Doug Wilson’s miscues at AmFest were not limited to the tenuous navigation of the USS Liberty attack. On a theological level, Wilson’s panel at Turning Point USA’s AmFest, initially billed as a debate with Steve Deace, would only tread into more theologically errant waters from there.Â
When asked about how America can be allies with a nation whose religion hates Christ, Doug Wilson answers as follows.
Very quickly, uh whether or not Israel is our greatest ally is a political question and as I said in my comments, totally in bounds. We can talk about foreign policy and whether or not Israel is our greatest ally. That’s one thing.
The second thing is you have to realize that the Talmud was uh a collection of writings over the course of 800 years. And it’s like, it’s as though you have someone gathered up the issues of Cosmopolitan magazine over 800 years and then you said the Talmud says, know, Cosmopolitan says, well, which rabbi, which time, which century?
There are some, if you get my book American Milk and Honey, there are some horrific things in the Talmud. There are also things in the Talmud that are pure exegetical gold, right? So you’re talking about centuries and you can’t just say one thing, the Talmud. It’s too simplistic. I don’t mind condemning the things in the Talmud that attacked Jesus Christ or attacked Christians. I’m a Christian, so I reject that. Whoever did that shouldn’t have done that. But there are also things that I have personally learned from the Talmud that are just wonderful insights into scripture.
Doug Wilson obfuscates that the Talmud is the Jewish holy book that dictates the underlying telos of Jewish culture far more than the Old Testament Christian Scriptures. Doug Wilson admits to using the Talmud for insights into Scripture.
It is already asinine to go to pagan texts to better exegete Scriptures, but doing so when every author of the Talmud vehemently denied Christ renders their interpretations of what is familiar to the Christian as vain, at best, and poisonous at worst. This can only lead to warped exposition of the text.
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I have found it impossible to pin Jews I know down on the authority the Talmud has for them versus that of the five books of Moses and of the rest of what Christians call the Old Testament. The impression I’m left with is that they see the Talmud much as Muslims see the authority of later-written parts of the Koran over that of earlier-written parts, namely that later-written overrules earlier-written.
The definition of the word Torah also appears elastic, meaning anything from just the five books of Moses to not just their version of our Old Testament, but also all of the Talmud.
Add in another Jewish concept shared with Islam, that it is permissible to lie to infidels, and truth becomes elusive..
Does Doug apply that same 800 year argument to the Bible written over approx 1500 years? Which prophet? Which apostle?
Very disingenuous Doug. You are bought with many sheckels. Martin Luther warned us of people like you. He was a true reformer, even if I may not completely agree with him.