Keep me Out of This Scrap

Jewish friends are unhappy because I keep using the term "Messianic Jew." My response? It's not appropriate for me to get involved in this battle. It's among Jews. Or between Jews and...whatever you want to call the others. And on the Internet, it would be crazy to use an obscure PC term ("RC"? "Religiously Correct"?) that won't get attention from Google users. I guess I could call them "Deluded Followers of Yeshu the False Messiah," but no one using Google would ever know I was writing about them.

Yes, I know about "Yeshu" and what it means. It's hard to keep a thing like that secret.

I call Jehovah's Witnesses "Jehovah's Witnesses," even though I don't think they've witnessed anything except a gigantic fraud. I don't think this nomenclature thing is a major issue. I'm not using the term "Messianic Jew" because I want to suggest that these people are still Jews. I am pretty sure I haven't gotten into that argument. I use the term because it's efficient.

In response to a comment, I pointed out that Israel's Law of Return rejects Messianic Jews. Atheists and agnostics? Fine. An Orthodox rabbi who keeps the law for 50 years, decides Jesus is the Messiah, and then continues observing? No sale.

As most people probably know, the Nazis exterminated Messianic Jews. They had a more liberal definition of "Jew" than Israel's Ministry of the Interior. And when future persecution arises, you can bet the Nazi definition, or something similar, will be applied. Which means we could conceivably end up with an S.S. St. Louis situation, in which Israel turns away refugees persecuted for their perceived Jewishness. Weird.

I can see drawing a religious distinction, but the civil distinction seems likely to end in tragedy. I'm sure it has, already. Israel has probably rejected a few people who went on to suffer greatly because they couldn't get in.

Anyway, it's not up to me; it's not my party. I wouldn't try to tell the rabbis what to do, and I don't have a voice in what happens in Israel, nor should I or any other Gentile. But you are going to have to put up with "Messianic Jews" on this blog. Out of respect, I gave way on "C.E." and "B.C.E.", but I am not going to type something odd like "Ex-Jews for Jesus" every time I refer to these people. That's too much to ask.

Here's a question that occurs to me. Will the Jews ever accept any Messiah, universally? The nature of faith is peculiar; you can believe--or refuse to believe--almost anything. People think faith is more closely tied to logic than it really is. The truth is, your beliefs are shaped by your desires. If the Messiah comes, and the thousand-year Messianic Age begins, will everyone believe, or will there be holdouts? My money is on the second option. I think that if the Messiah came tomorrow, a big percentage of Jews and Christians would refuse to believe it. That's just how people are.

Right now, there is a big conflict between mainstream Orthodox Jews and a group of people who think the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, is the Messiah. He's dead, and there has been no resurrection. But they still hope. Their beliefs seem crazy to most Jews and nearly all Christians, but I can't help feeling some sympathy. It can be very hard to figure out what's true and what isn't. I'm sure these folks are doing their best. Anyone can make a mistake. Even a mistake that seems incredible to others.

I believe the best proof that people believe what they want is that so many people have supernatural experiences and then ignore them. I can't do that. If something happened, it happened. I can't make it go away by pretending otherwise. But I believe most people can do that. I'll bet there are people who will read this blog post, who have seen something miraculous and then gone on as if nothing had happened. And my opinion is consistent with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.

This must be one reason we see so few miracles. If you won't believe without a miracle, a miracle probably won't help, because your problem is that you prefer not to believe. Isn't that the big lesson of Exodus? Those people saw miracles every day, yet they still had problems with idolatry and lack of faith. You would think one month of manna would resolve a person's doubts for life.

I read some interesting stuff the other day. I checked out Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum's site. He's a Messianic clergyman. I believe his mother was a Gentile, and he was raised Orthodox, and then he came to believe Jesus was the Messiah. He has a number of articles posted. Some discuss Satan and demons.

Unlike most Jews and Christians, he rejects the notion that angels are asexual. He believes they can reproduce with human women, and that this is what happened prior to the flood. The idea is this: these beings wanted to taint the bloodline of the Messiah, so they impregnated human women and gave rise to a crop of superhuman beings with unnatural abilities. And the behavior of these beings was disgusting, and they infected mankind with their pride and debauchery, and the flood was necessary to exterminate them.

He says the Jews who created the Septuagint used the Greek term for "Titans" to describe the offspring of the angels. This is translated "giants" in English. But the Titans were figures in Greek mythology. Fruchtenberg says the translators were trying to find a term to describe a race fathered by immortals. He says the Titans were regarded as half human and half god, and I can't find anything to substantiate that. But the Greek gods did breed with humans.

I found this interesting, because it dovetails with the notion that the apocryphal book of Enoch is legitimate scripture. It appears that it was referred to approvingly in the book of Jude, so you can't discount it out of hand.

Enoch lived before the flood. He was so righteous, he was assumed into heaven. According to Aaron, the Jews suspect that God assumed him because He feared Enoch was about to commit his first sin.

The book of Enoch is supposedly Enoch's first-person narrative of his experiences in heaven. There are two parts to the book. One part, frankly, seems nutty. For example, it says lightning bolts are stored somewhere in heaven, which is not exactly credible. But the other part of the book makes a good deal of sense. My suspicion is that the bad part was grafted onto the good part and ought to be discarded.

Enoch says fallen angels came down on Mt. Hermon--the snow-capped mountain at Israel's northern border--and proceeded to impregnate women and teach men things like metalworking, agriculture, and astrology. I can't remember all of it. I may re-read it today. But it seems very consistent with Dr. Fruchtenberg's notions. The book is also full of prophetic material concerning the end of the world. If the book is legitimate, that's exciting, because prophecy is extremely confusing, and new input would certainly be helpful. Especially if it comports with what we already have before us.

For a long time, I have thought that Mt. Hermon had special significance. I wrote about this a while back. The Banias is at its base. This is an ancient center of pagan worship. The "Ban" comes from "Pan," who is the physical model for our goat-like conception of Satan. Caesarea Philippi, which was associated with idolatry, was built near the Banias. And it's where Jesus first claimed to be the Messiah. It's where his ministry really got going. It's the place where he told Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan." I suspect that beginning his ministry there was a deliberate insult to the god of this world, just as the plagues of Egypt were intended to humiliate that nation's "gods."

The Jordan, which has so many symbolic meanings, starts on and around Hermon and runs the length of Israel. Pagans used to pollute it at one of its sources, throwing sacrifices into the water at the Banias. Is it just me, or are those acts sort of reminiscent of the attempt to pollute the human bloodline? Years ago, I came to believe that in the Bible, the water of the Jordan symbolizes humanity.

If you're not religious, it sounds crazy. If you are, it's better than Art Bell.

Dr. Fruchtenbaum believes all angels are male. I disagree. In chapter 5, Zechariah mentions female angels. I have another reason to disagree, but I won't go into it.

Have a good Sunday.