Who I Am And Why I Stay Off Of These Threads
Once my sister told me enough, I knew not to be here, BTW.
posted about 12 years ago
Let me state that, in full and unequivocal disclosure, I am a non-proselytizing type of Messianic Jewish Protestant of the (for a lack of better termage) Evangelical ("fundamentalist") strain. I'm also a conservative Republican. As far as I can read, the Bible tells me:
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."
Now, firstly, do I care if you even believe in a Mashiach or Messiah? Yes; but what can I do about it? Do I, however, care if you persecute me and other Messianic Jews for believing in the Biblical and historical Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah? Yes. After all, we who are Messianic Jews at least believe in a Jewish man as Mashiach--and the concept of Mashiach is both in Tanakh and codified all the way from Maimonides to the present.
As for gentile Christians, I don't encourage persecuting them, either--nonetheless, you probably expect gentiles to be Christians and thus won't persecute them like some of you may be prone to persecute "meshumadim" and "koferim" like me. By the way, I am--as far as I can tell--well educated enough in my dad's people's history, etc. to know that I am considered a heretical apostate, soul stealer and destroyer, etc. by many--I've even been on the end of persecution, even by "Rabbi" Jason Klein (and I'll still keep "out[ing] [my]self", thank you; and to not eventually disclose that I am Messianic would've been as dishonest as stating that Jews For Jesus causes "havoc" and that--albeit implicitly as it was stated that--I am not Jewish. Again, by the way, I at least believe in the 12th Priniciple of Maimonides and a concept in Tanakh.).
By the way, I want to let Messianic Jews like myself know that we don't have to stay silent on campus--as long as we don't truly proselytize (which, according to Webster, is forcing, bribing, or otherwise coercively inducing conversion of any nature), we are okay. We can even share our faith if asked--that is not forcing, bribing, or inducing conversion (See Webster and 1 Corinthians 3:5-8). I apologize for not being more public about being persecuted when I chose to disclose that I'm a Mesianic Jew who promises not to proselytize--after all, I don't want people looking for "find messianic jews umbc" (as my FeedJit showed). I don't want Messianic Jews to feel forced into silence or even (G-d forbid that we'd be) witch hunted on campus. The same goes for other groups, by the way: as long as you're not proselytizing or persecuting anybody, laissez-faire.
Especially given all of that and other factors, I know to stay away from these threads. Besides being at risk for being persecuted (including being accused of being a proselytizing, soul-stealing Nazi who's trying to destroy the Jewish people by converting everyone to Christianity in the way that my great-great-grandparents were converted into Roman Catholicism during the pogroms), I want to stay away from contentious and unnecessary debates about topics including--but not limited to--same-gender marriage, abortion, and Erik Walker.
In conclusion, you know who I am, where I stand, and that I'll let you be if you let me be. L'shalom tikatevu.
