The Learning of the Jews:

The Church & the Jews
The Biblical Relationship

by Lynn Ridenhour

Unfortunately, all of us are products of our own age. Our thinking and conceptions do not always square with scripture. The Jews have a saying, "tik-kum-ha’olam," "fixing up the world."

In this lesson on "the learning of the Jews," we want to fix up the world. That is, attempt to step outside our own prejudices and preconceptions, and take a good hard, but brief, look at three things: 1) Christian Antisemitism, 2) Jewish Misgivings about the gospel, and 3) Separation between the Messianic Community [the church] and the Jewish People.

BACKGROUND

I mentioned, we’re products of our own age. We are. All of us are members, whether or not we realize it, of the Church of Constantine. Anti-Judaic theology began very early, and it’s hung around. The Council of Nicea in 325 AD was a turning point in the history of the church. Sadly, since that time, all accepted church theology has been essentially built upon an anti-Judaic foundation. I list but a few monumental changes:

1. The subjugation of Scripture to the authority of a Church hierarchy.
2. The determination that Church doctrine and practice would be in opposition to the Jews.
3. The establishment of compulsory conformity.
4. The acceptance of the State and the sword as the means of maintaining purity in the Church. The cross was transformed from a means of victory over sin for the individual to a means of victory over sinners for the society.
5. The acceptance of the sword of the State instead of the Sword of the Spirit.

Enter the Church of Constantine.

The theological shift that occurred was basically this—the Church became identified as the "new Israel," replacing the Jews. You say, but that was centuries ago. True, but the Church still suffers a hangover. We haven’t quite sobered up.

FIXING UP THE WORLD

God is a God of reconciliation, not separation. Our calling in this world is to become "ministers of reconciliation" (2 Cor.5:18). Our words are to be words of reconciliation (2 Cor.5:19). In order to fulfill our calling, we must be willing to look square in the face our prejudices.

Christian Antisemitism

First, Christian Antisemitism feeds on the New Testament. The New Testament itself contains no antisemitism; but since the early days of the Church, antisemitism has misused the New Testament to justify itself and infiltrate Christian theology.

Translators of the New Testament, even though not themselves antisemites, absorb that antisemitic theology, and produce anti-Jewish translations. Readers of these translations acquire attitudes which are anti-Jewish and alien to Judaism. Some of these readers become theologians who further refine and develop the antisemitic character of Christian theology (they may be unaware of the built-in-antisemitism); while others become antisemitic activists who persecute Jews, thinking that by so doing they are serving God. This vicious circle must be broken.

Jewish Misgivings about the Gospel

Second, while there are some 100,000 Messianic Jews in English-speaking countries, it is obvious that most Jewish people do not accept Yeshua as the Messiah. While the reasons include Christian persecution of Jews, secular worldviews that allow little place for either God or a Messiah, and refusal to turn from sin, a major cause is the perception by Jews that the Gospel is irrelevant to them.

This perceived irrelevancy arises partly from the way Christianity presents itself, but also from the alienation induced by most New Testament translations. With their Gentile Christian cultural trappings and their anti-Jewish theological underpinnings, they lead many Jews to see the New Testament as a Gentile book about a Gentile god.

The Jesus portrayed therein seems to bear little relationship to Jewish life. It becomes hard for a Jew to experience Yeshua the Messiah as who he really is, namely a friend to every Jewish heart.

Separation between the Messianic Community and the Jewish People

Finally, centuries of Jewish rejection of Yeshua and Christian rejection of Jews has produced a situation today in which it is commonly supposed that Christianity is Christianity, and Judaism is Judaism, and never the twain shall meet. Moreover, many Jews and Christians are satisfied with this arrangement. But it is not God’s will that there be two separate peoples of God. Gentile Christians who recognize that they have joined Israel, not replaced it, and Messianic Jews who identify fully with both the Jewish people and the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, must work together to heal the greatest schism in the history of the world, the split between the Church and the Jewish people.  --Jewish New Testament, introduction, pp.xi,xii

Summary

Though it’s always hard to expose our own warts, I’m enthused by what I’m seeing. To begin with, our beloved prophet, Joseph, embraced the "Jewish Jesus."  The restoration gospel is Jewish through & through.  As restorationists, we do not worship the Gentile god. Constantine’s god is not our god.

Joseph came face to face with the Jewish Messiah.  And so can we.

Page posted on April 19, 2001

"Would God that ALL the Lord's People Were PROPHETS"

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