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  • Law and Grace

    by H. Van Dyke Parunak

    CoverAbout the time that my book Except for Fornication (Energion, 2011) appeared, a gentleman with a troubled marital history visited our assembly. His wife had left him and married someone else. Then she left her new husband, and our friend joyfully announced one day that she wanted him to remarry her.
    If you’ve read my book, you’ll realize that the Lord’s prohibition of divorce and remarriage strongly affirms Moses’ instruction in Deut. 24:1-4. You’ll also understand that Moses is not presenting three laws in this passage, but just one: if a divorce takes place and if it is followed by remarriage, and if something happens to the second marriage, then the original couple is forbidden to remarry. Moses characterizes such remarriage as “abomination before the Lord.” I felt compelled to share this insight with our friend.
    His response was interesting. He didn’t challenge my analysis of Deuteronomy 24. He didn’t question my claim that the Lord’s teaching is based on that instruction, and reinforces it. His defense was, “I’m not under the law; I’m under grace.” What he meant is that the commands of Scripture are irrelevant to the daily life of a believer. He felt that the work of the Holy Spirit replaces the role of God’s written revelation, so that we are not bound by the old standards.
    Wow! I am certainly acquainted with the distinction that Paul draws between the letter (that is, the OT law) and the Spirit. I recognize the role of the Spirit in guiding the believer. But I’d never met somebody who was willing to jettison the authority of Scripture so directly. I should add that my friend would insist on the truth of the propositional content of the Bible. The point of disagreement was the third of Moses’ principles from Deut. 29:29, that God’s word is practical in the life of the believer today.
    Now, most of you would probably not agree with my friend’s bald rejection of God’s written commands. But one consequence of my analysis in the book is that the fornication “exception” isn’t really an exception. It doesn’t give Christians the excuse that many are seeking to get out of a painful relation. Faced with such a stringent instruction, some may be tempted to fall back on my friend’s logic in an attempt to evade our Lord’s plain teaching that marriage is permanent.
    I was so exercised by this discussion that I undertook a study on the role of the law in the Christian’s life. You can read it at http://www.cyber-chapel.org/LawAndTheChristianLife.pdf. I’ll summarize for you what I found.
    Recall from our discussion of intertextuality the Scriptural principle that new revelation is accepted only if it conforms to what has already been revealed. The Bible describes God’s righteous standard as everlasting:
    Ps. 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
    The standards of right and wrong have not changed over the years. Behavior that was abomination before God in the Old Testament is still abomination before him now. What has changed is how God conforms our lives to his standard. Under the old covenant, the constraint was external, the law of God enforced through a civil structure. Under the new covenant, those same righteous standards are embedded in our hearts by the work of the Spirit (Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 36:25-27).
    But that process of embedding takes time. It begins with a new birth, which yields a person that Paul calls a “babe in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1-3). The life of such a person looks like that of an unsaved person: ye … walk as men (1 Cor 3:3). At the other extreme is the spiritual believer, whose life is beyond reproach (1 Cor 2:15). John refines these two extremes into three levels of maturity: little children, young men, and fathers (1 John 2:12-14).
    This process of growth is nourished by the Word of God (1 Pet. 2:2), which includes the OT law. As young believers, we have not learned to recognize the Spirit’s guiding voice, and need the explicit instruction of Scripture. So it’s no surprise that when Paul is exhorting immature believers, he frequently gives lists of commands that sound a lot like the Old Testament law (Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:3-5), and sometimes even quotes the law for support (Eph. 6:28-31; 6:1-3; 1 Cor. 9:8-11). As we mature, the Spirit’s voice becomes clearer, and we know what is right and wrong without needing to cite chapter and verse. But the standard itself hasn’t changed, and God’s Spirit will never disagree with God’s Word. In fact, we are to test the spiritual voices we hear by their agreement with written revelation (1 John 4:1-3).
    We dare not discard the law of God. Romans 7, which describes a carnal believer (v. 14), shows that we should delight in the law of God (v. 22), even though we are frustrated with how far our lives differ from it (v. 24). The solution is not to discard the law, but (as Romans 8 goes on to show) to learn to recognize and follow the voice of the Holy Spirit, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (8:4).

