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Tuesday, February 16, 2021

The Gangster from New York

 The Gangster from New York

By Richard P. Joseph



   


    Many people have seen the movie Schindler’s List and if you haven’t seen it, you should see it.  The movie was superb and gave a great visual of NAZIism and of repentance and even heroism.  The book, however, gives a little more detail.  In the book there is a story that is not brought out in the movie but has impacted me greatly in understanding evil and one’s compromise with it.  The book tells of an event that occurred that taught me a very important lesson when dealing with evil.  

    This evil presented itself when the NAZI SS brought in a group of rabbis and told them to spit on their holy books such as the Torah.  But not to just spit on them, they must drool spit on them in a dramatic fashion or else they would be shot.  They commenced to perform the best they could in order to not get shot.  They spit on the very scripture that supposedly gave them their very existence in life.  Then a Jewish street gangster was brought in and they told him the same thing.  The gangster, much like the Samaritan, had other thoughts though.  He simply refused to spit on the scriptures.  He was already accustomed to threats and lies and traitorous behavior, he knew the results of compromise and cowardice.  The SS,  outraged, did what they did best; they shot the gangster; then shot the rabbis.

    Jesus told a story similar to this in Matthew 21:28-30.  



28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Him, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.

    While the Rabbis said yes to God, it was the gangster that actually did the will of the father.  

In like manner I have voted for many “Christian” politicians and they all said yes but when it came to doing the will of the father they were complete disappointments.  Then in 2016 we elected a gangster type playboy from New York as our president.  Donald Trump, a successful business man with a long history of involvement in Hollywood, beauty pageant dealings, and many other worldly adventures, now took on the mantle of President of the United States.  Trust me, he was not my choice in the primaries but I pinched my nose and voted for him in the General election being that I would never vote for the opposing communist/NAZI party.  To tell you that I was pleasantly surprised by President Trump would be a massive understatement.  Deep inside this man of the world were the seeds of holiness that were planted long ago by his grandparents back in Ireland.  When the media asked Mr. Trump to spit on the bible and bow before Dagon, he held his chin up high and refused.  Not only did he refuse to spit on God’s word, he actually fought to uphold the spirit of the Word better than any of those weak “Christians” that I have ever voted for in the past.  The man had balls of steel.  He was akin to Judas Maccabeaus.  He stood up like an oak tree and would not budge.  He called the media exactly what they were, “fake news”, right to their faces and began heckling them with slogans such as “merry Christmas” and many other in-your-face Christian type slogans.  He fought abortion better than anyone else that came before him and at least tried to remove sexual perverts from the military.  His support for faith based operations was second to none in the modern era and he really did try to Make America Great Again.  The Democrats and the rest of the God haters all went apoplectic.  Never in my life have I seen the left wing lose their minds like I have now.   As we all are now experiencing their rage, I am full of joy in my heart that God reigns.  Yes, we have to deal with our current situation but nothing can ever take my joy away that Jesus Christ reigns.  They have run Trump out of town on a rail and are pursuing in an attempt to utterly destroy the man and his followers.  So let the war begin, but I still have a smile on my face put there by the gangster from New York!

 


Thursday, February 11, 2021

Eat and Run

 Eat and Run

By Richard P. Joseph   

   


    In Exodus 12:11 God tells Israel to get ready to “eat and run”.


And thus you shall eat it: [c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.”


According to today's modern interpretation that scripture means that we should eat our meals with bags packed ready to leave Egypt at any moment.  Right?  Why not?  

    Jesus gave the disciples similar instructions.  In Matthew 24:17-18 Jesus tells them to “eat and run”.  


17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 


Those that were in Judea were to flee and run when they saw the signs that Jesus described.  So, my question is this; if the modern interpretation for this verse means that thousands of years later they were to eat and run then why not interpret the first Passover the same way?  Why would God keep his promise to Moses but not to Peter?  If Moses really thought that their deliverance was nigh at hand then why wouldn’t Peter think the same thing?  Why would God tell Moses the truth but fool Peter?

    All of those are legitimate questions.  It is quite obvious that all of the New Testament writers believed Jesus as they wrote using imminent language such that they believed the end was at hand.  History bears out that they were correct.  In fact there is more history confirming the destruction of the temple and the sacking of Israel than there is of the exodus of Israel from Egypt.  Josephus left us a first hand documentation of it.  With so much knowledge of the “end of the age”, how is it possible to get the wrong interpretation of it?  It may be because we have a “me” based view of the bible but that was not so in ancient Israel.  Israel had a “God” based view of scripture.  With the me based view we always see God as our magical genie.  It is about our health and wealth.  It is about “I, me, mine” to quote George Harrison (the Beatle).  When you have a me based view you are 100% sure to get an inaccurate interpretation of scripture.  Although we do benefit from God’s plan, the scripture is really focused on God, not us.  We must learn to interpret scripture from an ancient point of view and with God as the focus point.  We must never add or detract from scripture, we are just to believe it as written and to what audience it was written to and understand the time statements according to their vantage point, not ours.

    The only thing “eat and run” does for me is give me indigestion.  However, for the first century Jew, it meant life.  It meant the escape from bondage.  It meant that destruction was about to befall those that disobeyed and failed to believe.  If they believed, then we need to also. Amen.