Christian Apologetics
HEGE Series
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; — 1 Peter 3:15
Christian apologetics | Wikipedia
Apologetics | Theopedia]
Orthodox Apologetics | YouTube St Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church, Stafford VA
Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
Heretical Orthodoxy: Lev Tolstoi and the Russian Orthodox Church
Post-Modernism & The “Two-Story” Truth
Hank Hanegraaff
Christian Research Institute
Hank Hanegraff
Bible Answer Man | YouTube
Amazon Author Page
The photo that lost radio’s ‘Bible Answer Man’ thousands of listeners
Royal Priesthood
You are a Royal Priesthood | YouTube Channel Y2AM - Be the Bee
The Royal Priesthood of All Believers
Universal Priesthood
Orthodox Christians as Priests of Creation
Christian Heresy
List of Christian heresies | Wikipedia
Heresy in Christianity | Wikipedia
See — Catholicism, Protestantism, Gnosticism, New Religious Movements, Western Esotericism, Cults
LumenLearning — 14: Religion
Why were the Montanists condemned? Evangelical Pro-Montanist
Was the Church Right to Condemn Montanism? Anti-Montanist
The Acephalites
Protestantism is Ancient Heresy
— Condemned by the Church in Fourth Century
See — Protestantism
Christians do not believe in kismet, fate or destiny. Even if God determines the chief lines of our life, He, according to our prayers and merits, can change them. Thus, He prolonged King Hezekiah's life for fifteen years: “Go and say to Hezekiah, thus said the Lord, the God of David Your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold I will add unto your days fifteen years” (Isaiah 38:5), and to the Venerable Dius (July 19) he likewise prolonged his life for fifteen years. God extended the life of St. Basil the Great, according to the prayer of the saint for one day until he baptized the Jew, Joseph, his physician. But, as God can, by prayer, prolong life, so He can shorten it because of sin. Emperor Anastasius adhered to the Severian heresy, so called the Acephalites (the headless ones), who spread the foolishness that the Church does not need bishops and priests but rather that everyone unto himself is a bishop and a priest and that everyone has the right, in his own way, to interpret Holy Scripture and to teach others as he understands and believes. In vain did St. John the Patriarch counsel the emperor to return to the truth of Orthodoxy, and not only did the emperor not accept the counsel but rather ill-treated the patriarch in various ways and contemplated to have him banished. One night, the emperor saw in a dream an awesome man on an exalted throne, who held a book in his hand. This man opened the book, found the name of Emperor Anastasius and said: “I have wanted to permit you to live for a while longer but, because of your heresy, behold, I am erasing fourteen years from your life.” And he erased something from the book. Terrified, the emperor jumped up from his dream and related his dream to his followers. After a few days, thunder struck the emperor's place and killed Emperor Anastasius. — Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, The Prologue from Ochrid August 31 Reflection
Covenant Theology
Covenant Theology (Reformed Protestantism) | Wikipedia
Covenantal theology (Roman Catholic) | OrthodoxWiki
— “Eastern Orthodox theology has tended though to not emphasize a covenant-centric understanding of salvation history, but rather a Christological one. That is, Orthodoxy has stressed an over-arching focus on the Incarnation of Christ, His death and resurrection, and man's subsequent adoption as sons through Theosis as the primary vehicle to understanding scripture. However, that does not mean Covenantal thinking, such as Christ as Messiah, the fullfillment of the Law and the Prophets and covenant mediator has been lost on Orthodoxy by any means. Major precepts of Covenantal theology are to be found through out the writings of the Fathers, as the rise of Catholic Covenantal Theology proves, and indeed these precepts are present in contemporary Orthodox scholarship.”
My possible rejection of Covenant Theology
The Early Church Fathers: Babies or Giants?
—“I very much appreciate the Reformed tradition’s insight into the importance of the covenant, because it has helped me to identify the Orthodox Church as the true covenant community founded by the Suzerain Jesus Christ who came to restore us to the kingdom of God.”
