From Stand Firm in Faith:
Friday, June 27, 2008 • 3:31 am
Had an interesting discussion with a young (he said he was 22) orthodox Jewish man on Tuesday evening. He approached Anne and I as we were sitting in the hotel lounge drinking Nescafe (I'm not sure why but people here seem to love the stuff...more, apparently, than regular filtered coffee...and blogging. Taking a seat in the couch across from us he asked why there were so many Christians in the hotel.
I tried to explain the Anglican crisis as best I could. He seemed to understand.
This surprised me until he mentioned the upcoming Jerusalem Gay Pride parade and his shame that it would take place in the Holy City. Last year, apparently, they managed to get it moved to Tel Aviv. Opposition to moral depravity is, he said, one stand Christians, Muslims and Jews can take together.
But then he said, "We Jews don't have those problems." He said it with a bit of pride. I think (and the rest of our conversation bears this out, that he wanted to tweak me a bit).
"Conservative and reformed Jews do." I said
"No. Jews do not have those problems. Those other groups are not Jews."
He explained that a Jew who does not keep the Law is no Jew at all. Anyone can call himself a Jew but the real measure is his adherence to scripture. "Those who know the law and do not follow it will burn in hell". That is a direct quote. He said it with some nonchalance, a certain matter-of-factness.
It took me back a little. It was almost a textbook evangelism opportunity.
"Amen." I said, thinking hard about which avenue to take.
He looked at me strangely Wanting to assure me (I suppose) he said, "You people [I suppose he meant Gentiles] are okay. You will not go to hell so long as you follow the law of Noah. That is the law for non-Jews"
I did not pursue his comment but I suppose he was making the same point that Paul made in Romans 2, that if Gentiles follow the natural law filtered through the light of conscience, they will be counted righteous. The problem that my new Jewish friend did not see but that Paul makes plain in Romans 3, is that we cannot do even that. I suppose I could have taken that line of inquiry but I did not.
Instead, I asked: "Maybe you can help me with something that has bothered me for a while now."
"Sure"
"Moses calls for various sacrifices to atone for guilt and sin and these sacrifices, says Moses, must be offered at the Tabernacle or the Temple, through the priests. You say that you follow scripture. But now that the Temple is gone what do you do with sin and guilt?"
"Ah", he said, "The Rabbis have given us prayers of atonement. We say those prayers and they are like sacrifices."
This was what I was hoping for.
"But isn't blood necessary?" I asked.
"Not any more."
"The rabbi's gave you that, but that's not found in scripture?"
"Yes, but we have no Temple, so God has given us the prayers."
"We Christians follow Moses. We believe that God gave his Son Jesus as the blood sacrifice for all sin and guilt."
At this point he smiled a little, a wry smile. It's difficult to communicate in writing, but throughout our exchange he seemed to want to get here.
"I've spoken to many Christians and it seems to me that much of what you believe is based on Jesus, just Jesus. When I was in Scotland I spoke to a group of Christians and when I asked them why they believe that Jesus is the Son of God they couldn't answer me with facts [I'm not sure what he meant here]. But Jews have facts. God came to Mount Sinai and spoke to Moses in front of millions of people. The law was not given to us in our hearts or in some cave somewhere. It was given in public and seen by everyone.
I'll publish the rest of our exchange tomorrow.
Fr. Kennedy of the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd, Binghamton is at GAFCON.
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