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| A JEWISH TESTOK, how Jewish are you? Better asked, how well do you understnad Judaism? The following is an interesting test for Christians as to how well they understand the Jewish faith. Some of these questions can be answered if you understand the Old Testament. Others can't. But, see how well you do. The answers with some explanation follow the 15 questions.
1. Which of the following Jewish festivals is NOT mentioned in the Old Testament?
A. Passover
B. Purim
C. Yom Kippur
D. Hanukkah
2. Which of the following is not a branch of Judaism?
A. Orthodox Judaism
B. Zionist Judaism
C. Reform Judaism
D. Conservative Judaism
3. During the celebration of Passover, Jews leave an empty seat in case ________ shows up.
A. Abraham
B. Moses
C. Elijah
D. The Messiah
4. Which portion of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) do Jews consider the most important?
A. The Law
B. The Prophets
C. The Writings
D. All are considered equally important
5. How many books are in the Hebrew scriptures?
A. 5
B. 24
C. 39
D. 66
6. Which of the following foods is Kosher (clean) according to Levitical guidelines?
A. a cheeseburger
B. a sausage biscuit
C. grilled chicken
D. fried catfish
7. A person who believes in the right of Israel to exist in the Holy Land is........
A. Hassidic
B. Orthodox
C. Zionist
D. Reconstructionist
8. Which festival/holy day does not celebrate the deliverance of Jews from Gentile powers?
A. Rosh Hashana
B. Passover
C. Hannukuh
D. Purim
9. Bar Mitzvah means "Son of the _____________"
A. Law
B. Commandments
C. Fathers
D. Tabernacle
10. When does a Jewish day begin?
A. Midnight
B. Sunrise
C. Sunset
D. Noon
11. Do Jews accept the Apocrypha is part of their canon?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Some of it
D. Most of it
12. Whose name is forbidden to be used in vain?
A. Adonai
B. Yahweh
C. Elohim
D. El Shaddai
13. Which Jewish feast celebrates the giving of the 10 Commandments?
A. Passover
B. Rosh Hoshana
C. Purim
D. Pentecost
14. Jews number the 10 commandments differently than Christians do.
A. True
B. False
15. What 2nd century Christian heretic rejected the Old Testament as noncanonical?
A. Ignatius
B. Ireameus
C. Marcion
D. Tertullian
ok, quiz is done.........the answers are below...........hopefully no one read ahead and cheated.
1. Neither Purim nor Hanukkah is mentioned in the books of the Law, but Purim is mentioned in Esther. So, the correct answer is Hanukkah. Hannukah celebrates the actions of the Maccabees which happened between the time of the writing of the Old Testament and the time of Jesus. Passover and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) are both mentioned in the books of the law.
2. Zionist Judaism is not one of the branches of Judaism, the other 3 are. Orthodox Judaism being the most conservative, Reform Judaism is the most liberal, at least of the 3 main branches. There are smaller groups more conservative than the Orthodox and more liberal than the Reformed.
3. Bet I fooled some people on this. The correct answer is Elijah. This is because at the end of Malachi it is mentioned that Elijah will come before the day of the LORD.
4. The Law, the Prophets, and The Writings is the 3 fold division the Jews give to their scriptures, what we call the Old Testament as Christians. While not all Jews are in agreement on this, the Law take precedence over the other two. The Prophets take precedent over the Writings. The Law is also called the Torah, which is the Hebrew word for law or instruction.
5. Hopefully no one said 66 on this. That is how many are in the Old and New Testament combined. There are 27 in the New Testament, so subtracting 27 from 66 the correct answer would be 39 then. WRONG. No, I know how to do math, but the Jews only have 24 books in their canon. So which ones are they leaving out you ask? None. Confused? Well, the Jews arrange them differently than they are arranged in the Christian Bible. The first five books are the books of the Law and they are the same as in the Christian Scriptures. There are 8 books in the Prophets. Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings are called the former prophets. Right away you notice that Samuel and Kings are just two books here instead of 4 as they are in Christian scriptures. The latter prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve. The Twelve are the 12 minor prophets, so here 12 books are combined into one. The rest of the Old Testament are called the Writings. 11 Books - 1. Ruth 2. Chronicles (again combination of two, though actually Christians split them, the Jews didn't combine them, same with Samuel and Kings). 3. Ezra-Nehemiah (it isn't clear whether these two books were originally one, or if they were later split up). 4. Esther 5. Job 6. Psalms 7. Proverbs 8. Ecclesiastes 9. Song of Solomon 10. Lamentations of Jeremiah and 11. Daniel. That last one confuses some people who think Daniel is a prophet. The prophet was one who spoke to the people for God, not necessarily someone who predicted the future. So, Daniel doesn't fit that description.
