Two Kinds of Christians
From http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/2kinds.html
Two Kinds Of Christians By Bob Westbrook – April 17, 2005 -
Source: Trumpet Sounds
A March 31 open letter issued by the World Council of Churches denounced “repeated declarations by the (Israeli) government’s top leaders” that “all of Jerusalem will belong to Israel”. This organization, which represents a large portion of institutional Christendom, has for years stood in solidarity with the Muslim Arabs against what they call Israel’s “illegal occupation of Palestine”. This contradicts the viewpoint of many born-again Christians who hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible. They support Israel’s possession of the entirety of Jerusalem as its eternal capital, with Judea and Samaria as the historical heartland of Israel.
This discrepancy in “Christian” viewpoints must appear puzzling to Jews. Yet for some Jews, the discrepancy is beginning to make more sense. In the progression of Jewish-Christian relations, an interesting development has occurred in recent years. During a conversation I had with a prominent Israeli leader, this person said, “We Jews now understand that there are two kinds of Christians — those who love us, and those who do not”. This seems to be a new revelation for many Jewish people, who until recently viewed the Christian world as a somewhat monolithic entity. It was an entity correctly viewed as a primary source of extended misery for the Jews over the course of time. Anyone familiar with history knows the awful record of horrid atrocities committed against the Jews by the “church”. The use of that word in quotes is to distinguish between those deviant religious institutions and the true Church. The latter is supposed to be characterized by love, but somewhere in the process, attitudes towards the Jews were twisted into ecclesiastically sanctioned hatred.
How did this happen? As the concept of the church devolved from the simple, untainted spiritual assembly of believers to the foul, grotesque political monstrosity that dominated Europe for centuries, a theology of animosity towards Jews was fabricated. The developing church ignored Paul’s clear and authoritative instructions, relayed in his letter to the church at Rome, on how to treat the Jews. Even though they had been resistant to the message regarding the claims of Jesus, Paul directed the Christians to love the Jews regardless. They were “beloved”, declared that erudite metamorphosed Pharisee, because of the promises God had made to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Tragically, the church chose to ignore this divinely inspired directive, and instead constructed a theology of hatred for Jews. This theology taught the Jews were under God’s eternal curse for rejecting Jesus as Messiah, and were to be actively condemned for the part their leaders played in Jesus’ unjust execution. The church had become the new Israel, replacing the spurned Israel. Therefore, the Jews were to be blamed and scorned as “Christ killers”. As this warped doctrine pervaded the churches, taught universally for centuries, it incited extensive oppression, expulsion, and murder of Jews. The church, which was supposed to be exemplary in love, became exemplary in hatred.
In modern times, a segment of the church has taken a fresh look at the Bible, and renounced the theological concept the church has replaced Israel, along with all of the resultant viciousness. It has in repentance embraced the doctrine that all Jews are to be loved unconditionally, regardless of any difference in viewpoint on the identity of the Messiah. It has affirmed the message of the Biblical prophets that God still has auspicious intentions for the nation of Israel. Notice that it is only a segment of the church which has renounced that theology. This is the basis behind my friend’s accurate observation about the “two kinds of Christians”.
The replacement theology which was at the root of historic anti-semitism is still prominent in many church organizations and denominations. Sure, they are now more civilized in the way they present their distorted teachings, no longer inciting the masses to torch Jewish towns. But the rancid core of that theology still remains. Now they incite the masses to tear down Jewish towns in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Anti-Zionism is the modern expression of that old rotten creed. Israel has become a nation once again, in marvelous fulfillment of the pronouncements of the Biblical prophets. However, rather than giving the God of Israel his due renown for this momentous act, rather than applauding God’s renewed compassion for the Jews expressed by returning them to their place of refuge, the replacement theologians persist in their hoary spite. They deny any connection between the Israel of the Bible and the Israel of today. They deny its legitimacy as a special preordained accomplishment of God’s sovereign plan. This is why the World Council of Churches, comprised of members who still promulgate that reprobate replacement theology, consistently issue anti-Israel proclamations. This is why these “Christians”, who deny the Bible is the authoritative, inerrant Word of God, support a Palestinian state on land God promised in an eternal covenant to Israel. This is why these spiritual descendants of the ecclesiastical hate mongers demand that Jerusalem be wrested from Jewish possession. This is why these clerics find more in common with the descendants of Ishmael, who worship a foreign god and advocate jihad, than they do with the descendants of Isaac. But no matter. They are grass. What God has said will prevail, regardless how many esteemed reverends contest it.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:7-8 NIV) Yes, there are two kinds of “Christians”. We are those who stand on the word of our God, who will be unconditionally supportive of Israel, based on the unconditional covenant promises to Abraham.
