SIX MILLION CRUCIFIXIONS (OPEN)

Jewish Journal ^ | July 29, 2010 | papabrody

[papabrody]

Gabriel Wilensky’s first book, “Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings About the Jews Paved the Road to the Holocaust” traces the history of the Christian church (and specifically the Vatican) to plausible causes of the Holocaust. The author’s lifelong fascination with the subject and years of research culminated in his very detailed book on the subject.

With a foreword by world-renowned Holocaust scholar John K. Roth and endorsements by several Holocaust survivors, the book traces 2,000 years of history in an easy to read format.

[papabrody]

EVERYONE is welcome to comment.

[DManA]

The history of man as recorded in the Bible shows how God gives us the Truth and we twist it into something unrecognizable. It is a fallen world after all.

[papabrody]

Sorry :( The author of this book is Gabriel Wilensky.

[Scythian]

Uh-Oh ....., Hitler was a progressive was he not?

[Kansas58]

Actually, Hitler hated Christianity almost as much as Hitler hated Jews.

Also, many Jewish Rabbis have praised the Vatican and the Catholic Church for their heroic efforts to save the lives of Jews, during Hitler's reign.

[agere_contra]

Six million Jews were killed because Hitler hated Jews. He regarded them as untermenchen, less than human, and hated them for what he imagined they had done to Germany.

I would examine his racial theories, and his ties to Islam, before I started looking at Christianity. After all, the Church was the Jews' most effective protector in occupied Europe.

[Graing]

I wonder if the author ever read Pfarrerblock 25487 by Fr. Jean Bernard - One of over 2500 Catholic priests imprisoned at Dachau?

[I Hate Obama]

There’s nothing Christian about Hitler, the Nazi Party, or his regime. Hitler was a Progressive Left-Winger even though he claimed Christianity. Fascism, like Communism, is atheist and against any power higher than the supreme leader.

[dfwgator]

The Nazis were Pagans.

[agere_contra]

Wilensky is shamefully, culpably badly-informed about what Pope Pius and the Church did during WW2.

Pope Pius XII saved 860,000 Jews during WW2

His efforts completely dwarfed all others, including those of the Red Cross.

Here are what the scholars of the day had to say about Pius XII.

The foremost Jewish Scholar of the Holocaust at its height in Hungary, Jeno Levai, insisted some years ago that it was a "particularly regrettable irony that the one person in all of occupied Europe who did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences is today made the scapegoat for the failures of others."

The Israeli diplomat and scholar Pinchas Lapide concluded his careful review of Pius XII’s wartime activities with the following words: "The Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands."

He went on to add that this "figure far exceeds those saved by all other Churches and rescue organizations combined."

After recounting statements of appreciation from a variety of preeminent Jewish spokespersons, he noted. "No Pope in history has been thanked more heartily by Jews . . . .Several suggested in open letters that a Pope Pius XII forest of 860,000 trees be planted on the hills of Judea in order to fittingly honor the memory of the late Pontiff ("Three Popes and the Jews" pp. 214–215)."

Levai in his own book did not hesitate to argue that the attacks on the Pope’s wartime record are "demonstrably malicious and fabricated . . . . The archives of the Vatican of diocesan authorities of Ribbentrop’s foreign ministry, contain a whole series of protests—direct and indirect, diplomatic and public, secret and open. The nuncios and bishops of the Catholic Church intervened again and again on the instructions of the Pope," he wrote.

The former chief rabbi of Rome during the German occupation, Emilio Zolli, concluded his firsthand account of wartime events (Hungarian Jews and the Papacy: ) thus: "Volumes could be written on the multiform works of Pius XII, and the countless priests, religious and laity who stood with him throughout the world during the war." "No hero," he said, "in all of history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic, than Pius XII in pursuing the works of true charity . . . and thus on behalf of all the suffering children of God."

Zolli was so moved by Pius XII’s work that he became a Catholic after the war and took the Pope’s name

Pinchas Lapide acknowledged in his book (Before the Dawn). that the Church "in an endless flood of sermons, allocutions, pastoral letters and encyclicals was a clear and unrelenting foe to all forms of racism at the time, and everyone knew it—Jews, Poles, Russians and most ominously the Nazi secret police." Their files mention recalcitrant Catholic clergy in this regard more than any other group.

