Paarsurrey asked : “Can one elaborate further as to what the followers of Rabbinic Judaism who call themselves Jews in our times could return to Prophetic Religion of Moses/Jacob(Israel)/Abraham , please, right?” (post #359)
Hi
@paarsurrey
I think that many of the Children of Israel
are already in the slow process of adopting Prophetic religion (Early Christianity or Messianic Judaism) even now.
The small portion of Israel that developed into “Rabbinic Judaism” will, I think” at some point also gradually come to the knowledge of their Messiah for the most part, and upon the actual return of the Messiah at his second coming, the rest of the “hold out” Rabbanates will accept the Messiah. A couple of principles are already at play.
1) THE JEWS (i.e. members of the tribe/kingdom of Judah) ARE ONLY A SMALL PORTION OF ISRAEL
It is estimated that there are approximately 16 million (with an “M”) Jews and 2.4 billion (with a “B”) Christians in this world of approximately 8 billion people and importantly, the relatively small sect known as “rabbinic Judaism” is only a portion of the various historical Judaisms.
This is an unusually low number of Jews given the fact that there are approximately 35 million people that are descendants of the approximately 50 passengers on the mayflower. I would have expected there to be many, many, many more individuals who identify as Jews in the modern world if they reproduced at a rate similar to the mayflower descendants.
The reason I point this out is that the remnants of the tribe/kingdom of Judah (i.e. the “Jews”) are only a small portion of those members of the kingdom of Israel (i.e. Judah AND the other eleven tribes) and IF the descendants of the 10 "lost" trives are members of a religion, they are, statistically much more likely to be Christians or Muslim as a percent of the world religions rather than Rabbinic Jews. And, there may be many, many, many millions of them as opposed to the rabbinic (rabbanate) Jews.
Thus, the majority of the children Israel are probably NOT rabbinic Jews but instead, are members of another religion (if they are religious) such as Messianic Jews / Christians who HAVE accepted the Messiah Jesus
2) A SPIRITUAL GATHERING OF ISRAEL TO THE MESSIAH IS TAKING PLACE
Wikipedia says regarding Messiac Judaism (i.e. Jews that have accepted the Messiah) that
“from 2003 to 2007, the movement grew from 150 Messianic houses of worship in the United States to as many as 438, with over 100 in Israel and more worldwide”.
Now this percent of Jews who have accepted the Messiah is quite amazing growth.
The point is that the rate of Jews that are gathering spiritually (and physically) to Messianic Judaism (i.e. Christianity) where they accepted the Messiah is growing much more rapidly percentage wise than the rabbinic Judaism branch of Judaism.
If the millions who do not know they are of Israel (i.e. descendants of the Lost Tribes) are Christian, then the spiritual gathering of Israel to their Messiah is already happening. We simply lack the data to know specifics in this regard.
3) THE EARLY TEXTUAL WITNESSES FROM EARLIER JUDAISM WILL BE HELPFUL IN TURNING JUDAISM TO THEIR MESSIAH AS WELL AS HELP CHRISTIANS LEARN WHAT EARLY MESSIANIC JUDAISM (i.e. Early Christianity or “Christian Judaism”) WAS LIKE.
While I think there are probably multiple mechanisms that are going to turn the Jews back to their Messiah, I am really interested in the role of the early Jewish and Christian Textual discoveries in this process.
It has been observed that more early sacred jewish-christian literature has been discovered in the 19th century than all other centuries combined.
Much of the Jewish epigraphs from the time period
before rabbinic Judaism existed and some Jewish literature concurrent with the advent of Rabbinic Judaism will, I think, play a role in supporting the early Jewish belief in a Messiah and provide more evidence that Jesus was that Messiah.
For example : I gave you a quote from Jewish Enoch as an example in post #358.
Jewish Enoch has become syncretic but was committed to writing approx. 300
B.C. and thus represents a Judaism that existed
before the later advent of Rabbinic Judaism as a predominant form of Judaism. This earlier form of Judaism certainly expected a messiah and had the messianic doctrine in a very mature form.