Neither the Old Covenant nor the New Testament were “legal agreements,” rather they were spousal relationships. This was the great error into which the Old Israel fell [and Reformed Protestantism], and which the prophets warned them about. Israel did not recognize and receive the Christ because He came to her as a heavenly bridegroom seeking his bride. Israel, conceiving the covenant as a “legal contract,” anticipated a stern earthly ruler, come to enforce a violated treaty and establish his will by military and political means. It is for this same reason that Western Christianity fell into an idolatrous concept of atonement.... — Archbishop Lazar Puhalo (See — Sexuality)
Deism
Deism | Wikipedia
Syncretism
Syncretism | Wikipedia
Religious syncretism | Wikipedia
— “The Roman emperors used syncretism to help unite the expanding empire [just as The Antichrist may initiate an antichristian "christian" syncretistic global religion].”
Manichaeism | Wikipedia
— “Manichaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came. Mani's teaching was intended to "combine", succeed, and surpass the teachings of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions, and mystery cults. It reveres Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ [just as Islam reveres Mohammed as the final prophet above all].”
Baháʼí_Faith | Wikipedia
Unitarian Universalism | Wikipedia
Unitarianism | Wikipedia
— a modern day form of Adoptionism
Christian universalism | Wikipedia
— “denies the doctrine of everlasting damnation, and proclaims belief in an entirely loving God who will ultimately redeem all human beings”
Islam
Islam | Wikipedia
Islam, as well as other differences, denies the divinity of Christ, like Arianism, a 4th century Christian heresy.
See — Christian Heresy
Corporate American insipid Western secular consumerism (Mammon worship) trivializes Christianity (especially because it's rarely ever vocally or highly visibly opposed by Heterodoxy or Orthodoxy), reinforces Islam in Arabs, and feeds the drive of Westerners toward Islam —
List of Islamic apologetic works | Wikipedia
List of converts to Islam from Christianity | Wikipedia
Talk Islam — YouTube, Facebook
ASHAMED TO BE MUSLIM || Spoken Word Response
WHO IS GOD - ALLAH, JESUS OR EMINEM?
Islam | Wikipedia
World Civilization | LumenLearning
Ch. 7 The Rise and Spread of Islam
Did you know?: The Spread of Islam in Southeast Asia through the Trade Routes
Pew Research: Will Islam Be the Largest Religion in 2070?
Bible Answer Man explains why Islam will soon be the No.1 religion
Bible Answer Man Explains Christian Downfall to Islam
Salman Rushdie
How Salman Rushdie has been a scapegoat for complex historical differences
Hunted by An Angry Faith: Salman Rushdie's novel cracks open a fault line between East and West
Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo shooting
Charlie Hebdo | PBS
Charlie Hebdo attackers killed to avenge Prophet Mohammad, French court hears | Reuters
14 Accomplices Found Guilty Of Aiding 2015 'Charlie Hebdo' Attacks | NPR
Islamaphobia
Islamophobia | Wikipedia
Islam: What the West Needs to Know | YouTube
History of Islam Parts 1-5 | YouTube
The Third Jihad | Vimeo
Malcolm X: Prince of Islam | Archive.org
The Truth About Islam
Confronting Islam: Examining the Qur’an
Islam Exposed©
Islam Exposed: The Depravities Towards Black Africans
— “This book exposes Islam's role in the institution of slavery, racism, discrimination and other depravities towards Black Africans, right from the religion's formative stages to the present day. The book also exposes the religion's adverse legacy that has left Africa enduring a never-ending cycle of violence, religious polarization, coercion, slavery, human rights abuses, anti-Semitism, religious intolerance, and numerous other abominations. Africa has also become the epicenter of Jihad activities, plunging the already poverty-stricken continent into a further abyss of human affliction.”
Todd H. Green
Todd H. Green
The Fear of Islam, Second Edition: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West 2019 | Amazon
Islamophobia: What Are We Really Afraid Of? | YouTube
Robert B. Spencer
Robert B. Spencer | Wikipedia
— “According to author Todd H. Green, Spencer's commentary on Islam has been regarded as "hav[ing] made a huge impact on the misinformation about Islam that circulates so freely on the Internet, in the media, and in political circles”
Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World s Fastest-Growing Faith | Amazon
The Critical Qur'an: Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research | Amazon
Why Jihad Watch?