    To order Except for Fornication, click here:
    https://energiondirect.info/biblical-studies/except-for-fornication

     
     

  • The Authority of Scripture

    by H. Van Dyke Parunak

    CoverReaders of Except for Fornication (Energion, 2011) will recognize that I hold a very high view of Scripture. In my own pilgrimage, I find Deut. 29:29 a useful guide to the implications of such a view, and it shaped the exposition in the book.
    “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
    Let me share these implications with you.
    The first insight is that there are secret things that are in principle inaccessible to us. When I graduated from Dallas Seminary, and then added a Ph.D. from Harvard in preparation (I thought) for a teaching career, I believed that if I knew Hebrew and Greek (and Ugaritic, and Akkadian, and Syriac, and …) well enough, and were expert enough in the cultures of the ancient world, I could resolve any question about the Bible. This attitude has a parallel in the physical world. The eighteenth century French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace thought that someone who knew the position and velocity of every particle in the universe at a point in time could reconstruct the entire history of the universe, past and future. This view of a clockwork universe fell into disrepute in the last century, with two developments. The first, quantum mechanics, claims that one can only predict the universe probabilistically. The second is more severe. The growing understanding of chaotic regimes in nonlinear systems led to the realization that for some systems (including most realistic ones), we can’t even make probabilistic forecasts very far into the system. It appears to be part of the nature of the universe that there are secret things that are inaccessible to human reason.
    Moses would not be surprised. He told us 3400 years ago that God has secret things. Moses’ concern is less with the equations of physics and more with God’s revelation of himself. Revelation is, he asserts, partial. The best exegetical tools in the world do not entitle us to claim an answer for any question we choose to ask. God has reserved some answers for himself. Often these reserved answers include those to the question “Why?” that we, like petulant children, like to throw back against God’s commands. Our parents sometimes refused to answer anything more than “Because I said so.” Similarly, God sometimes does not explain his moral imperatives such as his prohibition of divorce and remarriage. As I worked through what the Bible commands about divorce, often I would ask, “Why must it be this way?” I would love to be able to give my readers a complete account of God’s reasons for his commands, but I can’t always find them. Moses’ first principle suggests that they may simply not be part of what he has chosen to reveal.
    The second insight is that what God has revealed is just that, a revelation. One ought not to need years of study of arcane lore to discern the mind of God. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize that the most important Bible study tool is a deep and broad knowledge of the rest of Scripture. The value of intertextuality, highlighted in my previous blog, reflects this principle. The solution to the fornication puzzle in Matthew doesn’t rely on lots of linguistic details. Even the dual meaning of απολυω, which turns out to be the crux of the puzzle, doesn’t require in-depth knowledge of other Greek literature, but can be demonstrated within the biblical text itself (though I do give other examples for those who may be skeptical). I think it’s fair to expect God’s people to learn to read the Scriptures in the languages in which he gave them, and I have known people who have acquired such capability without the benefit of seminary. So I don’t apologize for pointing out how a particular Greek word is used elsewhere in the NT or in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). But God has given his word to tell us something, not to play games with us. We can expect it to be plain, once we see the answer. I’ve tried to make my understanding of the fornication clause clear in the book. You will have to judge whether I’ve done justice to the principle that God’s revelation is plain.
    The third insight is that God’s revelation is practical, “that we may do all the words of this law.” The Lord has really had to deal with me on this principle. The student in me loves to figure out the propositional content of Scripture. The flesh in me struggles against God’s expectation that having understood it, I will do it. There is a solution to this dilemma. Paul outlines it in Romans 7-8, and I will discuss it in my next posting. Our Lord cares at least as much about our orthopraxy as he does our orthodoxy. We can confess every element of the creed, but if we don’t obey the Lord, he will not be happy with us. My greatest burden in writing Except for Fornication is not to establish a theoretical understanding of the text, but to help saints who are wrestling with the pain of marital strife to reach a decision that will honor the Lord.
    God’s revelation is partial, but it is plain, and it is practical. That perspective is humbling to those who have devoted years of study to abstruse knowledge and abstract theology, but it ought to be a great encouragement to ordinary believers.

