September 12, 2007
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Christian Anti-semitism
I think that Anti-semitism has somehow crept into the church at unawares. In the Christian Church today, especially in America, you hear many messages about how the Gentiles have replaced the Jewish People or how the Old Testament Law is done away with as a result of Jesus. I think that this is simply untrue and unchristian. The Jews have always been God’s chosen people, that has never changed the only thing that has, is that Salvation is offered to the Gentiles now. First to the Jew, then to the Gentile. The old law has not passed away but is fulfilled in Jesus. That means if we love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and Love our neighbor as ourself we will fulfill the law.
So, The Gentiles have not replaced the Jews,
and The Old Testament Law has not passed away. If we love God we will fulfill the law.
What are your thoughts on the subject?
Comments (14)
Oh, I fully believe the Jews are still God’s chosen people!! I believe in standing behind Israel 100%! I do think, though, that Jews, as much as Gentiles have to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Look at the Jewish pharisees… or the Jewish rich man who told Jesus he had followed the commandments from his youth. Jesus said he had to sell his posessions and follow Him (now, I know this story has a deeper meaning… just giving the example) and yet the man couldn’t do it. He was a Jew. But I stand for Israel… absolutely.
I have a question that’s been on my mind, since you brought it up. Were no Gentiles in the OT ever allowed into heaven? Is it only since Jesus came? Or is there an instance of a Gentile still believing in God and fearing Him and getting into heaven? I’m curious… I have actually been wondering that the last couple of days… Your thoughts?
A lot of this has to do with the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, and true Judaism was supposed to accept him as such and welcome Gentiles inot the new covenant, however, the Jews (mainly/as a whole) rejected Jesus as the Messiah.. yet, the gentiles accepted Christ more freely. That is why they were “first called Christians in Antioch” and not Jerusalem. Christianity started as a sect of judaism yet had to form into its identity since they beleived Jesus was the Messiah and the official jewish people rejected that.
Today there are people who say the Jews are still God’s chosen people… i disagree. They WERE his chosen people, his holy priest BUT they broke the old covenant and God divorced them and put them into exile. Then God sent Jesus as the Messiah for all and the Jewish people as a whole rejected him as the Son of God and so have rejected the new covenent… They cannot be Gods people or children, only those who accept Christ are apart of the new covenant. Sorry, but thats the way it is. If some Jewish people come to faith in Jesus then i believed they are saved.. but I believe their rejection of Jesus is just like anyone else who rejects Jesus Christ. Does this mean we should HATE them – no, thats dumb. I think we should respect them but to elevate them to some special place. I am not convinced.
does that make sense?
Daniel (doubledb)
Depends on what is meant by chosen. God’s people still have a special place in God’s heart as is evidenced by the future once the full number of gentiles has been saved and by satans none stop special hatred reserved for them.
After all it is God who first chose us. Israel has indeed been partly hardened but this does not revoke their calling.
Derek, I think you are accurate to see the Jewish nation as God’s special people. That is very evident in the flow of the story in the OT, where many times God could have fully wiped them out, but did not. Then in Romans 9-11, it is clear that Paul is saying that the Jewish nation has a special purpose in God’s future plans. I do not disagree with the respondent who pointed out that they must come to faith, or they are not saved. I agree that faith is necessary. But, to what do we attribute our salvation: mere chance or God’s design? I believe the Bible declares that the Gentiles are grafted in, and we are given a higher freedom from the Law than were the Jews, and they MAY choose to continue to follow the non-animal sacrificial system of approach to God, and celebrate their feasts. Only the animal sacrifices are not required of them. I would be interested to see your thoughts on whether they will have their own Temple, in the End Days, or if that is Satan’s distraction, from true faith in God’s provided salvation through Christ.
To answer Shorty, Yes, there is an example of a Gentile getting saved (Converting to Judaism) in the Old Testament. Ruth was a Moabite and as a result of her conversion she was in the geneology of Jesus Christ.
And to answer pb49r, I agree that Faith in Jesus is necessary also and that it is Gods design. Not mere chance. I am not sure what I think about the Jewish Temple being rebuilt. I know that they have been longing to rebuild it since its destruction by the Romans in 70AD. I dont think that it has to be rebuilt before the Second coming of Christ. Here is my theory on that. I think that Biblical Prophecy could very well be cyclic. Meaning that it may go in circles. I ultimately belive that everything in the Bible will be fullfilled but I dont necessarily think ABC and D have to happen in order for Jesus to come back. The purpose is to be ready at all times, sober, and vigilently awaiting the Lord’s return. That is my take on it.
Wow! This is a topic I have a special soap box for. I don’t look to the question of heaven or hell regarding the Jewish people, this question will simply cause confusion.
The Jewish people ARE God’s chosen people, GOD HAS NOT DIVORCED THEM. Let me repeat, GOD DID NOT DIVORCE THE JEWISH PEOPLE. He merely included “grafted in” those of us who became believers in the Messiah. Messiah and the concept of Messiah is purely Jewish. It is a miracle that any Gentiles remotely understand salvation.
I disagree that Jewish people rejected Jesus as a whole. Thousands were saved and baptized in the book of Acts for YEARS before a gentile “god fearer” was ever evangelized in Acts chapter 10. To say that the fact they were first CALLED Christians at Antioch has nothing to do with the people at antioch being BETTER Messiah-followers than those who worshipped from Jerusalem. To state this as some theological fact is to use the scripture out of context. Maybe they were called “Christian” in Antioch simply because the word “Christ” is not of the aramaic or hebrew tradition, but rather is a word derived from the Greek language, which was more widely used in Antioch.
