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Ben Stein's Diary
A Lot to Atone For
The one day a year Mr. Obama is off the hook.
Wednesday
The Jewish day of Atonement. And
wow, do I have a lot to atone for! Mostly not being grateful enough
and not trusting God enough. I spend too much of my life worrying
about what I will need when I am (even) older and what I don’t have
right now.
Instead, I should be prostrated on the ground endlessly thanking God for what I do have. Mind you, I spend more time doing that than doing any other conscious act, but it is still not enough.
My ancestors lived in (what I assume was) dire poverty in Russia. They probably lived in very modest dwellings. Because God allowed me to live in America, allowed my parents and grandparents to live in America, because he gave me extraordinary blessings in terms of family, friends, and very modest abilities, I get to live in a house with a swimming pool.
It isn’t a mansion at all, but it is a home in a free country with palm trees and a pool. The gratitude I feel to the Lord God, whose name is Jahweh, I am that I am, is beyond measure. Just beyond words.
I am addicted to documentaries about World War II and I see an infinitesimal slice of the suffering of my fellow Jews — beyond measure. But I get to live in peace, thanks to the heroism of men and women like my father in law and my father and my uncle Bob Denman. Thanks also to the British and the Aussies and the Canadians and the Chinese and the Poles and the Kiwis and above all, the Russians, who have suffered beyond comprehension under Communism and under the Nazi heel.
I am wondering if, when Mr. Obama talks about us just being one nation among many, not much different from each other, he has any idea of just how uniquely perfect this United States of America is. I don’t think he does or he would not see us as similar to Kenya or Brazil (although I love, love, love Brazil). I wonder if he studied history at all besides some sort of Peoples’ History.… No, never mind. On this day, we love him, too.
“Your basic human is not such a hot item,” says my super nova of genius sister, Rachel. And usually that has resulted in terrible oppression of man by man. But in America, we harness man’s aggression to do harmless things like making money (relatively harmless — not always harmless ) and making movies and designing clothes. We have a Constitution that allows man to work for himself and herself instead of against others. This is blessing indeed. What a gift this nation is. What a glory the Constitution is. What glories our military are.
This morning I prayed with the ancient, leather-bound prayer books that my Uncle Hy and Aunt Sophie gave me in 1957 at my Bar Mitzvah. I prayed, as always, for washing me clean from my sins of stiff-neckedness, pride, unchastity, and greed, as these are what is written out in my prayer books. I personally feel that my own worst sins are not appreciating my wife enough and for my insane wastefulness. Interestingly, I find no sins of wastefulness and extravagance listed in the prayer books. Maybe because the rabbis did not want to discourage charitable giving.
Anyway, as I read and read, what should I come across but this prayer, in paraphrase: Please grant us pardon according to your graciousness because our works are meager. This stunned me. Not by works but by Grace. I had never seen it so explicit in a Jewish book of prayer. Not by works alone, I would say, although many would disagree, but overwhelmingly by Grace.
His Grace showers down on us like a mighty river.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
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Appleby| 9.27.12 @ 6:55AM
Ben, a read through the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican might do you some good. I make that suggestion in Christian charity, and spend time myself in reviewing my attitude to be sure I am not saying "God, I thank You that I'm not like that tattooed drunk on the sidewalk over there" or calling God's attention to somebody I think could use a kick up the backside. Soon enough our own sins rise up before us. We all need to take time to stare them in the face and repent -- which means to change our ways, not just say "I'm sorry I congratulate myself for being better off than other people".
SUBVET| 9.27.12 @ 6:51PM
applelady............you could add being more tolerent of mormons.
Aristocat| 9.27.12 @ 6:58AM
Praise be our God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens.
Cobalt| 9.27.12 @ 8:04AM
Tzom Kal and G'mar Hatimah Tovah.
Byron| 9.27.12 @ 9:05AM
Many years it took to see
There's something here that's more than me
Like a slap across my face
I finally understood God's grace
gene| 9.27.12 @ 9:19AM
Isa.48
[17] Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
abdulah| 9.27.12 @ 9:35AM
Ben, I know you will like new book “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson, author of “The Devil in the White City”, by far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history. I am not a gay basher by any means, but one can't help noticing similarities between Nazi Germany's top brass and current BHO's administration propensity to uplift gays and lesbians to the top of the totem pole. Dear Fuhrer was, of course, closeted homosexual, Ernst Röhm was openly and proudly gay and the list is going on and on. On the other hand, our president, his Secretary of State, their spoke persons, the late Ambassador, top mass media honchos, all gays. Some open, some closeted. I think the key is submission - submissive people are attracted to the power, they long to be dominated. Just look at the current mass media crop. How can you not notice their attraction to the cult figures, like BHO, is sexual in nature? I think it also explains their attraction to other cult figures, like the Persian Hitler, Ahmadinejad. Just watch one minute of the interview by CNN. It is revolting.