    To order Except for Fornication, click here:
    https://energiondirect.info/biblical-studies/except-for-fornication

     

  • Comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual

    by H. Van Dyke Parunak

    CoverIn studying the fornication clause in our Lord’s teaching on divorce and remarriage (Except for Fornication, Energion, 2011), I was impressed with how much later portions of the Bible assume the reader’s familiarity with earlier portions. (A scholar would call this phenomenon “intertextuality.”) In my book, the central insight is the dependence of our Lord’s words on Deuteronomy 22 and 24, along with his deliberate avoidance of the Old Testament vocabulary for divorce. Instead, he uses a contemporary term that (again based on the Old Testament) has a double meaning that is central to his position. I hope that these insights enable readers to come to understand the true meaning of the fornication clause. More generally, I hope they inspire readers to look for such linkages on other topics elsewhere in the Bible as well.
    The longer I study the Bible, the more I am impressed with how often such references to earlier revelation occur. We ought not to be surprised at such references. Throughout biblical history, the people of God are challenged to evaluate new ideas by comparing them with earlier revelation. In Deut 13:12-17, Moses warns the nation not to tolerate the introduction of “other gods, whom you have not known” (v. 13). The Lord succinctly states the principle in Isaiah 8:19-20:
    And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
    God’s people are to reject any new revelation that does not conform to previous revelation. Our Lord makes the same point when he says,  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. [Matt. 5:17-18]

    So it is entirely natural that a New Testament teacher would draw heavily from Old Testament passages in expressing his meaning. It is a way of assuring his hearers that he is not departing from the received truth, but rather building upon it.
    This linkage of new writings to older ones happens within each testament, as well as between them. In the OT, Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving in 1 Samuel 2 draws heavily on the patriarchal narratives in Genesis. The prophets are full of allusions to Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Proverbs, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel refer constantly to Isaiah. Within the NT, the book of Acts clearly reflects the teaching of the synoptic gospels, Paul regularly refers to the earthly teaching of the Lord Jesus, and the general epistles draw heavily on the Sermon on the Mount.
    Of course, applying this method requires that the Bible student take a position with regard to the dates of the various biblical books. Modern “scholarship” often claims to reverse the dates that the biblical authors claim for their own works. Perhaps that’s why many commentators overlook these references between different parts of the Bible. For example, I believe that Moses wrote Deut. 18:20-22 in the second millennium B.C., so to me that passage sheds a great deal of light on the imprisonment of Micaiah in 2 Kings 22 (ninth century B.C.). However, many modern scholars think that Deuteronomy is a product of Josiah’s reform in the late seventh century B.C., long after the time of Micaiah, so they would never make this connection. My own commitment to the accuracy of Scripture leads me to accept the text’s own claims for its dating, and my personal experience is that the resulting sequence yields rich insights in later passages. Try taking this approach, and see what you find.

    To order Except for Fornication, click here:
    https://energiondirect.info/biblical-studies/except-for-fornication

  • Why don’t Christians have peace in this world?

    by Chris Surber

    RenderingIn John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (ESV) The promise of peace is common in the Bible but it is rare in the lives of Christians. In fact, I’d say the opposite is true. We not only don’t have peace in our lives, but there is a veritable epidemic of anxiety among Christians.
    Why don’t Christians have peace in this world?
    Interestingly, and I’m speaking almost entirely from personal experience, persecuted Christians have a greater sense of peace than Christians in the west. From conversations with friends of mine who work with persecuted churches around the world, those Christians have a depth of presence of God that we seldom see among American Christians.
    Very poor Christians in Haiti, where I minister and have many Christian friends, tend to have a kind of depth of faith in God I seldom see in America. As a Pastor I can attest to the frequency of counsel I provide for followers of Jesus who follow Him while wringing their hands, clenching their teeth, and pausing occasionally to take their anxiety and blood pressure medications. Something is very wrong.
    I’m convinced that at least a part of the problem, and maybe even its foundation, is the reality that a significant part of our hearts’ affection has been stolen by Caesar. We have forfeited peace for political influence. We have traded a contended heart for angst over the next election. The world asked for the Church’s hand in marriage and we said, “Sure, as long as you’ll give me a place at the table of political influence.”
    In my book, Rendering Unto Caesar, I wrote, “We decry society for taking Christ out of Christmas but we have removed Him from Christian discipleship. We condemn the immorality common in the world instead of living holy lives as a people apart from the world. We are filled with anxiety because we are filled every kind of care of this world. Caesar has taken something that is not his – our affections – and consequently, we are filled with anxiety.” (Page 36)
    Today’s Conservative Christian spends more time in the voting booth than in the prayer closet. We lack peace because we are filled with concern over the world’s problems rather than the presence of the only one who solves problems.
    John Wesley said it this way, “My soul, thou canst not be fully comforted, nor have perfect delight but in God, the comforter of the poor, and the helper of the humble. Wait a while, O my soul, wait the Divine promise, and thou shalt have abundance of all good things. Use temporal things, desire eternal.” (John Wesley, The Christian’s Pattern (Salem, OHIO: Schmul Publishers, 1975), 67.)
    We will never have peace so long as we wrestle in this world with problems that will never cease, instead of resting in the One who has already given us eternal answers to our eternal problems.