Robert Spencer: About the author | Amazon
Robert Spencer Amazon Author Page
The Truth About Muhammad | YouTube
The Lies about Muhammad | Amazon
— An Answer to the Robert Spencer Book “The Truth about Muhammad”
Judaism
See — Christian Heresy, Millenialism, Technology, Reason
Judaism (Talmudism) | Wikipedia
Judaism (Talmudism) denies that Jesus of Nazreth is the long awaited Messiah promised the Children of Israel by the God of their patriarchs (Abraham, Issac, Jacob), and denies His divinity, like Arianism, a 4th century Christian heresy.
Talmud
Temple Institute
Jewish Resurrection of the Dead
Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals
All Have Sinned
— Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; James 3:2; 1 John 1:8; 1 John 1:10
Jewish rabbis and their Talmud are not morally superior, and do not “own” the high ground of human morality.
The Feasts of the Lord: God’s Prophetic Calendar from Calvary to the Kingdom | Archive.org
Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology | Archive.org
The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels | Archive.org
— “About the middle of the eighth century [BC], a Judean shepherd named Amos, living a few miles outside Bethlehem, is seized by a message from God and impelled to head north to preach to idolatrous Israel, which is enjoying high-flying economic success, a success that has passed some of its population by. Amos is decidedly not a professional prophet, like Elijah, and has no connection with any of the prophetic brotherhoods. He is, in his own words, “merely a herdsman and dresser of sycamore-figs,” as is evident from his rough, prickly words, delivered at the schismatic shrine of Bethel and in the streets of Samaria. There the shocked shepherd is witness to conspicuous consumption on a grand scale, which he realizes is just a new form of social injustice...
And the truth—for eighth-century Samaria—was this: to serve God means to act with justice. One cannot pray and offer sacrifice while ignoring the poor, the beggars at the gates. But more radical still: if you have more than you need, you are a thief, for what you “own” is stolen from those who do not have enough. You are a murderer, who lives on the abundance that has been taken from the mouths of the starving. You are an idolator, for what you worship is not the true God. You are a whore, for you have bedded down with other gods, the gods of your own comfort and self-delusion, you who “cram [your] palaces with violence and extortion,” who have “sold the upright for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals [from Gucci, no doubt],” who “have crushed the heads of the weak into the dust and thrust the rights of the oppressed to one side.””
Therefore, USA is “Samaritan” to the core — a thief, murderer, idolater, whore, and violent extortioner for not worshipping the True God, but instead the Mammon god of its “own comfort and self-delusion”. So much for all those empty, shallow, hypocritical American demands that "God Bless America”.
Jesus in the Talmud | Wikipedia
— In the context of Christian-Judaic polemics
“In the first few centuries CE, there were many sects of Judaism (such as Pharisees, Essenes, and Sadducees) each claiming to be the correct faith. Some scholars treat Christianity, during that era, referred to as Early Christianity, as simply one of many sects of Judaism. Some sects wrote polemics advocating their position, and occasionally disparaging rival sects. Some scholars view the depictions of Jesus in the Talmud as a manifestation of those inter-sect rivalries – thus the depictions can be read as polemics by the rabbinic authors of the Talmud which indirectly criticized the rival sect (Christianity), which was growing and becoming more dominant.”
Jesus in the Talmud
What is the Talmud and is it Anti-Christian?
The Talmud: A Different Kind of Replacement Theology
Alfred Edersheim
Alfred Edersheim | Wikipedia
Alfred Edersheim | Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL)
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah | CCEL
The Temple—Its Ministry and Services | CCEL
Sketches of Jewish Social Life | CCEL
Antisemitism
Judensau | Wikipedia
The Talmud Unmasked
The Poisonous Mushroom
Antisemitism | Wikipedia
History of antisemitism | Wikipedia
Antisemitism in the United States | Wikipedia
Adversus Judaeos | Wikipedia
— “According to Patristics scholars, opposition to any particular view during the late fourth century was conventionally expressed in a manner, utilizing the rhetorical form known as the psogos, whose literary conventions were to vilify opponents in an uncompromising manner; thus, it has been argued that to call Chrysostom an "anti-Semite" is to employ anachronistic terminology in a way incongruous with historical context and record.”
