2 - Judaism

Well, welcome to the

Striving for Eternity Academy's School of World Religions. This is where we are going through looking at what other religions teach and trying to get an understanding of their system of belief.

Not trying to necessarily refute it right away, but I think when we look at these different world religions and then compare them to the truth, we're going to be able to refute them.

But we're looking to see what it is that they actually believe. Now if you have been with us, you know that we started by looking at Judaism as the first of the six religions that we plan to look at.

And so this lesson one is on Judaism and we started, that's right,

I should mention it to get, I keep forgetting, the syllabus. If you want to get a syllabus, you can order a syllabus at our store at strivingforeternity .org.

You can pick up a syllabus and you would be able to get that.

That is available for $25, a study of the world, the Western religions, a study of the

Western religions and you could pick that up. We're in lesson number one and we're going through these lessons and I'm maybe speaking a little quick because I want to try to see if we can finish this lesson this week.

Don't know that we can, but we will try. So we looked, just to recap, we started by looking at Judaism and we looked at what their authority was, what their authority was.

We mentioned that they had basically, excuse me, they have four authorities and we looked at that.

The first was called the Tanakh. The Tanakh is what we would call the

Old Testament. It is those writings, the written law of God and so that is the first and that would include all of what we call the

Old Testament. Next would be the Midrash and the Midrash is a commentary that is of that written law.

So you have the Old Testament which was written down and then you have this commentary on that which was written over a period of time.

Then you have the Mishnah. The Mishnah is believed to be the oral law, believed that God gave to Moses the oral law and it was passed down from generation to generation without error, without fail really kind of and it was translated, sorry, written down and thought by thought and that this is the oral law of God.

And then we had the fourth which was the Talmud. The Talmud is a commentary on the oral law.

This is where the rabbis got together and tried to explain what was in the oral law.

And then lastly I mentioned this rabbinical law and rabbinical law is basically the idea of the rabbi's teachings that it was focused on ritual keeping and so that is where we left off.

So now we're going to start with the next subject in our systematic theology here of the topic of God.

The topic of God. And so in here what we want to do is focus here on what is the

Jewish concept of God and I should mention because we did get some feedback from people on this past week about the fact that they think that we were encouraging people to be

Jewish. We were not. We're teaching what the Jewish people believe. Some people thought that we should be criticizing what they believe.

We're not. We're trying to teach what Judaism believes. That's what we're trying to do. And so we want to try to be accurate to what they believe and not create refutations that would be easy for us to knock down.

Those are called straw man arguments. All right. So let's take a look. If you have your syllabus there the concept of God held by the rabbis is mono theistic.

That's your blank there. Mono theistic to the strictest degree. The reason this is is much of what you see in rabbinic law in the

Talmud is response to Christianity. Remembering what

I said the Talmud is many many volumes written over several hundred years starting in 200

B .C. all the way to four or five hundred A .D. and remember that it when speaking about Judaism they would call it

B .C .E. the before the common error and A .C. meaning after the common error

A .C .E. They wouldn't do B .C. and A .D. just so you know. So if you see that sometimes.

But basically they are strictly mono theistic. So they would not hold to a view of the

Trinity. Let's take a look at some of these and I did mention last class that I'm going to I'm going to save myself from embarrassment of not trying to pronounce some of the books that we're quoting from.

But it says here he created in the beginning one man only so that heretics should not say there are several powers in heaven.

And what we see from this is that there is this there is a idea that some have that there is one

God and one man. Also with this is this notion that the well basically that there was this this idea that the

I'm trying to think of the best way to word it that when it says in Genesis 1 .26

if you think back there it says there's plural pronouns to God.

Some think or and this wasn't this isn't typical in most of Judaism. There were some who who do make the case that that that's referring to angels and and God in that some make that case with some also argue that that there's one

God and that that one God wasn't the angels and God but just God.

And the us is just like a kind of a royal us and one God made one man.

There's no connection between one God necessarily and one man and a lot of Jewish people that I know that study the

Talmud do kind of lean toward angels and and God being the us.

But for those who say that's kind of more like the royal we type of thing there's this response that some have.

So really where you see this is in the verse that when we put that quote upon Deuteronomy.