6. Most people probably know that sausage isn't kosher. But what of the other 3. Fish are kosher if they have both fins and scales. Catfish do not have scales, so they are not kosher. Must be the cheeseburger then. WRONG again. A hamburger would be kosher, but kosher laws forbid consumption of dairy products and meat products at the same time, so cheeseburgers are out. Nothing unclean about grilled chicken though. It is kosher.
7. A person who believes in Israel's right to exist is called a Zionist. This applies to both Jews and Gentiles. I am a Zionist, as are most Americans. It should be noted that not all Jews are Zionists. Some very liberal and secular Jews like Noam Chomsky are not Zionists. Nor are some very Orthodox Jews, like a group called Jews against Zionism.
8 Rosh Hoshanah is the Jewish New Year, also called the Feast of Trumpets. It doesn't celebrate Jewish deliverence. Passover, the most known of their celebrations, celebrates their deliverence from Egypt under Moses. Purim celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from Haman while they were in Persia during the time of Queen Esther. Hanukkah celebrates the deliverance by the Maccabbees from the Selucids, a Greek cultured people who ruled the Jews after the death of Alexander the Great.
9. Son of the COMMANDMENTS. A Jewish boy undergoes this ceremony when he turns 13 usually.
10. A Jewish day is considered to begin at SUNSET. Some will just say 6 pm even if the sun has already set or has yet to because it is a good approximation. Remember from Genesis, Evening and Morning were the first day. Evening came First. Some very observant Jews are very aware of when the sun sets on Friday nights, because that is when the Sabbath begins.
11. The answer is No. While there may be some exceptions here or there, Jews do not except any part of the Apocrypha is part of their canon, only the 24 books that I mentioned in answer #5.
Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox (and some Protestants) accepts the Apocrypha as canonical. There is an irony in this that I find somewhat amusing. The festival of Hanukkah celebrates the deliverance of the Jews by the Maccabbees. Its story is to be found in the Apocrypha. Jews, who do not accept the Apocrypha as canonical, celebrate Hanukkah. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who do accept the Apocrypha as canonical, don't celebrate Hanukkah.
12. The correct answer is Yahweh, usually pronounced Yah Way (though there is no W sound in Hebrew). This is the name of the God of Israel. It has the same root in Hebrew is the word for being. Many assume that to mean that Yahweh means "the God who is." However, one has to be cautious here, because this is a chicken and egg discussion. Which came first? Did the word for being originate first and the name of God reflects the idea that He is the God who is......or did the name of God come first and then the word for being came from that because He is the God who is? I'll leave that question for Hebrew grammarians to debate. Yahweh is translated LORD in English translations.
As far as the other words, Adonai means lord or master. It is translated as Lord in English translations. Psalm 8:1 contains both of these words. "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth." NKJV. The first instance of LORD is in all capital letters and is the word Yahweh, the name of God. The second instance of Lord has only the first letter capitalized and is the word Adonai, a description of Yahweh. A rather free translation might saying "O Yahweh, our master, how excellent is Your name in all the earth." To be a bit crude, Yahweh is God's name, Adonai is His title. Much the same way as I might say "George Bush, President of the United States" one can say "Yahweh, our Adonai." George Bush is his name, President of the United States is his title.
As far as the other two words, El Shaddai is generally translated "Almighty God" and is the word used in Genesis 17:1, also a title of Yahweh. Elohim just essentially means "god" and can be used of Yahweh (as in Exodus 20:2) or of pagan gods (as in Exodus 20:3).
13. The answer is Pentecost. Pentecost is Greek for 50. The Hebrew name for this day is Shavuot. It is often called the festival of firstfruits. It is called Pentecost (50) because it is 50 days after Passover. Jews have calculated it to be 50 days after Passover that the Law was given on Mount Sinai.
14. This is true. As a matter of fact different Christian groups arrange them differently as well. Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox have different numberings of the commandments. See HERE for an explanation. One point to make on this is that in the Jewish grouping of the 10 commandments the first is "I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." To the ear of an English speaker this sounds odd because it is not a command. It is a declarative sentence, not an imperative one. It is a statement of fact, not a command to do something or not do something. Before the LORD ever gives a command, He establishes His right to do so.
15. Marcion was the guilty culprit. He taught that the God of the Old Testament was a different God than the Father of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Old Testament had to go. He also edited the New Testament of anything that sounded Jewish, which left him with a canon of an edited version of the Gospel of Luke (after all he had to get rid of the circumcision of Jesus, since that was a Jewish ritual) and edited versions of ten of Paul's epistles. He rejected the other Gospels, Paul's Pastor Epistles, the General Epitsles (Hebrews through Jude) and Revelation. He thought those books were too Jewish.