But of course, that doesn't matter to history “scholars” like Miriam Bodian with a particular “human rights” axe to grind (Christianity as “anti-semitic”).
Such is the current condition to which Academia has degenerated.
The Jewish Question in Europe : The Causes, The Effects, The Remedies
from La Civilta Cattolica, vol. VII, no. XIV. 1890 (Oct, Nov, Dec)
How the Charge of Anti-Semitism Changed Catholic Liturgy: Part I | Culture Wars
The Jew Taboo | Culture Wars
— “The Holocaust is not only at the head of the taboo subjects, but arguably a secular religion, concerning which no adverse comment at all is allowed. One can pour scorn on the Catholic Church and very little by way of criticism will be said. Mount an attack on Western civilization generally and the cognoscenti will likely praise you. Try saying that the value of a society should be judged in terms of how it treats the most vulnerable, those in the womb and the elderly and infirm, and you will be floored by the abortion crowd and the supporters of euthanasia.... However, if you dare to say a single word casting the slightest doubt on any aspect of the Holocaust story, you will be immediately castigated as [a Holocaust denier and] an irreparable anti-Semite [reprobate] and subjected in many countries to criminal sanctions, loss of employment, and social scorn.
[Holocaust “museums” have been built in the US capitol, every major US city, and around the globe.] Coverage of the Holocaust is standard fare in every school curriculum. Children the world over read The Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars, Waiting for Anya, Butterfly. Students learn about the gas chambers and the six million, about the Nazi atrocities. We watch Holocaust miniseries on television, Schindler’s List, and Night and Fog. We celebrate “Holocaust Education Week,” and we acknowledge January 27 each year as the “International Day of Commemoration” of Holocaust victims, as declared by the UN in 2005. School children collect six million pencils, or six million paperclips. We visit Holocaust museums. We take college courses (for full credit) from endowed chairs in Holocaust studies. This is not by accident. It is a deliberate plan, to make sure we “never forget.” And if we can never forget, then we should at least get the story straight....
[ See — Propaganda ]
Anti-Semitism is a racial concept, in the sense of hatred of the Jews because of immutable and ineradicable racial characteristics. This is utterly wrong and something that has always been repudiated by the Church. However, it is necessary for a Christian, in view of the belief of that faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, to be anti-Jewish in the sense of opposing beliefs and actions of Jews which operate as a consequence of the Jewish rejection of Christ.... The Jews rejected the fundamental basis of the universe when they rejected the Messiah because as St. John writes about the Son of God at the beginning of the fourth Gospel, “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.” In rejecting the Second Person of the Trinity, the Jews reject order and redemption. The Jews reject their Messiah and turn instead to anti-Christian revolutionary movements. If Logos is indeed the fundamental basis of the universe, then the logos of practical reason known as morality should determine human behavior. This truth was lost on the Jews who ran the Manhattan Project, because the Jewish revolutionary spirit, manifested as Communism at the time, was in fundamental rebellion against the order of the universe that Werner Heisenberg discovered by reading Greek to determine whether to create an atomic bomb.
[ Oppenheimer: Applied Jewish Science | Culture Wars ]
This enmity to Logos and to Christ is present in the historical message of the late Talmudic evidence. This is noted by the Jewish scholar Peter Schäfer:
They ridicule Jesus’ birth from a virgin, as maintained by the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and they contest fervently the claim that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Most remarkably, they counter the New Testament Passion story with its message of the Jews’ guilt and shame as Christ killers. Instead, they reverse it completely: yes, they maintain, we accept responsibility for it, but there is no reason to feel ashamed because we rightfully executed a blasphemer and idolater. Jesus deserved death, and he got what he deserved. Accordingly, they subvert the Christian idea of Jesus’ resurrection by having him punished forever in hell and by making clear that this fate awaits his followers as well, who believe in this impostor. There is no resurrection, they insist, not for him and not for his followers...