Best wishes.
Pecos Pete| 9.27.12 @ 10:57AM
Attraction to Obama: Thrill up my leg Matthews.
abdulah| 9.27.12 @ 11:01AM
Spot on Pete. I'm sure he feels thrill (wet-)dreaming of Ahmadinejad too.
LarryK| 9.27.12 @ 10:15AM
Know why I am not worried--
Daniel 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
Yes, That is why I am not worried. Some times we get a good one and sometimes we get Obama. Yea, we get the basest of men at times as a form of "Hey people, wake up!" (and not like Samuel L Jackson)
Occam's Tool| 9.27.12 @ 10:56AM
We always live by G-d's Grace and forbearance.
When I look at the American Presidents and think of the better ones among them, the number is always small: Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, Lincoln, Arthur, TR, Coolidge, FDR, Truman, Reagan. 24 years for the 1st 3, 12 years for the next 3, 33 years for the next 4, 8 years of Reagan. 78 years for our best, out of 223. 34% of the time to have truly outstanding leaders.
That's better than the Romans and Byzantines had.
I do hope we get a decent human being like Romney in the office.
Bill8472| 9.27.12 @ 11:36AM
I was very gratified to see you using the word "man" in its proper sense, meaning "person."
Thank you for that.
nathan| 9.27.12 @ 11:48AM
Are any of you familiar with the group "Jews For Jesus"? They are evangelical outreach group directed at bringing Jews to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If Christians take the New Testament seriously and since it's the foundation of your faith you REALLY should, then Jews, absent the faith component of salvation, the belief in Christ as the one time sacrifice for sins and the certain knowledge that He rose again, lacking that, they are not going to heaven any more than their muslim neighbors who likewise have failed to accept Christ.
Much as people may like, admire, love, Israel, Jews just by being Jews according to the New Testament aren't going to heaven without that faith component any more than anyone else. Remember after Jesus ascended to heaven the first people the desciples preached to were their fellow Jews among others. Why bother preaching to Jews if they were, as God's chosen people, already destined for heaven?
Comments?
KyMouse| 9.27.12 @ 2:55PM
One of the key passages that pertain to this is John 3:14-18, in which Jesus explains the need for faith in Him to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. Jesus told him:
“…And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness [Numbers 21:4-9], even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
“He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God….”
God loved His Hebrew people so much that He rescued them from slavery in Egypt; but when they sinned against Him, He required them to look toward the bronze serpent on the pole if they wanted to be saved from the poison of the fiery serpents He sent to punish them.
Jesus explained that the bronze serpent was a symbol of the death He was about to suffer on the cross in order to save from the fatal poison of sin everyone who looks to Him in faith.
Jesus was giving Nicodemus a promise, but also a warning. He gives it to us as well.
Appleby| 9.27.12 @ 11:53AM
My Dad was Jewish and he used to say "Jews for Jesus is a contradiction in terms -- a Jew for Jesus is a Christian."
KyMouse| 9.27.12 @ 2:39PM
A "Christian" is anyone who puts his or her faith (obedient trust) in Jesus. There are Chinese Christians, Arab Christians, Norwegian Christians, Jewish Christians, and so on.
In Acts 11:26, part of the record about Jewish believers in Jesus such as Barnabas and Saul (Paul), we read that "the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch."
Paul proudly proclaimed his Jewishness in Romans 11:1 -- "I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." He understood that Jesus is the Messiah for whom his people had long been waiting (and not only Messiah, but also God and sacrificial Savior).
Over the centuries, believers in Jesus have primarily been gentile; as a result, "Christian" is often considered to be synonymous with "gentile."
"Jews for Jesus" have included British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli; composer Felix Mendelssohn (who wrote the music for "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing"); mystery writer Andrew Klavan; Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice; planetary astronomer William Herschel (who discovered the planet Uranus); actor David Suchet ("Poirot"); and Vera Schlamm, M.D., a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen death camp.
Jewish believers in Jesus explain their faith at www.jewsforjesus.org .
Appleby| 9.27.12 @ 4:18PM
When Paul became a Christian, he ceased to be a Jew. I believe you are confusing a nationality with a religion here.
RCV| 9.27.12 @ 4:25PM
Sorry, Appleby, but Christ was a Jew, and his Jewish followers, including his brother James, continued to worship in the Temple even after his death. They did not cease to become Jews; they believed that the Jewish messiah had come.
SUBVET| 9.27.12 @ 7:03PM
forgive her for she know's what she sayes........
SUBVET| 9.27.12 @ 7:04PM
It's knows NOT what she sayes.
Bill8472| 9.28.12 @ 11:57AM
There was a lengthy conversation among the followers of Christ during the 1st Century about whether Christianity was to be a Jewish sect or a religion all its own.