All right. So here's on the verse in from Deuteronomy 6 for hero

Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one. There's this comment that's made quote the

Holy One blessed be he said to Israel my children everything I have created in the universe is in pairs ie or ig sorry heaven and earth sun and moon

Adam and Eve this world and the world to come. But I am one and am alone in the universe.

Now that's a commentary on Deuteronomy chapter 6. Now the issue there

Deuteronomy chapter 6 is called the Shema Shema Israel is the beginning of that hero Israel.

That's what Shema Israel means. But it's saying that there is one that the Lord is one that is a passage of Scripture that you'll see if you ever go to a

Jewish home and you'll see a little metal thing on the door post that is going to contain this passage of Scripture.

OK. Deuteronomy 6 4 and to 10 or 6 to 10 no 4 to 10 somewhere in there.

So basically what it is is that that's literally what that passage says is to bind this these on your doorposts on the front let's say your head and that's exactly what they do if you've ever heard of a phylactery a phylactery is a black box that Orthodox Jewish people will wrap on their head and the forehands on the back of their hands morning and evening because if you read the passage in Deuteronomy 6 that's what it says and that's what they do literally and they're doing that.

And so this I'm saying that say this is a passage of Scripture that every even the less

Orthodox Jews understand. OK. And so this is a passage that they would hold to to say that this teaches that there is one

God. We agree with that by the way. It is now the argument there is that the

Lord is one. Now there's two things. There's two ways to understand this one is some say well the

Lord is one but it doesn't mean he's only one person which is true. OK. Some will say that there's it's one because of the saying there like if I say here grab this pen that this is one pen versus the pen is one that there's a difference.

That is true that there could be one pen but there's one pen of many pens versus this pen is one and it says the

Lord is one but that is more of an English issue. And so I don't know that that argument holds for the

Hebrew. So when we look at the passage it says that there is one God and Christians believe that but Jewish people would interpret that commentaries would interpret that to mean that there is one

God one person. And that's the importance really of that earlier one reference that I gave you being that there's there's one man

God one man was created therefore there's only one God. That's sort of an idea some have. Now the rabbis define the

Christian trinity as three gods in one God.

As can be seen in an attempt to answer Christian the Christian doctrine of God. Here is

Rabbi. Yeah that's his last name.

But so I'm just going to read the quote for what. For. Yeah because I'm going to mess up the name if I try it.

What of that which is written let us make man in our image after our likeness.

This is what I mentioned earlier from Genesis 1 26. Let's see what it says. Read what follows.

It is not said and God's created man in their image and God created man in his own image but God created man his own image.

In the past Adam was created from the dust of the ground and Eve was created from Adam henceforth.

It is to be quote in our image after our likeness unquote meaning man will not be able to come into existence without woman not woman without man but both without.

Shakana OK so I'm bad with some of the pronunciations of my Hebrew. Sorry I added that emphasis there by the way.

But you see there the point that's being made is the idea that it says not that God's made in the likeness but God.

And the idea that that is referenced there explains that the hour to mean

God in addition to man and woman. OK this is some of the ideas that some have.

So in other words each human being is formed in in three parts.

So there is a threefold parentage the threefold parentage being man woman and God.

And this is a Jewish explanation of the plural pronouns. Now like I said there's two different schools of thought there just so you know some take it as being

God with the angels working alongside. But some I think really in response to the

Christianity responded and argued this way. So it's not clear cut and that's one of the things you're going to see when you study different world religions.

Not everything is clear cut. So you have those two views but this is one view that that some do hold to that there is a that it's the

Trinity is the Adam Eve or male father mother and then

God. So let's move to the next the next topic of theology that we're going to cover and that is

Jesus Christ. Now you might be saying wait a minute Andrew what in the world are you bringing up Jesus Christ when studying

Judaism. Well actually because there's a lot written on the subject. Much like I said much of the

Talmud seems to be in response to Christianity and therefore a lot of the teaching is seeming to be in response and therefore they do have views of who

Jesus is. But I want to focus in also in this passage or this topic I should say of the

Messiah himself. OK. So let's first start letter A in your syllabus Jesus as the

Messiah the Messiah. All right. So Judaism states that the virgin birth is a myth is a myth and that Jesus Christ is a false prophet.

OK. So those are your blanks there. Judaism teaches that the virgin birth is a myth. That's your first blank and that Jesus Christ is a false prophet is your second fill in the blank.