Schäfer goes on to say that the rabbis taught that Jesus was not born from a virgin, as his followers claimed, but out of wedlock, the son of a whore and her lover; that he entertained lewd sexual thoughts, but, when rebuked by his rabbi, he became apostate and established a new cult; he was convicted of sorcery and of enticing Israel into idolatry; that he was stoned to death and hanged on a tree, the punishment reserved for the worst criminals; and that his fate consists of sitting forever in boiling excrement.
This rejection of Logos has been a feature of Jewish history and has led directly to cultural subversion and collapse of the moral order:
Rabbi Louis Israel Newman points out how Jews have consistently supported revolutionary movements throughout history. Jews joined forces with heretics during the Albigensian crisis, the Hussite revolution, the Reformation, and at the birth of modern England. They joined forces with revolutionaries during the Enlightenment, the Russian Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement. We also see the conflict between the Church and Judaism working itself out at the birth of the Spanish Inquisition, the spread of the Polish empire and the Chmielnicki rebellion that began the break-up of that empire. Finally we see a Jewish presence in the rise of the American Empire.
It is generally accepted now that the Bolshevik Revolution in the Soviet Union was not primarily a Russian Revolution. On the contrary, it was led primarily by a non-Russian, Jewish ethnic minority that abhorred Russians and the Czar for their alleged anti-Semitism. The predominately Jewish nature of Communism and the Bolshevik Revolution has been endorsed by many Jews and Jewish publications. Of the latter, the Encyclopedia Judaica is a notable example:
The Communist movement and ideology played an important part in Jewish life, particularly in the 1920s, 1930s, and during and after World War II... Individual Jews played an important role in the early stages of Bolshevism and the Soviet regime... The great attraction of Communism among Russian, and later also, Western Jewry emerged only with the establishment of the Soviet regime in Russia... Communist trends became widespread in virtually all Jewish communities.”
Miriam Bodian
Miriam Bodian UT Professor Emerita, Ph.D. 1988, Hebrew University
The Church And The Jews
— “This course will examine the complex relationship between the Church and the Jews over two thousand years. It will analyze Christian ideas and policies regarding Jews as expressed in both elite and popular culture. We’ll examine various sources, including theological texts, canon law, church art, and popular preaching. We’ll consider how the Church’s powerful anti-Jewish teachings provided a basis for restrictive legislation and violence against Jews, even if Church authorities sometimes acted to protect Jewish communities. The course emphasize the factors that led to striking changes in attitudes and policies over time, with emphasis on how the theological legacy was adapted in the face of changing realities. It will examine the consequences of the Protestant Reformation and conclude with a look at the radical shift in the perspective of the Catholic Church in the 1960s, with the documents issued by Vatican II.’”
The Church and The Jews website
John Chrysostom (c.347-407) : Eight Homilies against the Jews, Homily I [excerpted for Bodian’s polemics, Full Translation]
Bodian’s course is not scholarly, not historically balanced by “both sides now”, so it ought to instead be entitled “Modern Jewish Propaganda: Accusation of anti-semitism for socio-political control”. Though some Western Christian (Roman Catholic) phenomenon in Western Europe does fit the bill of anti-semitism (e.g. Judensau, “Jews’ sow”), she essentially argues for Christianity as distortion of Jewish monotheism. Alfred Edersheim by way of much greater historical depth and inspired interpretation shows otherwise. Bodian claims that Christian teaching justifies abuse of Jews, IOW that Christianity is systemic anti-semitism, with the next obvious step being to outlaw and banish Christianity from the face of the earth.
Bodian ignores all intemperate and indelicate accusations of Jewish rabbis (sages, scribes and Pharisees, “lawyers”) against Christians over the centuries as recorded in their Talmud, preferring instead to play pot to kettle black. Those rabbinical arguments don't advocate violence against Christians, but then neither do the Church fathers advocate violence against Jews, including John Chrysostom (first millenium pre-Schism Church father) whom Bodian brands an anti-semite in order to “prove” that anti-semitism originates in the Christian Church (both East and West).
