Jews and Christians Learning to Relate: Introduction

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Well, for the first time in 2000 years, Jews and Christians are learning how to relate

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to one another in mutual respect.

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To understand just how new and how delicate this relationship is, we must know our history

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and what brought us to this amazing moment.

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We also need to learn from those who have pioneered this relationship, to learn from

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their mistakes, to receive their advice.

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So this new series on Jews and Christians relating together will do just that.

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Welcome to the Israel Answers series, connecting Israel, the Bible, and you.

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Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural

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perspective to equip the Christian world with a balanced and biblical response.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes, which will ignite your faith in bringing the Bible

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to life in your everyday world.

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Now let's join Susan with your Israel Answers.

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Well welcome to part one of Jews and Christians Learning to Relate, in which I am going to

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give a brief overview of the various stages that this relationship has gone through throughout

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history.

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We all know from reading the New Testament that in the early days of the Christian faith,

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Jews and Christians were inseparable.

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You couldn't tell the two apart except for the belief in whether Jesus was Messiah or

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not.

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The Jewish believers in Jesus went to temple, they went to synagogue, they celebrated all

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of the Jewish feast and festivals.

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They were very Jewish and entrenched in the Jewish traditions and the Jewish community.

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Now over the years we read in the book of Acts how that tension began between these

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two communities.

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And there were periods where we read about in Acts where Jews actually persecuted the

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Christians.

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But we also had a growing tension inside the church between the original Jews who believed

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in Jesus and all of these Gentiles coming from a pagan background and coming into the

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church.

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There was a lot of disconnect, different worldviews and a lack of understanding.

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But the momentous occasion happened in 70 AD and that was when the Jewish temple was

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destroyed by the Romans.

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The temple had acted as the headquarters of the Jewish faith for hundreds of years.

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But it actually served as the headquarters of the Christian community as well as they

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often met there for prayer.

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And it seems like that's what happened on the day of Pentecost.

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They were there in the temple.

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Of course the leadership of the church was there in Jerusalem.

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It was made up of Jewish believers in Jesus and they were monitoring and overseeing the

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growth of the church throughout the Roman Empire, seeing how it was made up of both

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Jews and pagans, former pagans I should say.

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And they made the decision that these Gentiles coming into the faith did not have to convert

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to Judaism in order to accept Jesus.

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Of course, Jesus was Jewish and he came as the Jewish Messiah.

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He was born into a context of Judaism that went all the way back to Abraham really.

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When God chose Abraham and said through him he was going to make a great nation and through

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them he was going to bless all the families of the earth.

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Well that was the story of God's plan of redemption that was brought about by Jesus

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on the cross.

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So Jesus was Jewish and what we would call the Jewish Messiah.

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But there was this growing Gentile Christian church that didn't understand the Jewish

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roots so much.

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Now another moment in history that really brought about the division, and let me back

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up in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed, the headquarters for the Jewish faith moved

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up into the Galilee in a city named Yavne.

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At the same time, other centers of leadership were developing in the Christian world, in

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Alexandria of Egypt, in Antioch, and in Rome.

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So now there was not just a disconnect over the belief in Jesus, but there was a geographical

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separation of the leadership of these two faiths.

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Now in 135 AD it's known as the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and this was the last Jewish revolt

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against the Roman rule.

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And the Jewish leaders proclaimed Simon Bar Kokhba, the leader of this revolt, to be the

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Messiah and therefore rallied everyone behind him to participate in this rebellion and this

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revolt against the Roman Empire.

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So this put the Jewish believers in Jesus in a very difficult position.

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They could not follow Simon Bar Kokhba as Messiah.

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They knew that Jesus was the Messiah, so they did not participate in the revolt.

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As a result, they were seen as traitors, and in the fighting some were killed.

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So this was a bloody and very turbulent time that really brought about a complete severing

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of these two communities.

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Over the next 200 years there were times of great Roman persecution of the Jewish people

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and Roman persecution of the Christians, and at times Jews and Christians were coming together

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and at other times they were separating from each other because they didn't want to be

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persecuted with the other group.

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It's a very complex situation.

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I'm kind of scanning over lots of details and years of history just to make some points

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that Judaism and Christianity started out as really one tree.

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Christians were seen as a sect of the Jewish religion.

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Over time division occurred against each other, in between each other, geographical division,

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all kinds of factors here that brought about a division.

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So that by the 4th century AD, when the Emperor of Rome became Christian, and within 50 years

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Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire, at this point now, Christianity

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ruled.

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Christians were no longer persecuted, and they were now being infused with political power,

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and the Jewish community then suffered the consequences of this.

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There was still a good deal of interaction between Jews and Christians, and therefore

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early church fathers felt the need to bring about a complete division between Judaism

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and Christianity.

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They didn't want the Christians going in and out of the synagogues, so they began to

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preach against Judaism, against the synagogue, and this anti-Jewish or anti-Jewish teaching

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over the years then paved the way and became anti-Semitic, meaning that it paved the way

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for the discrimination and the persecution of the Jewish individual.

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It wasn't just against their religion.

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It was against them as a people.

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The terminology of the killers of God came about, and Christians felt that they were

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empowered then to mistreat the Jewish people, to persecute them, to discriminate against

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them, that they were actually doing God a favor by doing so.

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Centuries of this, which I'm not going to go through in detail, but centuries of this

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kind of anti-Semitic teaching from the church then developed into anti-Semitic laws and

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legislation of the state because the state and the church were the same.

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You see, it was a state church, and the head of the state was the head of the church.

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So there was a complete overlapping and mixture here, and the anti-Jewish theology produced

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anti-Jewish laws and legislation.

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There were periods of forced baptisms.

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There were periods of being rounded up into ghettos.

