Category: Theology

I don’t think we have ever seen such controversy in the United  States surrounding the 4 of July, the date of the declaration of the independence of the  United States when we recall the Declaration document itself.  I will be celebrating this holiday in Chicago with dear old friends.  They have a boat and we will watch the fireworks from out in Lake Michigan opposite Wilmette, Illinois Pier.   Here are some recent bizarre news stories.

Nike athletic company just recalled a sneaker that featured the original flag of the United States, the Betsey Ross flag, with its thirteen stars and stripes.  Colin Kaepernick, the noted football player/protester against racism, who famously practiced kneeling during the national anthem at games, protested the symbolism of the sneaker.  He claimed it was offensive to some because the 1776 flag was created during a time of slavery.  No one had ever before identified this flag as having any connection to slavery.  It was created by Betsey Ross from Philadelphia, more recently a feminist icon, who lived in Philadelphia!

The town where Thomas Jefferson lived, Charlottesville,  has suspended celebrating his birthday and replaced it with a holiday honoring the liberation of the city by the Union Armies in the Civil war.

Donald Trump angers the Democrats by making the 4th of July celebration one with a celebration of the military by ordering the parading of tanks.

Israel celebrates the meaning of the Fourth of July in a special celebration in the Jerusalem Convention Center, with the Prime Minister and other government leaders.

We are living in a society that is somewhat losing its mind.  A nation depends on being able to celebrate those who advanced it, even if they were human and indeed showed blind spots, and engaged in significant sin.  Dismissing Thomas Jefferson, and Washington will be next, because they owned slaves, is a great mistake.  Yes, owning slaves was wrong, but in that time, there was not yet the moral consensus.  Washington, according to his great biographer Flexner, was uneasy in conscience about slavery and freed his upon his death.  Jefferson did not do so.  they are valued deeply because of the gains in political liberty, freedom, and a government system of checks and balances to limit the power of tyranny.  There were also strong abolitionists like John Adams.  However, the founders were leaders who advanced civilization and without them the very human rights that we value today may not have been enjoined.

There is today a deep anti-Americanism on the left.  Those who foster this do not credit that the gains from the cultural developments in Great Britain and the United States were the keys to the elimination of slavery.  The battle for such human rights did not come from Africa, East Asia, South Asia or any other society.  There is much to celebrate and much of this cultural advance had roots in the Bible.  In the Wall Street Journal form July 2nd, William McGurn of the Journal worte and article entitled, “A Kosher Fourth of July.”  He amazingly documented that the ideas of freedom, liberty and justice celebrated on the 4th were symbolically tied to the Hebrew Bible.  The Exodus freedom theme was embraced by both Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin who proposed seals of the United States with symbolism from those events.  Jefferson proposed the Israelites in the wilderness led by a the pillar of fire and the cloud.  Franklin proposed Moses extending his hand over the Red Sea.   This idea of the Exodus and the founding of the country went back to the Puritans.  Martin Luther King also drew from Biblical themes and the Exodus for his civil rights movement.  McGurn points to the amazing influence of the Hebrew Bible in America, for places, towns and more. Eric Nelson argues in a similar fashion in his book The Hebrew Republic.

Major historical figures should be judged on whether or not they advanced civilization on the basis of the right values.  Though we accept the separation of civil government from ecclesiastical government, we still seek a government influence by Biblical ideas; that all human beings are sacred, created in God’s image, with rights given by God.  We seek a government that is a guard against where tyranny and the importance of checks and balances.  This is the government bequeathed to the United States by its founders.  They are to be honored for this and we celebrate them on this 4th of July.  As Franklin said after the Constitution Convention, we have been given “A republic, if you can keep it.”  And keeping it is still our great challenge as the forces of the extreme left and right seek to destroy it and as the left seeks to discredit the people who bequeathed it to us.  As an Israeli, we also benefit from the same republican roots in our society.

A popular theology among Christian teachers is that God does not judge unbelievers.  Since they do not know Yeshua and do not have the power of the Spirit, we should not expect them to be moral.  This teaching is contrary to both the historic Christian consensus and the historic teaching of Judaism. Both have taught that basic morals are revealed to people.  In Christian teaching, people are responsible for the amount of revelation they know preserved in their various cultures. In the Bible, however, one sees that God’s judgment is mostly proclaimed and carried out on corporate peoples or nations.  However, the individual also is judged but in this life, just how that judgment is carried out is difficult to determine. However, after death and in the Age to Come unbelievers are judged according to their works. No one is given a free pass because they were not a believer!  

 

Early on in the book of Genesis, we find that Sodom and Gomorrah are judged severely for the level of sin in the culture.  “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great indeed, and their sin is very grievous indeed. I want to go down now, and see if they deserve destruction, as its outcry has come to Me.”   And of course, we know the end of the story. The cities were totally destroyed in a terrible conflagration. Egypt is judged in the Exodus. Then the book of Amos gives the most amazing list of nations that are to be judged because of their behavior.  

 

Amos details the sins of the surrounding nations and predicts the coming of a severe judgment of God due to these sins.  We read, “For three transgressions… and for four.” He condemns Damascus (Aram/Syria), Gaza, Ashdod, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre (Phonecians) Ammon, and Moab.   Why? For such sins as exiling a population, turning a population over to Edom, pursing his brother with the sword without compassion, ripping open pregnant women.”  God does hold the nations to account. 

 

Then also note that Judaism teaches that all nations are accountable to the 7 Laws of Noah.  These 7 laws are really categories of law like the ten commandments. To have a good destiny in the age to come a person or nation must renounce idolatry and keep the seven laws of Noah.  Then there is the Book of Revelation. The judgment upon the nations is profound. 

 

The New Covenant Scriptures also portray the Gentiles as under judgment until they turn to the Lord. (Eph. 2:3, children of wrath).  This does not mean that we are to bring judgment to unbelievers but a warning that they are under judgment for their behavior and the hope of a solution through the Good News.   However, after death there is a judgment. To those who have been given much, much will be required. The idea that God does not judge those who do not know Him is not biblical. The message of the Gospel is a message that the rightful King has arrived, and that we are to pledge our loyalty to him.  If we do so, he will forgive our sins and deliver us from judgment. Everlasting life in the joy of his Presence will be the destiny of those who truly turn to him. 

