A Rabbi says:
"Of the 15,000 religions in human history, only Judaism bases its belief on national revelation -- I.e. God speaking to the entire nation. If God is going to start a religion, it makes sense He'll tell everyone, not just one person.
Judaism, unique among all of the world's major religions, does not rely on "claims of miracles" as the basis for its religion. In fact, the Bible says that God sometimes grants the power of "miracles" to charlatans, in order to test Jewish loyalty to the Torah (Deut. 13:4). . . .
. . . Judaism is not miracles. It is the personal eyewitness experience of every man, woman and child, standing at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago."
http://www.aish.com/spirituality/philosophy/Why_Dont_Jews_Believe_In_Jesus$.asp
Wait a minute . . . Didn't all those eyewitnesses die in the wilderness without ever writing a word about it or proving it to other people? Even if Moses did write about it (he didn't) that's still only one witness (not enough) and he died in the wilderness also.
Well . . . "poof", no eyewitnesses.
That generation taught it to the next generation, starting the chain. The fact that the original eyewitnesses eventually die is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteYou could still argue that the first generation is lying, however, you still have a problem explaining how you could pass off the tradition/lie and the fact that if its natural for a lie like this to be done, and its the most powerful kind of lie, why hasn't it happened again.
For a fuller presentation of the argument, visit http://www.projectsinai.org/event/2177
While Israel may have been called as a nation, the effect of the law was to create splinter groups and religions within its national borders.
ReplyDeleteBy Jesus' time, Israel was an incredibly diverse nation. This allowed it to be extremely adaptive when absorbed by other nations and empires, and it allowed Israel to adapt to the various creation myths and stories of those other empires.
But most of all, Israel had an individualizing effect on those nations wherever it found itself.
This, in effect, was a "spiritualizing" process, because it drove individuals to seek truth for themselves, just as Jesus said would happen in Mathew 10:34-38.
After the birth and death of Jesus, God's law was preached as a way of individual truth, open to all cultures and nations, but it still created division, as it does to this day, in spite of all religious attempts to create organization.
None of the examles given of god(s) speaking or appearing to anybody equate to the National Revelation to the Israelites. In the National Revelation, the entire nation of Israel heard God speak. The entire nation there upon died, and was resurrected by God, to hear God speak a second time, die again, and be resurrected a second time. Then Moses was asked by the nation of Israel to hear the rest of God's words by himself, and they would accept his report of what God had said. They were later reminded that they themselves had heard God speak. In NONE of the other examples were the people told they, themselves had heard God (or gods) speak; they were told that their ancestors heard God speak; that is, they were not there, but their ancestors were. In the instance with Israel, they themselves were told they had heard God speak, and certain members of the community were NAMED as having been part of this great event.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing that compares to the National Revelation at Sinai; it is unique.