Thursday, September 06, 2012



1905 DID THE JEWS KILL CHRIST?

Kinda want to try and wrap up for the week- maybe one more post in the morning?

I posted some pics of the street guys yesterday- want to make a few comments.

I like taking the pics and posting them right when I’m with the guys- I’ll tell them ‘hey- right now your pics are going to the site’- they love it.

I also want to wrap up a few final points about the church- and the 2 extremes that she strayed into over the centuries.

In the last few posts we have been discussing the over emphasis on natural Israel- the promises of God- found in the Old Testament- concerning the restoration of the land- the re-building of the temple- stuff like that.

The church also has a sad history of anti Semitism- racism against Jewish people.

To our Catholic friends- the church has tried to deal with it in the last 30 years or so.

The present Pope- Benedict- who I do like [I have read his books] got into some trouble a couple of years ago.

It was a noble attempt to try and heal some long time divisions within the church.


It has been said when the Protestants disagree with something- they go out and start their own church.

When Catholics disagree- they start their own order.

I like that- funny- and true.

So- part of the Catholic divisions is the older type churches- the ones who rebelled against the noble reforms of Vatican 2 [The last church council- held between 1962-65].

Within the Catholic Church there are disagreements over what the council was trying to do.

Liberal Catholics believe the church was trying to trend into a more liberal institution.

Conservatives say that’s a misreading- that the church still held to her conservative roots- and was simply trying to be more Ecumenical.

Either way- one of the results was the more traditional type churches- sometimes called Tridentine [the ones who prefer the old Latin Mass].

These churches kind of split off from Rome and have been worshipping using the Latin mass [which was originally a violation of Vatican 2].

Vatican 2 said the Mass should now be done in the vernacular- the language of the people.

So- Benedict made a noble attempt to bridge this division- and he allowed for the Tridentine churches to do the Mass in Latin- and he also restored an old prayer- about the Jewish people- which simply said we pray for the conversion of Jews.

Okay- was this a big thing?

To simply say Christians are praying for the conversion of Jews- is that real bad?

In my mind- not a big thing.

Might it offend some of our Jewish friends?

Maybe.

But that’s the tradition of the church- to want people to come to belief in Christ.

But- because of the history of anti Semitism- this became a big thing.

‘How dare you pray for our conversion’ type thing.

So the church has had to grapple with how she looks at the Jewish people.

Historically- there were times of persecution of the Jews.

Most of us are familiar with the inquisitions.

The ones in Spain did ‘force’ the Jews to convert- and there were ‘inquiries’ made to see if the Jewish people really converted.


Some were put to death during this time.

During the protestant Reformation of the 16th century- out of Germany- which was Martin Luther’s home country.


There were anti Semitic writings penned by Luther.


Some of these writings were later used- in Germany- under Hitler- to justify anti Semitism.

Very sad history.

Now we have the ‘over emphasis’ [in my view] of the role of natural Israel- and the End Times [last couple of posts].

So- as you see- we have been to both sides of the aisle on this.

Why did anti Semitism play a role in the church?

Understand- we have bibles- that as Christians we accept as the Word of God.

There are also statements in our bibles- well- to be honest- might not have been written  the same way- the same style- if we ‘re-wrote’ them today.

Huh?

Bare with me a moment.


When the Mel Gibson’s movie came out- the Passion of the Christ- the criticism was he stuck very closely to the bible text- and it was indeed a violent crucifixion.

The writings of the apostle John specifically talk about the ‘Jews killing Jesus’.

There are other themes like this in our New Testament.

It’s not hard to see how these statements could lead to anti Semitism.

One of the things that the Pope recently clarified- which I absolutely agree with- is that when we read these things in our bibles.

We should not read them as saying ‘all Jews- of all times- are responsible for the death of Christ’.

No.

In the bible story- the Jewish leaders conspired with the Roman govt. to ‘kill Christ’.

Many [all] of the original believers in the Messiah were indeed Jewish.

And the ‘anti Semitic’ statements in the New Testament were written by Jews- who were simply saying that they believed that some of their Jewish brothers were missing the boat by not accepting Jesus as the Messiah who was to come.

Okay- as you can see- we- the church- have a long history with this.


I would like to make one last comment before we close our talks on this.


For many years- as a bible teacher- writing- doing radio- etc.


It never dawned on me how these statements can indeed be offensive to our Jewish friends.

I mean say if you read ‘the Italians killed Christ’ or the Germans- etc.

That would indeed be problematic if you were trying to get your kids to read the bible.

The same thing with our references to the Arab world.

There are verses- in the Old Testament- that talk about Syria- Iraq [Babylon] and other Arab/Persian nations as the ‘enemies of God’.

So- when we use our bibles- in the modern day- it’s vital to understand that today- the kingdom of God is not about natural borders- or ethnic backgrounds.

It’s about Christ’s new kingdom- the kingdom of God.


All nations and races are welcome- we do not discriminate.

And we- as the church- do confess our sins against our Jewish friends- against our Arab friends- yes- we confess.

In the heated political environment of our day- the post 9-11 world- it’s hard to avoid animosity- and at times- hatred- towards others.

But we- as the people of God- should strive for forgiveness and unity- at least unity as people who live in a global society.

Yes- maybe we- as preachers especially- should re-think how we phrase things.

Yes- there are out and out statements in the bible about the ‘Jews killing Jesus’.

But in context- it would be wrong to put this on all Jews of all times- and if we ‘adjust’ the way we say these things- I think God would be well pleased.

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to scroll down on the timeline [Facebook] - I have posted lots.







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