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Dear Refiner's Fire:
I'm writing in response to your article challenging that Christian blogger who called your website a cult:
One of the major stumbling blocks in the way of my own repenting was people like this lady. I'm sure she's well-meaning (when she's not assuming the mantle of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and judging, sending to perdition those with whom she does not agree...) - Ignorant people, unstudied, yet speaking "as the scribes and Pharisees" - that is, speaking as specialists, as those well versed in Scripture. I have more respect for the "scribes and Pharisees" - at least they devoted a considerable portion of their lives to studying what they were pontificating about... than I do for this lady.
"Yew ain' gonna go tew Heaven uhnless yew..." WHO do these people think they are, to judge others as worthy of eternal perdition? They had better hope Yeshua was NOT right (of course, he actually was!) when He said that as you judge, so shall you be judged. And while it's one thing to choose to reject fellowship with people who do not follow what we perceive as of YHVH, it's entirely something ELSE to assume the mantle of the Judge of Mankind (Yeshua Himself!) and to "cast such people into Sheol!" The HUBRIS of it all is just too much!
As for the Jewish People - I feel as did Shaul - I owe them a debt of gratitude and affection that can never be repaid! I'd be tempted (if it were possible) to forego my own eternity if it would vouchsafe theirs! I will not condemn them, who are the "apple of YHVH's eye." I think it would be utterly pretentious and perhaps even blasphemous to do so! Who am I to know what will happen to each of them? How could I know what will transpire in their lives in the future, or even at that last second of earthly life. YHVH said He would bless those who bless them. And, while I want no reward for my sentiment, I can only bless them. I may question their obsession with Talmud, but... it's complex. Without Talmud and Rabbinical Judaism, and with no temple, it's likely the Jewish People would have disappeared over the ages. If Talmud is the "ark" in which the Jewish People "floated" into the present, then I'm compelled to bless even it, though I do not agree with it in a "religious" sence!
Tend your OWN garden, sister! (Said to what's-her-name, about whose blog you wrote). I quote Nietzsche here, an avowed anti-Christian, but his comment has truth in it: "They say 'judge not,' yet they send to Hell everything that stands in their way."
It's just THAT type of judgment that kept me away from "religion" for a great part of my life!
I know their little social clubs they call churches. There's good to be found there, as anywhere... but when everything's said and done, it's more a form of "have the priest or pastor take care of the details" kind of thing. One need not look within and try to adhere to what YHVH says - one merely has to do whatever all the rest are doing, do what the preacher says to do, then one is apparently forgiven any personal responsibility. Do they really think it's that easy?
I think the churches are almost the enemy of a genuine "right relationship" with YHVH - not a facilitator!
Even worse, in my opinion, are these home-grown, quasi-illiterate "sages" who want to judge the world as the Son of YHVH! May "the Spirit" keep such people far away from me!
I am not ashamed of what I've come to believe. Heaven knows, I had to work my way through a forest of people just like this lady...They may be the "false messiahs" spoken of in Scripture.
You know; back then, when many couldn't read and had to rely on others for their information, it's easier to forgive them for going astray. But today, with all the information we have at our fingertips, there's simply NO excuse, and if someone REALLY wants to get to the bottom of things, it is not that difficult.
Shalom, Wayne Hill
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