“Christianity” was an accepted sect of Judaism for HUNDREDS of years!!! It wasn’t until Rome persecuted the Jews that the Gentile believers turned their backs on the rest of the Jewish people, (even those Jewish people who accepted Messiah) and became arrogant, and rather than believing themselves a wild branch which was “grafted in”.
This act by the gentile Christians are what has caused the widespread rejection of Jesus among the Jewish people, as well as the horrible acts done to Jewish people, by Gentiles, in Jesus’ name!! Instead of deciding a Jewish persons fate in Hell, shouldn’t we all repent for anti-semitism and apologize to the People that God made his first covenant with, and be grateful that he includes us!! Jesus was 100% Jewish. If we are anti-semetic in our thinking, then we have prejudice against our very savior, and EVERY author of our Bible.
Fullfilling the law, in my opinion also includes every jot and twittle of it. With the exception of sacrifices because……….DUH!……..Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for sin, unless you go as far as to say that our lives are a sacrifice to God, so in that since yes, we still sacrifice, just in a different way. So pretty much everything else is still in place. All of the laws too as Chanda had said on another blog are good for you and help you to stay healthy and not get sick. Like being circumcised, or not eating pork, just for an example. There are many others and they still exist too.
And even the mixing of different materiels (such as a garment made of both cotton and linen) may have a benefit to our health that science has no idea about just yet.
Just like I said on the worship cafe…. Many people want to claim the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 (Like long life, prosperity, health) and ignore the first 27 chapters of the Book. The specific blessings listed hinge upon your obedience to the laws first layed out in the book.
When I first read your post I thought you were way off base. However, one should not read when not in the correct frame of mind. I agree with what you wrote and unfortunately I don’t have time to write more than that.
Urg, its frustrating to have to defend my position because its been a while since I discussed this issue. I would think the fact that God sent both judah and Israel into exile – and then spoke of the New Covenant would be enough. I dont know why it is so hard to convince Christinas that Christianity is the new covenant (follow with me here), it came when the word of God came down as flesh. The Jewish people reject Jesus, so to me that would say that they did not knwo Jesus. In addition, if the Jewish epople had accepted Christ then we would likely not be called Christians but followers of THE WAY (in Acts) or True Jews. And in a sense we are because we believe in the messiah. Am I sad Israel rejected Jesus – sure. But the whole Old testament is about that issue. I do not see why we openly seem to accept the Jewish people as “being saved” still when they were sent into exile after not following the Old Covenant and then rejected the New by rejecting Jesus as Messiah.
I think the jews are as much Gods people as anyone else has the ability to be, yet only those who believe and are saved are truly God children and his people. I dont see why God would give them special treatment when God says repeatedly in scripture that he shows “no partiality”.
And a lot of the writing in the New testament by the gospel writers and Paul was the frustration of trying to convert his Jewish brothers and yet they would not believe Jesus was the Messiah.
I will try to state some scripture later.. but I dont have time now cause I have to go to work. I always feel so inadequate sometimes in these discussion and wish my memory of the things I have studied and learned were easier for me to access from my brain… but I guess re-learning these things when they come up is a good work-out for my mind and spirit when the come along.
Daniel (doubledb)
All of the Disciples, all of the Apostles, all of the 120 people in the upper room in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, and everyone up until 44AD when Cornelius was saved was Jewish. Christians aka those who accepted Jesus after his crucifixion still observed all the Jewish holidays, and celebrated passover, as did Jesus and his Disciples. In order to properly understand the Bible, the New Testament, and Christianity as a whole you have to know the context of it. That includes the history of it, and our Jewish roots. Our God (The God of us Gentiles) is the God of the Jews. We are darn lucky he opened the door for us to be a part of his plan. Yeshua aka Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and until we Christian Gentiles persecuted them, many Jews believed in him for almost three hundred years. Some still do today.
I think there is NOTHING NEW about anti-semitism. In the 3rd and 4th centuries it was the church kicking the Jews out far more than the Jews kicking the Christians out [of synagog]. Luther was an anti-semite. So were many of the early Gentile Christians from the earliest days. The Catholic church of ancient times was far more anti-semitic than it is even today, and the Roman church catered to the Nazi’s just a few decades ago.
I want to add that otherwise I couldn’t agree more with your post. God bless you for your voice on this. Woe to those who oppose God’s chosen people.
:sunny:
I agree with you. God would have told us in His word if that was the case.
Heather
I love to read Hosea, and the love story of Hosea and Gomer. It always reminds me of the unfathomable love and mercy of God, and His amazing grace that He would choose to save me and call me to Himself.
“THe Lord said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods nad love the sacred raisin cakes.’ So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, ‘You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.’ For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.” Hosea 3
In the metaphors of the bride and bridegroom, and of the child and the father, God illustrates to us the nature of His love. As I’ve raised my daughter, God has shown me more and more how deep His love really is. My love for my daughter doesn’t even compare to His love for His children, yet there is nothing that could extinguish my love for her. It is unconditional, not dependent on her love or behavior towards me. God is God, so He can deal with Israel any way He so chooses, and we won’t know what that will be until He does it. We could not turn to Him unless He first called us to Himself, and so He can call Israel back to Himself and turn their hearts toward Him if and when He chooses.
Once more, I am thankful and humbled that I was grafted in, called out of darkness into His light:)