That's A Torah Scroll But That's No Rabbi

I was alerted to the "Rabbi" Messer (no one who believes this can be a Rabbi) story by friend Ellen Horowitz of JewishIsrael (although we do disagree on some issues*, her work on Christian efforts to proselytize Jews is super and suberb).

And now The Atlantic hits on it.

As CNN reports:

Bishop Eddie Long has been called anointed, but he was recently awarded another title, as shown in a video that’s gone viral. He’s now a king. Long was wrapped in a “Holocaust Torah” and crowned a king during a recent Sunday ceremony at New Birth Missionary Church, his suburban Atlanta congregation. A visiting rabbi wrapped Long in the Torah, which he said was recovered during the Holocaust. The rabbi then directed four men to lift a seated Long in his chair and parade him before the New Birth congregation.

“He is a king. God’s blessed him. He’s a humble man, but in him is kingship, royalty,” Rabbi Ralph Messer shouted...Messer leads the Simchat Torah Beit Midrash congregation in Colorado, which describes itself as a community of Jewish and non-Jewish believers in “Yeshua,” or Jesus Christ. He said the ceremony was held to honor and encourage Long because the pastor had given so much to his church, and the world.

“It was not to make Bishop Eddie L. Long a king,” Messer said in the statement. “Lifting him on the chair was to acknowledge and honor him. It is done all the time at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.”

JewishIsrael further alerts -

Heads-up Jewish community leaders: Messer, who claims to have "dual citizenship in Israel", will be leading a tour to Israel in March 2012 billed as "The Land of Israel Awaits Your Return" and Jewish communities like Shiloh, with its excavations, are featured on the itinerary.

I checked and according to the tour schedule, on Sunday, March 4, 2012 the group arrives in Israel and then drives to "

the suburbs of Ariel, north of Tel Aviv. Before dinner, walk through the biblical gardens and a replica of the Tabernacle

and on the next day, they

drive to ancient Shiloh and visit the excavations of this ancient site, including the harbor, the Crusader City, the Amphitheatre, the Hippodrome and the Roman aquaduct [sic].

I think there must be a typo there since Shiloh is no where near a body of water.

In any case, "Rabbi" Messer may be greeted by some boos.

*
BTW, if you check the map here, you'll see no "messianic Jewish" groups across the Green Line. And we intend to keep it that way.

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