Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | US Desk
Source & Credit: Buffalo News
By Jay Tokasz | June 14, 2010
Is Jesus divine or human? Was he miraculously born of a virgin mother? Did he die on a cross and rise from the dead to provide salvation? Will he return to the earth in a second coming?
Two Christian ministers, a rabbi and an imam discussed some of these age-old questions for nearly three hours as part of an interfaith effort Sunday to shed light on what different religions believe about Jesus.
“We see Jesus as our teacher, master teacher, and as our way-shower,” said the Rev. Mary Masters, senior minister of Unity Church of Practical Christianity. But the spirit of God that lives in Jesus can also reside in anyone, she said.
“We think of Jesus as the great example to follow, rather than as the great exception.”
And so instead of worshipping Jesus as a divine figure, Unity Christians focus on following his teachings in an effort to achieve a higher level of consciousness, said Masters.
Even among Christians, there are varying interpretations about what exactly Jesus means.
“Know that after 2,000 years, the Christian church is still working on understanding who Jesus Christ is,” said the Rev. Frieda Van Baalen Webb, an Episcopal priest.
Van Baalen Webb provided a more traditional account of Jesus as a messianic figure who is divine and functions as God, while at the same time being authentically, fully human.
“He knew everything but human sin. That’s his uniqueness as a person,” she said.
The symposium in Millennium Airport Hotel was sponsored by the Buffalo Chapter Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which hosts similar events several times a year.
When asked for their understandings of the concept of the second coming of the messiah, Van Baalen Webb and Masters provided divergent answers.
“We believe Jesus Christ will come again. He will judge us for the end of time,” said Van Baalen Webb.
Masters replied that there would be no physical return of Jesus, but rather a “great awakening” in people.
Ahmadiyya Muslims also don’t imagine the second coming in terms of someone descending from heaven.
“We believe that has to be taken as a metaphor,” said Naseem Mahdi, an imam and national vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.
As messiah and prophet, Jesus came to pave the way for the “great prophet,” Muhammad, said Mahdi.
Unlike the overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide, Ahmadis believe there also was a “Messiah of the latter days” — Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadi community. The belief in Ahmad as a prophet for a new age, whose advent had been foretold in other major world religions, has been highly controversial in Islam.
Some Muslims consider the belief in Ahmad as a prophet as anathema to a central teaching of mainstream Islam that regards Muhammad as the seal of the prophets.
Ahmadis also have an unconventional story about what happened to Jesus after he was nailed to the cross. They believe he survived the attempted crucifixion and eventually traveled to Afghanistan and Kashmir in search of lost tribes of Israel.
They also believe he married and fathered children, died a natural death at age 120 and was buried in a tomb in Kashmir.
Rabbi Moshe Taub of Congregation Young Israel said he could rely only on the Jewish texts, the Talmud and the Torah, passed down from generation to generation, in explaining a Jewish perspective on the status of Jesus.
And since Jesus isn’t part of those texts — he’s mentioned only in the New Testament — Taub limited his discussion to the concept of a messiah.
“There is no personal opinion in my faith. It is based on text,” he said. “We must investigate. We must always remain objective.”
Nothing within Jewish scripture suggests anything divine about a messiah to come, said Taub.
“There is no source that says the messiah will be anything but a great leader,” he said. “The concept of a messiah being godly or divine clearly does not exist.”
e-mail: jtokasz@buffnews.com
Read original post here: Interfaith effort offers perspectives in open discussion
Isaiah 7:14
ReplyDelete"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a VIRGIN" (Rashi himself translated "almah" to mean virgin seven times and changed it only once, here,and only after Christian Crusader persecution. Originally, the word "almah" meant chaste maiden ready to marry = a virgin. A virgin conceiving is a sign/miracle. A young woman giving birth is an everyday occurrence, not a sign! The 70 Rabbis who produced the Septuagint-a Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh (250BCE)-translated "almah" as
virgin!)"shall conceive, and bear a son and call his name IMMANUEL" (God with us).
Isaiah 9:6 refers to a son being born whose names include "MIGHTY GOD", "FATHER OF ETERNITY"
Micah 5:2 Bethlem Ephratah is the birthplace of Yeshua/Jesus
"...whose goings forth have been from old, from everlating." = eternal existence = God. This was written about 750BCE.
Jeremiah 23:5,6 " I will raise unto David a righteous branch (Messiah)...he shall be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Psalm 22 King David decribes crucifiction a thousand years before it was ever practiced! There are no lions at anyone hands and feet. That makes no sense, is an incomplete sentence and Jewish tradition demands one use the more difficult reading = crucifiction! The Masoretes were unbelievers altering the text's meaning as they translated it to favor their bias.
Zechariah 12:10 "...they shall look upon me whom they have PIERCED..." (2nd coming)
Isaiah 53 Clearly describes Yeshua/Jesus not Israel. He was to be rejected, to be despised, pierced,stricken, smitten by God for our transgressions/sins...
Read the Servant Songs Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52/53, 61 How can Israel serve Israel? The servant is Yeshua!
Intellectual honesty and the Ruach Hakodesh will reveal the truth to the sincere reader. Baruch Hashem.