According to Deuteronomy 13 6. And so before we put this up this in the

Talmud basically this was argued was that this was a future prophecy that God put assuming put in Deuteronomy one of the oldest books right the first five books of Moses.

So it's one of the oldest books and the argument goes is that God knew that someone would come saying he was born of a virgin.

And so thousands of years before that God wrote this prophecy knowing that this would happen.

So what is the prophecy. Well let's look at the passage. If your brother now notice this is the important part the son of your mother your your son or your daughter the wife of your bosom or your friend who is as your own soul secretly entices you saying let us go and serve other gods which of you have not known neither you nor your fathers.

So leave this up for a second. Judaism teaches that the phrase the son of your mother is a veiled reference to Jesus Christ as an apostate that would lead

Israel to other gods and claim to be virgin born without a human father.

And the context of the passage notice what the context the context is addressing false prophets.

But look at that it says you're if your brother son of your mother your son or your daughter the wife of your bosom or a friend.

They have all this listed out. But the argument that's being made in this veiled prophecy as it said is the idea that it's the son of your mother meaning that that's a veiled reference to a virgin born child.

And that's if you I think if you just read in that context is basically trying to say anybody even if it's someone close to you a brother a stepbrother right.

Put that back up for a second and look look at that's the wrong one. There you go. Your brother close relationship son of your mother is what that would be a stepbrother.

So you're seeing that close relationship but then it goes to your son or your daughter that's then your offspring or the wife of your bosom that someone your wife someone close to you or a friend.

OK. You see if you look at the context there it's trying to say no matter what it's covering many different relationships.

I think it's hard to argue that that's a veiled reference to Jesus Christ but that is what some hold to.

This was actually a verse that was given to me by one rabbi who you know was trying to convert me back to Judaism that to argue that Jesus Christ was spoken of in the

Old Testament in Deuteronomy. But I think you're hard pressed to say that's an absolute reference.

Now if it said if a man comes saying born of a virgin and you know what

I should have done is put given the Masoretic text there Masoretic English I should say translation translation of the

Masoretic. I get right. But the English translation that the Jewish people use

I think may word that a little different. I'll check on that. But the idea but I believe even in there it says son of your mother.

And so the son the son of your mother is I don't think proof that it's a virgin born because you know

I have someone who is the son of my mother my stepmother my stepbrother.

Right. And it could be you know someone that has a shared mother has a son of the mother is it's just another family reference.

So that's I don't think a way of speaking of a virgin born but that's the way it's explained.

So let's go on to the Jewish concept of the the mishach or the Messiah as we would say

Messiah just means anointed one in Hebrew. Christ is the same meaning.

OK. So when you see Messiah you could think Christ you could think anointed one. If Jesus is not the

Jewish Messiah then what is the concept of the Jewish Messiah.

Right. What's what we're Jewish people looking for in a Messiah. Now we know in the New Testament there was much talk about a political leader a king.

So let's look at what it says here or what I would have in your syllabus.

The general belief the general belief was that the sending of the

Messiah or mishach was part of the creator's plan at the inception of the universe.

So when we put this up I think we had this last class but seven things were created before the were created before the world was created the

Torah repentance the Garden of Eden Gehenna the throne of glory the temple the name of Messiah.

And so the idea there being that the name of Messiah was something that was from the beginning.

The the on one point the rabbis are unanimous however that the

Messiah would be just a human being divinely appointed to carry out the allotted task.

OK. He's just going to be a human being and that the rabbis seem to agree on at least in the

Talmud the Talmud nowhere indicates a belief in a super human deliverer as the

Messiah. The prevailing belief was that the Messiah or the prevailing belief was that the

Messiah would be a descendant of the king and a common descendant designation for him in rabbinic literature would be the son of David.

OK. So remembering however as we said in the last class that the

Talmud was written after the time of Christ and has the purpose to answer and this is your blank current circumstances current circumstances.

Remember that we talked about the Talmud and we see the Talmud references to Messiah. It is responding to the current circumstances.

What were the current circumstances. The issue of Christianity so the

Talmud had to address the division between Judaism and Christianity and the distinction was in a divine

Messiah. That's what made those two distinct. Was the Messiah divine or not.

