ANTI-SEMITISM AMONG CHRISTIANS
We Christians wonder why the Jews can’t see the truth about Jesus being the Messiah and yet here we are not also seeing the truth about the Torah and what the Jews believe in. What makes us any different? What makes us better than the Jews if we can’t even accept God’s foundational teachings on His Torah, or if we can’t even receive any teaching about Jesus’ Jewish roots or about the Feasts of the Lord? So many Christians, including myself in the past, are so clueless about the very essence of our belief. We are clueless about the unity we are to build with our Jewish brothers. And are we forgetting what Paul said in Romans 11 that we were just grafted in, meaning we were adopted into God’s family and that if God did not spare the natural branches, He can cut us off too? What a prideful spirit we Christians have!
Honestly, the deeper I get into an understanding of Jesus’ Hebraic roots and the more attuned I get to the Messianic movement, the more I see how huge “Anti-Semitism” is in Christian churches. Incidentally, Anti-Semitism is defined by Wikipedia as suspicion of, hatred toward or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage.
The few times that I posted on facebook some Hebraic-related articles, I got hit so hard by my brothers and sisters in the Lord. One sister in the Lord told me, “YOU ARE NOT A JEW” just because I said “Shalom”. Another brother in the Lord rebuked me for calling Jesus by His real name Yeshua. Even me calling our God by His real name, YHVH was questioned by another Christian. Come on ... you don’t have to be super smart to understand that it was the Hebrew words I used that freaked them out. It’s almost like they don’t want to hear anything Hebraic. Where is this coming from?
Then another sister in the Lord told me that the Jews I am talking about are not even the real Jews. I mean, who are we to tell who is a real Jew or not? The Bible talks about the nation of Israel as God’s own people. Whether they have truly believed and followed God or not is out of the question here. God chose them.
Let me quote verbatim what the apostle Paul himself said about the Jews and us, Gentiles, in Romans 11. I have underlined the most important points I want to stress in this article and will also put my explanation to it.
7 So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened. 8 As the Scriptures say, “God has put them into a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear.”
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. 12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
God’s people have stumbled to give way to our salvation. Whoa! We owe our salvation to them. And if we were so privileged to have received Jesus because of their stumbling, it will be a greater blessing when they finally accept Jesus as the Messiah. Who else can point them to the Messiah but us, who know the Messiah? Do you see my point here? How can we win the Jews to Jesus if we don’t even want to have anything to do with them? How can we even begin to talk to them if we don’t understand where they are coming from? How can we be credible enough to witness the Gospel to them if we don’t even understand the roots of the Gospel which is in the Torah? How can we relate to them if we don't even practice and observe their feasts?
13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, 14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. 15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! 16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. 18 But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.
The covenant that God made through Abraham was extended to us, Gentiles. It was not given to us first but was extended to us. This is why we are partakers of the blessing that God promised to Israel through Abraham. How dare we brag about us being saved, and the Jews not. We are just a branch and not the root, as Paul is saying here. Our Jesus who died on the cross is every inch a Jew, in case you are forgetting. He has the title “King of the Jews”.
19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. 21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either.
This is powerful! God can cut us off from the tree if we think highly of ourselves.
22 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. 23 And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. 24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.
God is more than willing, and is eager, and is waiting to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong. He loves Israel so much. And if we love God then we should love those He loves. It should be our main concern as Christians to reach out to our Jewish brothers and sisters and extend to them the love of Yeshua, with the hope of bringing them back to where they belong.
Renew your minds Christians. Stop thinking that by going back to the teachings of the Old Testament we are going back to works. Stop thinking that we should not observe the Feasts of the Lord because they are part of the old covenant that Jesus got away with. We were saved by grace and this same grace is what will help us understand and obey the laws that God Himself established in the Torah, including the right observance of the feasts. Jesus being our great High Priest and the ultimate sacrifice for our sins shows that through Jesus we can fulfill what the people of Israel failed to fulfill.
Look at these verses in Romans 8 ...
2 For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.
3 For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],
4 So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].
"God has done what the Law could not do". The Law could not save God's chosen people from their sins. Following God's law will not bring about salvation. However, verse 4 says that Jesus came "so that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit". This message is crystal clear. What the Jews failed to do, we can do better because we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit to fulfill it the way God wants it.
Finally, remember that Jesus Himself fulfilled the spring Feasts of the Lord. He fulfilled the Passover when He broke bread with His disciples; the Unleavened Bread when He died on the cross; and the Firstfruits when He resurrected from the dead. The summer feast, Pentecost, has been fulfilled too. However, we are still waiting for the fulfillment of the Fall Feasts: Rosh Hashana (rapture); Yom Kippur (judgment day); and Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles (new heavens and the new earth).
I am challenging you now my fellow believers of Jesus Christ. I am challenging you to start embracing the Jews, their beliefs, and their teachings, not for you to veer away from what Jesus has taught us but to reinforce what we already know. Start by reading your Torah (first five books of the Bible) more than ever. Study the feasts of the Lord and its relevance to our times (http://www.godzgurlz.com/the-feasts-of-the-lord.html). Listen to the teachings of Hebraic teachers like Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries (http://elshaddaiministries.us/).
