Eye opener

The Old Testament has become clearer to understand and now I can say the scales have fallen from my eyes.

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Wonderful

A thorough and loving treatise on a subject few dare to tackle with such depth and authority.

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Masterful exploration of the scriptures

Father expertly lays out the pattern, and when you see it, it cannot be unseen.

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Worth listening to again and again

Thank you Fr Mawdsley for this wonderful book the has deepened my understanding of scripture and how the Old Testament prefigures the New Testament. God bless you.

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Again and again

I listen to it. And then I listen to it again. And again. It fills me with awe and a completely new understanding. I am grateful to Father Mawdsley for this work. I am even more grateful to God for His great works.

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Beautiful and loving

What a wonderful book. So lovingly written, in his heart you can tell Fr. James Mawdsley is a true Christian. I highly recommend this book to every Christian that desires to follow Christ and love his/her neighbor (and elder brother in the faith).

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I fear this was a vehicle for the author to vent.

This book is truly not interested in being convincing to Jews. I am not a Christian or Jew, but I and am well acquainted with the Christian and Jewish arguments enough to know how weak the content of this book would be in appealing to Jews; or even anyone else who is not specifically a (at least, VERY nearly) Sedevacantist, Traditionalist, Roman Catholic, with some extra-theological anti-Jewish feelings. He says in the introduction that his arguments, especially those most fundamental in the schism between Judaism and Christianity, are also not stricly logical ('like that of a mathematical proof'), but more rooted in how your heart (hardened or softened) responds to the vibes.

Ironically, he later says, using a familiar (to me, as well as to many in his intended audience) argument, that Jews are essentially without the heart of Reason/Logic by virtue of rejecting Jesus; the Logos(Logic(EMJ)). I just think it's funny that he (and EMJ) and a growing number of Christians on the right, admit that Reason is not what makes one Christian(God does.), and that central doctrines like the Trinity are Arational, and that ideal Christian behavior is less about logically and legally discerning right conduct than about harmonizing with the vibes of Catholic Jesus, while claiming some sort of Monopoly on Reason. It's also funny that the first one to present a distinguished "Logos" with God was Philo, a Jew.

The author admits forthright that this book is not meant to convince Jews or others to convert, and, I do believe that Christians near the character I outlined above will very much enjoy this book, so it meets its own mark.

I was disappointed with how accurate the author was in his disinterest in grappling with Jewish arguments, or with trying to appeal to evidences beyond eisegesis and vibes, however, and think that it may even be a disservice to the audience not to arm them with some responses to inevitable replies. Because, surely, it is not merely prayer, nor coercion, that will convert Jews, but active discussion and proof, that can undo God-Given boundaries in their Torah. For example, he says near the beginning of the first chapter after the Introduction that Jesus' miracles "prove that he is God." I used to find this argument to be meaningful when I was a Christian, and also that vibes are good enough arguments. But, if you were a Jew. and were presented with the Gospel, especially as presented by Fr. James Mawdsley, for them, Deuteronomy 13:1-5 would spring to mind immediately, which says:

"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, *and the sign or the wonder come to pass,* whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee."

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But here is my main issue, alluded to in my title: I don't think the author really loves or likes the Jews in any Christian way.

He says that this book was made to reassure the intended audience that the Jews will eventually be converted. I think he THINKS he wrote this book, in a subtle way, as an antidote to much more virulent Anti-Judaism of the political/internet circles I know he's enmeshed in, as a responsible, patient, and fatherly gesture, to preempt a recurrence of history's cycles of anti-Jewish violence. He thought, I propose, that if he can prove to the Catholic extremist, with the full authority of the Church behind him, that the world will not end until the Jews willingly, and in peace, submit to Jesus, and that this outcome is contingent upon the growing prayer and Christlikeness of the Church, and a restoration of the Papacy, then another damnable crisis might be averted.

I think his intra-biblical arguments provide many great examples for the aforementioned species of Christian to reflect upon and be encouraged toward the stated end that Jews will convert. If Jesus is in fact the Messiah, then the Jews will convert, according to the sayings of Jesus, Paul, and many Church Fathers.

But from many of the things he says and weaves in throughout the book, and as someone who is very online, I can see where he's getting the ideas from and where I think his mind is at, and I think he betrays much more similarity of mind with the worst of his audience than he may even realize.

Additionally, it doesn't seem like the author realizes that non-Jews can convert to Judaism. Not only can they convert to Judaism, but if they convert to an Orthodox denomination(possibly even some more modern denominations in recent years), they can even move to Israel. I feel that a lot more ETHNIC tension comes off from the author when he speaks about the Jews directly, and a kind of a personal and racial/national offense at not being "chosen." I feel that if he knew he could literally just convert, and that it was never the case that Jews only "racially" intermarried for the past 3000+ years, and accepted that genes were not the only cause of Jewish admittance, that he wouldn't have this feeling that they are some kind of eternal and impermeable "Them" devoid of the spirit of Logic, of feelings hearts, of any genuine connection to God, or even of any biblically-rooted philanthropic sense for the non-Jewish world in general.

Put like this, Fr. James, isn't yours a kind of a dehumanizing and cruel view of many people you do not know, yet pray to reach, and are commanded to love? How could you possibly love the Jews, to the point that you would sacrifice yourself, as Jesus did and would have you do, when you feel this way? Even given the anti-jewish comments found within the New Testament, such should not actually concern or strike fear in someone whose lot is not in this world, or of some particular nation or tribe, right? Make peace better, within yourself, too!

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