Now in the Talmud you're not going to see any references to the Messiah being divine. However you will find references in the

Tanakh the Old Testament and that's the thing that we would go to when we look at the Trinity. And if you want more on that you could take a look at our classes on systematic theology the school systematic theology.

We have several classes that cover the issue of the

Trinity. So with that said Jew Jewish people would not believe in a

Trinity three persons making up one God. In fact they would define or think that we defined it as three gods and that's why they would be strictly monotheistic.

And the reason I say strictly is because they'd see one God one person. We would see one God three persons.

So we have no problem with the passages that say that there are three or sorry one

God. We don't have any problem with that because we believe in one God even though they might think we don't.

All right so let's move on to the next theological subject. The next category is sin the topic of sin.

And in here I want to address first a thing called of the pre existence of man.

This was really interesting because I was involved in a debate on the deity of Jesus Christ whether Jesus was

God or not. And in this debate a gentleman who I was going back and forth with argued that when we look at we look at John 8 and John 10 when they wanted to pick up stones to stone

Jesus. He argued that what he was claiming when he says before Abraham was

I am they are this gentleman tried to argue that the

Jewish people were upset because Jesus claimed he had a pre existence and that was the issue.

Now that's really interesting. The reason I find that interesting is because he earlier was trying to argue against the deity of Jesus Christ by trying to reference things of in the

Jewish writings. So but he couldn't quote any of the Jewish writings. Well I did in his argument and I quoted these passages right here from my book.

What do they believe. Because basically I tried to show that the Talmud teaches that in Judaism they have a belief that man pre existed that man did have a pre existence.

Therefore the gentleman's argument that that's what was upsetting the Jewish people and why they want to stone Jesus. Why.

Why would they stone Jesus for something they already believe. I mean for him to say before Abraham was I am if that was a claim of pre existence.

No big deal. They already believe that. Let's see. Judaism teaches that God created all the souls of man on the same day as the angels.

And so let's look at this. In the seventh heaven Abba Roth are stored the spirits and the souls which which still which have still to be created.

All right. So this is arguing that there are unborn souls which have yet to be united to bodies.

So the soul is the spiritual force within man that raises him above the animal existence inspires him to ideas and prompts him to choose good and reject evil.

Since the spirit of man was created prior to the fall it is good and not sinful.

OK. That's going to be important to remember because we then get into this issue of the evil impulse.

Right. So when we look at the issue of sin within Judaism it's important to understand this and this the issue of sin we're trying to cover here is more than just sin but the sin and the nature of man.

And so we just kind of covered what the nature of man in Judaism is that man had a pre -existence.

And so remember this is in a time the Talmud is being written in a time Gnostic thought is prevalent.

You have a lot of thinking anything physical is bad anything spiritual is good.

This spirit pre -existed before the fall therefore it's good.

The physical body well that has an evil impulse. And so it says so they make

God this is put that verse up if you could from Kaddish. The Holy One blessed be

He said to Israel my children I have created the evil impulse

I have created the Torah I have an antidote to it.

If you occupy yourselves with Torah you will be delivered from its power. OK. And so they make they make

God the author of sin. That's your blank there the author of sin. Because what you see there is that the

Holy One when you put that up while I just because I'm going to be referring to it. OK. Thanks. The Holy One right this is

God says to his children I have created what the evil impulse that's what they would refer to as sin.

OK. So so they have Judaism makes

God to be the author. That's your blank there if I didn't mention it the author of sin. When God created man he was originally created good but with an evil impulse.

That's your blank there with an evil impulse. So that's the idea. He was created good but he had an evil impulse.

And it says there the Holy One blessed be he created two impulses one good and the other evil.

So again you see that God created these two impulses at the root of the discussion was the opinion that man is essentially a sinful creature who is bound during his lifetime to do many deeds which earn for him the condemnation of God.

Part of the human nature is the evil impulse which cannot be mastered.

That's your blank there. It cannot be mastered but all too often takes control and demoralizes.

Now I think I have some other passages there should just be the next one.

By the way as if I haven't mentioned it this is different than in our other classes where I'm referencing scripture verses and it's much easier for us to just switch because I can

I can just reference it and the slides are follow along. But if you could put up the next it should be the very next slide 16a.

There we go. If I find this one interesting because this is a passage that really explains something of the view in Judaism.