 

A former editor of the Jerusalem Post today confessed his puzzlement on what Avigdor Lieberman is up to.  As some of my readers know, Lieberman prevented Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a government. For this, the Prime Minister vilified him as empowering the left and derided him for not supporting him to form a rightwing government.  Was he just playing politics? Was it a lust for power? We cannot know the motives, and contrary to the press and the politicians who oppose him, we will not engage in slandering him for his motives. Contrary to the editorial, there is a case that the Lieberman, the leader of Israel Batainu (Israel our Home), a Russian Jewish orientated party, is following real convictions. Were his motives as white and pure as newly fallen snow, it could be quite rational and principled for him to oppose the Prime Minister and to let his government fail to form.  Besides the severe critique of Lieberman, the Prime Minister derides the Blue and White, the main opposition party as leftist. How can this be the case since the leaders are former military leaders, one of whom is Boggie Yaalon, the former defense minister under Netanyahu who was replaced so that Netanyahu could bring Lieberman’s party into the last government in part by offering him the post of defense minister. Politics is really strange! Much of the criticism of Netanyahu by the Blue and White is that the Prime Minister has been too weak in fighting the terror of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.  This hardly sounds leftist! Blue and White puts forth other policies that are not that different from Likkud. In fact, they are open to being in a government led by Netanyahu’s party, Likkud, if Netanyahu does not lead it. They have said they will not be in a government led by a leader who will probably be indicted for graft. The claim of their being leftwing is that to form a government they will have to include parties on the left. Again, how strange since Netanyahu recently offered to the Labor Party a place in the government! Is your head spinning yet?

 

Back to Lieberman. There is a real question as to whether even after the next election, Netanyahu can form a government without Lieberman.  Lieberman’s primary issues have to do with the domination of the Ultra-Orthodox, and Netanyahu’s submission to their demands. This includes several very important issues, so important that we should give Lieberman a break on questioning his motives.  Here is his list.

 

1. The military or national service exemption to all men who claim to be studying Torah (translate this as Talmud and Rabbinic Law).   As part of this is to have large government funds supporting the Yeshivas (study houses) where such study takes place.
2. The welfare funds that are given to the Orthodox that make this claim (that they really are capable and so studying is not honestly enforced).  This is a terrible weight on the economy of Israel. All are paying for the lack of productivity/economic expansion, taxes, and diminished prosperity,
3. The rejection of the Jewish status of many Russian Jews, by some accounts up to 400,000.  Because they are not considered adequately Jewish by Orthodox Jewish law, they cannot marry in Israel since there is no civil marriage in Israel.  They do not want a Christian wedding where they identify as Christians, and they are not allowed to marry Jews. They thus have to fly overseas for marriage.   However, to add insult to injury, the Ultra-Orthodox, over against the more flexible national Orthodo,x are in charge of the conversion process. They have made conversion difficult, though this would relieve the pressure on them.

1. The government allows and fosters work on the Sabbath that they consider economically necessary, like train construction that enable avoiding shutting down on weekdays with the terrible problems that would cause.  The Orthodox demand that this not be allowed.
2. Business on the Sabbath.  The government allows restaurants, entertainment, sports, and convenient stores to operate in secular areas on the Sabbath.  The Ultra-Orthodox want to stop this. In addition, they want to shut down public transportation in such areas.
3. Segregated transportation:  The Ultra-Orthodox are now pushing for segregated transportation which has been declared discriminatory and illegal by the Supreme Court.
4. Segregated public functions.  The Orthodox are pushing for separation of men and women for public functions.   

 

Well, this is certainly a large enough list to not require questioning the motives of Lieberman.  When the next election comes, the key will be the votes that Lieberman and his party get and the number of votes that go to the rightist parties and the Ultra-Orthodox.  

 

  

The Feast of Shavuot, known as Pentecost in the Church world is the same Feast, the one emphasizing seven weeks after the First Fruits Feast of Passover week and the other Fifty Days after First Fruits or Resurrection Sunday.  The Biblical Feast is a harvest Festival of the first large harvest of wheat.

The Jewish community celebrates this Feast as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, or the Law, though the Word Torah is broader than law, though it includes it.  It is the instruction of God and his statutes and laws are instruction. The Bible does not tell us to celebrate this Feast as the Feast of giving the Law or the Ten Commandments, the Covenant of the Ten Words more precisely.  Rabbinic calculation, which is quite reasonable, calculates the time of travel to Mt. Sinai and Moses ascending the Mount, which was at least close to this date if not on it.

For Christians, the celebration is the anniversary of the outpouring the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) and the reference is explicit.  The occasion of the Feast for me always brings to mind the opposition of Law and Spirit that is so pervasive popular Christianity today.  Spirit is opposed to Law, Grace is opposed to Law and Faith is opposed to Law. Yet, this certainly is a huge mistake in interpretation. Actually, the Bible makes it quite clear that the benefits of the New Covenant, the grace of God, the way of faith, and the power of the Spirit all enable the fulfillment of the Torah (Law in its essence).  Two verses show this clearly, Romans 8:4, “The righteous requirement of the Torah/Law is fulfilled in us who walk by the Spirit.” Romans 3:31 as well states, “Do we nullify the Law through faith? On the contrary, we establish the Torah/Law.”

