My son, the Christian?!

CHAPTER 9: So, what's it all about?

It has been said that where you find two Jews you find three opinions. From my experience I would say that the same situation applies to Christians, whether Jew or Gentile. One book, the Bible, has given birth to so many doctrines, some good but some very shaky, from minor deviations to the out-and-out heretic. But why should it be so, for there can be only one truth? It is true to say that, when considering the basic minimum requirements for personal salvation, belief in Jesus as the Son of God and his atoning sacrifice for our sins, most of us have got it right.

But it seems that when a Jew becomes a believer in Jesus Christ he enters not only into a new life but also into a new debate. Apparently it is not enough for a Jew to simply call himself a Christian like any other new believer and be done with it. A new Jewish believer finds himself deluged with labels. He may find himself called a Hebrew Christian, A Messianic Jew or a Jewish believer but only rarely a common-or-garden Christian. You don't see Hindu Christians or Messianic Muslims, so why burden the Jews with labels, why can't they just merge into the background and humbly accept their new station as part of the 'Body of Christ' as a 'New Creation' ?

Some Gentile Christians may shrug their shoulders and say 'just like the Jews, they still think they're specially chosen. Why can't they just be like us?' Yet it is often Gentiles who treat us differently to start with. I have found that it is rare to find a Gentile Christian who is indifferent to my background. From just plain curiosity, to a vague respect born out of the 'blessed is he who blesses' view of the Jew, we always manage to invoke some sort of response. Although I initially found it quietly humorous and touching to be consulted on all things Hebrew and Jewish (if only they knew that my knowledge and training stopped on the afternoon of my Barmitzvah), it can be a bit wearing after a time. To the credit of the Church fellowships that I have come into contact with though, I have yet to encounter out-and-out anti-Semitism.

But it's not all the fault of Gentiles. We Jews are a proud people and are not exactly reticent when nudged onto a pedestal. Perhaps we see it as a recompense for two thousand years of persecution, it makes a welcome change being lifted up in honour rather than being struck down in hatred. The question we really need to address as Jewish believers in Jesus is, 'how does God see us? Does He see us any differently than other believers?' I believe there are two answers to this question.

On an individual basis, in terms of our personal salvation, we are no different and no better than any other component of the 'Body of Christ' ('There is neither Jew nor Greek' Galatians 3:28). Jews are not saved through Judaism, but through Jesus, like everyone else. ('Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. 'Acts 4:12). But on a national level, the 'remnant of Israel' (i.e. Jews who believe in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah), we have a different responsibility towards both our natural family (unsaved Jews) and spiritual family (fellow believers, Jew and Gentile). To our unsaved Jewish family our responsibility is to give a priority to their salvation ('.. first for the Jew ..' Romans 1:16). To our spiritual family our responsibility is to help to restore the balance that has been lost to the Church (as discussed earlier) as a result of over 1500 years of Gentile domination. However little we can contribute to this I am increasingly aware of the duty of Jewish believers to spend time studying our roots and culture, so that we can feed a Church that is becoming increasingly hungry for such nourishment.

In this book we have looked at the Jewish people and their accomplishments. We have seen the effects they have had on the world, on a scale that makes mockery of statistical probability and can only conclude that this situation is not natural. We then looked at this 'virus' of anti-Semitism, this hatred that is so irrational yet so all-encompassing that it forces those so infected to devote so much of their energy and intellect into 'justified' genocide. Again I can only conclude that this situation is not natural. I believe that this situation is not natural, it is supernatural. It confounds the mind and the intellect, because, when confronted with the full picture, it is hard to escape from the realisation of how improbable it all is.

* How 0.25% of the world's population can so dominate in the fields of politics, science, music, medicine, literature, the arts (and religion).

* How these people can have survived to the present day, despite unrelenting hatred by the rest of the world.

* How they can return to their land after 1900 years of exile and still survive despite the hostility of their neighbours and the indifference of the world community.

All of these are physical manifestations of a spiritual destiny. There is a purpose behind it and , although we can only catch glimpses of his purposes, God is in total charge ('.. his works are perfect and all his ways are just ..' Deut. 32:4). My Jewish brethren need to rediscover their Jewish Messiah not just for themselves but because the world needs them to do so, as is implied in Romans 11:12, 'But if their (the Jews) transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!'. What this actually means has been long debated and is outside the scope of this book, but God knows and time will tell, so we'll have to wait and see!

Also the Church needs to recover the balance it once had in the early days, before the Jewish element had been thrust aside. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:16, "His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two (Jew and Gentile), thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross ..." As we have read in the previous chapter, apart from the early apostolic era, this was never achieved, to the disgrace and detriment of both parties.