If a man sees that his evil impulse is gaining the mastery over him let him go to a place where he is unknown but put on black clothes and do what his heart desires but let him not profane the name publicly.

You see from that passage what that's saying is if you realize you're not going to gain mastery all right that the evil impulse is going to get mastery over you then what you do is you go to a place where no one knows who you are and you cover yourself in black clothes and then you go sin.

Get it out of your system as if that's okay as long as you don't publicly shame the name as long as you're not known.

So in other words it's almost like the teaching of if you can get away with it. So if you you feel the desire for lust just go to another town and go find a prostitute and I guess it's like not so wrong because you're not going to get mastery.

It's almost making justification for sin which is I think you'd see very different than what would be taught in Christianity.

Now the next one is one that we're going to see coming up many times as we go through these different religions and that is this idea of a free will a free will.

Now Judaism and you're going to see this becomes important to many of the systems and I'm going to explain why through as we go up but you need an absolutely free will to be able to have a works righteous system.

Now let me explain what I mean by free will free from any outside desires.

Now think about this and put yourself in the mindset of what Jewish Judaism is teaching. God created these two impulses both the good and the bad all right the righteous and the evil and you have both of them and therefore you have the right to choose right or wrong.

You have a free will. I would say Christian Christianity teaches that we have a will that we're born that's born enslaved to sin.

It's not free it's enslaved to sin. We can make choices but we can only make choices within our nature which is enslaved to sin and then when the

Holy Spirit indwells us then we have a free will because now we have the righteousness of Christ and the power of the

Holy Spirit to truly choose to do right. That's how it would be the difference. So Judaism has the belief and if I'm looking down it's because because of these classes

I'm going to be focused a little bit more on my notes than I typically would because I want to make sure

I get quotations right and things right. Judaism has the belief that all men have a sinful impulse not a sinful nature and therefore they have a free will.

People are born morally neutral not desiring good or evil okay that's what they can choose to do good and earn

God's favor. God does not decide if a man is righteous or wicked it is wholly the will of man.

And so let's put up the do we have the one it's going to be

BER 33 B. All right all is in the hands of heaven except the fear of heaven that's not the one

I was thinking do I have that's the only slide. Okay well then I will read from what I have here in N .I

.B. 16 B. It says this quote the angel appointed the angel appointed over conception is named

Leah he takes the seminal drop sets it before the

Holy One blessed be he and asks sovereign of the universe what is to become of this drop is it to develop into a person strong or weak wise or foolish rich or poor but no mention is made of it becoming wicked or righteous.

And so the off quoted maxim which is the one we just read is it is all in the hand it is all in the hands of heaven except for the fear of heaven which means that although God decides the fate of individuals the reservation is made with respect to the moral character of his life it is the moral character that they base righteous and wickedness on and not the relationship with God because all

Jews believe they're born into a relationship with God. That's true today. I mean I know that that's what

I believe when I was raised I was believed I'm God's chosen people and I had a guaranteed spot in heaven but my moral life was going to be out of my choices.

The conviction that man's will is unfettered is seen to be the foundation of rabbinic ethics.

The nature of his life is molded in his desires. He can misuse life's opportunities if he so wishes or in no circumstances would it be agreed that he must misuse them.

The evil impulse consistently tempts him but if he falls the responsibility is his and his alone which

I find very interesting in Judaism because who created the evil impulse? Well God did but then they try to save God's character even though he creates evil and sin.

He's then spared from being unjust because it's left to man's responsibility because he's got this free will.

So it's kind of playing it at both ends I think but that is what they would believe when it comes to the area of sin.

That we have this evil impulse and because of that we have a good impulse, we can choose to do good, we can choose not to do good.

That's how that ends up working out. And you've even got a little taste within that of what we are going to talk about in the next category which is salvation.

Now salvation, when we look at salvation, is it really salvation from sin?

Right? If as you saw it's based on what we do and our behavior and therefore it's not so much based on the idea that, it's not that we are trying to get in a right state with God to have righteousness.

The idea is that a Jewish person would already have righteousness but they need to live a moral life.

So salvation however is through the Torah, through the law. That's your blank there, the

Torah. And if you remember the Torah, when I said that in the last class, the Torah could have many meanings.

It means the law. It could mean the written law, it could mean the oral law, it could mean both. It could mean the first five books of the

Bible. It could mean the ten commandments. It could mean all 316 commandments. It could have many meanings.