What is usually not understood in todays’ popular Christianity is that the historic Protestant Christian teaching got this mostly right.  Most taught that we are only saved by grace, but that this grace embraced by faith enables obedience to the Law by the power of the Spirit.  Richard Hooker, who at the end of the 16^th century established the foundations of Anglican teaching, argued for a principle approach.  One can ask and determine usually why a particular law is there and can usually see the underlying principle.  He opted for a flexible application approach that does not enjoin the exact civil penalties and particulars but does enjoin the principles with civil flexibility in penalties for a New Covenant Age.  In this he responded to Puritan Calvinists who wanted to literally follow the whole Law as exactly as possible, including the civil penalties for violation. Calvin’s teaching in Book II Chapter 7 of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, allowed for more flexibility.  It is a magnificent summary. This approach to the continued applicability of the Law/Torah in the New Covenant was also the view of the Wesley and the Methodists, the revivalist Charles Finney and is found in the greatest statement of Baptist theology by Augustus Strong at the end of the 19^th century.  This approach was held by the great Old Testament Scholar at Wheaton, Samuel Schultz (my professor of dear memory) and today by Walter Kaiser, emeritus President of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  I could go on and name many more who have argued for this approach.  

The weakness in the classical statements of Protestantism was the too easy bifurcation of ceremonial and moral law.  The ceremonial law included those markers that made Israel, the Jewish people, a distinct people. Sabbath, keeping the Jewish Feast days, circumcision, and food laws are all dismissed.  However, the Church was not consistent since they celebrated a Christian version of Passover First Fruits (Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday) and Pentecost. This should have given the lie to this too easy a distinction.  It was really based in replacement theology.

Messianic Jews and the growing number of Christians who share our theology on these matters celebrate both the giving of the Torah and the outpouring of the Spirit as the key to fulfilling the Torah on this day.  The emphasis has been shifted. Our concentration is secondarily on the Torah but primarily on being led by the Spirit and walking in his power. However, the Torah continues in importance and is applicable in the New Covenant.  

What does Plato’s well known analogy on reality have to do with the Church and Messianic Judaism? Plato described life in a cave with its dim lights and shadows as an analogy for those who live in the world of sensory experience and never come to a true understanding of reality or the full light of day. The shadows moving on the walls are mistaken for reality. For Plato, reality was his realm of true intellectual ideas. For me the analogy speaks of the reality of Kingdom life in power over against the dim light and shadows that typifies most of the Western Church.

The Spirit Poured Out

From the late 1960s through the 1980s there was a great move of God, especially among America’s young people. Literally millions were swept into the Kingdom of God. Some of these millions were Jews who are constituents of today’s Messianic congregations. This was a thrilling time. Many who came to Yeshua had vibrant testimonies of His revealing Himself. These were supernatural stories. These new believers attended worship services that often lasted for many hours. We attended one meeting that went from 6:30pm to 11:30pm every Sunday evening. True seekers visited and were met by God.

In Washington, DC, we experienced God’s Kingdom life. Many came to know the Lord. We counted many churches as friends of our Messianic Congregations. Wonderful things were happening in these churches. This was life outside the cave. It was life in the light of day. I call life outside the cave a life of God’s presence, power and manifestation, or PPM. In one wonderful gathering during those days we immersed 26 Jewish people in the name of Yeshua. There were unity meetings, prayer meetings among pastors, life in the Spirit seminars, cooperative efforts and more. There were amazing healings and stories of deliverance. Our pediatrician was not only a famous doctor in the state, but a man of mighty miracles.

Some Return to the Cave

I understand those who have never been out of the cave. This is the only reality they have ever known. However, something very sad happened from the 90s on. Many switched from the mode of seeking God for revival to adopting a sociological-psychological method for attracting people. Some of these knew life outside the cave but have since returned to the cave. This is true among Messianic Jews as well. This today is called “seeker friendly” or “user friendly” services. Far be it from me to not be friendly to seekers.  I want people to understand what we are saying and to be able to relate to what we are doing. However, this is a secondary concern. My primary concern is PPM. When PPM is great, then even our ineptitude is overcome, and God meets people. In revival there is a harvest, not only the picking of a few ears. Some who had experience outside the cave now argue that manifestations of the Spirit are contrary to reaching the lost. Wow! Tell that to the people in the southern hemisphere of the globe who are winning people in droves!

There is a hidden contradiction in this orientation. If the Spirit of God is manifesting Himself, we need to remember that He is a person and knows what He is doing. Certainly He acts for the best of those who do not yet know the Lord Yeshua. He is the One who brings people into the Kingdom. Of course the question is whether or not it is really the Spirit; but people can be trained to be more accurate and sensitive to the Spirit so that PPM (presence, power and manifestation) is the real thing. My great concern is that many have now decided that they no longer desire the presence and power of God. They no longer pray for it.

On one accasion, I also slipped into the error of going overboard in the seeker friendly orientation. The Jewish High Holidays were the one time in the year where we would be like other synagogues. We would be a place where the Jewish person who did not know the Messiah Yeshua could be comfortable.  Before the holidays, my wife Patty had an extraordinary dream. She saw a series of pictures: first she saw a man acting on stage and even identifying his stage name. Then the images changed and she saw this same man enter our sanctuary and then leave to sit in his car in the parking lot.

During the High Holidays the man from Patty’s dream actually showed up at our congregation just as Patty had seen in her dream. True to form he then left and sat in his car. At Asher Intrater’s urging, Patty went outside, shared the dream with this man and asked him to come back into the service for
prayer.

Asher came forward after my message and asked me to trust him to lead us into something special; then Patty and the visitor came forward. He publicly testified to the accuracy of the dream. This was a dramatic manifestation of the Spirit in the prophetic realm. I expected our other Jewish visitors to be impressed with our choir, our great worship music, the way we did liturgy and my speaking. But instead they were impressed by the supernatural manifestation of God. Some were saying, “This dream and the testimony mean that God is real, that He really intervenes!!”  It was a better testimony than anything I could have done.

I long for the life outside the cave; I wonder that those who once experienced it can return to the cave. I suppose the cave seems safe, manageable and an atmosphere more easily controlled. This is very desirable to some. It seems more respectable. I know that we have to learn to filter out what is not from God; but in an atmosphere of over control and government, God has been asked to please remain within our boundaries. This is the tendency of most of today’s seeker friendly directions. We are seeing some really big congregations established, but few are successful in winning new people to the Kingdom of God.

