- What is the New Covenant? – Messianic apologist John McKee has written an in-depth work that asks, and answers, the question, “what is new covenant faith”? Bookmark this one: it is a well-researched, 40-page treatise on the the new covenant and our faith in Yeshua the Messiah.
- Should Intermarried Families Celebrate Christmas? - Put on your flame suite. Messianic rabbi Derek Leman shakes things up when he asks this question, and even more so when announces a new personal project: … wait for it … a Christmas Haggadah. Well, kind of. It’s a Haggadah for Yeshua’s Birth. In time for Christmas. Oiy.
- More on Christmas and the Haggadah – In a follow-up to the above post, Derek Leman responds to criticisms, and suggests that some of the ‘paganoid’ criticisms of Christmas by Messianics are erroneous. He then explains both some positives and negatives about the Christian holiday, and why he would create a Haggadah on Yeshua’s birth.
- Ask the Expert: Hanukkah Bush – MyJewishLearning tries to help a reader to resist the Christmas-ization of Hanukkah, and resist assimilation and learning the ways of the nations, specifically by avoiding a Hanukkah Bush, and preventing Hanukkah as being viewed as the “Jewish Christmas”.
- Applying God’s Law – Nate Long discusses the predicament of a man who’s son is in a public school that is teaching the children to build totem poles. The man is uneasy about this due to commandments in God’s law against idolatry. Good discussion of a relevant issue in western culture.
- Is There a Utopia Outside of Christ? – Christian apologetic Hank Hanegraaff shows how all Utopian experiments have failed – the Great Society, Marxism, fascism, our modern attempts in the US and in Europe at socialism, and even many modern new age religious movements – all promise security, peace, meaning, yet all have failed. (While this post is a month old, it’s new to me, and I think some of you fine blog readers will enjoy it.)
- Israeli Messianic Jews persecuted through car fire-bombings – Eliav Levin, leader of a small Messianic Jewish congregation in Beit She’an, reports his community is under serious violent attacks: the cars of congregational members are being systematically burned, and their landlords are being pressured to revoke contracts with their Messianic tenants.
The Jerusalem Post reports 2 suspects have been arrested in response to the bombings, praise God.
- Chabad Messianism Alive and Well – The Yinon blog documents the on-going Chabad Meshichist charade: some members of the Chabad sect of Orthodox Judaism believe the late honored Rebbe Menachem Schneerson to be the promised Messiah, and even ascribing divine qualities to this rabbi of Crown Heights, New York! (Unsurpisingly, these followers of a yet-another-false messiah are allowed in Israel, and are still considered Jews, meanwhile Messianic Jews are persecuted with violence and harassment.)
- Stop the Spread of the Swedish Blood Libel – Honest Reporting documents the recent erroneous Swedish blood libel against Jews, in which the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet accused Israel of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians. The story has since been thoroughly debunked, but Palestinian, anti-Israel, and racist groups and media have picked up the story and regurgitate it as a matter-of-fact.
Podcasts
- Yeshua as Teacher – Messianic rabbi Derek Leman discusses who Yeshua was in his current time, avoiding common anachronistic interpretations that paint him as something familiar to our modern culture.
- Acts 15, part 4: John McKee continues his deep, scholarly look at the controversial apostolic ruling in Acts 15 on gentiles, Torah, and salvation.
Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers!