John D. Brey
Well-Known Member
The big no no so far as Jews are concerned is the Christian's belief that God could become a man, branch, or any other plastic, metal, or material thing. Jewish monotheism, in essence, places God outside the possibility of manifesting his essence in material things or visible reality.
Unfortunately, for the most part what Judaism refuses to swallow is merely a cartoon characterization of Christian incarnation. Judaism assumes, or pretends, that Christians see Jesus as a pagan sort of God man. God and man in one stupendous package. While in complete contradistinction to that cartoonish view, Christians actually accept Jewish monotheistic tenets hook-line-and-sinker, without their attitude toward Jesus Christ breaking the monotheistic tenets Christianity holds near and dear along with Judaism.
This is to say that for Christians, Jesus isn't a pagan sort of God man. For Christians it's as impossible for an unbeliever to see God in the person of Jesus Christ as it is for a Jew to see God in any other manifest form. In other words, just as a Jew believes he can know God without seeing him, a proper understanding of Christianity realizes that whatever it is that the Jew believes he is engaging when he engages his invisible God, the Christian believes he is engaging when he engages the man Jesus of Nazareth. In this sense Jesus is not God in material garb, any more than the Torah scroll is God in material garb. He is, Jesus is, simply another manifestation of the mediation between God and man performed in Judaism by the Torah scroll.
John
Unfortunately, for the most part what Judaism refuses to swallow is merely a cartoon characterization of Christian incarnation. Judaism assumes, or pretends, that Christians see Jesus as a pagan sort of God man. God and man in one stupendous package. While in complete contradistinction to that cartoonish view, Christians actually accept Jewish monotheistic tenets hook-line-and-sinker, without their attitude toward Jesus Christ breaking the monotheistic tenets Christianity holds near and dear along with Judaism.
This is to say that for Christians, Jesus isn't a pagan sort of God man. For Christians it's as impossible for an unbeliever to see God in the person of Jesus Christ as it is for a Jew to see God in any other manifest form. In other words, just as a Jew believes he can know God without seeing him, a proper understanding of Christianity realizes that whatever it is that the Jew believes he is engaging when he engages his invisible God, the Christian believes he is engaging when he engages the man Jesus of Nazareth. In this sense Jesus is not God in material garb, any more than the Torah scroll is God in material garb. He is, Jesus is, simply another manifestation of the mediation between God and man performed in Judaism by the Torah scroll.
John
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