     

  • Should Christians get involved in politics?

    by Chris Surber

    RenderingPolitical elections in Haiti are always difficult. My family and I are living and doing ministry in Haiti this year. From demonstrations to riots, corruption and coercion, what we witnessed this year, first hand, makes me wonder if political involvement ought to be even an option for a Christian. On the other hand, I wonder if there is any hope for politics to become a benevolent force in Haiti without Christians becoming very actively engaged.
    Should Christians get involved in politics?
    By involvement, I’m begging a discussion on a spectrum of possible levels of involvement. Should Christians even vote? When they do they are taking part in what is very often a farce, an illusion of Democracy. Further, who says that anything about Democracy is inherently godly or even beneficial in any way to the Gospel message? Democracy has its roots in Greek philosophy more than the Bible, doesn’t it?
    What about running for office? Christians often get involved in politics in an effort to shine a light into a dark arena of society only to find politics putting a lampshade over their light. I’m convinced that any Christian that gets involved in politics on any level is in serious danger of losing themselves to the allure of power and prowess that is inherent to the political process.
    In my book Rendering Unto Caesar, I wrote, “Every Christian who makes it their burden to cling to political leaders, and to press political ideologies as though they have the power to bring more hope into the world, will only find themselves filled with more anxiety and less peace. The hope of Christ can only be found in distinctly Christian gatherings of transformed sinners. That hope can never be pressed into or pushed upon the kingdoms of the world, no matter how hard or sincerely we press.” (Page 35)
    Living a year in Haiti has made me both much more appreciative of the freedoms and democracy we enjoy in America and less inclined to trust in it. I love being an American, but even the best kingdom of this world can never be fully just. I’m convinced that while we should influence as we are able, vote for the candidates that most closely reflect godly principles for society, followers of Jesus must follow Jesus on a parallel path to politics, not in step with politics.
    Apart from a distinct call from God through the leading of the Holy Spirit into a political arena, I’m convinced that followers of Christ will walk closer to God the further from the political process that they walk. I’ve never walked through mud without getting muddy, and no matter how much pure water your pour on mud it will still be dirty. Better to purify the world one repentant sinner at a time than to pour pure living water into the mire of modern politics.
    If you walk to the political road as a Christian you better walk it very carefully, or rather than shinning a light, you’ll have your light covered.

     

  • Can the Kingdom ever come through our engagement in politics?