Life Inside the Cave

I want to illustrate life inside the cave. Let us imagine a big cavern.  There are many caves in the one cavern. The leaders in each cave compete for the people in the cavern to be in their cave. They rearrange the furniture and even make better cave furniture. This does attract more people. Some of the caves have many more people than others. There are even a few who drift into the cavern and go to one of the caves and commit to the light that they see in the cave. However, most of what goes on is only the people already in the cavern switching their cave dwellings.

All of today’s church growth statistics, especially the data compiled by George Barna, tell us that this is not really working. We need to seek God for a revival; a mighty move of God, we need to be open for His manifestations of power. When God pours out His Spirit, people are motivated to be truly discipled and empowered to win a lost world.

We have much literature on the history of revival; the accounts of Jonathan Edwards, the Wesleys and Zinzendorf to name a few. We have an historical record of life outside the cave. It is less safe but the Spirit knows what He is doing.

Revival in Israel

In Israel we seek a great harvest. We work in a training school that is committed to life outside the cave. We know that only God’s presence, power and manifestation will gain a great harvest in this land. The Book of Acts shows us life outside the cave and we are to accept nothing less.  This is our desire.  To gain a Jewish harvest, nothing less will do.

Some years ago, I was asked to review two books that have a very negative slant on the modern State of Israel. I wrote a lengthy letter to one of the authors and have had extensive dialogue with the brother who recommended one of the books. Both books emphasize in detail Israel’s sins against the Palestinian Arabs (as if this should change our understanding of what Scripture says?).  There is plenty of factual material for both Israelis and Palestinians to make a one sided case against the other. However, the most alarming assertion in these books was that because the New Testament does not explicitly emphasize the promise of the Land to the Jewish people, this must not be a continuing promise. In addition, both authors held that the New Testament re-interprets the Old Testament and universalized the idea of the Promised Land as a place for all God’s people. “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

The Concept of Re-interpretation

Another book by a very prominent Catholic also used the idea of the New Testament as re-interpreting the Old. The Roman Catholic Church has repudiated replacement theology; the idea that the Church has replaced Israel or is the superceding ongoing meaning of Israel. However, this book described the Church as forming a new universal Israel with greater transcendent significance. It argues that the New Testament teaches that the Church, to a significant degree, is the fulfillment of the promises to Israel. The choosing of 12 disciples is given as further evidence. In this viewpoint, old Israel is not rejected (which is contrary to official Catholic doctrine) but is certainly diminished.

Is the Land Promised to Israel?

Let’s look at the easier matter first – the claim that the New Testament does not affirm the promise of the Land to Israel, but universalizes this promise as meaning the future inheritance of all believers.  The New Testament Scriptures write to the specific situations at hand and do not present a systematic theology. There was no need to re-state what was clearly stated in the Hebrew Scriptures, the only Bible at that time. The Gospels were written to preserve the record of the ministry of Yeshua when the original Apostolic Company was dying out. The Epistles were written to respond to specific challenges in the Gentile congregations. Of course, these writings have applications for all believers in all times.

However, when Paul specifically writes concerning the issue of Israel, because of the arrogance amongst Gentiles in Rome, he is as explicit as we could ever desire. Romans 9-11 is very clear. When he states “Theirs are the covenants” (Romans 9:4), such covenants obviously include the content of the promises within them. When Paul states that “the gifts and call of God (to Israel) are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29) the gift of the Land is again obviously one of those gifts. In addition, why would this issue of Land be addressed in the first century? The Land at that time was populated by Jews. Yes, there was Roman occupation and government.  However, no one doubted that this was the Jewish land. It simply was not an issue!

Does the New Testament Have to Repeat the Content of the Hebrew Bible?

The viewpoint that the New Testament must directly speak about all important issues, even if clearly asserted in the Hebrew Scriptures, is a foolish one.  The New Testament does not deal with some of the issues of economic justice, but the Hebrew Bible does when it enjoins the cancellation of debt on Sabbatical and Jubilee years. It does not describe how courts should operate, but this is a crucial issue. Are we to then conclude that just courts are now abandoned because this is not addressed? New Covenant Scriptures do not define what constitutes incest. Leviticus gives us the list of forbidden relationships. Are we to ignore this because it is not repeated in the New Covenant scriptures?

This approach smacks of the very arrogance against which Paul speaks. If the New Testament re-interprets the Old so that Israel is now the Church and the Land is the earth, we have a huge problem. This approach does not allow the texts of the Hebrew Bible to speak on their own terms with the integrity of their straightforward meaning; the result is they can be made to say something other than what the author intended. That is the core problem with the whole concept of re-interpretation. For this reason, Messianic Jews do not like to use the terms Old Testament and New Testament, but instead use non-prejudiced terms like the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Covenant Scriptures.

Scripture after Scripture in context states that the Jewish people will never cease to be a people before God and that they will ultimately inherit the Land, never again to be uprooted (Jeremiah 23:5-8; 31:35-37; Ezekiel 36:24-28).  This is sufficient for our teaching. With integrity, this cannot be re-interpreted as fulfilled by “the Church as the ongoing meaning of Israel,” or by “the Church which is preserved and will inherit the earth.”

The Church and Prophetic Analogy

The New Covenant Scriptures do speak of the New Covenant People of God, the Body of the Messiah, in terms that are analogous to what is said about ethnic Israel. It uses the very language of the Hebrew Bible to make such statements. Believers are called a royal priesthood reminiscent of Exodus 19 (I Peter 2:9, 10). They are called the Bride of Yeshua as Israel is called the Wife of God. What is going on here? This is not a matter of re-interpretation so that the original meaning of the text is now changed.  Rather, the Spirit speaks new revelation by prophetic analogies to what was promised to ancient Israel. This new revelation tells us that the Body of Believers, rooted in Israel and called the commonwealth of Israel in Ephesians 2, has parallel promises to Israel. In Messiah, Gentile believers become children of Abraham. Hence, they are blessed with promises that apply to Abraham’s descendants. Indeed, they will inherit the Earth, for in the Age to Come, the whole Earth becomes Promised Land. Thus there are many new applications for the promises. However this is the Age where the Jewish people come into their inheritance in the central Promised Land that is allotted to them. The meaning of the Passover-exodus will be applied to all nations. The whole earth will experience the prosperity promised to ancient Israel as a reward for faithfulness in their Land. This was anticipated in the prophets, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord (Isaiah 11:9).  I call this theology “addition theology.”

