Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - 10/10/2022

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Today was the morning service at Temple Israel for Sukkot, so we may have had a smaller group than usual, but Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Jay A., Merrill, Dave, Robin, Randy, Amy, and Norky attended.  (Dave left early to attend the Sukkot service.)

Below is a summary of what went on written by Dan:

We were glad to welcome Jay to our group! After singing "give me that old time religion" we studied chapters 3 and 4 of the first Epistle of John. During our discussion we covered Aquarius, atonement, children of the devil, commandment, consciousness, Donald Trump, penance, repentance, sin, and especially love, love, love (it's all you need). We discovered the commandment that was referred to in this letter was to believe in Jesus and to love one another. Dan and Jo Ann sang "Beloved let us love one another" as a blast from the past of the 1970s.Randy said the words reminded him of Aquarius. Merrill described how from anatomy, nature and astronomy everything looks like a neural network. Does the universe have consciousness??? There are some puzzles from this letter, like the passage that said that those who sin are Children of the Devil. But earlier it said that if we say we do not sin we are liars. So are we all (with the possible exception of Jo Ann) Children of the Devil? Obviously not, but it is still confusing. Speaking of the devil, I don't remember how Donald Trump came up in the conversation, but doesn't he always come up? Someone asked if some people were transitioning from Jesus Christ to Donald Christ. Someone also mentioned that sometimes people apologized for penance, but more because they were caught in their wrongdoing than for their wrongdoing. We mentioned that in Judaism repentance is a necessary part of atonement. The main take away from this passage is that "God is love". 



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