What she doesn’t seem to understand is the polemical style of writing of the day, or that anti-semitism, like any form of racial or other hatred, is not Christian, but anti-christian, the sinful product of temptation of humans by the Evil One and his minions, regardless from whom such sin transpires. Neither does Bodian seem to acknowledge that all western modern human rights are legacy of Christian upholding of all humanity as created in the image and likeness of God (as expounded in the first book of the Jewish Pentateuch), and therefore deserving of respect and humane treatment — something that too many secular and religious Jews and rabbis are often wont to do, instead seeing themselves as better and above others because of being chosen by God.
Bodian seemingly doesn’t acknowledge that Jews are part of humanity, all of which (including Jews) has ”sinned” (“fallen” out from comm-union with God per first book of Jewish Pentateuch, God the One and only as revealed through Abraham and all other patriarchs and prophets of the Jews). Jews are not more righteous than everyone else, more perfect fastidious keepers of the Ten Commandments (Mosaic Law) than non-jewish gentiles, and therefore able to claim moral superiority as justification for policing the morality of others. Such “we do no wrong; everyone is against us” self-righteous playing the victim is racist supremacism of the worst sort.
See — Modern Era Error
Playing the victim | Wikipedia
— “To break the hold of the negative complex, and to escape the passivity of victimhood, requires taking responsibility for one's own desires and long-term actions.”
IOW humbling oneself before Almighty God in acknowledging oneself as the greatest of sinners, and repenting of one’s own sinfulness instead of making a lucrative professional career of going around always pointing the finger at others.
E. Michael Jones
See — E. Michael Jones
The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit : And Its Impact on World History | Archive.org, Download pp.33-35, 90
— To hold onto their “identity,” the “Jews” had to reject Christ. The “Jews” (as opposed to the entire ethnic group, some of which accepted Christ as the Messiah) created a new identity for themselves, one that is essentially negative [in relation to Jesus Christ, his disciples, apostles and later followers, i.e Christians].
St. John brings readers to this understanding gradually as the Jews define themselves in encounters with Christ in his gospel. Jew, in the context of the Gospel of St. John, cannot mean all Jews in an ethnic or racial sense, since Jesus himself was a Jew, as were his disciples....
The coming of Christ changed Jewish identity forever, something the Jews at His time comprehended only with difficulty. From then, the terms "Israelite" and "Jew" were no longer synonyms, because,...“the ‘true Israelites’” from the Christian perspective “are precisely those who, like Nathaniel, recognize in Jesus the Messiah.”...
The conflict that defines “Jew” in the fourth gospel is essentially religious.... Judaism celebrates the “Jews’” identity, their origins, their history and their past, and anyone who questions one of these elements, as Jesus does, is a threat to that identity. The festivals celebrate and confirm Jewish identity; the encounters between Jesus and the “Jews” occur during the [Jewish] festivals because for John Jewish identity revolves around the person of Jesus.
Christianity is intimately connected with Christ. Judaism is just as intimately connected with Jerusalem. The “Judaism in question takes on an official character. It has its seat in Jerusalem and it is hostile to Jesus.” It is “le principal accusatueur” of Jesus. Its headquarters is in Jerusalem where all confrontations between Christ and “the Jews” occur; it is the center of the “systematic hostility of ‘Judaism’” against Jesus....
The meaning of “Jew” in this context is clear: a Jew is openly hostile to Christ and willing to persecute those Jews who accept Him as the Messiah. John's mention of “fear of the Jews” indicates that Jews were then afraid of “Jews.” The well-being of the Jews who accepted Christ was threatened by the Jews who rejected him.... The parents of the man born blind exhibit “fear of the Jews” because the “Jews” threaten to expel followers of Jesus, also Jews, from the synagogue. The identity of both groups was essentially religious, not ethnic; both identities were a function of Christ. The Jews who acknowledged Christ were expelled from the synagogue. The Jews who rejected Him, the people John calls “the Jews,” defined themselves by that rejection.”