Although your direction is generally correct, historical Errors in your account mislead to wrong conclusions about the two kinds of Christians vi-a-vis Israel. Historical documentation and accuracy are essential to resolve millennia of misojudaism intrinsic in Christianity.
You wrote: “As the concept of the church devolved from the simple, untainted spiritual assembly of believers to the foul, grotesque political monstrosity that dominated Europe for centuries, a theology of animosity towards Jews was fabricated.”
If you’ll read your earliest Church historian, Eusebius, you’ll find that the original followers of the 1st-century pro-Torah Pharisee Ribi were Orthodox Jews who excised Paul as an apostate Hellenizer, refused the Hellenist-redacted NT and were forcibly displaced by 180 degree-opposite antinomian (anti-Torah) supersessionist gentile Romans in 135 C.E. This exposes the fatal flaw in your thinking: Hellenism (e.g., of Paul and later Christianity) is intractably contradictory to Torah (Judaism) and could only dominate by forcible (violent) supersessionist displacement of Torah=Judaism and Jews. Until you recognize that intractable discontinuity and disconnection, what you envision as a solution is an illusion of your (and others, including many Jews) misunderstanding.
Before 135 C.E. there was Torah (Judaism). There was neither Church nor Christianity until after 135 C.E. Even Paul the Hellenizing Apostate can only be considered proto-Christian.
If you’ll read Oxford historian-scholar James Parkes (The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue), you’ll find that the most vile animosity toward Jews reaches back at least to the 4th century C.E. and, most likely, to 135 C.E. and even the time of Paul.
I don’t know of any major denomination of Christianity that has repudiated the NT, and misojudaism is intrinsic in the NT. (If you don’t know the passages I’m a former Baptist preacher who can cite them for you.) Thus, there is an intractable contradiction between “the doctrine that all Jews are to be loved unconditionally” and the ultimate and final authority of the NT. Which they reject is what distinguishes the two kinds of Christians.
This puts on set of Christians on the track of following the NT as they have for millennia.
The other set of Christians, however, faces a dilemma: we know from sources like Dead Sea Scroll 4Q MMT that the historical Pharisee Ribi taught followers that they must do their sincerest to live according to Torah and that repentance and return to living according to Torah was the path to kipur (expiation) and eternal life. What the Christian has been taught all their life, however, is intractably opposite: Hellenism as an idolatrous displacement theology. Realization of this contradiction collapses the Christian “salvation” and “eternal life” in an instant. Yet, this is the set of Christians who love Israel. They are unavoidably on the path of rejecting Christianity as idolatry to follow the historical Pharisee Ribi and the Torah he taught. These non-Jews, no longer Christians (having abandoned Christianity), will converge with Jews in following Torah. Therein is the only solution.
Paqid Yirmeyahu
Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra’anana, Israel
Israeli Orthodox Jew (Teimani Baladi Dardai)
Advancing Logic as Halakhic Authority
Welcoming Jews & non-Jews
http://www.netzarim.co.il
Paqid Yirmeyahu
February 23, 2009 at 2:09 am
Enjoy reading your blog.Btw, this is first time I visit to your blog
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Mike
March 9, 2009 at 7:59 am
Paqid;
I can’t help but assume you’ve missed the point of the article, which is to combat anti-Semitism and if you’d checked the link you’d have noticed I did not author this article. My take is that these Christians who’ve persecuted the Jews over the centuries were not following the Christ example and what blows my mind is that your take appears to be, “Since Paul was not and therefore the followers of the NT are not ‘true followers’ you’ve abandoned belief in Jesus.” Straighten me out here, what exactly is your belief at this point?
Judge Bob
March 23, 2009 at 7:32 am