Last edition we learned about the Gentile shift that took place in the
church. After the Diaspora, the leadership positions that once were filled by
Jewish men now were in the hands of Gentile believers.
Centuries
passed and as time moved on, the church shifted more away from the foundation
that God had built. The Sabbaths were banned. It was illegal to celebrate the
Feasts of the LORD. The Feast of First Fruits was replaced with Easter and Good
Friday became the celebrated day of the crucifixion instead of Wednesday. This
community of believers looked nothing like the one from the Book of Acts.
Constantine who believed that church and state were the same committed
the most serious actions. Since he was the self appointed leader of both, he
ruled that when scripture and earthly authority conflicted, his authority
ruled. Constantine ruled from 306 until 337 AD.
The church, now Gentile in atmosphere and action moved further from the
Jewish foundation of the faith.
As
the centuries pass, the church became known for its anti-Semitic feelings. Jews
who had once been entrusted with the spreading of the Gospel were forced to
become Gentile in worship. It was against church law to be Jewish, look Jewish
and worship as a Jew.
Some of the church fathers that promoted this hatred against our “older
brother- the Jew” are Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Origen, John Chrysostom, St.
Augustine, Peter the Venerable, Martin Luther and John Calvin.
A
black day in church history was the time of the Crusades beginning in 1095.
Under the banner of Christ, Knights rode to the Holy Land to free it from the
infidel but along the way they raped, mutilated and killed both Muslim and Jew
and even many Christians who looked suspicious. Arriving in Jerusalem, they
rounded up Jewish families, forced them into the great Synagogue and set fire
to it. After the fire died down, they celebrated communion. The Jews would
never forget the ‘cross’ on the tunics of the knights- a sign of hatred and
death.
History doesn’t get better. In
1478, another reign of terror began and under the “sign of the cross”
thousands lost their lives unless they confessed to being a heretic and
repented. Even then, they most likely were killed as penalty for being Jewish
etc. The Spanish Inquisition's reign of terror was finally suppressed in 1834.
How
wonderful it would be to say that finally the church repented of the hatred and
murder but it goes from bad to worse. Our great reformer, Martin Luther moves
into the limelight and brings out of the darkness the truth that “the just
shall live by faith”. A reformation within the church occurs and people learn
that “salvation is personal and not through anyone else but Christ”. Luther
expects that the Jews who have lived through centuries of rejection will now
flood into the Gentile church since it has been brought from the darkness into
the light.
Not so! The Jews just want to be allowed to be
Jewish and to worship God in their own language, culture and tradition. Martin
Luther is outraged at the rejection and hatred overtakes him. He became
vehemently anti-Semitic as a result of the failure to win the Jews over. The
“cross” strikes again.
As time moved on, the Jewish people, once again, are subjected to the
most horrible atrocities at the hand of a man called Adolph Hitler. This
Austrian-born politician rose to power in Germany in 1920. The following day, The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion were published in the local anti-Semitic newspaper. The false,
but alarming accusations reinforced Hitler's anti-Semitism. Soon after,
treatment of the Jews was a major theme of Hitler's orations, and the
increasing scapegoat of the Jews for inflation, political instability,
unemployment, and the humiliation in the war, found a willing audience. Hitler
tied Jews to “internationalism”. He recited his belief that the Jews were to
blame for all the problems of the world. The acceptance of this hatred by
Germany and surrounding countries opened the door for a reign of terror against
the Jews unlike anything the world had ever seen. The deliberate death of over
6,000,000,000 Jews will always stain the history of Europe. The rest of the
world stood still and did nothing. We, the church, did nothing. The truth, when
finally realized, shamed the entire civilized world.
In
1967, the same year as the Six-Day War in Israel, Jewish people began to hunger
for God like in Biblical times. Many accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and the
age of the Gentile moved over to usher in the “age of the Jew”. Messianic
congregations sprung up over the world as Jewish believers met in homes and
public buildings to worship the One they have longed for over 3500 years.
Yeshua HaMachiach- Jesus the messiah!
These congregations celebrate the Feasts, Shabbat and other High
Shabbats. They worship in Hebrew and sing and dance Jewish style as their love
for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bursts forth.
Of
great blessing to believers has been the knowledge of ancient Biblical
understandings that the Messianic Jews have brought back to the faith. They
share with us the deep wonders of observing the Feasts of God, the scriptures
from a Jewish perspective, the Torah and its purpose and a host of other
exciting information.
God
is shifting His church back onto the foundation He intended it to be on. The
“one new man” that Paul wrote about - Jew and Gentile together - is alive and
growing in love and relationship.
You won’t want to miss this!