The New York Times in its Christmas editorials of 1941 and 1942 praised Pius XII for his moral leadership as a "lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent" and for, among other things, assailing "the violent occupation of territory, and the exile and persecution of human beings, for no other reason than race."

Golda Meir, Israel’s representative to the United Nations, was the first of the delegates to react to the news of Pope Pius XII’s death. She sent an eloquent message: "We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."

Leonard Bernstein, on learning of Pope Pius XII’s death while conducting his orchestra in New York’s Carnegie Hall, tapped his baton for a moment of silence to pay tribute to the Pope who had saved the lives of so many people without distinction of race, nationality, or religion.

The great Jewish physicist, Albert Einstein, who himself barely escaped annihilation at Nazi hands, made the point well in 1944 when he said, "Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, but the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, but they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to individual writers . . . . they too were mute. Only the Church," Einstein concluded, "stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. . . . I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel great affection and admiration . . . . and am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."

You, know, I bet that none of these genuine scholars and contemporary observers were quoted in Wilensky's book. Just a feeling I have, LOL.

[J Aguilar]

I think he is wrong. He does not explain why General Franco, a practicant Catholic, allowed Jews to escape through Spain, and promoted diplomats who risk their lives doing so.

The truth is that Franco, putting in practise what Christianity theaches, allowed them to flee, even when askhenazi Jews were considered then Communist supporters and in fact many askhenazim had fought in the international brigades against Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

The question that no one what to recognize now, is that Hitler was considered before World War II by many governments, included the British and the Vatican, as the savior of Germany from Communism, and that what a government does against his population is widely considered an internal problem among nations.

Only when allied troops reached the concentration camps, the “internal problem” became an allied problem, and allied governments had to recognize publicly why they already knew through eavesdropping.

[TaraP]

As *Europe* grows more into secularism, the more people turn on the Jewish People and Israel....

Most people who dismiss G-d, embrace humanistic thinking hate the religion of the *Jews* and hate the teachings of Jesus Christ embraced by Christians.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Pay no attention to that Darwinist behind the curtains folks. There was no connection to elite academic Darwinists and the eugenics movement. It was those hard core Christians like Hitler who acted against Jews for killing their Messiah. Sure. Hope this asshat sells a lot of books.

[agere_contra]

You have a point. Eugenics was incredibly popular and socially acceptable to talk about before the war.

And not at all afterwards.

[STD]

Divide and conquer, that’s been satans plan forever. Don’t take the bait. Sister’s & Brother’s, the love of Christ is more powerful than the mere slander of men. Now, shut up and act appropriately!

[Pope Pius XII]

This guy makes a bunch absurd claims. I’ll give you two examples.

1. “Even a shunned, excommunicated Catholic bishop who Pope Benedict XVI brought back into the Catholic fold continues to openly deny the extent of the Holocaust.”

First off, the Bishop was a member of the SSPX society which isn’t Catholic!

Secondly, denying the Holocaust isn’t grounds for excommunication.

This leaves us in a culture that doesn’t understand excommunication.

2. “And this is the same pope who seems to be interested in eroding the progress made by the Second Vatican Council and reverting to a more traditional version of Catholicism, a version that taught for almost two millennia that Jews were Christ-killers and the enemies of Christianity.”

Now I’m personally offended. Traditional Catholicism taught that Jews were Christ-Killers?! That assertion is just plain stupid and it’s also silly.

Either this guy is short on brains or is schizophrenic.

[ArrogantBustard]

Hitler and his National Socialists murdered 11.5 million people in the death camps. The Hitlerites murdered almost as many Gentiles as Jews. Referring only to the six million murdered Jews and ignoring the 5.5 million murdered Gentiles constitutes a particularly insidious form of Holocaust Denial.

[VRW Conspirator]

The holocaust. The horrors must be re-taught with every generation. But when are the horrors of the Soviets going to be taught? A quick check of history will show that 1) Hitler learned a lot about extermination from Stalin & company. 2) Both the communists and fascists were vying over the soul of post WW1 Germany. 3) Everyone suffered under Stalin, but there were peoples who supported Stalin to the point of killing for him, including Jews (go ahead and call me an anti-semite, I’m not, but go ahead). But we cannot talk about that because it would indicate that tyranny is an equal opportunity destroyer that knows no race, color or religion.