Addition theology has many benefits. It recognizes that the New Covenant made with Israel includes Gentiles. It recognizes that the meaning of covenant relationship and priesthood has been expanded to include all who come to faith through Yeshua. It recognizes a bridal position for the Body of Believers that is no less than the position of the priesthood of the Jewish people. It embraces the universal fellowship that is the new reality brought into being by Yeshua. At the same time, it reaffirms the promises made to the Ancient Nation of Israel which should be taken in a straightforward manner.  God does not speak in a fast and loose way so that His words can mean something so apart from what would have comforted the original listeners.  Imagine saying to the ancient Israelites that the promise of never being again plucked up from their Land means that people from all nations would be called of God and would inherit the earth. These would have hardly been considered as adequate, comforting words of assurance directed to them as an ethnic people. The Jewish people understood these words rightly in their obvious sense.

Deriving our Theology from the Integrity of Each Text

This becomes very important to how we are to do theology. Wherever possible, we are to take every text in context as it was intended by the author and as it would have been understood. The meaning of each Bible text and each book is to be organized and harmonized with the assertions from other texts and books, but never by doing violence to the text. What do we mean by doing violence to a text? It is to re-interpret a text so as to forgo its intended meaning.

The weight of the texts of the Hebrew Bible concerning the preservation of the Jewish people, their return to the Land and their inheritance in the Land are very clear and plentiful. This will be the natural conclusion of any open minded (unbiased) reader of the Hebrew Bible, unless one has been indoctrinated against a straightforward reading of the texts. So let us take heart and not be shaken! Those who work for the return of the Jews to their ancient Land and are part of the effort to bring the Jewish people to the knowledge of Yeshua are living out the truth of the Word of God.

The famous rabbinical maxim to “build a fence around the law” was originally published in the Talmudic tract, Pirque Avot (Ethics of the Fathers). The basic thinking is as follows: We do not want to violate the Torah. If we create extra laws to protect the Torah, and we obey those extra laws, then we will not come close to disobeying the Torah. Numerous Rabbinical requirements can be understood as attempts to protect the Torah in this way.

The most common example of protecting the Torah is the laws of Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), especially the laws concerning milk and meat. The Torah exhorts us to not boil a kid (a baby goat) in its mother’s milk. This command is in the context of pagan Canaanite practice. It is also an obvious humanitarian deference to animal life. To protect this law, the rabbis decided that eating milk and meat together, even if not from the same animal, should be avoided. Once this was accepted, they determined that we needed to have hours of separation between meat meals and milk meals so that milk and meat will not be cooked together in our digestive system. Once this was accepted, we were required to have separate dishes for milk and meat since there is a possibility that particles of meat or milk may be left on the plate and get mixed and eaten. In the case of Kashrut, a new fence is made for each new rabbinic law!

Other Rabbinic Law Developments

This is one side of rabbinic legalism, the multiplying of laws to protect the Torah. However, the Rabbis are not without mercy. Sometimes when a Biblical law was seen as too harsh, rabbinic enactments were made to mitigate the strictness of the law. For example, monetary fines take the place of cutting off a hand or putting out an eye.

In Israel, there is a great ongoing controversy between Orthodox authorities. It concerns the Sabbatical year and the Bible commands that fields be left fallow. Some follow the rabbinic teaching that allows crops to be planted on the Sabbatical year by selling the land to a Gentile for one year. Other rabbis reject this way of getting around the law.

Rabbinic Jewish law has developed in three directions: First, are the creative applications of the law to new circumstances, which all legal systems in all societies must accomplish. Second, is the unnecessary multiplication of laws. And third, are ways to get around the law. Yeshua addressed these tendencies in the New Covenant when He accused the Pharisees of making void the Word of God by their traditions (Matthew 15:3).

Development in All Legal Systems

Lest we be overly critical of the rabbis, we should take note that all civil legal systems in all developed societies do the same thing as Rabbinic Judaism. We should remember that Rabbinic Judaism is both a civil legal system and a religious legal system in one. As laws multiply, we find ourselves in a situation where the intent of basic law has been undermined.  Legislation is then required to bring reform and return the law to its more basic intent to serve true justice. This is perhaps best seen in the development of legislation to protect the rights of the accused. As legislatures and courts have applied the law, they have made it more and more difficult for the victim of crime to obtain justice. The intent is good; to avoid punishing an innocent person. At times this concern is over emphasized in the law. For example, there may be absolute certainty that a person committed a crime, but because the accused was not rightly read his legal rights, he will be allowed to go free. The victim will have no justice. This infuriates people. Sometimes the victim takes justice into his own hands.  There are even situations where the victim has killed the criminal.

Instead of letting the criminal go free, the court should punish the official who violated the law, but not free the certainly guilty criminal. This results in guilty rapists, murderers, and thieves roaming among us. We also have guilty murderers going through an average 13 year appeal process before the death penalty is enacted. All through this time, those who lost loved ones must suffer through this agonizingly drawn out process and cannot experience closure.

Reapplications Are Needed

On the other hand, when circumstances change, additional laws are sometimes necessary to preserve the intent of the original law. At times laws need to be qualified so that unnecessary harshness and injustice do not result. Some development in law is necessary. Though in general, Western legislatures pass too many laws, some of these new laws are beneficial and important.

