The Jewish Roots of Christianity

Lubavitcher Rebbe: Leader of a non-Christian Jewish group that is promoting the idea of the coming of the Messiah among Jews. Many thought the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, was the Messiah.

Baba Baruch: Ultra-Orthodox rabbi who is very influential in politics.

Luke 21:24: Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

REPENTANCE FOR CHRISTIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Micah 5:3-4: Therefore, he [God] will give them [Israel] up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. And the rest of his brethren [Gentile believers in Jesus] will return to [repent concerning] the sons of Israel. And he [Messiah] will stand up and shepherd in the strength of the Lord.... And they will live, because at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth.

John 19:23: The soldiers [Roman soldiers] therefore, when they had crucified Jesus...

Mark 15:15: And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate [the Roman governor of Judea]...delivered him [Jesus] to be crucified.

Matt. 27:27-30: Then the soldiers...took Jesus...and gathered the whole cohort [300-600 Roman soldiers].... And they stripped him...and mocked him.... And they spat on him...and were beating him on the head.

Mark 10:33-34: The Son of Man will be betrayed to the [Jewish] high priests and the scribes; and they will condemn him to death, and they will deliver him to the Gentiles, and they [the Gentiles] will mock him and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him.

Matt. 27:25: His blood be on us and on our children.

Matt. 23:36: Truly I say to you, all these things will come on this generation.

Rom. 11:1: I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be!.... God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

Replacement Theology: The view that God has replaced Israel with the Church in his plan.

Eph. 2:12,19: Remember that you were at that time without Christ [Messiah], being alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise.... [But now] You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.

NEW COVENANT AND OLD COVENANT

Matt. 5:17: Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets.

Rom. 10:4: For Christ [Messiah] is the goal of the Law.

Gal. 3:13: Christ [Messiah] redeemed us from the curse of the Law

Rom. 7:12: So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Gal. 3:10: For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the scroll of the Law, to do them’ (Deut. 27:26).

Col. 2:13-14: Jesus has forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Heb. 8:6: He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted-as-law [the literal meaning of the Greek verb nomotheteomai] on better promises.

Gal. 3:17: The Law...does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.

(1 Cor. 9:20: Though not being myself under the Law (also Gal. 5:18)

(1 Cor. 9:21: But I am under the Law of Messiah)

THE PROPHETIC FUTURE

Rom. 11:11,15: Now if their [the Jews’] transgression is riches for the world and their loss [when most rejected Christ] is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness be!... For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be, if not life from the dead?

Rom. 11:25: A partial hardening has happened to Israel while the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.

Rev. 7:4: And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel

Rev. 7:1: I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds…so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.

Rom. 11:32: God has shut up all in disobedience that he might show mercy to all.

(INVALID ATTEMPTS AT RESTORATION

(1) The requirement that Gentile Christians obey the Law of Moses. This was rejected not only by the Council of Acts 15 (see Lecture 1a & 1b of this seminar), but also by the Law of Moses itself. Separate legal requirements for Israelites and Gentiles were maintained in the time of the kings of Israel and in the synagogues in the time of the New Testament. A distinction with regard to the Law between Jews and Gentiles (even Bible-believing Gentiles) is a common theme through the entire history of Israel right up until today. Though Paul teaches a spiritual unity of the faith for all believers, he maintains this distinction with regard to the Jewish Law.

(2) Telling Gentile Christians they must obey the Law, but then letting them pick and choose what to obey.

Gal. 5:3: And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision [i.e. who comes under the Law] that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

James 2:10: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all

(3) The belief that voluntary observance of the Law by Gentile Christians increases our righteousness in any way.

Gal. 5:4: You are released [i.e. divorced] from Messiah, you who are made righteous by the Law, you have forfeited grace

Eph. 1:3: Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies by means of Messiah

(VALID ATTEMPTS AT RESTORATION

(1) Observing the Law of Messiah as the completion of the Law of Moses (valuing the heritage, and celebrating its fulfillment in Messiah)

(2) Preserving the unique identity and calling of the “two witnesses”: The Jewish believers in Messiah on one side, and the Gentile believers in Messiah on the other.

(3) Valuing the positive side of Church history, while studying and teaching the many errors of the past so they will never be repeated (just as the Bible does with Jewish history).

(4) Seeking dialogue with those we disagree with.