Aaron Rich

Disciple of Jesus | Kingdom Zionist 🇮🇱 | Advocating Bible Study with a Jewish Lens | Allied with Israel against Anti-Jewish News & Theology and Antisemitism

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

Whenever we talk on X, please understand all my words are bracketed by "as I currently understand." I don't say it on every post only to save word count.

I'm comfortable knowing that tomorrow, I will understand some things differently.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

In my case it was in Tennessee.

However, I have had these experiences in both America and Israel. Never experienced the hatred people slander them about.

I’ve been around a lot of Orthodox Jews. I’ve walked unaccompanied through Jerusalem streets and very very orthodox neighborhoods where I am clearly the outsider. Never experienced the hate they are slandered for.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

Joel’s post and photo are heartbreaking. People sporting the title “Christian” should never have created the need for a library of books on Christian antisemitism. It is a blight on the name of our Jewish Messiah.

[Joel Richardson @Joel7Richardson]

It's genuinely surreal living in this moment when the demonic Jew hatred of yesteryear that I've read so much about has re-emerged once again in such a potent form. The Devil is recycling his same old evils. Christians must remember: The story ends with the restoration of Israel, the judgment of the nations, and Israel's King and Messiah ruling the world from Mount Zion.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@Maranathamomma1 Yes! Very well said. There's a clear indication of poison within their hearts.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

I've spent time, as a Christian, in an orthodox synagogue without hatred.

I've walked the streets of Jerusalem in conversation with orthodox Jews, without hatred.

I've spent time in a bar, over booze, when inhibitions are clearly lightened, with orthodox Jews, without hatred.

The Jewish people are a kind hearted people. Accusing them of hatred as a people breeds antisemitism.

[First Fruits of Zion @followffoz]

The Bible is meant for study, not weaponizing proof texts. How do we move from cherrypicking Scripture to reading passages in context? https://t.co/LjJDWUJAwL

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

A friend recently shared a memory of a man under whom he was discipled. The story was simple, but it has left an enormous bootprint in my brain as I have cogitated on it.

During an interaction a few years ago, my friend asked his mentor why he does not drink wine. After all, drinking alcohol is not a sin, so what was the hesitation?

His response was that he drinks one glass on his wife’s birthday, because that is one of her birthday treats. Apart from that annual glass, he stopped drinking wine years ago.

At some earlier point in his life, the man found himself wanting a glass of wine when he got home from work. Not simply receiving it as a blessing with gratitude. He wanted to remove the yoke of discipleship for a time, set it aside, and relax over a glass of wine. He said the inclination alarmed him so much and struck him so strongly that he stopped drinking wine that day, except for that annual glass with his wife.

In my mind, I immediately heard myself thinking, “That’s not what I do with my enjoyed glass of wine, so this probably isn’t an applicable part of his teaching for me.”

Then my friend began applying the same concept to other things.

When you come home burned out and want to veg on the couch in front of the TV, is it the same impulse? Are you disrobing yourself of Messiah’s yoke and participating in your own thing for a while? You put your hand to the plow, then looked back toward a worldly impulse.

He gave other examples as well, including the phone that, statistically speaking, is likely in your face for many hours a day while you remove our Master’s yoke and zone out for a time.

God willing, the impact of this story will remain with me for years. Even in the short time since hearing it, I have been monitoring myself much more closely. Rather than binging five hours at a time, I have enjoyed only a single hour of unproductive television since being home. Indeed, the space this has made for productive tasks that, God willing, advance the kingdom has been palpable.

There is still work to do. Of course.

What applications might this teaching have for all the areas of life where, purposely or not, we remove the yoke for a time and practice self-indulgence instead of discipleship?

This is not a statement against rest. God forbid. God literally built rest into His system of worship.

Observe yourself for a time. Find those moments where Satan’s lullaby begins to play, where the yoke is no longer upon you, and make the change.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

“The amount of help that one receives from God depends on the degree to which he motivates himself toward God, whether it is to a greater or lesser degree. This is true with respect to every possible act, whatever it may be. When one trusts in God, happy is he.”

R. Luzzatto

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@Saved_4Last B"H! Now you're speaking plainly. Indeed! We are in agreement on what you just said.

We all get our trip through the fire. What comes out on the other side is the good stuff.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

If you were raised in a Protestant denomination, you likely received the tradition of a 66-book canon.

You received that canon by faith.

There is no inspired table of contents in Scripture. There is no verse that lists all 66 books. You inherited a tradition that identified those books as the authoritative Word of the God of Israel, and you accepted that tradition. I did too. It is the tradition I received and the one I continue to accept.

