jews to know more than that.

Given the high level of scholarship among religious Jews–some of them, at least–the natural assumption is that a typical religious Jew will be familiar with the entire Old Testament, just as many, many Christians are. Perhaps this is not the case. Maybe their devotion to the Talmud and other extrascriptural works is so great, scripture takes a backseat.

There are Christian sects which tend to produce Biblically ignorant people. Catholics are amazing in this regard. It seems like very few of them read the Bible. To become a Catholic, you have to study a work called the catechism, and you have to show that you are familiar with certain points. It seems that the catechism has become a sort of Christian Talmud. The implication appears to be that if you read what certain men have written about God, you don’t need to know what God himself says through the Bible.

Catholics are so notorious for their laxity, our language contains the familiar phrase “practicing Catholic.” We needed a way to set serious Catholics apart from the majority. Catholics themselves use the term “hatch, match, and dispatch Catholics.” It refers to people who only show up in church to be christened, married, and buried.

I am not a Catholic, so I can’t say for a fact that Catholics prefer rituals and extrascriptural works to the Bible, but I have seen a number of Catholics say this is the way things are.

The Catholic church used to have a rule making it illegal for laymen to own Bibles, so I guess no one should be surprised if an anti-scriptural, pro-scholarship bias still impacts their methods.

I don’t understand why anyone who wants to know God would permit himself to be ignorant of scripture. Short of God himself, it’s the most authoritative source we have. The farther you get from God, the more corrupt sources become. Knowledge gives way to gossip, fables, and propaganda. You can end up with very bad doctrine. The Catholic Church used to be the biggest terrorist organization on earth, while purporting to represent the Prince of Peace. They burned many, many people alive in the name of a gentle man who gave his life to save his persecutors. It shows how dangerous it is to rely on human beings for teaching.

It’s no wonder Catholics worship Mary as a goddess. There is no limit to how wrong you can be when you listen to the wrong teacher.

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus had younger brothers, so the notion that Mary died a virgin is untenable. Jesus himself slapped down a person who tried to exalt Mary. He did it publicly and instantly, knowing what was going to happen in future centuries. You can’t be familiar with the Bible and not know these things. The Bible even criticizes the error of forbidding people to marry.

As for the Jews in the video, I can’t understand how they would be familiar with Isaiah 53. Regardless of how they interpret it, how can they hold themselves out as observant and not know the Old Testament? If you’re going to wear special clothes, go to yeshivas, and live by very difficult rules, supposedly because God is the center of your life, how can you fail to read the Bible regularly? It makes sense for reformed Jews, who, I think, mainly go to the synagogue to practice yoga, but how can the Orthodox end up like this?

Mysterious.

This kind of thing is easier to understand in Christians and Muslims. Christians are not known for their scholarship, and Muslims are on a considerably lower tier. They have a very high illiteracy rate. A big percentage of fanatical Muslims have no idea what they believe, because they don’t study. Many have not read the Koran. Jews, on the other hand, have the single most impressive record of scholarship and learning of all peoples. No one else comes close. They should know the Old Testament better than anyone.

I’m a bad Bible scholar, but I have read it and read it. I have memorized a bunch of psalms. I can recite many verses. I understand the meaning of thousands more, even if I can’t recite them correctly. I’m not unusual among charismatics in America. How did we end up with this advantage, and why would those who oppose us let it happen?

I read both testaments of the Bible. This is normal for people who share my beliefs. None of the Bible has been superceded or repealed, and all of it supports the divinity of Jesus. Pick a book, and you can find him there, starting with the first words of Genesis, which use a plural word to describe God. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t read the Bible.

The rejection of the suffering Messiah of Isaiah 53 seems strange to me. It’s a classic picture, even outside of Judaism and Christianity. Human beings love to kill people who tell the truth. It’s a recurring theme in history. The Greeks killed Socrates. Greek literature is full of prophets who were contemned. Cain killed Able. Jacob’s sons sold Joseph into slavery. The Hebrews rejected Moses and worshiped a golden calf. David’s family rejected him. Religious Jews killed and abused prophet after prophet, their modern counterparts admit it, and yet somehow, they can’t believe they would oppose the greatest prophet of all.

It’s not bizarre to kill a Messiah. What’s out of character for humanity is accepting one.

Even if you assume Jesus isn’t the Messiah, wouldn’t you expect the Messiah to face terrible opposition? If I rejected Jesus, I would still expect the Messiah to be treated the way he treated his messengers. After all, the message is the same.

The notion of an iron-fisted Messiah who appears and forces everyone to kneel and obey is incompatible with the Bible. Free will is clearly a top priority with God. Our loving God throws people into burning torment every day because he considers it better than making them slaves or robots. If a Messiah came and forced everyone to obey right off the bat, he wouldn’t change many people. Most of us would hate him and wait for an opportunity to dethrone him. A real Messiah would want to change our hearts. Jesus gave us 2000 years of patience so we could come to him on our own and be transformed supernaturally.

God wants our hearts, not merely dutiful adherence to rules. In Psalm 32, he says, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you.”

Here is what Psalm 40 says:

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”

Any strong person can have slaves. Parenting is harder and takes patience.

I should never be surprised when people turn out to be less impressive than I thought. I don’t know when I’ll finally absorb this lesson.