Category: Engaging the Culture

“Replacing the Temple system with the tradition of the elders resulted in what might be called the triumph of Pharisaism, and the Talmud is the monument to that triumph. Prior to the judgment on Jerusalem, they already had a few centuries of a wrong-footed head start; the traditions that Jesus so violently rejected were the traditions of the first half of the Talmudic stream. Indeed, the Talmudic traditions of the elders were the reason why Jerusalem was judged so severely.”

American Milk and Honey, pp. 49-50

“Many Christians naively believe that Orthodox Jews are basically on the same page with Christians, only they are running one testament short. This kind of superficial treatment of Judaism and Christianity reduces everything to whether you say ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah.’ Do you put up Christmas lights, or do you light a menorah? Many Christians, particularly some in the dispensational tradition, regard our differences with the Jews as extreme denominational differences, but still somehow within the pale. But modern Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament. It is something else entirely. It is not the biblical faith with Jesus left out.”

American Milk and Honey, pp. 47-48

“If Christians over here, purporting to have a biblical worldview, start expressing their sympathy with the open skunks because they are convinced that the hidden skunks are just as bad, then it does not astonish me at all that people don’t want to listen to us.”

American Milk and Honey, p. 44

“I believe that Jews need Christ in order to be forgiven for their sins, and that if they die without Christ, then they die unforgiven. And I am well aware that in some quarters the mere embrace of such positions makes you de facto antisemitic. But the fact that I would be falsely charged with antisemitism does not make real antisemitism nonexistent.”

American Milk and Honey, p. 40

“I can resist other people’s temptations all day long and not even break a sweat. But I am a hardline conservative, and this means that one of the things I should keep a weather eye out for is the tendency of certain kinds of conservatives to get a bad case of the Jew thing. I want to exercise the kind of climate control that prevents antisemitism from taking root and growing anywhere around me.”

American Milk and Honey, p. 40

“I can see on camera which side is shooting rockets, and which side is driving the tanks. But which side is pointing the cameras?”

American Milk and Honey, p. 39