Religious Laws

In religious life, we are also tempted to multiply laws to preclude violating holiness. The Bible commands us to not get drunk. The fence mentality enjoins us to not use wine at all. This way one will never get drunk. The Bible says that we are to avoid all appearance of evil. This same mentality prohibits playing pocket billiards because billiard halls are bad places. This is also applied as a prohibition against all movies – even good films because it associates the attendee with Hollywood, which is generally regarded as evil.  Yet, persons who truly want to do the will of God are not constrained by such a legal system; instead they should allow their conscience to be guided by the Holy Spirit and in this dynamic way avoid evil behavior.

The Problem with Legalism

Legalism undercuts justice, spiritual life and joy. My own view is that Believers need to keep God’s commandments through the power of Yeshua. We should also honor worthy and beautiful traditions and applications, but not make them into law. In addition, we should always be seeking legal reform in our society to return our system of law to simpler justice. The Sermon on the Mount is very clear. Yeshua in all His divine authority restores Torah to its heart intent and sweeps away illegitimate and excessive accumulations of man-made laws. We now live in a New Covenant Order where the spirit of the Torah is paramount. This is not a means of circumventing the Torah, but is the way to fulfill its true meaning.

The Inability to Enforce Standards in Western Society

Certainly one of the primary characteristics of Western society is an inability to enforce standards. We see this across the board in every institution and every sector of society.  The only exception seems to be those businesses that excel because they are subject to the stiff competition of the market.

Here are some egregious examples.

Some years ago, CNN reported that at least 22,000 illegal aliens crossed the border into the United States through normal check points.  The guards did not check for visas or for any kind of identification. The illegals were just waived through. This is in an age where we worry about terrorism! The guards simply did not have the will to enforce standards. As of yet there have been no serious consequences for the guards.

Speaking of illegal aliens in the United States, we can solve the problem of illegal Mexican immigration and enforce the law with regard to our borders. If we need Mexican labor and it is inhumane to prevent Mexican immigration, we can expand legal immigration or have a legal guest workers program where potential alien workers are checked with regard to any criminal problems. We do not do this because illegal workers are cheaper for businesses. Corruption and money are the root of not enforcing standards.

Many of our public schools do not enforce academic and disciplinary standards.  This is in spite of the No Child Left Behind legislation. This hurts students who most desperately need an education to escape poverty. We are no longer clear on what children and young people should learn!

We know how to fight crime and to greatly lower rates of serious crime. New York City is our prime example. Mayor Rudy Giuliani attained success that few would have thought possible. New York went from being one of the most unsafe cities in the world, to one of the safest. This was accomplished in spite of the challenges of great ethnic diversity and organized crime. No doubt the prayers of believers were an influence. The success was due to a rare commitment to enforce standards for all kinds of crime, both major and minor. It entailed putting more police officers on the street. Other cities did not follow the New York pattern. So, for example, in Baltimore and Philadelphia, the crime rates still soar. They do not have the spine to enforce standards.

We add to our list environmental protection enforcement, food safety inspection and so much more.

In our local town in Israel on any given day in our shopping center, scores of cars park illegally even when many spaces are available. Here again is lax enforcement. The illegal parking makes it difficult for people to pull into legal spaces. The people who have been given the Law, and who are to be a light to the world, break the law and are in fact a lawless society. Laws do not mean much unless they are enforced.

In America, government agents test our airport screening system. The screeners fail again and again. They are not trained adequately to enforce the standards. Those who train them do not show high standards themselves!

In hospitals, many patients die because nurses and aids simply refuse to follow directions for washing their hands. The hospitals are not able to enforce hygienic standards.

We have laws on the books against pornography. They are not enforced. We no longer even have standards against homosexual behavior and other aberrant sexual deviancies. Rap music demeans women and calls for violence, but there is no enforcing of any standards of decency. This is due to today’s interpretation of free speech. We had free speech for the first 200 years in America and yet we were able to preclude such rot.

The Root of our Problem

What is the root of all this? This is the fruit of two generations of adherence to the doctrine of relativism. Relativism tells us that there is no objective standard of truth or right and wrong. When a society is no longer unified by belief in God and His standards of right and wrong (which includes some fear of His judgment), enforcing standards is difficult indeed. We produce a spineless people who have little motivation to enforce anything.

The Condition of Western Churches

The saddest and most alarming trend is in the western churches. Society has so influenced us that Yeshua’s exhortation to not have a condemning attitude (judge not that you be not judged) has been taken to mean that we are not to enforce standards of righteousness in the Body of Believers. This is contrary to the history of Christian interpretation and was not the view in the Protestant Churches before the end of the 20th century.

This is so very contrary to the Bible’s teaching on enforcing standards in the community.  In the prophets, Israel’s leaders were severely judged for not enforcing standards of justice and morality. Isaiah 59 is especially poignant. Revelation 2 and 3 strongly warn congregations that they will be judged if they do not enforce standards.

The indulgent orientation of modern western Christianity also contradicts Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 5 and 6. Here we read that the community of faith is to discontinue fellowship with the sexually immoral members. Then we read that the community is to have a judiciary to settle serious disputes between members. In many of today’s western churches, the pastor can leave his wife and marry another with no biblical discipline. Independent churches provide no court of appeal to deal with serious miscarriages of justice.  Mercy and grace are perverted to allow license. Then the press reported another scandal at a large church, this time in Atlanta. Didn’t we already know that the leader was sexually perverted? Yet the people continued to follow their corrupt bishop, and there was no process to remove him. The Church is being taught that we are all sinners so who can judge? But Paul said, such were some of you. He commanded us to judge those inside the Church (I Corinthians 4: 5). We do not understand that grace is a transforming power that leads to righteousness through identifying with Yeshua’s death and resurrection. We have no excuse for continuing to practice sin.

A few years ago I wrote a book called Due Process, a Plea for Biblical Justice Among God’s People (the new edition is now available on our web page).  The enforcing of standards is at a low point in the life of the western Church.  Only if churches enforce standards of righteousness will they have the power to positively influence society.