[Pope Pius XII]

Hitler may have claimed himself to be Christian, he certainly was no good Christian and used it in order to get votes.

[Petrosius]

Anti-Catholic/anti-Christian bigotry is no less repugnant and no more acceptable than antisemitism. The Jewish community should repudiate this “scientific research” with the same force that they ask others to repudiate antisemitism.

[dfwgator]

Referring only to the six million murdered Jews and ignoring the 5.5 million murdered Gentiles constitutes a particularly insidious form of Holocaust Denial.

Be careful, there are some here that will call you an antisemite for merely pointing that out.

[ArrogantBustard]

Be careful, there are some here that will call you an antisemite for merely pointing that out.

< shrug >

Better folk than they have called me worse.

If they dare to direct such invective at me, they only illustrate their own mental, moral, and ethical bankruptcy.

[Amerisrael]

The horrible false doctrine of “replacement theology” was and still is a catalyst for “Christian anti-semitism” against the Jews.

Replacement Theology is the false teaching embraced mainly by non-evangelical Christians that the “church” is the new “Israel”. Which is absolutely false.

http://www.foigm.org/replacementtheologypart3

It was embraced by many professing Christians in Germany. Sadly,many “Christian” pastors in Germany made accomadation Nazi ideology. Exceptions like Bonhoeffer who actively resisted, joined the underground resistence, and helped save Jewish lives were few.

We Gentiles who have come to embrace the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, we have not replaced Israel or become a new Israel, rather we have been “grafted in” and made partakers of the forgiveness and Salvation that Yeshua plainly said in John 4:22 is “...of the Jews”.

Just earlier this month the Presbyterian Church USA held a convention in Minneapolis and voted to adapt a boycott policy against our Israeli friends and allys who work and live in Judea and Samaria. The PCUSA embraces and promotes the error of replacement theology. One of the PCUSA leaders assigned to their Middle East Study group made the false statement that “Biblical Israel” and the re-established State of Israel were not the same. Another member of the same PCUSA study group said it was his belief that the church is the “new” Israel. [False]

http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/columns/replacement-theology

[Nosterrex]

It does not surprise me that a Jew would come to the conclusion that Christianity was responsible for the Holocaust. Hitler did not need or use Christianity to kill Jews. His rationale was not based upon Christianity but upon social Darwinism. He believed that the Jews, Negroes, and Slavs were inferior races and needed to be purged from the gene pool. He compared Jews to rats. There is nothing theological about his arguments. He did not quote from the Scriptures to make his case.

[Dr. Brian Kopp]

Jewish hostility to Christians: the prejudice no one ever writes about
By Damian Thompson
July 29th, 2010
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100049072/jewish-hostility-to-christians-the-prejudice-no-one-ever-writes-about/


A Hasidic Jew in Poland. Some Jews are hostile to Christians

The case of the Oxford lecturer in Jewish studies who says she was sacked after she converted to Christianity has thrown a spotlight on to an acutely sensitive subject. I have no idea whether Dr Tali Argov was treated unfairly – that’s for the employment tribunal to decide – but let’s not pretend that Jews who become Christians don’t face intense disapproval from their own community.

Christian anti-Semitism, Muslim anti-Semitism, Christian Islamophobia, Muslim persecution of Christians – all of these are acceptable topics of debate. But not Jewish hostility to Christianity.

You can understand why Jews might dislike the Christian religion: not only does it deify a man, the ultimate blasphemy for pious Jews just as it is for pious Muslims, but it’s also implicated in centuries of anti-Semitism. (I think its role in inspiring the Holocaust has been exaggerated, but that’s an argument for another day.)

Sometimes Jewish antipathy to Christianity spills over into hostility towards Christians. There was a piece in the Independent the other day by Christina Patterson that went way over the top in describing the rudeness of Stamford Hill’s ultra-Orthodox Jews towards gentiles:

When I moved to Stamford Hill, 12 years ago, I didn’t realise that goyim were about as welcome in the Hasidic Jewish shops as Martin Luther King at a Ku Klux Klan convention. I didn’t realise that a purchase by a goy was a crime to be punished with monosyllabic terseness, or that bus seats were a potential source of contamination, or that road signs, and parking restrictions, were for people who hadn’t been chosen by God. And while none of this is a source of anything much more than irritation, when I see an eight-year-old boy recoiling from a normal-looking woman (because, presumably, he has been taught that she is dirty or dangerous, or, heaven forbid, dripping with menstrual blood) it makes me sad.