The good thing about a test such as this, is that one can learn a good bit and also can miss every question and it not be held against him. Hope you enjoyed.
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| Why Pray?In my recent post about how I've changed over the years, I could have added prayer to the list of how I've changed. But, it's a question of how I've changed in relation to the exercise of prayer. I always would have told you that it was important. But it was something that I didn't spend a lot of time doing. I think that is perhaps because I had some wrong ideas about prayer. I'm still learning about this. I've started on this journey, but still have miles to go. I certainly make no claim whatsoever to being an expert on the subject of prayer, either theologically or practically. I'm just a struggler like every other disciple who's engaged in the practice of prayer. So, I don't have all the answers. So what follows is a list of my thoughts on motives that are not reasons to pray and reasons that one should.
1. Prayer is not to manipulate God. The Word Faith movement (the name it and claim it crowd) made this popular. In its worst incarnation it taught that God becomes somewhat of a robot that does whatever I command Him to do. He becomes my servant instead of the other way around. However, in a lesser form there are those who think they can twist God's arm to do what they want. This is not the correct motivation for prayer.
2. Somewhat related to #1 prayer is not an avenue to have our agendas inacted. It seems that some go to the Lord with their own desires and just assume that He is going to bless them. They never stop to ask if what they want is what He wants. Jesus taught us to pray "Your (meaning God's) will be done."
3. I don't believe the mere act of prayer makes one a super spiritual person. This is kind of hard to explain, but I mean that some people think that by praying they are going to become a spiritual giant. There is hint of pride in that attitude, and perhaps greed also. I don't think one becomes a "spiritual giant" by trying to become one. God only exalts those who humble themselves (Luke 18:14; James 4:10).
4. Prayer must be honest. I can come into the presence of a human and fool him, but not God. He knows me better than I know myself. When approaching all-knowing One there is no need to pretend to be something one is not.
5. Prayer is a time for communion. Fellowship if you prefer. James tells his congregation to draw near to God and He would draw near to them (James 4:8).
6. Prayer is unexplainable. There is just something mystical (for lack of a better word) about it of which the human mind can not take hold.
7. Prayer is needed. We need to pray. Prayer in a real sense puts the one praying in a state of submission to God. Real prayer is an act of self denial, an attitude Jesus commanded His followers to have (Mark 8:34). As humans our natural tendency is to be self-centered. Real prayer goes against that instinct. It shifts our focus toward God, and also toward other people.
I realize that this post leave a lot of questions unanswered. These are just some of my thoughts on prayer, just some things that I have learned and am still learning.
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| National Day of PrayerToday is the day set aside in the United States that we call "The National Day of Prayer."
Here is my prayer.
Our Father in Heaven,
You have blessed us with material blessings far greater than we deserve. Yet, for the most part we never give You the thanks that You deserve. We don't honor You as our creator and sustainer. We neglect Your commands. We don't love our neighbor as ourselves. We continue to think that we can serve both You and wealth. We think that we will be great by building riches, not by serving others. We haven't loved our enemy, nor done good to those who hate us. We sometimes don't even do good to those who love us. Many of us only care about ourselves. Many of us claim to love You, whom we can't see, yet don't love our fellow man, whom we can see. We are prideful, greedy and lustful instead of humble, giving and content.
We can only pray as Your Son taught us to pray, forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And further - Your Kingdom come and Your Will be done on this earth as it is in Heaven. Your Kingdom and Your Will, not ours.
You have given us our daily bread, and then some. We now ask that You deliver us from evil, the evil that we are so prone to do. May we do what is just, love kindness and walk humbly before You.
In the name of Your Blessed Son Jesus, Amen.
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| How I've Changed Over the Past YearsOne of my favorite bloggers, Michael Spencer (aka the Internet Monk) wrote a short post in the past week about 10 Ways he has changed in the past few years. Here is the post if you'd like to read it. I've decided to follow his lead and write about some ways I've changed over the past few years.
1. Systematic theology isn't as important to me as it once was. I've written about this in my post "To stare at the Roadblock.......or Walk on the Road." I won't repeat it hear, but I'll add to it that I don't believe that the writers of the New Testament set out to write a theology textbook. Too often it has been treated as though that is what it was.
2. Calvinism is no longer appealing to me. I used to be pretty die hard in this, but not any more. In fairness to my Reformed brethren much of the characterization of Calvinism/Calvinists is inaccurate. Nevertheless, I've found that Calvinists tend to view the Bible as though it were written as a theology textbook, which I disagree with (see #1 above). Even if it were there are parts of it that IMHO fly in the face of Reformed thought.
