THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610040052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Wright
LENGTH: 75 lines
Last Week's Issue of Faith: The Days of Awe
This Week's Reader Responses:
From Richard Slepin of Portsmouth: ``I commend you about your column on the High Holy Days. It's not that it was about Judaism, but it was the objectivity of that column that made it very beautiful, very well done. I have criticized you before as coming across like a minister, which I'm sure you're not, but this was the kind of stuff you do very well . . . It was a very good column. Keep more like that one coming.''
From Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Congregation Beth Chaverim of Virginia Beach: ``At the heart of this sacred juncture in the Jewish calendar, peak of our spiritual journey, are the distilled lessons of a people with a passion for life, yearning to bless the experience of living. It is not a naive expression, rather born of a long and eventful exposure to history's uneven course.
``We have acquired an optimistic-trusting edge because we are familiar too well with the tragic cost of a pessimistic-nihilistic one. We are covenated to life's promise because we know what life can deny.''
From Pastor Scott Ranck of Chesapeake: ``In my preparation for (Christian) ministry, I had to study all the (other) world religions. I found all (the others) have some things we can learn from. I also found none (of the others) has an answer for what you called `the separation from God' and `the emptiness of the gulf,' which is produced by our sense of sinfulness. All the (other) world religions . . . are what I would call `bottom-up religions.' They are humans' best efforts to somehow span that gulf between man and God.
``There is one (religion) that stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is a `top down faith.' Biblical Christianity is God's remedy for removing that gulf. (God) was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.
``I respect the Holy Days of Judaism, but the problem is, though they call it a Day of Atonement, there remain no more offerings for sin. If there is any sense of absolution at all, at best it is wishful thinking. Hebrews 10:1-12 clearly teaches the sacrifices the high priest made on the day of atonement could never take away sin, (but that it) merely covered it temporarily until the ultimate sacrifice came . . . (Jesus) takes away sin forever. Now, there is real absolution of sin, top down, God's only remedy.
``The hodgepodge of religion is nice but not workable when you consider the exclusive claims of Christ in John 14:6, Matthew 7:21-23 and numerous other references. One is left with the dilemma of believing Jesus Christ is indeed God's Messiah or he is not. (The Scripture) 1 John 5:12 makes this truth the dividing line of the whole human race. You really can't have it both ways.!''
From Miles Pelton of Virginia Beach: ``We do not live to experience pain so that we can appreciate joy and happiness. We do not live so that we can experience joy and happiness period. We live because we are a creation of the Almighty Creator who equipped us with various senses to use in making decisions on what is good and what is bad so that we will understand how we should behave. We live so that we will multiply and learn how to bring the earth under our control, our God-given mission.
``Your faith would be vastly fortified if, when you touch your abdomen, you remember that the new life developing within you is being made using the most magnificent and most versatile of God's creations - atoms of matter - that have endured without any loss of strength since their creation some 11 billion years ago (according to some scientists).
``It would help also to remember that the new life within you is developing according to instructions provided by another of God's great creations, the DNA/gene code system. This is a system created before even the first living thing was ever made. This is a system that has not only survived all these many millions of years, but which has served, without fail, to extend the `spirit of life' from the first creation to each new creation. This is a system that has permitted our creator to progressively advance sophistication of his creations, culminating in one created in his image. These are the magnificent things for which God wants and deserves praise.
``I hope that when your child asks: `Mommy, where did I come from?', you will remember to say, `You are a creation of God, made inside Mommy, using the most magnificent and reliable of all materials and directions.' I hope all people, beginning with children, would realize that they are created in this manner, not by Mommy.'' by CNB