Stephen Pollard, the brilliant editor of the Jewish Chronicle, described this as “pure, unrelenting unadulterated anti-Jewish bigotry,” on the part of Ms Patterson and indeed some of its undertones are disturbing. But monosyllabic terseness towards goyim? I’ve experienced it, and it’s maddening. Let me recommend a gripping book called Postville by the secular Jewish journalist Stephen Bloom, who records the extreme bad manners of Lubavitch Jews who moved en masse to a town in rural Iowa to run a huge kosher butchery. In the end, angry Christian townspeople, who had initially been welcoming, voted to annexe the land on which the factory was built, so they could tax and regulate it. Bloom, who felt the Lubavitchers had displayed “despicable” attitudes verging on racism, supported the move.

Jewish hostility towards Christians isn’t confined to the ultra-Orthodox. A woman friend of mine tutored the daughter of a Jewish couple in north London. When she said she wanted to take a break for Christmas, the wife went bananas. “We do not allow that word to be spoken in this house,” she said. An unrepresentative incident, no doubt; but my friend’s attitude towards Judaism changed after it took place. And I could tell other stories, of unbelievable haughtiness by the leaders of Anglo-Jewry, which would have led to diplomatic incidents if the Christians involved weren’t afraid of being accused of anti-Semitism.

I suppose I’m afraid of that, too, which is why I’m going to point out the following. This blog has often highlighted the alarming growth of Islamic anti-Jewish rhetoric, much of it flavoured by the propaganda of the Third Reich. I’ve drawn attention to the case of Baroness Tonge, the appalling Lib Dem peer who has called for an inquiry into allegations of Jewish organ-harvesting (and who still takes the party whip). I warned in advance that the Vatican was doing a stupid thing by lifting the excommunication of the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson of the SSPX.

But until now I’ve never written a word about Jewish prejudice against Christians, even though I’ve seen it at close hand, at a series of Jewish-run conferences I attended in America in the 1990s at which evangelical Christian believers were stereotyped as fanatics who needed only the right demagogue to turn them into murderous anti-Semites. If the conferences were being held now, I suspect most of the flak would be taken by Catholics.

It would be interesting read a book on anti-Christian sentiment among modern Jews, including Jewish historians who invest heavily in the notion of Christian or gentile collective guilt for crimes committed by others. But such a book would have to come from the perspective of someone without an axe to grind (ie, not one of the anti-Semitic nutcases who are such a depressing presence in the blogosphere). And something tells me it will never be written.
_________________

[vladimir998]

Years ago, when I taught at a university, I had a Jewish student who insisted that Hitler was a Christian who wanted to establish a Christian empire. I explained to her that Hitler’s actual religious beliefs were more pagan than Christian, that he persecuted Christians, imprisoned them, murderered them, denounced Christianity, etc. She would hear none of it. She insisted Hitler wanted to create a Christian empire. Her insistance was completely irrational.

The professor in charge of Judaic Studies there once “corrected” me for daring to say “Christmas Break”. He said we should call it only “Winter Break”. The fact that it coincided almost exactly with the Christmas season apparently was meaningless to him.

[papabrody]

I am sorry to hear you have those issues sir.

[vladimir998]

Xtians?

Is that like Joos?

I think it’s great Kopp posted the article he did. It’s long over due for this political correctness garbage to end.

[vladimir998]

What on earth are you accusing him of?

[Amerisrael]

[Now I’m personally offended. Traditional Catholicism taught that Jews were Christ-Killers?! That assertion is just plain stupid and it’s also silly.]

“Because Rome was the seat of power, the church in Rome rose to prominence; and the bishop of Rome became the most powerful leader of the western half of the empire. Later he became known as the pope, with more power than the emperor.”

“As the Roman Catholic Church spread in influence, it grew more powerful even than the governments of Europe.”

“Believing the Jews to be cursed and the Christians to be God’s new chosen people (the teaching of Replacement Theology), it instigated the persecution of the Jewish people.”

