Friday, December 09, 2011

I need your help once again

The other night while at the pregnancy resource center I was browsing through a catalog from Christianbook.com. You have to love a catalog that has the John MacArthur study Bible and a book by Joel Osteen on the same page! Anyway, I saw a product and I am afraid I just don't quite get it. The item is called: New Covenant Prayer Shawl, English/Hebrew with Bag 72 x 22 . What exactly is this you might ask? Well here is what it says:
Add meaning to times of ceremonial prayer with Hebrew tallit (prayer shawl) in white with striped accents in blue and metallic gold. The collar features the Messianic roots symbol and and Hebrew prayer which reads: Blessed are you O Lord, King of the Universe, who has fulfilled all of the law through Jesus the Messiah and has covered us with his Righteousness. Each of the four corners is accented with a different Scripture verse in English - taken from Matthew 14:36, Isaiah 53:5, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and Malachi 4:2. Fashioned of acrylic; measures 72" long x 22" wide. Exquisite in design and workmanship, with tassel trim and ceremonial fringes. Also includes matching zippered bag with embroidered roots symbol; measures 11" x 10.25".
So here is my question. What exactly does that have to do with the New Covenant? See I thought that under the New Covenant there is neither Jew nor Greek (Gal 3:28). I also wasn't aware that under the New Covenant we were called to ceremonial prayers, with or without $25 prayer shawls.

So here is the question. What possible purpose could this serve?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It can keep your neck and shoulders warm...

Unknown said...

Take a look at Messianic Judiasm, and you will find people that are mired in ceremony, all becuase they truly believe that just because there is a new covenant, does not mean that it takes the place of the new one. The old Testament and Oral Torah are blended and lived out in some way or another and there is all kinds of smoothing and twisting of Scripture to explain that grafted in means Jewish, and that true fulfillment only comes by practicing a glorified, and often cherry picked version of orthodox Judaism.

Unknown said...

By the way, are they selling Shofars too?

Arthur Sido said...

Paula, they absolutely do carry a wide variety of shofars: http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntt=shofar&N=0&Ntk=keywords&action=Search&Ne=0&event=ESRCG&nav_search=1&cms=1&search=

What I know of the Messianic Judaism movement makes me very nervous and wonder if people have read Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Unknown said...

I am sure I have seen Galatians addressed by them.
Gymnastics at there best.

the other thing that bothers me, is the prayer shawl is for men.
I pointedly asked a group about that, and they told me that men are required to cover out of respect to God.
No Scripture to back it up either.