Monday 18 January 2016

How Answering Judaism began

Why not give an explanation of how this website came about and just the road I have been down to get where I am.

I first heard of Sam Shamoun back in 2011. I stumbled across a video where he explained that Muhammad was not a true prophet in a show on ABN with David Wood. I listened to future talks of theirs from that one and in 2012, I came across a video by Nakdimon316 where Sam Shamoun himself was dealing with a Muslim on Paltalk called Abdul Rahmaan 1. Abdul tried to use Hebrews 5:7 to try to say Jesus didn't die and Shamoun showed Abdul to be wrong in his assertion. This made me want to go on Paltalk to debate.

However, The arguments brought to me, I was flustered, frustrated and didn't know how to answer and my experience was pretty low in dealing with Muslim objections. It's case of a fool running into battle without armour and a weapon. This is one of the reasons why individual study of the Bible is vital.

I had in the past spoken with Shamoun in PM numerous times about a particular argument, a new one each time, he and I would talk through it, mostly the talks were to do with the Trinity. However, it's not just enough to listen to teachers, be they David Pawson, James White, John MacArthur, Jacob Prasch etc, I have to do studying of my own. Though these men have been helpful, I need to expend the energy as well, not only for my own sake, but also for others in case they may be watching.

There was also a debate with savedbybaptism I had on the Trinity (he claims there were four, but only one of them could be considered a debate, the rest were impromptu debates or discussions) and to be perfectly honest, I am disappointed with the performance in that debate. Even looking at the Biblical texts a few days BEFORE the debate could hardly be classified as study. I believed in the Trinity, but didn't know how to defend it and relying on a teacher isn't going to help, Study of the Bible is something that has to be done BY ME as well, not just by a select few and I wish I had been more prepared in the debate and more honest of why I believed in the Trinity. (God have mercy on me).

Apologetics wise, I started making videos on the bobo577 account back in March 2013, mostly dealing with arguments by Muslims and Anti-Trinitarians from there it expanded to other groups. Sometimes I would even reflect on an argument by a Muslim, mostly Shadid Lewis as much of my earlier videos respond to him, and I would see the holes in their arguments, in some cases, the Muslims were going as far as using counter missionary arguments. It wasn't just a case of Listening to Shamoun only, I had took into the texts on my own and defend the Trinity and other biblical beliefs from then on.

Speaking of such, I was introduced to the teachings of Michael L Brown, A Messianic preacher. I hadn't really dived into Judaism that much at this point and had listened to some talks by Jacob Prasch, but Brown in particular was certainly fascinating as a listen to, rather helpful material he had.

Then Funkdude came along (Which I am glad he did otherwise I wouldn't be wear I am) and I pretty much got stumped in my first discussion. There was also the issue of Contra Brown which Brown had not touched in writing for 5 years (The discussion with Funkdude took place in 2013).

I had the occasional dialogue with him and other Jews on Facebook, along with looking at Contra Brown, a document written by Rabbi Yisroel Blumenthal and even going some of the biblical passages they brought to the table to see if a conclusion of theirs was correct and even looking at the first five books of Moses from cover to cover. However instead of having my faith in Jesus shattered, it actually strengthened it. These arguments got me to look more and think more. Some of my earlier papers even took a look at "Supplemental to Contra Brown" and later then penning an article looking at Contra Brown. Seriously, I ask Christians to look at Contra Brown, it's a document that I think would get many thinking and it's certainly made me rethink on a few issues and even to a certain degree has influenced my eschatology (Which is only conjecture just to make clear). Read Contra Blumenthal for more details:
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/contra-blumenthal-examination-of-contra.html
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/addendum-to-contra-blumenthal-daniel.html

And here is the link to Contra Brown for your reading:
https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/contra-brown/

And speaking of articles, In my early YouTube apologetic days, It was suggested to me by Keith Thompson that I should write articles to get what I want to say down on paper. It helped out a great deal getting my thoughts on paper and little did I know that God was setting the stage for something larger.

There is also the name of my website, Where did it come from. Well, from my knowledge, I know there was an Answering Islam, and an Answering Christianity, but where was an Answering Judaism? So I added myself to the equation as it were and while my website isn't as large as theirs, it matters not, at least there is another website that you can add to the list that looks at Jewish objections.

However, It wasn't just Judaism I started addressing on this website, Later other groups I would address, namely Roman Catholics, Muslims again and the Eranoites, a cult in the Philippines founded by the late Maestro Erano M Evangelista and more recently, Universalists.

It has been a long road, but I haven't come to the end of it yet and I hope to provide more articles in the following years.

May the Triune God YHWH, Father Son and Holy Spirit, keep you safe and in his care eternally, amen.

Answering Judaism.

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