Comments on: Palin’s Church: Israelis Killed by Terror ‘Judged for Unbelief’

By: itzikl

itzikl — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Shorter Matt,
Anyone who believed what Brickner believes, would say what he said. And if what he said is true, they would be right.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:42:20 +0000

@Matt: This is the last time you will proselytize for your accursed religion here. All future comments by you will be moderated & any that do so will be consigned to the trash heap.

And thanks for confirming that you DO believe that Israelis killed by terror attacks are killed because they’ve denied your Lord & Savior. This will go a long way toward building yr credibility among Jews, real Jews that is, as opposed to whatever you & yr ilk are.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:47:30 +0000

Richard,
It’s not so much a matter of mitigating Brickner’s statement as it is reading that statement in the context of the entire sermon. Have you read the whole sermon at http://wasillabible.org/sermons.htm ? If Jesus is really the Messiah, and if we, as a nation of Jewish people, dismissed him, wouldn’t it make sense that there would be turmoil in the Land until we acknowledged that mistake? God says, speaking through the prophet Hosea, “And I will return to My abode—till they realize their guilt. In their distress, they will seek Me and beg for My favor (Hosea 5:15). As biblical scholar Arnold Fruchtenbaum explains, “Before anyone can go back to a place, he must first leave it. In this passage, God states that He is going back to His place. God’s place is Heaven. Before God can go back to Heaven, He must first leave it. The question is: When did God ever leave Heaven? God left Heaven at the incarnation of the Person of Jesus of Nazareth” (Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of the Messiah, p. 306). Notice that God says there will be distress for the Jewish people. This is what Brickner is referring to. Fruchtenbaum continues, “This verse further states that He will not come back to the earth until the offense that caused Him to return to Heaven is acknowledged or confessed. What is that Jewish national offense committed against the person of Jesus? It is not, as so many people think, in killing Him. The actual killing of Jesus was done by Gentile, not Jewish, hands. He was condemned and sentenced by a Gentile judge. He was crucified by Gentile soldiers. But all this is ultimately irrelevant for, regardless of Jewish acceptance or Jewish rejection, Jesus would have had to die anyway to become the sacrifice for sin. The national offense of Israel was in the rejection of His Messiahship. According to this verse, only when this offense is acknowledged or confessed will Messiah return to the earth” (Fruchtenbaum, loc. cit.)

By: Tolerance is a Must

Tolerance is a Must — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:40:28 +0000

I don’t condemn anyone for their faith and government should not be in the business of doing so. However, government shouldn’t be in the business of preferring one view or encouraging intolerance. Sadly, intolerance is the cornerstone of Jews for Jesus’ stated mission – and Palin’s refusal to speak out about the situation, to have to drag a “she didn’t know and doesn’t agree” from a spokesperson month’s later does not bode well for government furthering tolerance in society.

Similarly, I can’t condemn Sarah Palin for believing “God’s will” is basically anything she backs as a policy proposal. Its divisive and (I think) arrogant to presume to knowledge of God’s will like this, but I wasn’t raised in the evangelical tradition. I do have a big problem with her, in her capacity as Governor, telling evangelical Christians that their “job” is to get the hearts of Alaskans “right with God” so “God’s will” for Alaska can be done. That’s what should scare anyone who isn’t an evangelical Christian, since accepting Christ as your personal Lord and savior is the basic requirement to “get right with God” in this tradition. Everyone else is an impediment to the ideal state, in her own words.

By: Blink: Bernard Avishai On Palin As Bush 4.0 « Koreanish

Blink: Bernard Avishai On Palin As Bush 4.0 « Koreanish — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:14:40 +0000

[...] for higher office in the reflected prestige of a war hero). Loves Israel, while preached to by ministers who think Jews are punished for rejecting [...]

By: Zhubaji

Zhubaji — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:12:32 +0000

“I often come across statistics that say that over 40% of Americans believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. I find it hard to get my mind around that.”

Who’s literal interpretation is another problem.
Zhu Bajie

By: GodIsAnIdea

GodIsAnIdea — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:24:35 +0000

I am free to be secular, 500 years past Spinoza.
Zionism could guide the formerly religious Jews to a secular Enlightenment in Israel, through some temporary wanderings in the religious deserts, but with an enriched result in secular sociology, as America was also founded by Enlightened people for Enlightened people, with the occasional influx of less and more religious immigrants.
Fundamentalists can and will be cured from the various degrees of delusions.
And the secular culture will be a winner. I can imagine, it will set us free.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:07:57 +0000

@Matt: You haven’t quoted anything that would mitigate Brickner’s egregious statements about suicide attacks being God’s judgment for Jewish unbelief. You’re welcome to quote anything else you wish that would “explain” or “clarify” that. As far as I’m concerned, the passage I quoted speaks for itself.

And saying you’re “Jewish” and believe in Jesus gives you a very tenuous connection to Judaism, one not shared with 99.999% of the rest of the Jews in the world who look on yr claim quite dubiously.