    by Chris Surber

    RenderingWhat is the central mission of the individual Christian? What is the central mission of the Church? How can any person be effective at any thing if they fail to identify with clarity their central mission? A lot of believers today are living as though their central mission was to purify society – to somehow inaugurate the Kingdom through our effort in this world. But it is it?
    Can the Kingdom ever come through our engagement in politics?
    In Romans 8:19-23 the Apostle Paul writes,
    For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (ESV)
    I hate to be a pessimist, but the simple answer is no. The Scripture makes it pretty clear in this passage that the world is an agony because of the curse of sin and even though we have the Holy Spirit in us, we are in agony in this groaning world, too. What is inside of us is a foretaste of future glory that will only be inaugurated when Christ returns.
    I remember when I was in the ninth grade and on the journey of faith. A discussion arose in my social studies class about making the world a better place. In typical adolescent fashion, most of the class droned on with idealistic, inexperienced, enthusiastic rabble. I added my thoughts saying that the world is corrupt. The world is full of corrupt people. The world will always be corrupt until Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom in fullness and recreate this world.
    I can remember the teacher’s words perfectly. “I’ve never met anyone as articulately cynical as you and you’re only fourteen.” My response? (After I asked him the definition of cynical…) “I’m not cynical. I’m hopeful about Christ’s return and realistic about what I’ve seen in the world.” There is no hope in politics. I’m not saying that Christians can’t make efforts to influence the political process. I’m saying that it cannot be a central or even a closely guarded interest of the Church or of individual Christians.
    Pray for your nation, vote, even run for an office, but be very careful about guarding your heart that it is not corrupted by a false hope in a fading world.
    In my book, Rendering Unto Caesar, I wrote, “Battle axes don’t belong on harvest fields. Sadly, many Christians today approach the spiritual battles that wage all around us in our land and in the world from a purely worldly vantage point. As a result, we are losing the wars.” The Kingdom of God is today a spiritual Kingdom whose primary influence is through spiritual battles, evangelism, and Christ-like witness in the world. (Acts 1:8, Ephesians 6:10-20, I Peter 2:12)
    The Kingdom will come in fullness when Christ comes in flesh. Guard your hearts from the corrupting influence of evil men concerned more with worldly kingdoms than godly influence.

  • Video: Stewardship after the Cross

    Tithing cover

    Steve Kindle, author of Stewardship: God’s way of recreating the world, and David Croteau, who wrote Tithing after the Cross, engage in a discussion of how best to understand the way to honor God with our resources and our lives. Although they agree in principle, their approaches differ, but are not in conflict.
    We’d love to hear your reaction in the Comments section, below. If you’d like to order the books, just click on the cover pictures.
    Here’s the link to the video: (It’s about an hour): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvv1BVyUss

  • A Christian Theology of Dialogue

    A Christian Theology of Dialogue

    by Henry Neufeld

    Not Ashamed“Why would you even consider publishing that book?” is one of the more common questions I’m asked as a Christian publisher. Well, that or questions very much like it. Behind these questions lies the idea that I should recognize a particular view of the faith and of ethical issues and then publish things that support this view. Often this hypothetical view is identified as the TRUTH.
    There are a few excellent answers to this question. I can point out that I doubt my ability to fully identify absolute truth so as to limit my proclamation to only that which is absolutely true. And no, I don’t trust your ability to identify that absolute truth any more than I trust mine. Because I cannot ever be certain that I have found absolute truth, I believe that it is imperative that we never waver or lose heart in our search for it. The search does not mean that we never make decisions or that we cannot have clear ethical principles. What it does mean is that we have the confidence needed to open those principles to constant examination. Maturity is not a destination; it is a constant and repeated process of growth.
    I can also quote verses such as Matthew 7:12, also known as the golden rule. This is often a good guide for behavior and it does apply to dialogue. When you have something to say, do you want other people to ignore it, dismiss it, or misrepresent it? No! You want them to listen. The golden rule suggests that you do the same thing for them.
    But in reality, my view of dialogue as a Christian comes directly from my view of the incarnation. No, I don’t mean the detailed issues of just how the incarnation worked, or how one can properly describe the nature of Jesus as the Christ. Rather, I refer to the practical impact of the incarnation.
    As I said in my book, Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic,

    I’m sharing my experiences and my understanding of those experiences. I’d like you to come alongside and try to understand me and dialogue with me through the words of this book. But I view this sharing much as I view the way God shared with humanity through Jesus. He is infinite, or something so close to that we can’t tell the difference, and we are finite. In Jesus God crossed that gap—by definition as wide a gap as is possible—and asked us to share with him. I’m speaking across a much narrower gap, infinitely narrower, and I’m asking you to share with me. God is not the God of the gaps—the one who fills in the spaces where we don’t understand. He is the God who crosses gaps, and invites us to cross them with him and for him.