For example : In the prophet Enochs’ vision of heaven, he sees both the Father (Lord of spirits, head of days, etc) and the son (the Son of Man, the future Messiah) with the Father when the Messiah was chosen to play his messianic role during mortality.
This Jewish text says speaking of the Prophet Enochs’ vision of Heaven :
“1 Furthermore, in that place, I saw the fountain of righteousness, which does not become depleted and is surrounded completely by numerous fountains of wisdom. All the thirsty ones drink (of the water) and become filled with wisdom. (Then) their dwelling places become with the holy, righteous, and elect ones. 2 At that hour, that Son of Man was given a name, in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits, the head of days. 3 even before the creation of the sun and the moon, before the creation of the stars, he was given a name in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits. 4 He will become a staff for the righteous ones in order that they may lean on him and not fall. He is the light of the gentiles and he will become the hope of those who are sick in their hearts. 5 All those who dwell upon the earth shall fall and worship before him: they shall glorify, bless, and sing the name of the Lord of the Spirits. 6 For this purpose he became the Chosen One; he was concealed in the presence of (the Lord of the Spirits) prior to the creation of the world, and for eternity. 7 And he has revealed the wisdom of the Lord of the Spirits to the righteous and the holy ones, for he has preserved the portion of the righteous because they have hated and despised this world of oppression (together with) all its ways of life and its habits in the name of the Lord of the Spirits; and because they will be saved in his name and it is his good pleasure that they have life.” 1st Enoch 48:1-7;
Though this literature dealing with pre-creation time periods (and it’s study) is forbidden by the Rabbinic Jewish Talmud, (and thus orthodox Rabbinic Jews who obey this prohibition will not have such knowledge) still the many textual witnesses from the genre of ancient Messianic Jewish / Christian literature parallels such pre-rabbinic Jewish histories (as one would expect in a Messianic Judaism).
For example, the decensus literature (the literature concerning the 40 days the Messiah spent with the disciples after his resurrection) such as the Discourse on Abbaton also witnesses the resurrected Jesus telling of his having volunteered to be the Messiah before Adam was made alive.
The resurrected Jesus tells his disciples that the great controversy surrounding mortality was that if God places a spirit into the body of adam and inaugurates mortality, then Adams descendants will do much evil upon the face of the earth and to then redeem mankind will be painful and difficult.
Jesus explained regarding this discussion about Adam : “
And I said unto My Father, "Put breath into him; I will be an advocate for him." And My Father said unto Me, "If I put breath into him, My beloved son, Thou wilt be obliged to go down into the world, and to suffer many pains for him before Thou shalt have redeemed him, and made him to come back to primal state." And I said unto My Father, "Put breath into him; I will be his advocate, and I will go down into the world, and will fulfil Thy command."
The point is that the ancient Jewish and Messianic textual witness accumulate and form a coherent and cohesive picture of early Jewish AND Christian Orthodoxy. I think that as such Jewish history is discovered and becomes known and studied, then more and more Jews will come to accept their Messiah. And at the second coming of the Messiah, the “hold-outs” will also come to recognize the Messiah.
4) REGARDING PROPHETIC RELIGION
One stand-out principle in early literature is that individuals who tried to gain truth and do good, having faith in God, that he is able and willing to reveal further truth to them, and who seek the truth, will be given more knowledge as they ask for it in faith
and are able and willing to accept more truth.
As Jews (and all other individuals) come to exercise faith in Gods ability and willingness to give us more truth, then I think they will start to have increasing insight and truth given them by the Holy spirit which all individuals may access and feel.
As such individuals come to receive more and greater and clearer manifestations and revelations from God, and have faith in such revelations it will simply be another manifestation of God’s promise that
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17).
For example, in the convert Perpetuas' diary, the introduction specifically refers to this scripture as a reference to her ability to have revelation given her as she accepted truth and had faith. I do not see any reason why a Jewish person who has faith and is willing to change cannot access these same promises.
In any case, I think the principles of accumulating Jewish and Messianic textual witnesses supporting Jesus as the Messiah will be active as a mechanism of helping the Rabbinic Jews (and the rest of us) come to a greater knowledge of and belief in the Messiah.
Good luck coming to your own beliefs Paarsurrey.
Clear