Tovia Singer – Eternal Life in the Tanakh
Audio: Truth2U.org Video: Spiritualbabies.net
“Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.” – Isaiah 26:19
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[audio:https://truth2u.org/wp-content/uploads/Audio/Truth2U%20-%20Tovia%20Singer%20-%20Eternal%20Life%20in%20the%20Tanakh.mp3|titles=]
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” —Leviticus 17:11
Is the blood required for the ignorant unknowing sinner and repentance for the illumined?
WOW! Awesome!!!
I’m not a believer in Jesus, but I do want to correct something Tovia said. He said that in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul referred to 500 people who saw the resurrected Jesus but that all were asleep — thus, conveniently providing “evidence” that could not be tested, since you can’t interview a dead person and get his testimony. In fact, Paul did not write that all 500 were ‘asleep’ (dead). He actually said that most were (then) still alive:
[1 Cor 6:] “After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, although some have fallen asleep.”
In my understanding when the Bible says that the wage of sin is death, it is saying that the consequence of sinning is that you die, i.e. your life here on earth ends. This happened for Adam 900 years after his transgression.
In Ezekiel we are taught that when a man repents, God will surely spare his life (prevent that he inherits the full consequence of his sin), and this is in fact what God delights in. The passage in discussion speaks about fathers and children, therefore it is speaking of earthly death, a person’s death, not of the death of the soul. If the father sins, God says, you shall not say/think that his son will inherit the salary of his father’s doings, and die. Here on earth each person will die for his own sin.
God has a book in heaven where all we say and do is recorded. The records of our soul’s sin in that book in heaven needs to be blotted out for us to be acquitted before God. This is the ATONEMENT, i.e. the cancellation, the blotting out of our sins, which makes our soul secure to pass the final judgment.
When a person inherits the consequence of his sin (death), and when the person repents, this does not mean that the person’s soul is cleared of that guilt (record in heaven).
This atonement (note: of the soul) is performed in only one way: blood. Mike quoted the verse Lev 17:11
Every morning and every evening sacrifices were offered in the temple for involuntary sins, whenever one sinned he would himself bring a sacrifice, the priests would offer sacrifices for themselves and finally, at Yom Kippur, a great sacrifice was offered to perform atonement for all sins of all Israel in the whole year.
Leviticus 16:34
And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses.
In this ceremony people had to fast, afflict their souls and repent (man’s part, earthly part), but, according to God, the atonement was not completed here. It was necessary to perform the atonement for the souls, by the blood of an innocent lamb, through the service of the High Priest chosen by God.
In this second part, man plays no part. Everything is done for him by the high priest and by the offer, both provided/appointed by God alone to perform this.
Leviticus 17:11 (note: atonement for souls, not for life here on earth!)
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Torah (God) decreed that this atoning sacrifices would be a statute forever, however, because of transgression, God brought about the punishment that he had foretold in the Tanak. The temple was destroyed and the people dispersed among the nations, with no possibility to lawfully atone for their sins (blot out their records from the book in heaven).
In my understanding Jesus announced that God, being faithful to his eternal promise of salvation for his chosen people, was providing the sacrificial lamb to allow atonement even after the temple was destroyed.
And without the acceptable offer, everyone can repent and do good, but no one can atone for their sins.
I forgot to add: THANKS AGAIN for the stimulating broadcasts and dialogues.
If my view does not align with the one presented in the broadcast, it is because I am still trying to understand the Bible and trying to make sense of the whole Scripture.
I don’t mean to criticize rabbi Singer, which I honestly love to listen to, neither Jono or Jason. I always follow your broadcast with interest and attention.
Chuss
I believe in resurrection but the concept of an “Ethernal Soul” is not Scriptural. I wonder where Tovia was getting his opinion on that?
CK Dess, from what I have learned in orthodox circles, the concept of an ‘eternal soul’, which is the same as reincarnation, is derived from the Zoar (kabala)
It is adopted in Judaism as an explanation to the apparently unfairness/unpredictability of human life.
For example how to explain what is God’s will in the life of a child that dies a few hours after his birth? Why did God let him be born, to die only after a few hours? what was God’s plan in this?
How to explain why God allows another child to be born crippled or deaf and dumb and condemn him to a life of pain and sorrow, his only life?
With the concept of reincarnation all these problems can be explained: you may have be born handicapped because in your previous life you were too boastful and proud and now you have to learn humility. Or you simply have to pain for the many sins you committed in your previous life and reform yourself through suffering in this life.
The child that lives only a few hours -without actively sinning- could be a soul who had journeyed so much through successive reincarnations that he was almost perfect, and needed just a few hours of ‘mitzvot’ to complete his training.
When a soul, through all successive lives, has learned enough by correcting itself (according to God’s judgment), then the soul stops reincarnating and joins God.
Orthodox believe that at resurrection a soul will get the body corresponding to the most elevated lives the soul lived in this world.
Maybe some orthodox Jew can correct me if I am wrong or elaborate a little bit more.
Elena,
So if one has compassion or add a leg to a crippled, or a ear piece to a deaf it is actually doing him no good. He should suffer to learn and grow and now we ruin it his chance for him.
People are born with problems and sickness because of the sin of others, if a person put poison on a water and we drink it, then that person’s evilness affected us.
This reasoning above (whoever came up with it) can they say that those people deserved the holocaust.
I’ve never gotten an answer from Tovia so maybe somebody else has one:
Question: Tovia explained how our individual Spirits in our bodies are a part of GOD and therefore they are ETERNAL which I agree. What happens to the Spirits of the WICKED since their Spirit is also ETERNAL?
1 Corinthians 15:6 says about the 500 who saw Jesus, Many remain, some have fallen asleep. Not that none remain. I appreciate Rabbi Singers teachings very much…perhaps this was an oversite or a translation issue.