Friday, January 24, 2020

“Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Theological Objections” :: Religion, Jewish Apologetics

In his second volume on Jewish apologetics, Michael Brown answers twenty eight Jewish theological objections. Brown summarizes this book in his preface: Theological objections, treated at length in the current volume, cut to the heart of the differences between traditional Judaism and the Messianic Jewish/Christian faith. They revolved around the nature of God (the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, the person of the Holy Spirit), the nature of man and the need for salvation, and sin and the means of atonement. In sum, these objections claim, â€Å"The religion of the New Testament is a completely foreign religion that is not only un-Jewish but is also unfaithful to the Hebrew Bible.† With regard to cutting â€Å"to the heart of the differences between traditional Judaism and Messianic Jewish/Christian faith,† I really appreciate the way Michael Brown demonstrated in a scholarly and balanced way that the Christian faith was perfectly compatible with the Jewish Tanakh. His discussion on the Trinity (the Tri-unity) was excellent. He demonstrated that the Hebrew word for one, ‘echad, does not necessarily refer to absolute unity and, in fact, could very well refer to compound unity (Page 4). He provides examples from the Hebrew Bible where ‘echad is used of a compound or complex unity as per the oneness of Adam and Eve, the many components of the tabernacle being one â€Å"unified† tabernacle, and the one nation of Israel which is made up of hundreds of thousands of people (5). I loved the way he backed up his discussion of the Shema as referring the concept of uniqueness (Deut. 6:4) by citing the New Jewish Publication Society Version: â€Å"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone† (page 6) Brown demonstrated the deity of Christ by focusing on Him as the Son of God and Word of God, who shares in the divine nature, and who revealed Himself to His people in the Old Testament (15-37). I enjoyed Brown’s treatment of the apparent conflict between the passages which declare that no one has seen God with the other passages which clearly state that God was seen by Abraham, Moses, and Jacob (27-34). As he put it, â€Å"it is Jesus the Messiah—the divine Son, the image of the invisible God, the Word made flesh, the exact representation of the Father’s being—who solves the riddle and explains how someone could really see God, even though God cannot be seen.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

My Ride Along Essay

My ride along wasn’t at all that exciting. It had a boring officer who seemed to not really want to have someone with him at the time. I did make the most of the time I had while I was there. I was very observant of the things that I saw around Polk county. For instance, the north side of Lakeland was more ghetto than the south side. It was completely noticeable just by how the business were kept and the type of stores that they have. We drove around a few times just to make sure nothing crazy was going on and kept it moving. I’m not one to force the issue of trying to start conversation. I can continue to sit in silence with is pretty much what was happening unless there was a call on the radio dispatch. One thing I can say is that if I ever became a cop and I was doing patrol I would need to have a partner, because I know I would go insane by myself for all types of hours of the night. I like having company and I know that I am more prone to being more aware when I ha ve someone to talk with, yet they also know we have a job to do. I’m a very sociable person when it comes to meeting people and doing things so for it to have been as quiet as it was, I felt awkward. I want to be able to talk and get to know a person, I just wouldn’t do that by myself. I liked the experience though to be able to patrol the city. I just wish it had more action in it. I got the boring ride it seems like compared to what everyone else in my class was talking about with their ride along. The way I thought my ride along was going to go was completely different. I thought I would show up like I was supposed to and I would get a patrol officer who was actually excited about having a student around for a ride along. I wanted to be able to watch the officer have to chase someone on foot and I just stand by and watch as he arrest the person and confiscate the drugs or whatever it is that they found on the person. After that, I figured we would drive around some more and stop and get coffee,we did that, and do some more patrolling. The later the night got I thought we would find some young kids out smoking or drinking underage and we would call in backup to get the group of kids off the streets and stop them from doing the nonsense that they thought was cool. After riding around I figured I would be able to talk about what I was getting my degree in criminal justice for. The talk would have gone pretty good and I would get a good insight as to what goes through  a patrol officers mind as to who they want to arrest and who they don’t want to arrest due to the significance of the situation. After all that, we would stop and get a bite to eat somewhere talk with some of the people wherever we decided to stop and get food just to have some random conversation and make everyone feel safer and confident in what their law enforcement was doing that night. I would get dropped off and go home. If that was the way my ride along would have went I would have felt a lot better and been able to be more enthusiastic about my ride along, but as you can see none of the even happened for me.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The Approach of U.S. Foreign Policy and Terrorism Essay

The Approach of U.S. Foreign Policy and Terrorism U.S. foreign policy is plunging head first in its war on terrorism. Our focus is expanding and including various dynamics that harbor American interests. By broadening our focus in our war on terrorism, we are beginning to spread ourselves too thin. Therefore, we risk the danger of fighting too many battles at once. Terrorism is a large issue that American foreign policy will not be able to tackle in the manner it has set out to do. Recently, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle voiced his concern over the direction the U.S. is taking in its war on terrorism. He was criticized because his statements are one of the most critical assessments to date of the†¦show more content†¦The war is beginning to be an excuse for the U.S. to go after its enemies. With the all-encompassing threat of terrorism, foreign policy is able to use play on words in order to have a justified reason to get directly involved with other regions of the world. Our interests are at stake and there is not a better time to assert such force. Congress is generously agreeing to aid the war and the worlds support is on our side. Under our foreign policy initiatives, we are able to manipulate reasons to include new aspects that fall under threats of terrorism, thus threats to the national security of the United States. The United State’s consideration of deploying troops to the former Soviet Union republic of Georgia aims to provide training and equipment to Georgian forces to patrol and combat the border shared with Chechnya. There is evidence that fleeing Al Qaeda fighters, particularly in the Pinski Gorge area, have joined Chechen rebels. Interestingly enough, â€Å" Before September 11, Russia had faced regular and harsh criticism from the West for alleged human rights violations and the use of excessive force in Chechnya. After the attacks on the United States, the criticism was largely muted,† (â€Å"Georgia†). The events of September 11 have caused the State Department to now accuse the Russian government of not doing enough to control Chechen rebels. Foreign policy has expanded to directly addressing the Chechen conflictShow MoreRelatedPresident Obamas Diplomatic Approach Towards Foreign Policy Essay970 Words   |  4 Pagesand the threat of terrorism, largely dep end on U.S. involvement based on our relatively successful past efforts and President Barack Obama’s promising diplomatic approach towards foreign policy. Obama’s diplomatic, multilateral outreach towards foreign governments, most recently China and Russia, began to gain significant support from the general public in America as well as abroad. â€Å"When asked to name the best things about Obama’s handling of foreign policy, Council on Foreign Relations membersRead MoreForeign Policy And The Middle East1107 Words   |  5 PagesAmerican foreign policy and what it entails. 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