“First, legislation arose outlawing synagogues and giving permission to burn Jews who broke the law. Jewish people were excluded from high office, restricted in other positions, and forced to shut their businesses on Sunday. Since religious Jews also closed on Saturday, the law helped Gentile merchants.”

http://www.foigm.org/replacementtheologypart3

Even today this horrible false teaching of “replacement theology” is a catalyst that leads to “Christian anti-semitism”.

There were many followers of Jesus [Yeshua] who were imprisoned, tortured, and executed on orders of Catholic church authority, merely for their efforts to translate the Bible into the language of the everyday people.

The first complete Bible in English,[before print], was due to the work of John Wycliffe. By order of the “Council of Constance” Wycliffe’s body was disintered and burned. This order came about by the insistance of Pope Martin V.

William Tyndale likewise was persecuted by church authorities. He was thrown into prison at a castle in Belgium. Then strangled and his body burned.

The church authorities did not want the Bible made available in the language of the everyday people.

There is a difference between organized religion that calls itself “church” , and the true “temple not made with hands” that is built on the Rock Yeshua, the Messiah.

[Dr. Brian Kopp]

The original post is full of "issues," sir, issues which, though lies and falsehoods, are repeated ad nauseum, ad absurdum, ad infinitum.

You posted it, so I assumed you agreed with it, and thus share these "issues," sir.

Please accept my sincere apologies if, on the contrary, you simply posted this thread as yet another tired example of typical Jewish anti-Christian nonsense.

[Dr. Brian Kopp]

Xtians?

Is that like Joos?

Is the name of Christ, one of their own, so repugnant to a Jew that they refuse to even type it out? Is that the level of bigotry we're dealing with in this thread?!?

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“Is the name of Christ, one of their own, so repugnant to a Jew that they refuse to even type it out? Is that the level of bigotry we’re dealing with in this thread?!?”

It very well could be!

[Campion]

You see, it's been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn't we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?'" Adolf Hitler, quoted by Albert Speer

The "Grand Mufti of Jerusalem," Amin Al Husseini, reviewing troops of the SS "Handschar" Muslim Division he helped to organize.

According to the website "www.zionism-israel.com," the division was responsible for the murder of 90% of Bosnian Jews.

Ever wonder why the originators of the "Hitler's Pope" myth cannot produce a picture of the Pope with Hitler? It's because they never met, and when Hitler made a state visit to Rome, the Pope left town to avoid the possibility of meeting him.

Grand Mufti Amin Al-Husseini meeting Hitler.

Grand Mufti Amin Al-Husseini greeting Heinrich Himmler. Al-Husseini held the honorary rank of Major in the SS.

Here is what one Nazi said about al-Husseini and his role in the Holocaust:

"The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chambers of Auschwitz."-- Dieter Wisliceny, in testimony at the Nuremburg Trials

By contrast, here is what the Nazis had to say about Pope Pius XII:

"In a manner never known before the Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order ... Here he is virtually accusing the German people of injustice towards the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals." -- report of the Reich Central Security Office, 1/22/1943

Amin al-Husseini was a close friend of Kharaillah Tulfah, who raised the future Iraqi dictator and mass-murderer Saddam Hussein from the age of ten. Later, Saddam Hussein would marry al-Husseini's daughter.

Al-Husseini was also Yasser Arafat's uncle.

"When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict." -- Then Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Golda Meir, eulogizing Pope Pius XII in the General Assembly, October, 1958

Many more details on Pope Pius XII's courageous work on behalf of Jews and other victims of the Nazis.

[AnneM62]

Sorry :( The author of this book is Gabriel Wilensky

I've noticed that on Mr. Wilensky's facebook page, a few of his likes and interests are:

Christopher Hitchens

Richard Dawkins Foundation

Sam Harris

Most CHRISTians are familiar with those names! I wonder if they helped contribute to the article/book?

[Pope Pius XII]

Sir,

That’s not proof that Traditional Catholicism taught that Jews were Christ killers. You’re going to have to do better than that.

[Campion]

There were many followers of Jesus [Yeshua] who were imprisoned, tortured, and executed on orders of Catholic church authority, merely for their efforts to translate the Bible into the language of the everyday people ... The church authorities did not want the Bible made available in the language of the everyday people.

False. The usual tired Protestant polemic.