[Christian identity is with the Divine image and likeness as visibly manifested in the Jewish Mashiach (Messiah, Christos, Christ) — Y’shua Ha-Nozri (Jesus the Nazarene), Y’shua Ha-Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ)— not identity with Palestine, Jerusalem, Temple, and “the Jews”. Christian identification with spiritual Divine image and likeness is why Jews blame Christianity as source of all their woes. Jews find such spiritual identity threatening to their material identity based on DNA (sperm of Abraham), ethnic history, land of Palestine, Jerusalem and Temple — the reason Jews must continually seek to quash Christianity as anti-semitic in order to maintain their well-being rooted in material Jewish identity. See — Identity]
“The Talmud may have protected the Jews from schism and sectarian divisions, but the price the Jews paid for this protection was complete rabbinic control. The Talmud took the sacred scriptures out of the hands of the Jews and made their interpretation the sole purview of the rabbis as codified in Talmudic lore. The word of God was nullified by the Talmud. The Talmud, the saying went, permitted whatever the Torah forbade. The Jew, in other words, could not appeal to sacred writ without the permission of the rabbis who controlled the Talmud. The Talmud became, as a result, control through hermeneutics. The Talmud became, according to Walsh, “the chief means employed by the Annas and Caiaphas of each age to keep the mass of the Jewish people in ignorance of the true nature of Christianity, and to fan their misunderstanding of it to hatred.“ To fan this hatred, the Talmud contained “the most scurrilous and vindictive blasphemies against Christ.” The Talmud claimed that Christ was a bastard (Kallah 51A) off-spring of a Jewish whore and a Roman soldier (Sanhedrin 106A) who is in hell buried in boiling excrement (Gittin 57A). During persecution, the most controversial parts of the Talmud were committed to memory and transmitted orally, but the tradition of blasphemy and subversion continued unabated. The Talmud insured blasphemy and subversion became part of Jewish culture, because, as one scholar noted, the Talmud was “the creator of the Jewish nation and the mold of the Jewish soul.”
The Talmud would also be instrumental in the rise of the revolutionary spirit when it re-emerged during the Reformation. “We can boldly assert,” Graetz writes, “that the war for and against the Talmud aroused German consciousness and created a public opinion without which the Reformation, like many other efforts, would have died in the hour of birth, or perhaps would never have been born at all.” The Talmud also became the link between the Neoplatonist thaumaturgy of Julian and later assaults on the Catholic Church from behind the mask of Freemasonry. Masonic theology, according to Rabbi Benamozegh, is “at root nothing else than...the theology of the Kaballah.”” [See — Kabbalah, Freemasonry]
Now, about this charge, anti-Semitism. The word has several meanings. One is an embedded hatred of Jewish people... As such, it is a grave sin, a disease of the heart, a variant of racism. Which brings us to a second definition... And that is a word to describe the branding iron wielded by a tiny clique, to burn horribly heretics from their political orthodoxy. It is used to frighten, intimidate, censor and silence; to cut off debate; to so smear a man’s reputation that no one will listen to him again; to scar men so indelibly that no one will ever look at them again without saying, ‘Say, isn’t he an anti- Semite?’ – Pat Buchanan, 1990 Yet what kind of men were they who set their hands to the task [of rebuilding the temple]? They were men who constantly resisted the Holy Spirit, revolutionists bent on stirring up sedition. After the destruction which occurred under Vespasian and Titus, these Jews rebelled during the reign of Hadrian and tried to go back to the old commonwealth and way of life. What they failed to realize was that they were fighting against the decree of God, who had ordered that Jerusalem remain forever in ruins. — St. John Chrysostom, Adversos Judaeos
Hinduism
See — Gnosticism
Buddhism
See — Gnosticism
Pantheism
Pantheism | Wikipedia
See — Gnosticism
Full Circle: The Resurgence of Animism in Modern Scientific Pantheism
Panentheism
Panentheism | Wikipedia
See — Gnosticism
Paganism
Paganism | Wikipedia
Polytheism
Polytheism | Wikipedia
Indigenous Religion
Indigenous religion | Wikipedia