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| The focus of this study is: What was it that Jesus taught his followers? What was the focus of His teaching? On what subject did He dwell more than on any other? Did He in fact come to teach us how to worship God? Did He come to start a new religious movement? Why did He
come? It is obvious that He didn't come to start a church. He wasn't
the founder of the Christian Church. Nor did He operate outside
of the mainstream of Judaism of His day. What was it He as the One who
called himself the "Son of Man" taught? (Dan. 7:13,14)
| | written by: Roy B. Blizzard, Jr., Ph.D. - posted: September 17 2003 | | More... |
| In Matthew 5:33, Jesus says, "Again you heard that it hast been said by them of old times, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths." This Is found In Deuteronomy 23:21. "When you make a vow to the Lord your God you shall not be slack in paying it. For the Lord your God will surely require it of you and slackness would be a sin in you. But if you refrain from vowing, it shall not be a sin in you." In other words, if you say you are going to do something and you don't do it, you're going to be held accountable. But if you don't make the vow In the first place, then you won't, be held accountable. So Jesus says the smart thing to do is to not swear at all. That is, don't take any kind of an oath. Don't make any kind of a vow or any kind of commitment. "Neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is His footstool. Neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea and nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these becomest of evil" Jesus is telling us to not make a commitment that you know you are not going to do. "Just let your conversation be yea, yea and nay, nay." There is something in this that completely escapes us if we don't understand this principle of tzedakah. What Jesus is saying is very rabbinic. Would you be surprised to know that in certain branches of the military,
when they take their oath in the army, they respond by saying hen Tzadik? Whenever Jesus says, "...let your communication be yea, yea and nay, nay," in Hebrew "yea, yea," is hen, hen and "nay, nay," Is lo, lo. Hen Tadik is a righteous or a just "yes." In the Ruth Rabbah, chapter 3, verse 4, it says of the tzadikim (righteous) that their conversation is hen, hen and lo, lo. That the righteous speak hen, hen, and lo, lo. In the Talmud, in Baba Metzia 39a, it says, "see to it that your yea is Tzadik, that it is righteous." In other words, don't be saying yes when you know that you are not going to perform it. Don't make a vow and not keep it. The bottom line is be a person of your word! Perform what you say! If you say you are going to do it, do it. Don't make a commitment that you know that you are incapable of doing or that you have no intention of doing. Be a Tzadik, a righteous person.
| | written by: Roy B. Blizzard, Jr., Ph.D. - posted: September 17 2003 | | More... |
| "Woe is thee, 0 land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning" (Ecclesiastes 10:16).
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in Understanding be men" (I Corinthians | | written by: Roy B. Blizzard, Jr., Ph.D. - posted: September 17 2003 | | More... |
| Judaism can be defined as the outgrowth of biblical faith. Prior to Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, biblical faith is the simple belief in the one and only God, YHWH. YHWH is the name by which the biblical God, Elohim, is known. With Abraham, we have the beginning of the Hebrew nation, the nation selected by YHWH to be the perpetuator of biblical faith. The religion of Abraham was a simple theocracy in which every man served as a priest, or one who had the capacity to draw near to God. Biblically, the period is known as the Patriarchal period, during which the family head, or patriarch, ruled his family group. Abraham's son (by his wife, Sarah), Isaac, succeeded his father as the tribal head. Isaac was in turn, succeeded by his son Jacob. Jacob, his wives, their handmaidens, who also bore children to Jacob, and all the members of his family, as well as their servants, ultimately wound up in Egypt, where they sojourned for a period of approximately four hundred years. At the end of their four hundred year stay in Egypt, God raised up a man by the name of Moses to lead the descendants of
Jacob, known as "Israelites," back to Hebrew Monarchy with Saul, and David in Canaan, the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants.
| | written by: Roy B. Blizzard, Jr., Ph.D. - posted: September 17 2003 | | More... |
| After the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., the reconstruction of Jewish thought was undertaken by the Pharisees, while the Sadducees simply disappeared from the historical scene. The Pharisees shaped the later history and character of Jewish life and thought. It was perhaps their concept of God's Kingdom, and their altruistic view of their fellow man that led to the declaration of the Jewish social and religious ethic after the destruction of the Temple, i.e. that study of Torah, recitation of daily prayers, and acts of tzedakah (charity towards one's fellow man) replaced the sacrifices of the Temple.
| | written by: Roy B. Blizzard, Jr., Ph.D. - posted: September 17 2003 | | More... |
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