Judgment Day in the Gospel of Matthew and the Sanhedrin

In 90 CE, the Sanhedrin adds the Birkat haMinim ("Blessing on the heretics") to synagogue services. It is a curse on heretics. The doors of synagogues are now closed to members of the Jesus Movement. The Pharisees had always controlled the new Sanhedrin. However, it is important to understand that there were sects within the Pharisees that ranged from being “doves” (men of peace) to “hawks” (men of war). Emperor Vespasian chose “a man of peace” to create the new Sanhedrin. But, in 90 CE it appears that the hawks had gained control. The men of peace were members of the “school of Hillel” and the “Jesus Movement.” Continue reading at -

http://mailchi.mp/4c0410c0821e/judgment-day-in-the-gospel-of-matthew-and-the-sanhedrin

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Why Exploring the Bible is Important

Today, I want to tell you a story that will provide a context in which you can better understand why exploring the Bible is so important. Once upon a time, a professor, a rabbi and a pastor agreed to follow a guideline and explore the Bible. Their names are Ike Tennison , Jeffrey Leynor , and Jim Myers . (that’s me). We are the First Exploring the Bible Team. We explored the Bible for over 30 years and became very good friends. Agreeing to follow the guideline creates safe and open environments to explore belief systems; and that is priceless! Continue reading at – http://mailchi.mp/f9ac65506bb2/why-exploring-the-bible-is-important

Who Created “Good” and “Evil”?

How important is it for people to understand what “ good ” and “ evil ” mean? For those of us with Christian Biblical Heritages, evil is a very important word . In the King James Version of the Bible the word “ evil ” appears 613 times . “ Good ” appears 720 times . I found this very interesting, because I heard a lot more about evil than I did about good in the church my family attended when I was growing up. That really stood out at the end of every church service when “ the invitation ” was given. It was an opportunity for “ lost ” people to be “ saved .” Why were they lost and why did they need to be saved? Continue reading at -- https://mailchi.mp/a38b5c20c334/who-created-good-and-evil

What am I?

What am I? Now that’s a question a lot of people have asked in the history of humans. We ( Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and former pastor Jim Myers ) created two models for working with that question – after wrestling with it for over 25 years . You may have noticed that use models instead of answers. Most questions about life are better understood by using models that reveal potentialities than statements of either/or answers . Our models emerged from two sources in which our research and studies focused on during our journey together – one source is an ancient wisdom account embedded in our shared religious texts and the other source is modern science . This makes our approach at the TOV Center unique in many respects – we combine the wisdom of ancient texts with the facts of modern science to maximize human experiences . As pointed out above, we created a model from each source to help us better understand humans: (1) Ancient Wisdom Model – Humans are creatures that share t...

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