    Everything is from God, who was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, and who has given us the task of reconciliation.– 2 Corinthians 5:18 (pp. v-vi)

    In the incarnation God certainly reached out to us to speak to us, but God also heard from us. Jesus lived as one of us, learned as one of us, and experienced life and death as we do. I believe that picturing this as a one-way street does not live up to all the scriptures that we have nor do they live up to spiritual experience. God joined in our experiences.
    If we are to live with integrity as followers of this Jesus, we cannot cut off communication, which is a key way in which we can continue to test our understanding of the truth and to improve our understanding of it. In a very real way this is how we can become more God-like.
    Again let me quote what I said in Not Ashamed of the Gospel:

    Lonely Christianity is not an option. I don’t mean routine church services each week with formal greetings in the few minutes provided by the order of service. I’m suggesting long term, deep relationships with people you care about and who care about you. I mean seeking relationships where you don’t have them. I mean seeking relationships without an ulterior motive. Don’t go out making relationships in the hopes that the person will go to church with you and become a Christian. Seek relationships because you care, and because you enjoy that God-like activity. You are never more God-like than when you open your heart’s door to another person. The more different they are, the more God-like that action is. (p. 32)

    I say this as a person who is an introvert, someone who does not find it easy to build relationships. I prefer a small number of close connections, but often find myself engaged in many. This is what I mean by gap-crossing.
    So what subjects are out of bounds? I would suggest that when we can no longer discuss a subject, when it is no longer subject to examination, we have cut off an important avenue for growth. This should be even more true of subjects on which we are near absolute certainty.
    God was not put off by the distance between heaven and earth in the incarnation. God communicated with us through the Son. We must never be put off by the much smaller distance between us and one another. Can our fellow human beings possibly seem as distant from us as we have seemed from God?
    This has become the foundation of my view of publishing and of Christian education. There are two aspects tied together. First, an ever more open communication with God through prayer, study, and spiritual disciplines. (And by study I mean much more, but never less than Bible study; everything in the universe in some way reflects the God who created it.) But second, a constant effort to better understand one another, which in turn feeds back into the first.
    Is there ever a conclusion? For the individual, yes. Not a conclusion to communication, but rather we do come to an understanding of God’s will for us that we can live with. We will certainly form fellowships and organizations to support particular ideas. These may be selective and include people who support a common goal. But that doesn’t mean that those groups need to cut off those of other views from communication. I work to facilitate that communication and that continuous growth, as by beholding we become changed.
    One might even call this the operation of the two laws: Love for God and love for one another. And that, after all, is what is to characterize believers. It seems to me that the same thing is what grows believers as well.

  • The Jews Killed Jesus, Didn't They?

    by Nancy Petrey

    Care RootsThe fact that the Church has Jewish roots escaped my notice as a Christian until twenty years ago. I had a rude awakening when I attended an “Israel in Prophecy” Conference. I was shaken to learn that the “Father of the Protestant Reformation,” Martin Luther, the one who wrote the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” had also written a booklet, “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies.” This booklet was published by Goebbels in 1936 and became official Nazi propaganda![1] I learned that Luther was influenced by replacement theology, the belief that the Jews had killed Jesus, so God had rejected them as His chosen people and replaced them with the mostly Gentile Church. Replacement theology, a deadly virus, would give God’s covenants, promises, and blessings to the Church and leave the curses to the Jews. The process that cut off the Jewish roots of the Church began around A.D. 135 and was made official by Constantine at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. At that time pagan practices took root instead! Anti-Semitism flourished in the Church and found expression in the Crusades, the Inquisition and, finally, the Holocaust.
    Whole denominations of the Church have been taught that God rejected the Jews, because they were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion. They ignore the fact that Jesus willingly laid down His life, and that the Jewish religious leaders (not the multitudes of Jews who followed Jesus), in complicity with the Gentile Romans, put Him to death. However, a distinct Hebrew Roots movement began emerging in the mid-1990s.[2] Today many Christians are getting reconnected to their Jewish roots, as God has revealed to them the tremendous debt the Church owes to the Jewish people through whom we received our Messiah and the Scriptures. Attention has now been given to Paul’s admonition that we “wild branches,” Gentile believers, have been grafted into the Jewish olive tree, and that we should not boast against the natural branches, the Jews. It is the root which supports us. We have received our nourishment from their cultivated tree.[3]
    Since my attendance at that conference in 1995, I have become aware that the Church was born on a Jewish feast day (Shavuot/Pentecost), and Jewish apostles, including Paul, spread the gospel. The first fifteen bishops of the Church were not only Jewish but relatives of Jesus Christ![4] There were possibly no Gentile members until ten years later.
    My little book of forty pages, Why Christians Should Care About Their Jewish Roots, is a great resource for Christians to help them align with God’s purposes in the end times, thereby preparing the way of the Lord as He returns to Jerusalem. Don’t forget that Jesus was born King of the Jews and died as King of the Jews. Our Messiah is Jewish! How fitting that the King of kings and Lord of lords will reign over the world from Jewish Jerusalem, another proof of the Jewishness of Christianity.
    Every pastor should have a copy of this book, not only for the reasons already stated but to help his people become aware of and guard against a new form of anti-Semitism, which is anti-Zionism. Replacement theology and Palestinian liberation theology[5] have combined to give birth to the BDS  movement (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) against Israel, the Zionist nation.  Some churches and Christian leaders have bought into the Palestinian narrative – “everything’s Israel’s fault.” Exposing the error of this disguised anti-Semitism was one of my objectives in writing the book. Be aware that those who bless Israel are blessed, and those who curse Israel are cursed (Gen. 12:3).
    Did the Jews Kill Jesus? What is your answer to that question?   My answer is that all of us who claim Jesus as Savior and Lord, both Jews and Gentiles, are the ones who killed Jesus, because He died for our sins. He willingly gave His life, so we could be forgiven and have eternal life.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies
    [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots
    [3] Romans 11:11-32
    [4] Dr. Ron Moseley, Yeshua, A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Early Church (Baltimore: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1996, p. xviii), p. 11 citing Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History.
    [5] Based on social justice as seen through the eyes of the poor. Detractors call it “Christianized Marxism.”