Believe me, once you begin to understand all these, you will not even stop. You will realize how much you’ve been missing. You will be so hungry for more of Jesus. You will start looking at His teachings in a more profound way. You will discover secrets you’ve never known.
~Lisa Maki~
Honestly, the deeper I get into an understanding of Jesus’ Hebraic roots and the more attuned I get to the Messianic movement, the more I see how huge “Anti-Semitism” is in Christian churches. Incidentally, Anti-Semitism is defined by Wikipedia as suspicion of, hatred toward or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage.
The few times that I posted on facebook some Hebraic-related articles, I got hit so hard by my brothers and sisters in the Lord. One sister in the Lord told me, “YOU ARE NOT A JEW” just because I said “Shalom”. Another brother in the Lord rebuked me for calling Jesus by His real name Yeshua. Even me calling our God by His real name, YHVH was questioned by another Christian. Come on ... you don’t have to be super smart to understand that it was the Hebrew words I used that freaked them out. It’s almost like they don’t want to hear anything Hebraic. Where is this coming from?
Then another sister in the Lord told me that the Jews I am talking about are not even the real Jews. I mean, who are we to tell who is a real Jew or not? The Bible talks about the nation of Israel as God’s own people. Whether they have truly believed and followed God or not is out of the question here. God chose them.
Let me quote verbatim what the apostle Paul himself said about the Jews and us, Gentiles, in Romans 11. I have underlined the most important points I want to stress in this article and will also put my explanation to it.
7 So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened. 8 As the Scriptures say, “God has put them into a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear.”
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. 12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
God’s people have stumbled to give way to our salvation. Whoa! We owe our salvation to them. And if we were so privileged to have received Jesus because of their stumbling, it will be a greater blessing when they finally accept Jesus as the Messiah. Who else can point them to the Messiah but us, who know the Messiah? Do you see my point here? How can we win the Jews to Jesus if we don’t even want to have anything to do with them? How can we even begin to talk to them if we don’t understand where they are coming from? How can we be credible enough to witness the Gospel to them if we don’t even understand the roots of the Gospel which is in the Torah? How can we relate to them if we don't even practice and observe their feasts?
13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, 14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. 15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! 16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. 18 But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.
The covenant that God made through Abraham was extended to us, Gentiles. It was not given to us first but was extended to us. This is why we are partakers of the blessing that God promised to Israel through Abraham. How dare we brag about us being saved, and the Jews not. We are just a branch and not the root, as Paul is saying here. Our Jesus who died on the cross is every inch a Jew, in case you are forgetting. He has the title “King of the Jews”.
19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. 21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either.
This is powerful! God can cut us off from the tree if we think highly of ourselves.
22 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. 23 And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. 24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.
God is more than willing, and is eager, and is waiting to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong. He loves Israel so much. And if we love God then we should love those He loves. It should be our main concern as Christians to reach out to our Jewish brothers and sisters and extend to them the love of Yeshua, with the hope of bringing them back to where they belong.
Renew your minds Christians. Stop thinking that by going back to the teachings of the Old Testament we are going back to works. Stop thinking that we should not observe the Feasts of the Lord because they are part of the old covenant that Jesus got away with. We were saved by grace and this same grace is what will help us understand and obey the laws that God Himself established in the Torah, including the right observance of the feasts. Jesus being our great High Priest and the ultimate sacrifice for our sins shows that through Jesus we can fulfill what the people of Israel failed to fulfill.
Look at these verses in Romans 8 ...
2 For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.
3 For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],
4 So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].
"God has done what the Law could not do". The Law could not save God's chosen people from their sins. Following God's law will not bring about salvation. However, verse 4 says that Jesus came "so that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit". This message is crystal clear. What the Jews failed to do, we can do better because we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit to fulfill it the way God wants it.
Finally, remember that Jesus Himself fulfilled the spring Feasts of the Lord. He fulfilled the Passover when He broke bread with His disciples; the Unleavened Bread when He died on the cross; and the Firstfruits when He resurrected from the dead. The summer feast, Pentecost, has been fulfilled too. However, we are still waiting for the fulfillment of the Fall Feasts: Rosh Hashana (rapture); Yom Kippur (judgment day); and Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles (new heavens and the new earth).
I am challenging you now my fellow believers of Jesus Christ. I am challenging you to start embracing the Jews, their beliefs, and their teachings, not for you to veer away from what Jesus has taught us but to reinforce what we already know. Start by reading your Torah (first five books of the Bible) more than ever. Study the feasts of the Lord and its relevance to our times (http://www.godzgurlz.com/the-feasts-of-the-lord.html). Listen to the teachings of Hebraic teachers like Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries (http://elshaddaiministries.us/).
Believe me, once you begin to understand all these, you will not even stop. You will realize how much you’ve been missing. You will be so hungry for more of Jesus. You will start looking at His teachings in a more profound way. You will discover secrets you’ve never known.
~Lisa Maki~