How that issue would be resolved was unclear until it was decided that when St. Paul got converts in the pagan world, they did not have to be circumcised. It was at that point that it became unmistakable that Christianity had diverged from Judaism into a religion in its own right. That was around the middle of the First Century. They even have a date and a name for the making of that decision: the Council of Jerusalem. The date was roughly about 50 A.D.
Bill8472| 9.28.12 @ 11:59AM
See Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity.
KyMouse| 9.28.12 @ 9:35AM
Appleby, Paul wasn't confusing his nationality with his religion. He understood that he was and always would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- and that by accepting Jesus and his Messiah, God and Savior, he had found the fulfillment of all that was foretold in the Tenach.
As Jewish believer Benjamin Disraeli put it, "Christianity is incomprehensible without Judaism, as Judaism is incomplete without Christianity."
When I meet a Christian who says that Jews don't need Jesus, I ask them to explain the point of the Epistle (Letter) to the Hebrews.
Hint: It is to explain to Jews that they need "Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant" (Hebrews 12:24)
Remember Jesus' warning in John 5:46-47 -- "Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you -- Moses, in whom you trust. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" Jesus refers to Gen. 3:15, 12:3, 18:18, 22:18, 49:10; Deut. 18:15, 18.
And this, from John 5:39-40 -- "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify to Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."
KyMouse| 9.28.12 @ 9:56AM
Appleby, Jesus was very direct in His words to Jewish people who claimed, "God won't judge us for rejecting you; we follow Moses."
Jesus said in John 8:19, "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."
And in John 5:23, Jesus said, "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."
Please read John 10:19-42, in which Jesus told His Jewish listeners, "You do not believe, because you are not of My sheep...My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give to them eternal life..."
A promise, but also a warning. And it applies to me and my loved ones as well as to you and yours.
You do realize, don't you, that the earliest believers in Jesus had to be convinced that GENTILES need to believe in Him? See Acts chapter 11, in which Peter explains that God has also made salvation possible for gentiles, through faith in Jesus.
"For as much as God gave them the exactly same gift as He did to us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I could withstand God?" (v. 17). In other words, if God said that gentiles could be saved through faith in Jesus, who was Peter to disagree?
Jesus' promises and warnings are clear. If we believe IN Him, shouldn't we BELIEVE Him?
KyMouse| 9.28.12 @ 4:47PM
If you are unfamiliar with the Epistle (Letter) to the Hebrews, in the Brit Hadashah (the New Testament), please read it. In addition, there is a good overview of it at http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Hebrews.html
Among other things, the overview points out:
"The writer to the Hebrews constantly compares the inadequacies of the Old Testament sacrificial system to the perfection and completion in Christ. Where the Old Covenant required continual sacrifices and a once-a-year atonement for sin offered by a human priest, the New Covenant provides a once-for-all sacrifice through Christ (Hebrews 10:10) and direct access to the throne of God for all who are in Him."
Key Verses: Hebrews 1:1-2: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”
Hebrews 2:3: "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation…"
Hebrews 4:14-16: "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
SCrouch| 9.27.12 @ 12:55PM
Indeed, Mr. Stein; Isaiah 64 compares our very best deeds to filthy (literally, menstrual) rags. It is only by His grace that we can receive salvation.
In chapter 28, the prophet records:
See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.
In Romans 9, Paul shows how that "stumbling stone" simultaneously represents both The Law and Christ; The Law in the sense that it only points out sin, it doesn't allow for repentance; and Christ, as His message of Grace was difficult for Jews of antiquity (as well as today) to accept.
I'm sure you have in the past, but I would encourage you to read through the book of Romans - a heart-felt letter that Paul wrote to the Jews in Rome.
gene| 9.27.12 @ 4:00PM
If Obama is re-elected, our gluteus maximi are GRAMOIDS; are monocotyledonous usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base.
And Obumma and his Government will be Internal combustion engines that use a revolving blade or blades to cut the gramoids at an even height
Dimitry_Aleksandrovich| 9.28.12 @ 2:24AM
All though Occam and many others here may not believe it I thank God I was born in the United States as well. It's not what it should be which is a true Constutional Republic, but America at its best gives a man freedom to live life as he wishes and to raise his family as he sees fit. Unfortunately for that to be healthy there must be a strong foundation in faith and community. American Jews most definitely had that at one time and I'm sure in some communities they still do as did Irish and Italian Catholics or Orthodox Slavs in Western Pennsylvania and even Black Pentecostals in the South. I think America was stronger when ethnic communities were more distinct and the Christian faith was still a dominant force. Now its all about money and the values are Hollywood values. It's about self gratification and self esteem rather than family, faith, honor, loyalty and if need be self sacrifice. Maybe I have a romantic view of the past. Maybe it never quite existed that way, but I surely believe that any American sub culture is better than the fake corporate cookie cutter culture of today.