QUOTE=David Merrill]Judaism is not a physical race so much as a belief set. [David Merrill. [/quote]
But it is in fact, both.
Wikpedia
Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים, Yehudim; Yiddish: ייִדן, Yiden) are followers of Judaism or, more generally, members of the Jewish people (
also known as the Jewish nation,
or the Children of Israel), an
ethno-religious group descended from the ancient Israelites and from converts who joined their religion. The term also includes those who have undergone an officially recognized formal process of religious conversion to Judaism. The current Jewish population is over 14.5 million, the majority of whom live in Israel and the United States.
Israel originally came from descendants of Jacob, the son of Isaac the son of Abraham (technically Abraham was not Jewish as the Jewish nation did not exist during his lifetime).
Gen 32:27(KJV) And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Gen 32:28(KJV) And he said,
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
The original Jews were the descendants of Israel (or Jacob).
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
If one does not understand the difference between Isrealite and Jew, then he is still in prophetic infancy." In other words in order to understand the fulfilling of Biblical prophecies one has to understand the position of the Jews as enemies of Israel.
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According to the scriptures, the Jews were not enemies of Israel, they were the enemies of the gospel.
Rom 11:1(KJV) I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Rom 11:2(KJV) God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Rom 11:3(KJV) Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
Rom 11:26(KJV) And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27(KJV) For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28(KJV).
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
If you’re not that familiar with Romans 11, I suggest you check it out, as it explains a great deal about the biblical relationship between the Jew and the Christian according to God's viewpoint. This is a fascinating chapter in the Bible that it seems few are familiar with and explains in great depth a lot of things relative to Israel and God's plan for them and how they should be viewed by Christians..
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
To understand the Jews are actually enemies of Israel it is important to read Ezra and Nehemiah. The Jews were created in Babylon and King Darius, a Jewish hero took on the commission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. He sent the Jews (Babylonian assimilants) back to Jerusalem and they were met with fierce resistance from the Israelites. The Jews had to work with one man assigned to cover his back at all times so that they could fight off assaults from the Israelites. The Jews since their Babylonian creation are enemies of the Israelites.
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I believe that the above to be historically inaccurate and at the very least misleading. The Jews were taken from Israel into Babylonian captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar in about 587 BC after they had trashed Israel. The Jews were not created in Babylon as the author states. Daniel, one of the great Jewish prophets of the Old Testament, lived in captivity and eventually became an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar. After Daniel's death, Babylon was conquered by King Cyrus of Persia who then took over. It was at this point that Ezra found favor with Cyrus and was allowed to begin rebuilding the Jewish temple which took place in about 559-530 (Erdmans Handbook to the Bible). Later on during the reign of King Darius (522-486) the temple was actually rebuilt. In 486-465 King Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) now reigning married Queen Esther, a Jewess and would make her uncle Mordecai his grand vizier. It was after the Next Persian King Artaxerxes I (464-423) that Ezra and Nehemiah were finally allowed to return to Jerusalem.
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
And another thing is the misconstruction of the term antisemite.
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I do agree with the above statement.
http://mb-soft.com/believe/txo/semites.htm
Semites are peoples who speak Semitic languages; the group includes Arabs, Aramaeans, Jews, and many Ethiopians. In a Biblical sense, Semites are peoples whose ancestry can be traced back to Shem, Noah's eldest son. The ancient Semitic populations were pastoral Nomads who several centuries before the Christian Era were migrating in large numbers from Arabia to Mesopotamia, the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, and the Nile River delta. Jews and other Semites settled in villages in Judea, southern Palestine.
Present day speakers of Semitic languages are as diverse in physical, psychological, cultural, and sociological characteristics as are speakers of Indo European languages. The most prominent Semites today are Arabs and Jews. They are different in many ways, and they have absorbed a variety of European traits through centuries of migration and trade. The origin of Semitic languages, however, and many similarities in the stories of Islam and Judaism reflect a common ancient history.
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
The Bible symbols, factual families and figures or not depict that Ham's descendants are the blacks of northern Africa.
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This may be mythological and is something that is used by several Christian extremist racist groups in order to justify their hatred of blacks. If this were true then it would be somewhat of a blow to evolutionist theory as they claim that different races were living in different parts of the world (contradicts Biblical account of Adam and Eve being the parents of all mankind). Since we know that Ham was the brother of Shem and Japeth (all sons of Noah) this would lend credence to the Biblical account of creation as Ham would have had to migrate to Northern Africa where his descendants would have become darker in color should this account be factual. Interestingly, it is likely that Shem and Japeth were probably not white (at least heavily tan since that is the norm for the people of that land to is it not?). Can the evolutionists have it both ways?
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
Shem's descendants stayed in the Fertile Crescent around the Mediterranean Sea and Japheth's descendants went north into Russia. The Ashkenazim are not Semitic (of Shem) at all. They are Japhetic. Over 95% of all Jews today are Ashkenazim, not Sephardim (a large sect that settled in Gaul [France]). A term generally applied to Ashkenazim is Hungarian Jew and this huge majority of the genetic Jewish population is Arthur Koestler's The Thirteenth Tribe - the Khazarians who converted to Judaism at the Half-Week of Daniel (1260 years after the MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN incident). My point being that it is nonsense to consider a genetic bloodline into Judaism the criteria, especially since all the geneologies were destroyed around 70 AD anyway.
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The Jews were scattered throughout the world (Diaspora) but to say that the genetic bloodline did not exist is not true, maybe it would be difficult to determine but it had to exist somewhere. To say that there were no records may or may not be true but I believe records were still kept and a number of them were not totally destroyed, this is what Nehemiah and Ezra found in the temple ruins as they were rebuilding it and records were kept while in captivity, certainly while under Persian rule. The Jews were very meticulous along these lines, particularly the priests and the scribes (of which Ezra was one).
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
Leaving us with theology and religion being the basis for being Jewish, Mel Gibson is a Jew of a large sect that is rejected by those Jews who reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah of God.
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I'm sorry David, but I don't really see this. Perhaps the Jews may look at it this way (although I doubt it) but certainly Christians (even if they look at Christianity as a religion) do not view themselves as a Jewish sect, at least I believe that most of them don’t. This I realize is just my opinion can certainly be argued against. Mel Gibson if anything is a Roman Catholic offshoot (sect if you will) as I understand that he started his own church over in California which is supposedly based on Roman Catholicism with some minor differences.
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Originally Posted by David Merrill
So Mel's drunken utterances against Jews and accusing them of being the cause of all wars etc. would probably be better placed accusing them, himself included of producing a lot of Hollywood movies. He would have saved a lot of reputation without all the confusion about identity, including his own.
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There's no doubt that Mel Gibson screwed up immensely. He lost a great deal of credibility with that foolish act and this gives rise to the radical Jews who have been claiming all along that he was anti-Semitic as a result of his movie (I didn't feel that the Passion was anti-Semitic, or anti-Jewish at all). I personally thought his portrayal of the Roman soldiers was just as bad if not worse than he portrayed the Jews. Not to mention that most of Hollywood is run by people of Jewish descent. There are many saying he’ll never get another job there.
We may just agree to disagree on some of this as I do respect your opinion and your intellect David.
Respectfully,
2tim215
2 Tim 2:15(KJV) tudy to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
