Stumble Stone(Zionism)--Part 1
Samaritan woman
Jesus left Judea and went through Samaria to Galilee. He came to a town called Sychar and rested at Jacob's well. When Jesus sat down by the well, a Samaritan woman, who came to draw water, asked Jesus, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:3-24)
Professor Yakov M. Rabkin lectures in Japan
Recently a public symposium entitled “Thinking about the Holocaust and Israel” was held at Meiji University Liberty Hall in Tokyo where Professor Yakov M. Rabkin of the University of Montreal talked about reasons why orthodox Jews opposed to Zionism.
Identity beyond border and territory
According to him, who calls the founders of Israel after World War II “Secular Jews” and calls himself a “religious Jew”, what is important for religious Jews is to maintain the continuity of Judaism. Frankly, keeping God's commandments, observing the Sabbath and Yom Kippur and eating Kosha food is enough. Political and military powers are irrelevant to religious Jews. For Jews, Hebron (a city on the west bank of the Jordan River), where Abraham, the founder of the religion of Scripture, is buried, is important as a holy site.
However Jews don’t need to occupy it and to live there. He said, "We can love Hebron in Tel Aviv and from New York also. The Jewish attitude is always very pragmatic and also allows for compromise. The Jewish identity is above borders and territories. That is why the Jews can live in Chile, Kobe and Moscow too."
Christian Zionism
Professor Rabkin also said, “If religion is a hindrance to peace in the Middle East, the biggest factor is probably ‘Christian Zionism’ which has more followers in the right wing of the U.S. religious community.” According to him, for them, Zionism is a purely religious issue. There is no room for compromise. They believe that they must gather the Jews to Israel to hasten the second coming of Christ. And if the second coming of Christ is realized, Jews are faced with two options. The Jews, who do not consider Christ is the Messiah, can either acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and convert to Christianity, or die after the Last Judgment. The professor was afraid and said, "We Jews will disappear in the fourth act of the entire five-act play." (Excerpts from the Asahi Shimbun GLOBE)
True Jews
Zionism can be seen as the independence movement of Jews scattered around the world. This is by no means peculiar to the Jews. There are oppressed people around the world without homelands, or with homelands, but no independent status. If Zionists had ever noticed this truth before they founded Israel, neither would Palestinians be dispersed nor would the Middle East conflict have occurred. In fact, about 3300 years ago, Moses was aware of it. Therefore he and his people kept wandering in the wilderness for 40 years after seeing the Promised Land Canaan in front of them. The Zionists expelled the native population, just as the successor of Moses had done. However all mankind has repeated the same sins all over the world for thousands of years.
Professor Rabkin has raised questions such as "what is self-determination beyond borders and territories and even beyond religions?" and "What is independent?" In fact, Professor Rabkin's explanation of the religious Jews' attitude is the same answer which Jesus gave the Samaritan woman drawing water.
Worship each other in spirit and truth
"If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn also to him the other" and "If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." These teachings of Jesus are the same as the teachings of the prophets who preached in the Old Testament not to fight even though it meant being captured as prisoners of war when Israel faced the threats of invasion by Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia and so on.
Jesus preached a return to the Jewish origin or the origin of religion. Therefore the Jews need not convert to Christianity just for the sake of the second coming of Christ. Jesus prophesied the time was coming when the Palestinians, Jews, Muslims and even Buddhists would worship each other in spirit and truth. (Hensho:2010/05/30)
What is "Baptism with The Holy Spirit"?
According to the dialectic of the Gospel of John,
【thesis】 "A man can possess eternal life through accepting testimony of the Son of man and being baptized by him." (John 5:24)
【anti-thesis】 But "The one who comes from the earth cannot accept the testimony by one from heaven."(John 3:32)
How then can a man possess eternal life?
【synthesis】 "If you want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, you can just go back to the word which was with God in the beginning (John 1:1) and certify that God is truthful. (John 3:33)"
When he said, "You are Huichao," Zen Master Fayan thrusted vivid Self in Huichao in front of his eyes. (The Origin of Christianity P.171)
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[Reference]
Stumble Stone
The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.” (Isaiah 8:13-14)
“So this is what the Sovereign LORD says, ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.’” (Isaiah 28:16)
God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced."(Romans 9:33)
Gap among Jews widens on question of Zionism, by Yakov M. Rabkin
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