The Israeli Body of Believers

I have a dream and even have faith that God will turn this around before Yeshua returns. I think often about the Body of Believers in Israel. I have friendships with many leaders who believe in enforcing standards. Could God build such a quality of community life amongst believers in this Land that the community of believers here will bring change to the churches of the West? In some way, will the Torah go forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem … even before the Messiah Yeshua returns? It is my fond hope. It is certainly possible, since much of the world and many of the churches of the world have a focus on what is happening here. I am challenged and privileged to be a part of those working toward this end in Israel. May God pour out a spirit of repentance and revival for us all.

A dear friend works in a church connected to an apostolic leader who has published a book that argues for replacement theology. As most teachers who hold to this very wrong theology, he does not like to call his theology “replacement” but “fulfillment.”

According to this view, the church is the ongoing meaning of Israel. It is the fulfillment, and ethnic Israel is no longer the elect nation of God. My friend asked me to help him respond. In reflecting on this I thought it worthwhile to write something new on this for all of you. I hope it aids your understanding for both your teaching and your prayers.

A Brief History Of Replacement Theology

The Apostle Paul anticipated replacement theology when writing to the Roman Christians. There were already attitudes towards the Jews that could lead to this false teaching. Paul notes in the strongest terms that the covenants and the promisesstill belong to Israel (Romans 9:1).  He even asserts that Israel, which has not embraced Yeshua, is the elect andbeloved for the sake of the Patriarchs. Paul concludes the argument with this ringing affirmation: “The gifts and call of God (to Israel) are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28, 29).One wonders how Paul could have been clearer, as well as how one can still support replacement theology in the light of these verses.

The Church Fathers

The Church Fathers saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as the ultimate proof that God had once and for all rejected Israel as the elect nation.  Even though some taught that at the end of this age the Jews would believe, they still held to the belief that the Jews were never again to be the elect nation or to return to their land. An allegorical method of interpretation developed in order to maintain this view. Christians were taught that the promises concerning Israel that had not yet been fulfilled should be allegorically applied to the church. This did violence to the text because it rejected the natural reading of the scripture in context. The meaning was “spiritually” divorced from the intention of the author and the understanding of the intended audience.

Text after text about Israel’s ultimate re-gathering to the Land and the ultimate glory that would be received were twisted to mean something else.  The justification was that the New Testament speaks of the Church in terms that were used for ethnic Israel in the Hebrew Bible. However, these texts do not speak of Israel’s replacement but rather that the Church by analogy, has parallel meaning to Israel.

The Reformation And The Puritans

The Reformation gave us interpreters who interpreted scripture in context; in a natural and straightforward manner.  This led to the Puritan interpreters writing many books and articles asserting a positive future for ethnic Israel as God’s elect people.  Increase Mather of Harvard wrote a book on Romans 9-11, and interpreters like Elnathan Parr and Samuel Rutherford made strong pleas for the Jewish people. Some even predicted a return to the Land. This was the case with the great poet-theologian, John Milton, in Paradise Regained.

The classic apologetic textbook written by Joseph Butler in 1732, The Analogy of Religion, argued for the Jewish return to the land of Israel. The preservation of the Jews and their return to the Land was one of his arguments proving the truth of the Bible. Lutheran Pietists, Anglicans, Moravians, Methodists and Baptists made this view the consensus of the British Church of the early 19th century. John Nelson Darby in the mid 19th century, founder of Dispensational theology, developed his theology in this context. He agreed that Israel was elect and had a positive future but also added some strange distinctions in defining dispensations or ways of God’s working in different ages. Many replacement teachers in the Evangelical world today claim that those who believe in the election of ethnic Israel are Dispensationalists; this is a very wrong claim.

While we can point to the above positive historical trends, both Catholic thought and classical Calvinist thought maintained its replacement orientation, the latter having left Puritan interpretation. However, the Evangelical world in America largely went Dispensational and saw the theology of Israel in the context of Darby’s theology. This weakened their argument with replacement teachers.

The Post Holocaust Re-evaluation

After the Holocaust there was a very strong re-evaluation. The positive influence of Karl Barth, who in his Church Dogmatics wrote passionately on the continued election of Israel, influenced the mainline Protestant re-evaluation. Though replacement theology was not seen as logically anti-Semitic, it was perceived as a factor in allowing anti-Semitism to exist. Denomination after denomination rejected replacement theology in official documents and claimed that the Jewish people were elect. This led to a very positive feeling for Israel. Finally during the Vatican II Church Council, the Roman Catholic Church became the largest Church body to officially repudiate replacement theology and give ringing affirmation to the continued election of the Jewish people as distinctly chosen from all nations. This is now enshrined in the “New Catholic Catechism” and many other documents.

Replacement Theology is Re-asserted

Unfortunately, replacement theology is again rearing its ugly head. The mainline denominations have turned from Barth and his followers who gave us Neo-Orthodoxy and a higher regard for the biblical texts, though not an Evangelical high view of scriptural inspiration. With greater relativism taking hold, they were now subject to Arab propaganda. Palestinian mainline Christians, advocates for replacement theology, have brought mainline denominations to a point where they still hold to some tepid level of election for the Jewish people while turning against Israel and rejecting the present return to the Land. There has been unnecessary Palestinian suffering, but the relentless propaganda goes beyond any justification and has now produced an anti-Israel bias in these denominations.

In addition, in the Charismatic and Evangelical worlds, we find a new replacement theology growing up. Some professors at Wheaton College, the bastion of Evangelical education, are affirming replacement theology. This is of great concern to me. Yet, the bulk of the Evangelical world maintains a strong place for ethnic Israel in its theology, both from Dispensationalists and non-Dispensationalists like me.

Replacement Theology in Judaism and in Secular Jewish Thinking

Startling as it may be, there is a kind of Jewish replacement theology in Reform Judaism and secular Judaism.  The former no longer holds that the Jews are uniquely elect but that all peoples are equally chosen. If so, the universal election of all people replaces the view of the Jewish people as uniquely elect. All cultures have value and Judaism simply is said to be our culture. Secular Judaism has its own replacement view since no one is elect! These are very dangerous views and undercut the survival of our people. They undercut our courage and the reason to strive to survive as a people.