In fact, the scriptures were translated into the "language of the everyday people" long before the Protestants came along. In Germany for example, there were 18 complete editions and over 90 editions of the Gospels in various German dialects before Luther, all of them produced under the auspices of the Catholic Church.

Wycliffe and Tyndale were prosecuted for heresy, not for merely translating the Scriptures. Tyndale in particular added heretical notes (on whose authority?) to his edition.

"Vernacular Bible" does not equal "good Bible". Would you use the New World Translation for Bible study? What if I told you it was translated by Jehovah's Witnesses who admitted under oath that their qualifications as translators were practically non-existent, and I showed you by comparison with other versions that the NWT taught false doctrines by "translating" certain verses in ways that nobody else does?

[bronx2]

Jewish treatment of the Palestinians forfeits the rights of Jew to criticize any other religious group. The length of time this atrocity has been allowed to exist is an indictment of the Jews and the moral world order. . The notion that the establishment of Israel signals the end times is laughable at best and demonstrates how its adherents are delusional.

[Amerisrael]

“There were many followers of Jesus [Yeshua] who were imprisoned, tortured, and executed on orders of Catholic church authority, merely for their efforts to translate the Bible into the language of the everyday people ... The church authorities did not want the Bible made available in the language of the everyday people.”

That is very much true. Not false as you claim.

1408-Provincial Council at Oxford:

“The Holy Scripture is not to be translated into the “vulgar tongue”,[ language of ordinary folk], nor a translation to be expounded, untill it shall have been duly examined, under pain of excommunication and the stigma of heresy.”

Twenty years later, by the insistance of Pope Martin V, the Council of Constance ordered Wycliffe’s body disintered and burned.

False charges of heresy were made by church authorities against both Wycliffe and Tyndale.

And those false charges of heresy stemmed from their truthful teaching that the Bible was the sole authority for doctrine. And that no “church” or “ecclesiastical authority” could add to it:

“...he maintained that the Bible, as the eternal ‘exemplar’ of the Christian,[Messianic] religion, was the sole criterion of doctrine, to which no ecclesiastical authority might lawfully add, and that the authority of the Pope was ill-founded in Scripture.”

-Metzger,Bruce, The Bible in Translation,2001, p. 56-57

“... that the authority of the Pope was ill-founded in Scripture.”

Now that would sure bring a false charge of heresy. Especially from the Pope and his supporters!

“For God is One; and there is but one Mediator between God and humanity, Yeshua the Messiah, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom on behalf of all,...”-1st Tim.2:5

“...if anyone does sin we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik [righteous one] who pleads our cause with the Father”-1 John 2:1

“If we acknowledge our sins, then, since he is trustworthy and just, he will forgive them and purify us from all wrongdoing.”-1 john [Yochanan] 1:9

Above Scriptures from the “Jewish New Testament” by David Stern. And after all, it is a “Jewish” New Testament. About 95% of the New Testament written by Jewish folowers of the Messiah.

It was not that long ago I saw a segment on religion on Fox News. The subject matter for discussion was in the form of a question. It went like this:
[My paraphrase of the question]

“Suppose for some reason you have not been able to ‘go to confession’, can you still find and receive forgivness for your sins”?

When I heard this I wanted walk through the TV set and shout,-

“what!-you must be kidding!”

“Because of what the Messiah Lord did for us in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, by offering himself up as the final and ultimate passover sacrifice for sin, taking our sins on himself,-

every person, Jew and Gentile alike, now has access directly to the throne room of God in Heaven on the basis of “His” righteosness, by His blood, through prayer.”

We don’t have to go to some “third party mediator” on our behalf.

There is now only One priest we need to go to. And that is our great High Priest in Heaven, Yeshua, who makes intercession for us.

[Amerisrael]

Wrong, wrong, and wrong!

[agere_contra]

The Bible was the sole authority for doctrine

No it isn't.

The concept of 'Sola Scriptura' - of authority coming only from scripture - is anti-scriptural. For as Christ said to Peter:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Here we see that the authority of the Church explicitly comes from Christ. Scripture receives its authority from the Church, not the other way round.

[Amerisrael]

“Scripture receives its authority from the Church,..”

False.

“All Scripture [Biblical] is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...” 1st Tim. 3:16

The “church” [body of believers] derives it’s doctrine from one source:-God’s Word.

All Scripture [Biblical] is given by inspiration of God.