There is a danger though, for Jewish believers. We need to keep a tight rein on how far we go in this important task of helping to restore the balance. At the end of the day we are, as are all Christians, Our Lord's representatives on Earth. We must not overstep the mark by letting our Jewish roots strangle our new Christian life before it has had a chance to take root itself. Of all the 'deadly sins', pride is said to be the most lethal, as it is the one that places us at the centre of everything, and relegates God to a mere bit-part in the scheme of things. There is a point when, unless we are careful, pride in our heritage can become pride in ourselves. If we reach that point then we are harming ourselves and useless to God. We must continue to remind ourselves that God originally chose the Jews, despite themselves, not because of a natural superiority. He chose them for no other reason than it was them that he chose! So no boasting over the grafted-in branches! (a derivation of Romans 11:18).

Referring back to the phrase, 'The apple of His eye', taken from Zechariah 2:8, and which I have used to name this section, we read in this passage of a time when God's scales of justice will take a sudden swing in the favour of His people, the Jews. When that happens, all who have perpetrated anti-Semitism, who have acted against 'the apple of His eye', will be punished accordingly. This has not yet happened but the clues are in the text. It speaks of some future time after the Jews who have been scattered to the four winds, return to their land, Israel. In this future time God will live with his people, who will be taken from all nations. Yes, you hear me right - it's not a case, at this time, of us living in heaven with God, but rather of God coming down to earth and living with us. The interesting verse is verse 12 which gives a pretty good description of God's view of the future and the land of Israel. Because here God explicitly states that Judah (the southern part of Israel), and, particularly Jerusalem, will be where He chooses to live in this future time, not London or New York or Paris. And the people He will choose to live with will be taken from the Jews, the apple of His eye, along with all others from the nations (Gentiles) who have been 'granted membership' into the fellowship of believers. So, be warned. Seek blessing, not judgement, by aligning yourself with God's purposes towards His ancient and modern people, the Jews.

Church history, as I've said before, tells a sorry story. Imagine you are in an ocean and you can witness the birth of a great wave. From small beginnings, perhaps a few ripples, it builds up and gathers momentum, sweeping along all that it finds in its path. Such is the tide of Church history. The early ripples were the first seeds of the faith, representing its truest expression and the honest living out of the words of its founder. Yet as it built up, it gathered to itself other waves that were around, other world views and philosophies. It brought into itself Greek philosophy, paganism, greed, the thirst for power, but, worst of all, it joined with the growing tide of anti-Semitism. By now this great wave swept all before it; it was useless swimming against the current. All who did, men such as John Wycliffe and the English martyrs, were persecuted as heretics; others such as the countless Christians who died in the Holocaust, were also swept aside for their opposition to the endemic anti-Semitism. But soon after the mighty wave climaxed, its fall was equally dramatic and it eventually lapped against the seashore, a spent force. All we are now left with are small pools of water dotted around the sand. We can imagine these pools being full of the purest water (which is where the analogy breaks down, as in reality we'll find sand, oil and assorted debris), representing once again the purest form of the faith, stripped of all the flotsam and jetsam of other cultures and, dare I say, rediscovering its Jewish origins and identity.

The Jews are back in town! The Jews are back in town! These are not the words of a medieval town crier announcing the arrival of the despised Christ-killers, but rather the clarion call of history turning full circle. Jews everywhere are rediscovering the faith of their ancestors (though a revival, as such, has not yet arrived), there is a great hunger for true meaning amongst God's chosen people. There is equally a new hunger among many Christians to return to their Jewish roots. I'm not saying that suddenly it's become fashionable to be Jewish and that Gentiles are mysteriously discovering Jewish ancestors, perhaps finding a great grandfather who lopped off a -stein or -berg from the end of their name. What I'm saying is that they are actually discovering the Jewishness of the Bible and that the early Christians, including Jesus, were all Jewish! There are Christians about, believe me, who still don't realise that Jesus and his disciples were the Jackie Mason and the Marx Brothers of their day - referring to their Jewishness, not their spirituality!

If you go to any Messianic fellowship these days you'll find as many Gentiles as Jews, usually more. More and more are waking up to the need to bring back the Jewish stuff, to start to read the Bible with Jewish eyes. Many (I hope) will be reading this book, which is proof in itself, as you wouldn't have got so far if an interest hasn't been kindled. If you wish to nurture this interest with further reading then please consult the booklist at the end of this book.

For an overview of God's historical dealings with the Jews and the Church from a Jewish viewpoint please turn to Appendix, 'The Tale of Two Hotels', where I attempt to explain all in allegorical form.