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There were even times when Jews were just expelled from countries, and oftentimes in

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the name of the church as well as the state.

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So this means that we have gone from two-faced that were so close, it was hard to distinguish

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between them, to a separation, to now Christianity has completely severed itself from its Jewish

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roots.

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And you know, the apostle Paul described our relationship to the Jewish faith as we are

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wild olive branches that have been grafted into a tree of faith that goes all the way

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back to Abraham.

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That tree sustains us, it supports us, it feeds us, it nourishes us.

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But now the church has severed itself from the very root that supports it.

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And it's a very, very dangerous time, a very, very sad time.

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At the same time, Judaism has also gone through a major shift and a change because the Judaism

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that was developing in the diaspora was totally different from the Judaism of the first and

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second temple periods.

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Now there was no temple, there was no sacrificial system, there were no offerings, there was

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no Sanhedrin.

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And so Judaism had to adapt to this and develop a slightly different theology, one that was

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more focused on prayer and on study as a way of expressing repentance and receiving forgiveness.

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Now back in the time of the New Testament, we know that there were four major sects of

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Judaism.

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We read about the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the New Testament and about the Zealots.

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There were also a movement called the Essenes.

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And so these four sects Jesus interacted with as well as did the disciples and the early

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church.

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After the destruction of the temple, there was no longer a Sadducees because they were

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made up of the priests in the temple.

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And there was no longer the Essenes movement because the Essenes movement was actually a

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reaction against the priests.

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The Essenes thought the priests were corrupt.

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And so the Essenes were separated with a focus on holiness and purity.

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And then the Zealots, eventually they lost out to Rome.

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And so there were no need for Zealots and they died out.

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The only sect that remained post the destruction of the temple and the Barcaupra Revolt was

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the Pharisees, which today is known as rabbinic Judaism.

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The Pharisees were the rabbis.

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They were the teachers of the written law and the oral law, the oral traditions based

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on the law.

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And they continued to develop the sayings of the rabbis.

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And so today the Judaism that we encounter and we see is known as rabbinic Judaism based

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on centuries of development of rabbinic commentary on the written law and the oral law.

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So today, like in the United States, we have, you could say, three or four different major

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movements.

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You have the ultra-Orthodox, the Orthodox, the conservative, and the Reform movement

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within Judaism.

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So you see how the two-faced not only grew apart, but they developed a certain trajectory

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that took them apart.

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And but the exciting news is, and what this series is going to be talking about, is that

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in the last 500 years there has been an actual turning around of both Christianity and Judaism.

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What do I mean by that?

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Well, I'll explain to you very specifically what I mean.

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About 500 years ago, a major occurrence happened in the Christian faith.

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And that was the translation of the Bible into the everyday languages and its mass production

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through the printing press and distribution so that the everyday Christian had a Bible

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in their hands.

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They could actually read what the Bible said, and they immediately saw that Jesus was Jewish,

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that Christianity had come out of Judaism, and that God had made all kinds of promises

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to the Jewish people that one day they were going to be restored to their ancient homeland.

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And these Christians began to not just pray for that return of the Jews to the homeland,

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but over time actually got involved in the story of the return of the Jewish people to

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their land.

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Now this brought about a whole new movement within Christianity.

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It's a Bible-based segment of Christianity, and it's what we call evangelical Christianity.

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It is the fastest growing segment of Christianity worldwide, and one day will be the largest

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segment of Christianity.

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That is the wonderful news, a Bible-based segment, a Bible-based faith.

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And at the same time, the Jewish people began a turn, and they began a return to their ancient

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homeland.

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And this too took a couple hundred years to actually develop.

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Now they're back in their land today.

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There's still no temple, but the Jewish people have taken a major step towards the prophetic

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fulfillment, their prophetic destiny, as the chosen people of God is called to be God's

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vehicle of redemption.

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Now this history brings us not just up to the birth of the state of Israel, but also

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the Holocaust.

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And I'm only going to make two comments about the Holocaust.

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The Holocaust actually shook the world, and I think that it helped to propel forward what

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was already going to happen.

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It was inevitable.

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The Jewish people were going to have a homeland.

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But the Holocaust did help the world to support that establishment.

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The other thing it did is it shook Christianity, and the Christian churches that were predominant

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there in Europe were aghast at what had happened right under their noses and with their silent

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acquiescence.

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And so the Catholic Church reassessed its theology towards the Jewish people.

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It changed its liturgy on Good Friday towards the Jewish people, and it really reached out

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in friendship and mutual respect with the Jewish people.

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The Lutheran Church actually disavowed some of the writings of Martin Luther that had

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become anti-Semitic.

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And many mainline denominations around the world then followed suit and made statements

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of friendship towards the Jewish people in respect for Judaism.

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So this completes our little survey from the time of the New Testament up through the Holocaust.

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And I'm going to link in today's show notes to an episode or two that go into more depth

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in this history.

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If you want to know more about the history of Christian anti-Semitism, I'm going to link

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to that in today's show notes.

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But I want you to come back next week when we're going to complete the survey and talk

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about the changes that have happened since the Holocaust.

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And to cover that for us, we're going to have with us a pioneer in evangelical Jewish

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relations, Dr. Marvin Wilson.

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Dr. Wilson literally wrote the textbook on this, and we're going to link to that in

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today's show notes.

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I recommend that you get it.

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It's called Our Father Abraham, The Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith.

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If you are going to read any book about the Jewish roots of the Christian faith and about

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Jewish Christian relations in our day, this is the book.

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You need to get it and to read it and to learn from it.

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But we're going to have the opportunity next week to learn from Dr. Wilson.

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So I want you to come back.

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I will see you then.

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And until then, God bless.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael.

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Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, cpnshows.com, YouTube, or

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wherever you like to listen and learn.

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Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA All Rights Reserved.