While I absolutely delight in the Sabbath, I'd like to share an amusing anecdote concerning a friend of mine who was scrupulous in his Sabbath-keeping. My friend, possibly the only orthodox Jew north of the 45th parallel in Michigan (excluding the city of Petoskey), discovered that his furnace had gone out on a cold winter day. What did he do? He walked out to the road, flagged down a gentile, and that gentleman was kind enough to push the button on my friend's furnace to restart the pilot light. I suggested to my friend that it would have been easier to push that button instead of going outside and finding a gentile to help. Years before this, I asked him how he could flush his toilet on Saturday. Did he repeatedly pretend to fall against the flush lever? Happily, this pious friend of mine has a good sense of humor.
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Mat15:14)
while funny it is also very sad that these people who turn the Sabbath into a burden give such a bad image about keeping it to others that it makes God's laws into a mockery. They most probably will still reject Jesus if he healed on the Sabbath.
Attempts to follow the Law sometimes lead to error. That friend of mine who lived in Mancelona, MI. was "too orthodox" to spend holidays with his parents. He would always stay at his rabbi's home in Grand Rapids. While cleaning the rabbi's stove, this friend, who was once a great cross-country skier wrenched his back trying to get all the cooties out of the old man's oven and hurt his back. He no longer skis. And yet, despite his occasional errors, my friend considers the Saturday Sabbath holy and he enjoys the closeness he feels to YHWH when keeping Sabbath. One time, he traveled more than 100 miles to my home in Indian River, MI to share what a Passover Service is like. He would spontaneously break into chanting or prayer and I had the definite impression that he was in an elevated state of mind as he did so.
I cannot believe that God would curse his faithful believer and condemn him to an eternity in a burning Hell. YHWH is our Spiritual Father. I cannot accept the idea that he would condemn anyone (especially a Jew) for trying every day and every hour to please him.
The problem is their attitude to the law is that they see the law as a burden that must be obeyed, the law is not seen as God's way of love to help us to show justice, mercy and compassion to others.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
(Mat 23:23-24)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
(Mat 23:15)
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, yet they turn the Sabbath into a time of worry that they may do something wrong, rather than a time of rest as the name simply means.
As far as burning in Hell is concerned- it is a pagan idea that has been tacked onto Christian teaching, but has nothing to do with scripture, as explained in this post
God will resurrect Israel from their graves, and then they shall know the truth.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
I am pleased to learn that you do not believe in a God that is more evil than Satan (i.e. Satan tortures us for a brief time on Earth, but YHWH tortures us forever). I live surrounded by Baptists and my Free Methodist upbringing led me to believe that YHWH was, indeed, a cruel and heartless "spiritual father".
I appreciate Buddhists because they make no attempt to evangelize and every one that I have met is content to accept me as a Christian brother. You see, Buddhism is more of a science and a philosophy than a religion.
Regarding my Christ-free Jewish friend, I will always wish him the best and would never consider trying to challenge his faith. Some would suggest that by doing so I was hanging a millstone around his neck. In fact, back in 1980, during the "Jesus Freak" movement, a co-worker at the Kent County Department of Social Services left some Jews For Jesus literature on my friend's desk while he was out making home calls. My friend filed a successful grievance.
While we have a duty to comfort the suffering and to teach those who are ready, we are not obliged to ruin anyone's self-worth or to make anyone defy his parents' teaching (assuming those parents are not perverts or sadists).
Yes I see your point, but Paul did go to the Synagogues all throughout the book of Acts. He got persecuted for it, but that didn't stop him.
I think the best thing to do is leave them alone, if God want's to call anybody there is plenty of information that they can pick up, we don't have to cram it down their throat.
So, you don't believe in burning in Hell? Or that we have an immortal soul?
I appreciate your mentioning the book of Acts. When I was a boy, that was my favorite book in the Bible. I think I'll read it again, now.
I believe that we have immortal souls and that no one will ever be sent for eternal torment for errors or a lack of understanding. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot? Gosh. I think I'll let God sort it out.
