To David McPike: I'm afraid you misunderstand. Jesus did not create a new covenant de novo or ex nihilo. (The word for "new," both in Hebrew and in Greek, also means "renewed"; there is both continuity and discontinuity.).By his life, death, and resurrection he brought to term the Mosaic form of the Abrahamic covenant and effected a new and final form, capable of embracing the nations. Those united to him by faith through baptism become heirs of the blessings promised to Abraham and escape the curses contained in the Mosaic form. This is the same for Jew and Gentile, yes, but the faithful Jew was already within the sphere of the covenant, while the Gentile was not. The vine or tree that God planted, he planted in Israel.
Terry Glavin at https://therealstory.substack.com/p/yom-kippur-toronto-shots-fired-again/: '“Why all of a sudden has such hatred found a home in Canada?” Poilevre asked. His answer: “This ideology that seeks to divide our people based on race and ethnicity that has led to these horrifying outbursts of hatred are not from the bottom up, they are from the top down.” That’s true enough, except for the “all of a sudden” part. The Trudeau government’s “postnational” insistence on national masochism by immersion in the polemics of white supremacy, Islamophobia and decolonization certainly provide the cultural petri dish and the federal subsidy incentives for “anti-Zionism” and antisemitism to flourish.'
Dear Professor Farrow, thank you for this. And I would just add that although the State of Israel is not explicitly religious, I think their military does in fact do everything they can to not target civilians. They are not indiscriminate in war.
"First, it as not as Christians that we are “grafted on to the Tree of Israel forever,” but only as gentile Christians. The first Christians were all Jews like Simeon. They needed no grafting in. It is gentiles who need that..."
Only Gentiles? Interesting. I would have said that Jesus Christ inaugurated a new covenant, and that Jew and Gentile need equally to be grafted into that covenant (through the obedience of faith in baptism, etc. -- and this applies to Simeon too, who was grafted in because he was a true son of Abraham, our father in faith). The Jews that rejected (and reject) Christ are murderers and liars, like their fathers who likewise rejected and killed the prophets and built their tombs. They are cut off from the New Covenant in Christ; so they need to be grafted in again. And the Christian who has been grafted into the Body of Christ must beware lest he, like the Jew, be cut off; while the Jew, if he repent, will be grafted in again. That's inescapably the Pauline (and Christ's, the gospels') teaching (isn't it??), so I'm not sure you'd actually disagree with it; but then it stands in obvious tension with your claim here...
Sorry professor, but I lose my stomach when you speak of the Jewish people of today as though they are a Christ figure. I couldn’t finish, and I need to unfollow.
And while we are on the subject, let's also increase our reporting on & abhorrence of the apartheid Zionist project and the growing Israeli state genocide that continues unabated, with shameless Western support.
What is the ‘Generals’ Plan’? Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, explained
The ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza as part of the so-called “Generals’ Plan” isn’t new, but the only thing standing in its way is the will of 200,000 Palestinians to stay in the north and refuse displacement.
The difficulty, for the vast majority of us, is access to accurate accounts and trustworthy interpretations. I am not myself a reporter; nor do I assume the integrity of a given report or reporter without evidence thereof. I continue to hold that Hamas must be destroyed and its supporters defeated, which is not the same as approving of the methods or goals of this or that element in Israel. And I agree with this note of caution from Andrew Fox, on the basis of ample evidence past and present: https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/10/17/we-need-to-be-far-more-sceptical-of-hamass-propaganda/
The streets and campuses: "Shots fired at Jewish elementary school in Toronto on morning of Yom Kippur" (https://nationalpost.com/news/this-is-terrorism-firearm-discharged-at-jewish-elementary-school-in-toronto-on-morning-of-yom-kippur)... See also: https://www.thefp.com/p/explosion-of-jew-hate-in-canada-trudeau-israel-palestine
To David McPike: I'm afraid you misunderstand. Jesus did not create a new covenant de novo or ex nihilo. (The word for "new," both in Hebrew and in Greek, also means "renewed"; there is both continuity and discontinuity.).By his life, death, and resurrection he brought to term the Mosaic form of the Abrahamic covenant and effected a new and final form, capable of embracing the nations. Those united to him by faith through baptism become heirs of the blessings promised to Abraham and escape the curses contained in the Mosaic form. This is the same for Jew and Gentile, yes, but the faithful Jew was already within the sphere of the covenant, while the Gentile was not. The vine or tree that God planted, he planted in Israel.
Terry Glavin at https://therealstory.substack.com/p/yom-kippur-toronto-shots-fired-again/: '“Why all of a sudden has such hatred found a home in Canada?” Poilevre asked. His answer: “This ideology that seeks to divide our people based on race and ethnicity that has led to these horrifying outbursts of hatred are not from the bottom up, they are from the top down.” That’s true enough, except for the “all of a sudden” part. The Trudeau government’s “postnational” insistence on national masochism by immersion in the polemics of white supremacy, Islamophobia and decolonization certainly provide the cultural petri dish and the federal subsidy incentives for “anti-Zionism” and antisemitism to flourish.'
Dear Professor Farrow, thank you for this. And I would just add that although the State of Israel is not explicitly religious, I think their military does in fact do everything they can to not target civilians. They are not indiscriminate in war.
Thank you again.
"First, it as not as Christians that we are “grafted on to the Tree of Israel forever,” but only as gentile Christians. The first Christians were all Jews like Simeon. They needed no grafting in. It is gentiles who need that..."
Only Gentiles? Interesting. I would have said that Jesus Christ inaugurated a new covenant, and that Jew and Gentile need equally to be grafted into that covenant (through the obedience of faith in baptism, etc. -- and this applies to Simeon too, who was grafted in because he was a true son of Abraham, our father in faith). The Jews that rejected (and reject) Christ are murderers and liars, like their fathers who likewise rejected and killed the prophets and built their tombs. They are cut off from the New Covenant in Christ; so they need to be grafted in again. And the Christian who has been grafted into the Body of Christ must beware lest he, like the Jew, be cut off; while the Jew, if he repent, will be grafted in again. That's inescapably the Pauline (and Christ's, the gospels') teaching (isn't it??), so I'm not sure you'd actually disagree with it; but then it stands in obvious tension with your claim here...
Sorry professor, but I lose my stomach when you speak of the Jewish people of today as though they are a Christ figure. I couldn’t finish, and I need to unfollow.
I'd be interested to know what you mean by 'Christ figure': that's not something I said, though it is something that might be said, if said properly.
And while we are on the subject, let's also increase our reporting on & abhorrence of the apartheid Zionist project and the growing Israeli state genocide that continues unabated, with shameless Western support.
What is the ‘Generals’ Plan’? Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, explained
The ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza as part of the so-called “Generals’ Plan” isn’t new, but the only thing standing in its way is the will of 200,000 Palestinians to stay in the north and refuse displacement.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/10/what-is-the-generals-plan-israels-ongoing-ethnic-cleansing-of-northern-gaza-explained/
The difficulty, for the vast majority of us, is access to accurate accounts and trustworthy interpretations. I am not myself a reporter; nor do I assume the integrity of a given report or reporter without evidence thereof. I continue to hold that Hamas must be destroyed and its supporters defeated, which is not the same as approving of the methods or goals of this or that element in Israel. And I agree with this note of caution from Andrew Fox, on the basis of ample evidence past and present: https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/10/17/we-need-to-be-far-more-sceptical-of-hamass-propaganda/