  • Have You Thought About Your Legacy?

    Jewish Roots

    by Nancy Petrey

    This idea of a legacy kept popping up over a period of time, until I decided to get some things down on paper that my family would never know about me unless I told them. I wanted them to understand the special call God had given me, so they could embrace it themselves and pass it on to succeeding generations. I reasoned that unless I gave an account of where God had led me and what He had taught me, they may have just passed off my travels and activities as eccentric behavior or merely a phase I was going through.

    God called me to be a Mizpah for Israel twenty years ago, and it hasn’t been a passing phase. I have been a watchman and a witness. I wrote it all down just like God told Habakkuk to do: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it” (Hab. 2:2). My “vision” was published as Jewish Roots Journey, Memoirs of a Mizpah, and you can even read it on your tablet! It is in paperback form also.
    God revealed so many things to me and woke me up to see that Christianity is Jewish, Jesus is Jewish, the first church was Jewish, the Bible has Jewish authors, and Jesus is coming back to Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, and will rule the whole world from there.
    As a result of my call, I have made seven trips to Israel, have studied Hebrew, have led Israel prayer groups and Passover Seders, supported Jewish ministries, hosted speakers from Israel, obtained a master’s degree in Religious Education in Middle East History, and have taught community Bible studies.
    As I tell of my experiences both in and out of Israel, I include scriptural nuggets of truth. I point to fulfillment of prophecy in the increase of Jews making aliyah (immigration to Israel) and show how the Hebrew alphabet is a picture language, portraying the Messiah, plus more.
    Some of the things that have happened to me in my journey make for interesting reading. The reader can find out what happened when —

    • They laughed at me as I received my Master’s Degree diploma.
    • I was invited to go onstage and dance at a folk music program in Jerusalem.
    • Janice and I were searched, interrogated, searched, and interrogated again at the JFK airport waiting to board the plane to Israel.
    • I confronted the thief who picked my pocket in the Old City!
    • Janice and I each received a check for $3,333.33 to pay for our trip to Israel.
    • I actually visited ancient Mizpah on my second trip to Israel.
    • Jennifer Griffin of Fox News called me from Jerusalem and said it was too dangerous to come to Israel because of an increase in suicide bombings!
    • Janice tells about the time she had a vision of Jesus in the synagogue!

    My book is part of the legacy I am leaving to my children and grandchildren of how I have put my faith into action and have passed on to others what I learned about the Jewish roots of the Church – past, present and future. And the future part is really getting exciting in these days!
    I pray that my family and other people will be inspired by my Jewish roots journey and will catch the vision and “run with it!”

                Every person is leaving a legacy. It can be positive or negative. What is your legacy?

    If you’d like to purchase this book go to: http://direct.energion.co/authors/authors-n-s/nancy-petrey/jewish-roots-journey

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