How Can People Be So Blind?

In a day when God is amazingly fulfilling prophecy and bringing our people back to the Land according to Ezekiel 36:24 and preparing them to receive the New Covenant, this replacement teaching is terribly unfortunate.  It robs the Church of its glorious role in making Israel jealous. It steals our rejoicing in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In a day when the saved remnant of Israel is growing steadily in numbers and quality, how can there be such blindness? May replacement theology die! We hope that the Church will see the truth and will show support in prayer and finances for the great move of God among our people.

A Surprising Controversy

Some years ago, a surprising controversy was covered by the Israeli press. The debate concerned plans of Israelis and Christian Zionists organizing joint events to support the State of Israel. One of the most important sponsoring organizations is the Christian Allies Caucus of the Israeli Knesset.  Amazingly, a woman on the Jerusalem City Council, Mina Fenton, succeeded in gaining a high level rabbinic ruling against these events. The rabbis declared it a violation of Halakhah (Jewish Law) for Jews to participate in these events. This decision was reviewed by the Chief Rabbis of Israel.

Fenton was a fierce opponent of Christian Zionists. This is foolish beyond belief because Christian Zionists are the backbone of support for the State of Israel in the United States and several other countries. Yet, she has one fear that cannot be challenged: that good relationships on a profound level between Christians and Jews will lead to a greater possibility of Jews being more open to the person of Yeshua. This is hardly a good reason to reject Israel’s friends, but one can understand her reasoning.

The Christian Zionist Mindset

Christian Zionist organizations are of two minds on the idea of relating to Messianic Jews.  Most profess that they do not support missionary activities.  However, some are supportive of Messianic Jews in a quiet background way and do not consider our own witness to our people to be missionary activity.  Others will not have any friendship with Messianic Jews and keep them at arms length at best. For some in the Jewish community, Christian Zionists will not be accepted as friends of Israel unless they condemn Messianic Jews. So far, none have been willing to do this.

Are there Common Jewish and Christian Values?

One of the rabbis opposing the then upcoming conferences shunned the sponsors for declaring that there is a common Judeo-Christian heritage of values. He stated that there is no such thing. I think it is worthwhile to respond to this statement. Do we have common values for which we should fight? I believe we do.

What are common Judeo-Christian values? One may argue that the values we hold in common are simply Jewish values, since they were embraced by Jews before Christianity existed. However, there are values that have developed in Western civilization through the influence of Christian leaders and are now strongly held among Jewish people. There are also distinctly New Covenant values that are not as clearly affirmed by Judaism. For example, the love of one’s enemy to the extent called for in the New Covenant is more pervasive in Christianity, though this is foreshadowed in traditional Jewish teaching.

Common Judeo-Christian Values which are Jewish Based

The Bible provides us with the Jewish and Christian belief that every human being is created in the image of God. Therefore every human being is of sacred worth and to be treated as an end and not as a means.  The Genesis 9 decree establishing the death penalty for anyone who takes innocent human life provides a clear example. Capital crimes are often based on the violation of human dignity. The values of marriage, exclusive sexual expression as part of marriage, the value of the pre-born child (though in Judaism not as a fully declared person), justice and fairness in the courts, integrity in government and so much more, are common values. Further, acknowledging God as sovereign over all, life after death (resurrection), and rewards and punishment after death according to the judgment of God, all form common beliefs and values. Dennis Praeger and Daniel Lapin are two famous rabbis who have pointed out these traditional commonalities. Sadly, we live in a time where secular relativistic agnosticism has eroded the commitment in the larger Jewish community to these values. This is also generally the case within societies in the West.

The Christian Addition to Common Values

I recommend Rodney Stark’s excellent book “The Victory of Reason.” He proves that the development of Christian values in the West had an enormous effect in developing political freedom, prosperity and social justice.  Though it took many centuries, the primary battle for freedom of conscience
was a Christian development.

Baptist Roger Williams in Rhode Island established the first state where genuine religious liberty was practiced, including the freedom to persuade another of one’s beliefs. This was in the 17th century. In addition, Christians led the battle to see all human beings treated equally.

The modern “Amazing Grace” gives us the wonderful story of the Evangelical-Anglican, William Wilberforce’s battle in Parliament to eliminate slavery in the British Empire. The main battle against slavery in America was also led by Evangelical abolitionists.

Today Jewish people have made such biblically based human values a major focus of Jewish conscience. For example Rabbi Joshua Abraham Heschel’s battle for civil rights and his stand with Martin Luther King. The recent claim from some British writers that religion has only produced evil in societies, especially with regard to Judaism and Christianity, is unfounded.

The Erosion of our Common Values

Today, we are seeing the erosion of common values due to the influence of secular relativism in the West. This is a terribly dangerous development that will lead to the coarsening of human life and much devastating pain.  The destruction of marriage and family are the greatest and most alarming trends. Our liberty within the law has been redefined as unrestrained license. This will eventually lead back to slavery. As John Adams, the second U.S. President, rightly argued; only self governing and moral people are truly free. The laws of a good society are supportive of our historic moral consensus.

Where Do We Go From Here?

As we face a false absolutism of radical Islam, it is crucial that we recover this common heritage of Judeo-Christian values. Israel and biblical Christians will have to stand against radical Islam and against the secular relativism of the West. The very existence of Israel is a testimony that God exists and His Law is absolute. This binds Christians to Israel. Societies dominated by secular relativism will appease Islam and will abandon Israel to do so. Secular relativists have no backbone.

In this regard, we need to pray that Israel and her Christian friends will foster a continued and growing cooperative effort.  We have said enough in the past to note that this does not mean supporting a radical right wing agenda for Israel, but rather a basic support of the just cause for a Jewish state.  We should pray that the attempts to destroy cooperation by such folks as Mina Fenton will be defeated.  We can also rejoice that Christian love for Israel and the Jewish people does indirectly have great effect in opening hearts to Yeshua.