While I absolutely delight in the Sabbath, I'd like to share an amusing anecdote concerning a friend of mine who was scrupulous in his Sabbath-keeping. My friend, possibly the only orthodox Jew north of the 45th parallel in Michigan (excluding the city of Petoskey), discovered that his furnace had gone out on a cold winter day. What did he do? He walked out to the road, flagged down a gentile, and that gentleman was kind enough to push the button on my friend's furnace to restart the pilot light. I suggested to my friend that it would have been easier to push that button instead of going outside and finding a gentile to help. Years before this, I asked him how he could flush his toilet on Saturday. Did he repeatedly pretend to fall against the flush lever? Happily, this pious friend of mine has a good sense of humor.
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Mat15:14)
while funny it is also very sad that these people who turn the Sabbath into a burden give such a bad image about keeping it to others that it makes God's laws into a mockery. They most probably will still reject Jesus if he healed on the Sabbath.
Attempts to follow the Law sometimes lead to error. That friend of mine who lived in Mancelona, MI. was "too orthodox" to spend holidays with his parents. He would always stay at his rabbi's home in Grand Rapids. While cleaning the rabbi's stove, this friend, who was once a great cross-country skier wrenched his back trying to get all the cooties out of the old man's oven and hurt his back. He no longer skis. And yet, despite his occasional errors, my friend considers the Saturday Sabbath holy and he enjoys the closeness he feels to YHWH when keeping Sabbath. One time, he traveled more than 100 miles to my home in Indian River, MI to share what a Passover Service is like. He would spontaneously break into chanting or prayer and I had the definite impression that he was in an elevated state of mind as he did so.
I cannot believe that God would curse his faithful believer and condemn him to an eternity in a burning Hell. YHWH is our Spiritual Father. I cannot accept the idea that he would condemn anyone (especially a Jew) for trying every day and every hour to please him.
The problem is their attitude to the law is that they see the law as a burden that must be obeyed, the law is not seen as God's way of love to help us to show justice, mercy and compassion to others.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
(Mat 23:23-24)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
(Mat 23:15)
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, yet they turn the Sabbath into a time of worry that they may do something wrong, rather than a time of rest as the name simply means.
As far as burning in Hell is concerned- it is a pagan idea that has been tacked onto Christian teaching, but has nothing to do with scripture, as explained in this post
https://friendswithgod.substack.com/p/gods-idea-of-sacrifice
God will resurrect Israel from their graves, and then they shall know the truth.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
(Rom 11:25-29)
I am pleased to learn that you do not believe in a God that is more evil than Satan (i.e. Satan tortures us for a brief time on Earth, but YHWH tortures us forever). I live surrounded by Baptists and my Free Methodist upbringing led me to believe that YHWH was, indeed, a cruel and heartless "spiritual father".
I appreciate Buddhists because they make no attempt to evangelize and every one that I have met is content to accept me as a Christian brother. You see, Buddhism is more of a science and a philosophy than a religion.
Regarding my Christ-free Jewish friend, I will always wish him the best and would never consider trying to challenge his faith. Some would suggest that by doing so I was hanging a millstone around his neck. In fact, back in 1980, during the "Jesus Freak" movement, a co-worker at the Kent County Department of Social Services left some Jews For Jesus literature on my friend's desk while he was out making home calls. My friend filed a successful grievance.
While we have a duty to comfort the suffering and to teach those who are ready, we are not obliged to ruin anyone's self-worth or to make anyone defy his parents' teaching (assuming those parents are not perverts or sadists).
Yes I see your point, but Paul did go to the Synagogues all throughout the book of Acts. He got persecuted for it, but that didn't stop him.
I think the best thing to do is leave them alone, if God want's to call anybody there is plenty of information that they can pick up, we don't have to cram it down their throat.
So, you don't believe in burning in Hell? Or that we have an immortal soul?
I appreciate your mentioning the book of Acts. When I was a boy, that was my favorite book in the Bible. I think I'll read it again, now.
I believe that we have immortal souls and that no one will ever be sent for eternal torment for errors or a lack of understanding. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot? Gosh. I think I'll let God sort it out.