The Bible’s authority is from God,— not from any organized religion that calls itself “church”.

No earthly ecclesiastical or “church” has authority over God’s Word. Or has any authority to add to His Word. And there are severe warnings in Scripture against such a thing:
Deut.4:2, Rev.22:18,19

There is a difference between organized religion that calls itself “church” and the “temple not made with hands” that is built on the Rock-Yeshua [Jesus], the Messiah.

The true “church” is the “temple not made with hands” the Lord refered to when he said “...destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up.” John2:19

This “church”, or “temple” is the body of believers [living stones] all over the world that transcends earthly denominational organizations. It is spiritual and invisible. Ephesians 2:21-23.

The particular Scripture you quoted refers to the spiritual authority given to “every” individual follower and believer in Yeshua [Jesus]that makes up the “temple not made with hands”.

That particular verse of Scripture has a lot to do with forgiveness.

If we don’t forgive those [loose] who have sinned against us, the Lord will not forgive [loose] us.-Matt. 6:14,15.

“If you forgive someone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you hold them, they are held.”-John 20:23

Throughout his earthly ministry Yeshua constantly made refernce to the authority of God’s Word-the Bible.

When he was tempted, he responded to the tempter with “It is written”.

[agere_contra]

So the passage in the Gospels - the passage of scripture - which runs

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

means nothing to you?

The authority of the Church comes from Christ. It is that same authority that ratified and proclaimed as true the very Gospels you quote from.

Why do you not quote from the Aquarian Gospel or the Babylonian Gospel? Why do you not believe that Christ baked some childhood friends in an oven, or was dangled above a chasm by the Holy Spirit?

Those are events in 'Gospels' - of a sort. By what authority do you accept one set of scriptures, and reject these others?

Answer: the Church's authority. The Apostles not only selected and ratified scripture as inerrant, they also wrote the bulk of the New Testament - and they it was who rejected the gnostic gospels.

Whenever you proclaim the inerrancy of the Bible, you are proclaiming the inerrancy of the Church. Please start dealing with it!

[Amerisrael]

“So the passage in the Gospels - the passage of scripture - which runs
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

means nothing to you?”

Not so. Please go back and read what was written about that passage.

And what “church” are you refering to?

An earthly religious organization whether protestant or catholic?

Or the true “church” which is invisible and is the “temple not made with hands” that is built upon the Rock Yeshua [Jesus], the Messiah?

This is very important because the head of the true “church” [temple] Yeshua [the Word of God incarnate], never makes any mistakes. He is never wrong! And He never does wrong to “His” church, [temple not made with hands],

But we know that throughout history the heads of authority of many earthly organized religious groups whether protestant or catholic that call themselves “church”, have made serious mistakes. Indeed, they have outright gone against God’s Word.

Indeed, the Rabbi Sha’ul [Paul] warned of the following:

“For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching , but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear.”

“Yes, they will stop listening to the truth, but will turn aside to follow myths” 2nd Tim.4:3,4.

“...teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear..”

And what do the followers and believers in Yeshua have to guard against that?-—The Word.

Again,-

“All Scripture [Biblical] is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting of faults and training in right living;

“thus anyone who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work.”-2nd Tim 3:16

“All Scripture [Biblical] is given by inspiration-[greek: theopneustos, literally meaning “divinely breathed in.”

The authority of the Bible comes from God.

It is the God-given authority of the Scripture that believers must use to judge whether what their teachers, preachers, or Popes, say is in conformity or not with what God says in his Word.

“The authority of the Church comes from Christ.”

If you are refering to the true “church” which is the invisible “temple not made with hands” that is true. And we know that Christ [Messiah] will never go against His own Word.

And we also know that there is a difference between the true invisible “churh” [temple] not made with hands, and earthly religious organizations that call themselves “church”.

We also know that throughout history the heads of authority of many “earthly religious organizations” that call themselves “church” have gone against what God has said in His Word.

For example the horrible false doctrine of “replacement theology” which has been a catalyst for “Christian anti-semitism” against the Jews.

Or, the ordination of practicing homosexuals into the ministry.

In these last days many in earthy organized religions that call themselves “church” are abandoning the sound doctrine that is in the God-breathed Scripture, or “twisting it” to suit their “itching ears”.

The Rabbi from Tars