Monday 26 November 2012

TRINITARIAN TANAKH... UNITARIAN JUDAISM.

 [Note: When I use the word "Tanakh", I mean the "whole Jewish Bible" i.e. the OLD Testament]
   There is a common saying: that "Christianity was derived from Judaism and Judasim was and is unitarian, therefore, Christianity is meant to be Unitarian" --- Repeated in Jehovah's Witnesses' literature [Reasoning from the scriptures, chapter of Trinity].
   This has been their modus operandi when trying to disprove the Doctrine of the Holy trinity -which is also used by Muslims and other Heretic, Anti Trinitarian "Christian". If only these people could read the Jewish scriptures with an unbiased mindset, perhaps, there would be a change in all these criticisms. Come to think of it, there are things practiced and adorned in today's Judaism that are not only unscriptural but are also pagan. for example,an utterly pagan symbol in Judaism: The Hexagram- which is claimed to be the star of David- is used today in Judaism as a symbol for "God's" people. Should we adopt that too?
   In this blog post, i will be refuting the silly claims of "unitarian Judaism = unitarian Christianity" and will prove that the Jews do not follow the true teaching of the Jewish scriptures.

                                               
                                                         THE GREAT SHEMA
   The Shema is the MOST important prayer in the Jewish prayer book a.k.a Siddur. the Shema [i.e. a part of it] is where I love to start my proof of the "Trinitarian Torah... unitarian Judaism" whenever I encountered a Jew in a dialogue. Judaism teaches that God Almighty is ONE NUMERICAL PERSON, in others words, is a unitaian faith while True Christianity teaches that God is ONE IN UNITY OF THREE i.e. He is a TRIUNE BEING. The Jews base their belief in a part of the Shema [Devarim (Deut.) 6:4] which says "Hear O Israel, The LORD is our God, the LORD is one". This is basically the main part of the Shema I would like to be dealing with.
   First and foremost, the Shema is a collection of three parts; involving three verses (which
are: Devarim (Deut.) 6:4-9, Devarim (Deut.) 11:13-21, and Bamidbar (Num) 15:37-41) into ONE Prayer and is said at least two times daily but I'll be addressing the Deut 6:4 in particular for the sake of proving Trinity...

Let us take a look at  Devarim (Deut.) 6:4. It says: "שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד" (Hebrew) which is "Sh'ma Yisra'el YHWH Eloheinu YHWH Echad" and traditionally replaced [for the sake of pronunciation] with: "Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad" Because the tetragrammation [YHWH] is without a vowel which makes it impossible to pronounce without "guess vowel" added.
Here is the literal translation: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One"

The literal word meanings are roughly as follows:
Sh'ma — listen, or hear & do (according to the Targum, accept)
Yisrael — Israel, in the sense of the people or congregation of Israel
Adonai — often translated as "LORD", it is read in place of YHWH; Samaritans say Shema, which is Aramaic for "the [Divine] Name" and is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew "ha-Shem", which Rabbinic Jews substitute for "Adonai" in a non-liturgical context such as everyday speech.
Eloheinu — the plural 1st person possessive of אֱלֹהִים Elohim {Plural for "Eloha"}, meaning “our God”. 
Echad — Numerical, Collective, Unified, United e.t.c. e.g  One person, One bunch/cluster [Num. 13:23]

From the above, we see that God, whom is Self-existent and the Great I AM [YHWH], is said to be plural and the plurality is said to be UNIFIED- Judging from the two Hebraic words "Eloheinu" (our God) which depicts "Elohim" [i.e. our Elohim] which is the plural of "Eloha" AND "Echad" which connotes "Unity". How could God be " a unitarian: ONE if He exists in plurality and His plurality in UNITY. This is definitely NOT the way to describe a unitarian God. Take a look at this:

"Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (English)
" עַל כֵּן יַעֲזָב אִישׁ אֶת אָבִיו וְאֶת אִמּוֹ וְדָבַק בְּאִשְׁתּוֹ וְהָיוּ לְבָשָׂר אֶחָד:" (Hebrew) --- Bereishit (Gen.) 2:24
 Take a very good look at this. From the above Hebrew quotation, we come across something quite shocking. The term: "ONE Flesh" is "l-visar echad" in Hebrew JUST LIKE "YHWH Echad" in the Shema!. Bereishit (Gen.) 2:24 says "a man... cleaves to his wife... and  they [the TWO] shall become ONE Flesh". Could a man become NUMERICALLY ONE with OR UNITED with his wife? It is obviously written that they will have to "Cleave" to become "Echad". The dictionary defines the word "Cleave' as:

cleave 2  (klv)intr.v. cleaved, cleav·ing, cleaves:
 To adhere, cling, or stick fast.
[Old English cleofian; related to Old High German klebēn to stick] Source

The above depicts ONLY one thing: UNITY! The term "one flesh" connotes "unity". Just like "Elohim" is UNIFIED -- compare "יְהוָה אֶחָד" (Devarim (Deut.) 6:4) -- YHWH Echad WITH "לְבָשָׂר אֶחָד" (Bereishit (Gen.) 2:24) -- ""l-visar echad""...
Even though this does not say anything about the "Number 3", it surely proves that YHWH Eloheinu -- The LORD our God-- exists in plurality (Elohim) and in unity (Echad). This acute start is a gateway to other major problem texts for these Anti Trinitarian.

                          TWO OPTIONS: TRINITY OR CONTRADICTION
    Trinity or contradiction?! Which of the options would you choose if you were in that position? Would you choose to believe that God's holy and infallible word contains contradictions [which is impossible] or admit that God is Triune and Trinity is truth; which choice would you make if you found yourself in that situation? Well, I'll just quote the verses I want to quote and allow you make your choice. If you think your choice is cool enough for everyone to see [after you must have read the article], send me an email at: refuterslodge@gmail.com...
I. ----                                  WHO IS THE CREATOR?
              Before i proceed, I would like us to study this verse with a close analysis and see what we would get out of it:

              "So said the Lord, your Redeemer, and the One Who formed you from the womb, "I am the Lord Who makes everything, Who stretched forth the heavens alone, Who spread out the earth from My power."--- [Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 44:24]

    This is a very, very interesting quotation and anytime I recite this verse, I applaud the Grand creator, YHWH. And there seems to be a problem here for Anti Trinitarians.
         God says "I who made EVERYTHING. Who stretched forth the Heavens ALONE"... Hmmn! What do we have here?
Then God said: "Let US CREATE..." --- Bereishit (Gen.) 1:26 EVEN THOUGH HE SAID I DID IT ALL ALONE!!! Could this be a "royal plural" that did not exist during old testament times? If indeed it is a Royal plural, then God had "Help" He wasn't alone.
        in Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 44:24, God says HE WAS ALONE AT CREATION and Bereishit (Gen.) 1:26 says that HE CONSULTED AND EVEN CREATED WITH THE "CONSULTEE{S}". Which is IT? I would like a non contradictory answer to be given in defence of this which is satisfactory and beyond reasonable doubt.
      If God verse tells you: "And God said, "Let US MAKE [or Create] man in our image, after our likeness..." " [Bereishit (Gen.) 1:26] and the next verse "And God {Elohim} created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." [v. 27] what does it tell you? i don't know about you to me, this says "God says LET US MAKE..." [v. 26] and v. 27 says "God MADE or Created" and in v. 26, He said "...in OUR IMAGE" and in v. 27 "God created man in God's [His] image". It obviously means that the "US and OUR" in v. 26 MAKE UP the Plural Elohim [God] and made man in v. 27 AND the "our IMAGE" in v. 26 is "God's image" in v. 27 and AND ARE IN UNITY-- in which AS A UNIFIED ONE [Devarim (Deut.) 6:4] CREATED EVERYTHING ALONE [Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 44:24] Simple!!!... This is crystal-clear! {We're getting very much closer to the number THREE}...

II. ----                                 WHICH IS IT???
               A. God Himself-- Was it " So said God the Lord, the Creator of the heavens"
                [Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 42:5]

               B. The Word-- Was it "By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made"
                [Tehillim (Psalms) 33:6]

               C. The Ruach-- Was it " By His Ruach [Spirit- Iyov (Job) 33:4] He made the heavens" 
                [Iyov (Job) 26:13]
We all know that the word "Elohim" is a plural and even the Dead Sea scrolls attests to the uniplurality of YHWH but how can all these be explained?click HERE for a general examination [for Christians and Jews]

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