Rabbenu
A Discussion of Messianic Judaism, the Emerging Messianic Jewish Paradigm, and Related Leadership Issues from the Preoccupied Mind of Rabbi Stuart Dauermann, PhD.
All Contents ©2004-2007 Stuart Dauermann - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Do You Ask Questions?
Dr. Dauermann made a very strong final point in this week's sermon available here. I have included an excerpt as a highlight below:
Finally, I think that any conclusions we draw about people's eternal destinies need to be made with a heightened awareness of what we are talking about, rather than in the arid neo-Platonic realm of pure theological ideas. Eternal destiny should never be a subject for banter. I would want to sit down in a room with a bunch of us, and a group of right wing theologically conservative Messianic believers, and slowly review the lives of people like Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Chofetz Chaim, and Elie Wiesel for example, and then ask: "Does our theological system demand that we insist that these people will spend eternity in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, in everlasting conscious torment? Does this comport with what we know of God?" Or do you sense that there may just be something wrong here?Certainly, there are aspects of this that all of us can react to. The challenge is whether we are willing given that doing so may expose the iceberg of uncertainties under the surface.
I think it is better for us to embrace the rigors, uncertainties, and agonies of beseeching God for better answers, than to accept the closure that comes from acquiescence to a system of theological thought that gives us tidy answers but a terrible God.
Have you considered these questions with G-d previously?
posted by jon cline @ 7:50 PM
2 comments
What is the implication of this with regard to Yeshua's death on the cross? If some are not accountable to respond to this eternal act of love - then why did it happen?
I certainly do not have the authority to say who is going where and how fast. My heart cannot help but resonate with Shaul as my deepest desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation.
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