However, millions upon millions of your brothers and sisters in the faith received a different tradition.

Depending on the Christian tradition they inherited, they may recognize 73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, or even 89 books as Scripture.

That does not make them heretics. It does not make them enemies of the faith. It means they received a different canon tradition than you did.

You do not have to accept those additional books as the authoritative Word of God. I don't. Yet we should be careful about mocking or insulting fellow believers over a canon they inherited in the same way we inherited ours. All of us have history, tradition, lore, councils, scholars, and denominational authorities supporting our received traditions. Those traditions are what they are, and none of us will bring finality to such debates on this side of the Kingdom.

What's more, even if you do not regard these books as Scripture, they are still worthy and important reading.

If millions of Christians throughout history have considered a book sacred, perhaps it deserves more attention than the latest devotional, study guide, or bestselling pastoral commentary.

At the very least, books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Maccabees, Enoch, and Jubilees should occupy a higher place in our reading lists than most modern Christian literature. They are part of the historical library of our faith and the world in which many of our brothers and sisters have encountered God for centuries.

Read them and consider their content. Notice the intersections and interplay with the Gospels and Epistles. The historical context they provide is immense and challenging. The theological conversations they preserve are illuminating. Even where you ultimately disagree, you will better understand the faith, the history of the faith, the People of the Book and the people who preserved it.

You don't have to accept every book as Scripture.

You should at least know what is in them before dismissing them.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

I tell students in our small groups constantly: If you disagree with something, put it on that shelf in your head and ignore it. As you study more, you may find reason to pull it off the shelf to reconsider.

I have a friend who tragically died last year in a car wreck. His example was a rotating coat rack. He would hang the ideas he disagreed with on that coat rack and occasionally try them on as it spun around again.

The more we study, the more these ideas continue to come across our paths. Compare them to your current understanding. If they fit, use them. If not, it's an idea you heard and disagreed with.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

Great example! If I could readily identify them as they came out of the jar, I wouldn't have an issue at all. I would set them to the side as I find them and eat the good ones.

These resources aren't meant for new disciples. A reader needs to know Scripture well and use discernment.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@BlaneRed57304 @SolaSixMillion Ugh. I need to proofread better. in *there quoting...

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

Do you understand the concept of a compiled work?

Perhaps a baby/bath water metaphor would be more helpful?

Is everything in the Talmud evil to you? Careful before you say yes. There's at least one rabbi in their quoting Jesus as a proof text. If you cast it all into the bin, you're including the words of Jesus into the can too.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@DaingenKeltoi Yup. I made room for that in the OP. You don't have to accept them or consider them authoritative.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@BlaneRed57304 @SolaSixMillion The company of being rejected by all sides because he doesn't give up being Jewish while still accepting the Jewish Messiah Yeshua.

The Talmud hate is just ridiculous and based in lies as all Jew hate is.
https://t.co/XDcljcq6Kx

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@Saved_4Last It's clear you do love your crayons, but you're not actually conveying your point well. People can't read your thoughts so you need to express them better.

Great verse though!

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@Saved_4Last Thankfully you’re not the one who makes kingdom level decisions.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@SolaSixMillion Good post! You’re getting some great feedback, haha! Thanks for enduring the ridicule of this upside down world.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

The answer to your “key” question is almost always: no.

That said, it’s a compiled work that contains arguments from multiple parties on every topic discussed. People love to camp on the opinions that were not the final decision and ruling of the text, taking offense and crying foul.

When used appropriately it very often speaks into parallel with the apostles writings becoming a second witness with more cultural context.

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

@BlaneRed57304 @SolaSixMillion Rejection from all sides isn’t a bad thing. He’ll be in good company.

https://t.co/pBZRgz8zkq

[Aaron Rich @ItsAaronRich]

Context, cultural insight, interpretive tools, parallel statements with Jesus, understanding of what Jesus was and wasn’t talking about when digging into complex culture legal dialogue that we flatten into a couple of sentences.

There’s a lot there.

Hebrews is written is heavy rabbinic style. We misread Hebrews almost universally because we interpret it through a western Christian lens that it wasn’t written through. I can recommend a great commentary at https://t.co/CE1I4JnIdn that helps expound on that at length.

The parable of the wheat and tares has legal implications. The opening statement of tractate kilayim speaks into that. Jesus made a legal statement with that parable when you have a cultural insight that brings a profound insight to that parable.