But when they say in this passage about or this idea, the importance of the

Torah for the Jew is that a Jew has two issues to overcome.

Heritage, being born a Jew, and the belief that there is no sin nature in man.

Therefore man can choose to do good on his own or her own.

So Jews do not see themselves as sinners by nature. Their tradition and heritage convinces them that they do not have a need for a

Savior. They believe that they can master the evil impulse or at least deaden it and that they can do that which

God pleases through repentance. Which means that really what they believe in is not, when they talk about doing the law, doing

Torah as a means of salvation, really what they're referring to there is this idea of repentance.

And we saw that earlier, being that repentance was one of the things that supposedly created before creation.

But it's really salvation by repentance. Now let's be careful because Christians would believe that we're saved by repentance.

But I think it's a little bit different meaning. When we talk about repentance, this changing of mind, now in Christianity the changing of mind would be changing from trusting ourselves as a good person or good works or genealogy and trusting what

Christ did on the cross. In Judaism it's going to be again this mastery over the evil impulse.

So in so much as God created man with an evil impulse, by reason of which he is prone to sin, justice demands that an antidote should likewise be provided for salvation.

Remember what we said about all these, there's two of everything, right? This world, the world to come, right?

So there's this evil impulse, well there's got to be repentance to balance it out. Everything, the thought is everything in life must have a balance except God.

He doesn't need a balance. If wickedness is a disease to which the human being is susceptible, it's necessary for him to have a medium of healing and such is to be found in repentance.

That is your blank there, repentance. Why, however, is it necessary for the

Torah to be given is this two -fold form. And here's an answer that is suggested to answer this question.

It's the longer of the quotes there. Thank you. The Holy One, and I've added some emphasis here if you can see it.

The Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel two Torahs, that's

Torah, okay, the written and the oral.

He gave them the written Torah in which are 613 commandments in order to fill them with precepts whereby, note this, whereby they could earn merit.

He gave them the oral law, oral Torah, whereby they could be distinguished from the other nations.

This is not given in writing so that the Ishmaelites should not fabricate it as they have done the written

Torah and say that they were Israel, okay.

Now, it's interesting because remember this is in response, this is before the time of Muhammad, so they're not speaking.

I've heard some think that some of this could be responsive to Muslims, but Muslims weren't around at this time.

But the Ishmaelites, the Arab nations were, okay. And so the arguments were that this is a saying that the written law was written down that Ishmael's descendants would have gotten them, the

Arab nations, and that they twisted them. But the oral law was passed down from generation to generation and then written down concept by concept, which if you think about it, that one's easier to twist then because how do you know, you know, which ones get it right and whatnot.

But that aside, clearly though the Jews believe that living according to the law, the 613 laws will earn them merit.

That's your blank there, will earn them merit, all right. And so this is the idea of salvation is really that you would repent, that you'd gain some mastery over that evil impulse that you have and therefore live a life to earn you merit of the repentance, all right.

And so lastly, how do Gentiles get saved? Real quick, salvation for the Gentiles through obedience to the

Novatic law. So in other words, there are nine commandments supposedly to Noah that were given and those were what the

Gentiles should keep. The thing I find interesting is when

I've read through Genesis, I don't see those commands to Noah. And so those commands are really seen in some of the rabbi's writings and the oral law, which gets you to wonder, wait a minute, if the passage we just read said that the written law was written and the oral law, so the written law is so people can learn how to earn merit.

And then the oral law is how to keep Israel separate from the nations. So here you have this thing that's written down for the

Gentiles that could read them to know how to merit salvation, but it doesn't mention the commands?

Just a thought. I mean, why would the commands have to be in the oral part of it or the commentary part of it?

But that's the idea that there's these commands given to Noah and that's how a Gentile could be saved.

The assumption is a Jewish person already is going to heaven, but maybe a Gentile might be fortunate if he does right by God.

But it's clearly a works -based system, doing the law. You're either born into it, but you have to earn merit from God through what you do in the law, or if you're a

Gentile, you have to do the law of the Gentiles. Now, truthfully, I would rather try to follow nine commands than 613, just saying.

Nine commands are enough. I mean, I can't keep any of the Ten Commandments pretty much, so how could I possibly, right?