3. I'm no longer a Dispensationalist either. I don't hold to their end times theories. If Calvinists think they have the book of Romans figured out perfectly, this group tends to think they have Revelation down to a T.
4. I'm not a Young Earth Creationist.
5. I'm not an inerrantist. At least not according to the Chicago definition. I believe that the Bible is true in its message. I believe that it's message is God's overall dealing with humans, culminating in the person, work and ministry of Jesus Christ. I'm not so concerned with whether or not Jesus was tempted to throw Himself off the temple before He was tempted to bow down to Satan (as in Matthew 4) or whether it was the other way around (as in Luke 4).
6. I focus a lot more on the Gospels than I used to do. I used to focus a lot of Paul's epistles and think the Gospels were just there to tell us some facts about Jesus. I now see the Gospels as being a lot more important than I once thought. I think the teachings of Jesus are far too overlooked.
7. I like the Anabaptists a lot more now than I did. I haven't joined the Amish or Mennonites, but I have grown to love their beliefs and ways more than I had before.
8. ministry is a lot more important to me. I purposely spelled ministry with a lower case "m" in the previous sentence. Some of the older versions of the Bible used the word ministry to translate what the newer versions translate "service." A minister is a servant. There is too much professional ministry that really isn't ministry in my opinion. In the words of Jesus the greatest amongst His disciples was the one who was the servant to the most people. In this sense, ministry is virtually synonymous with "loving your neighbor as yourself." If you hear in this that I like the so called "social gospel" more than I once did, then you have inferred correctly. If we take out the parts of the bible that deal with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick, taking care of widows and orphans, etc. our bible is going to be a lot thinner than it is.
9. My "theology" is a lot more Jesus centered. Again I mention my previous post "To stare at the Roadblock.........or Walk on the Road."
10. I view faith as something deeper than I did before. It was just belief and trust to me. Now it is something more than just those. I view faith as commitment, or loyalty. A "faith" that doesn't lead one to follow Christ is not real faith. Read my April 9, 2008 post on Bonhoeffer to see more of what I mean.
Now, for fairness let me list 10 way I haven't changed, or am still struggling with.
1. I still am a Baptist. Although, as mentioned in #7 it's a lot more in the Anabaptist model. I believe in believer's baptism, local church autonomy, the priesthood of the believer, and religious freedom. So, I'm still a dunker (as Baptists were once called).
2. I'm not a Charismatic. I still do not hold to their view of the Spiritual Gifts. I'm not as anti-charismatic as I once was, but the reasons I wasn't one before are still the same.
3. I'm not a Word Faith believer. Never have been, and am probably more against it now than previously, especially the "prosperity gospel" parts of it.
4. I still don't believe in Roman Catholicism. I'm more willing to accept RCs as fellow Christians than before, but I still don't believe in Papal Authority, transsubstantiation, purgatory or their Marian doctrines.
5. I'm still pro-life. As far as how this relates politically see my next point.
6. I'm wrestling with how Christians should be involved in political issues, if at all. My Anabaptist sympathies tell me not to be involved at all. But, I haven't resolved it yet. A lot of other Christians I've found are dealing with the same struggle.
7. I'm still orthodox (lower case "o" intended). I believe that Jesus was/is both God and man, was virgin born, never sinned, was crucified, died, was buried, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and will one day return to earth as King and Judge. As I mentioned in #6 in the first list, the teachings of Jesus are far too overlooked and it's ashamed that they are not mentioned in the Apostles Creed. Nevertheless I believe the Apostles Creed is true, if incomplete.
8. I'm still a fan of traditional worship. Sorry to my friends who like the contemporary style, but I'm not on board with you.
9. I still believe homosexual behavior is a sin. It, of course, is not the only sin. It is a sin that is probably over emphasized by many Evangelicals, especially to the exclusion of other sins. It's not our sin, so we feel good to preach against it, while not mentioning the sins of which we are so often guilty. So, while it is an over emphasized sin, it is nevertheless a sin. I point out that I said "homosexual behavior" not orientation. I'm not concerned whether they chose to be homosexual or if it is natural, it's the behaviour that is sinful.
10. I still hate the New York Yankees. No matter how bad a day is, if I hear "The New York Yankees lost today" it is a good day.
Finally, let me say that I hope that I am more humble now than I was before. I hope I am. A proud man can't be taught anything, and a disciple is a learner. So, a disciple must be humble, and I hope that describes me.
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| A QUIZThis is an interesting quiz.
Link to quiz.
It's called a quiz, but it's more of an assessment of how each individual believes. The scores range from 20 to 100. I scored a 59. If you have the time take the quiz and post your score in the comments. Any comments on the quiz are welcome as well.
Thank you.
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