Because God judges our heart, not our actions. So he says, being angry is murder of the heart.

Looking at someone with lust is adultery of the heart. So when you look at those two commandments, by looking at what

I think in my heart, I drive in New Jersey. It's hard to drive on the roads without getting angry at some of the drivers, just saying.

Let's look at the last thing because I want to try to finish this lesson up, and that is the eternal state.

The eternal state is, we refer to it as the world to come.

Many incidental remarks occur in the Talmud declaring that a person who performs certain actions will or will not share in the world to come, and that's how it's referenced.

And so, there is not a dogmatic verdict on the eternal fate of a person.

The many remarks are nothing more than a hyperbolic expression of approval or disapproval.

More important, more importance is, however, attached to an extract of Isaiah.

Do we have that? Isaiah 60? Okay. All Israel, this is from Isaiah 60 verse 21.

All Israel has a share in the world to come as it is forever.

So, they extract that out, that verse, and use that to argue that all of Israel will have something in the world to come.

And so, this idea of the world to come is really the future. Now, there is this notion of Gehenna.

The fate, so we might think of the world to come, by the way, as heaven, what we would call heaven.

But this Gehenna is the fate of the wicked is to descend into a place of punishment, that's your blank there, punishment called

Gehenna. It's what we would call hell. Its original, its origin precedes creation of the universe as we saw earlier, the seven things that were created before creation.

And the principal safeguard, however, is the study of the Torah. Let's put up Chang 727a, okay?

The fire of Gehenna has no power over the disciples of the sages. Fire of Gehenna has no power over the sinner, the sinners in Israel.

So, it is this idea that there is some debate, however, among the rabbis on the subject of people being sent to Gehenna for eternity or just for a short period, or for some period of time or not at all.

So, people sometimes ask, do Jewish people believe in a hell? It depends on that Jewish person.

Some do and some do not. And so, it's not so clear cut, alright?

So, with that said, if you have any questions about this or any of the other lessons, you can email us at academyatstrivingforeternity .org.

Just to let you know, next lesson, which will not be next week, there will be no class if you watch live, there will be no class next week.

I will be in New York City doing a training. Actually, by the time this class would be going on,

I would be in the air flying back from Ohio to New York to do a training for the week.

So, there will be no class next week. If you'd like to pick up this material in a book that you can read through, you can pick up my book also available at our store,

What Do They Believe? It's available on Kindle and it's available at strivingforeternity .org.

You can pick those up. The book is $15 and so you can get that from our store.

I do want to announce that seven weeks away, six, seven weeks away is the NorCal Fire, norcalfire .info.

We got James Warner Wallace and Justin Peters and myself will be speaking.

The topic is discipleship. If you are anywhere in the San Jose area, I encourage you to go to norcalfire .info

and register now for that. And so, as I said,

I think already, the next lesson, which will not be next week, we will start on Roman Catholicism.

This is one that I think a lot of people like to get into because they know more people that are

Roman Catholics. So, we will deal with that. Anything I'm missing?

Oh, okay. If you'd like us to come to your church and do a training on how to interpret the

Bible, Bible Interpretation Made Easy. That is a six session, eight hour class that we do.

Come in on a Friday night, Saturday and we do this and come in and train your people how to interpret the

Bible. Alright? And so, lastly, as we always do when we try to end these classes, we want to encourage you to encourage someone else.

And so, the C -Bro of this week is Brother Richard Story.

Now, Richard Story always has a good story, but that's not that he's making up his name. No, Richard Story is a brother who got in an accident.

He was in a car accident and since then has been in a wheelchair. And someone had requested that we encourage him this week.

He has been in a lot of pain lately. Excuse me. From what

I'm told, sorry about that, just caught sun in my throat. But I got an opportunity to meet

Richard Story in New Orleans at the Super Bowl Outreach. And he's just a wonderful guy to get to know.

Just, you know, I can't think of a time that I've ever spoken with him. I've spoken to him on the phone a couple times where I haven't been encouraged.

I really, really like any time that I spend with him. So, I encourage you this week to encourage

Brother Richard Story. We have his Facebook page down there. You can also get a hold of him through the

Striving for Eternity Facebook group. So, until next week, remember to strive, or sorry, not next week, next class.

Because no class next week. Next class. Remember to strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.