Rebuilding

Both of one's worlds, inner and outer, were destroyed because of our iniquities. Rachel cries over both. Both will be rebuilt. Rebuilding our inner world depends upon our acquiring a new dimension of understanding of who we are and where we're going. Rebuilding our outer world depends on our joining hands together to re-form society in accordance with the vision of the Torah. -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

Gene Shlomovich just said something interesting on my previous blog post:

This is NOT about any sort of immediate "implementation" - we are all waiting for the Messianic Age for that. The last 2K teach us that whatever man touches eventually turns to dung, but it doesn't mean that we are to fold our hands and stand idly by. We can still do things, one thing at a time, one congregation at a time and go from there. We have to start somewhere. We implement things starting with ourselves and those who G-d brings our way, and pray that G-d blesses it over the coming years.

The first thought that popped into my head was this:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4

Yes, human beings have a tendency to mess up a free lunch whenever we can. I like to think that the reason the trials of the Children of Israel are so heavily chronicled in the Tanakh isn't to pick on them but to show how all of humanity continually fails God, yet keeps striving to be close to Him. It's also a continual picture of God's faithfulness, not just to the Jewish people, but to the rest of us (see the book of Jonah for a display of God's love to a non-Jewish people).

My understanding of Judaism is that it pictures man as the junior partner with God in an effort to repair the world, both our inner spiritual world and the world we see around us. In some of my recent blog posts, I've been trying, using marital metaphors, to describe a "partnership" between Jews and Christians joining together under one Messiah and one God, using the Torah as the blueprint for rebuilding our inner and outer worlds.

We aren't doing such a good job, but as Gene pointed out, we don't have the luxury of simply folding our hands and stand idly by, either. We have to do something. In fact, God requires that we do something:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. - James 2:14-18

That's right. Rebuilding the world doesn't necessarily require establishing a megachurch and attracting 10,000 followers or performing some monumental act of righteousness or heroism. Repairing our inner and outer world can be as simple as providing one meal to one hungry person, or visiting a sick friend in the hospital.

But what about rebuilding the relationship between Christians and Jews?

I don't know.

I suppose ongoing conversations like this one are part of that process. Yes, the Messiah will come and he will repair the world, but in the meantime, we still have a responsibility to do all we can to move the process along. Like the Children of Israel and the Golden Calf, we have a tendency to misuse the time we have when we aren't constantly re-enforced by God, but that's the struggle of an imperfect humanity serving a perfect God. The standard quote I use at the end of each of these blogs should be the motto, not just of Jews, but of everyone.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Jews, Christians, and Marital Metaphors

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. -Ephesians 5:22-33

As mentioned, things were somewhat different for Jewish women. Traditionally, women and men were seen as equals, but with different responsibilities and obligations. Thanks to God's revelations to Moses at Mt. Sinai, the Jews even had laws in place that governed the intricacies of marriage and divorce, as well as laws that specify what is to happen to a woman suspected of adultery.
Rabbi Aaron Parry
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

I've been using marital metaphors in previous blog posts Bilateral Living and The One Who is Two to try and illustrate how it might be possible, based on scripture, to support at least some portion of Mark Kinzer's suggestions in relation to "Bilatereal Ecclesiology" as chronicled in his book Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People (2005). Keep in mind, I'm not completely sold on each and every point Kinzer makes in PMJ. I believe that the suggestions contained therein need a lot of work before they could be made a viable model to be pursued by Messianic Judaism and the Christian church as a "partnership plan". Nevertheless, the idea requires further investigation, particularly as it maps (or fails to map) to the Apostolic Scriptures, which is what I'm doing here.

Laugh if you must, but in trying to get a ground-level beginner's handle on even what the Talmud is, I've been reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud, which by the way, is a very good starter's primer. I decided to spend a small part of my Sunday afternoon reading the chapter "All About the Women" which addresses Nashim (Women), the third order of the Talmud. I barely got a few pages in when inspiration struck.

I was taken by how some of the descriptions regarding women and marriage not only seem to match up to the teachings of Yeshua and Paul, but how they could be applied to the "bilateral" relationship between Messianic Jews and non-Jewish Christians (and yes, there is and must be a relationship, otherwise, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Jewish Messiah was in vain). What first struck me was Rabbi Parry's words, ...women and men were seen as equals, but with different responsibilities and obligations. That's more or less how the concept of Bilateral Ecclesiology describes the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the believing realm, both in the time of Paul and today.

I had previously read Rabbi Judith Z Abrams's book The Talmud for Beginners: Volume I Prayer and she describes how, while women are not forbidden the commandments that men obey (except those that are obviously gender specific), some obligations, such as those that are time-bound, are not required. This includes praying the Shema twice per day, since the timing may interfere with a woman's duties and responsibilities in the home and to her children (and the feminists reading this right now must be pretty much outraged).

This sugya deals with a different kind of interference that prevents one from reciting the Shema with the required intention. In the rabbis' view, being a woman interfered with one's ability to relate to God. They assumed that a woman was responsible for the demanding, and time-consuming, tasks of raising children and managing a household and therefore could not be held responsible for performing positive, time-bound commandments...

Rabbi Abrams also states:

There are many exceptions to the rule of this system. Women are, in fact, obligated to perform some positive commandments, such as lighting the candles on Hannukah. Women are not forbidden to perform positive time-bound commandments; they are simply not obligated to do most of them...They may perform these mitzvot voluntarily if they wish to do so.

Because women are not obligated to do these mitzvot, the rabbis ruled that women cannot have the same intention and sense of responsibility regarding the mitzvot as men do...

I previously recorded these quotes and a more detailed account of Rabbi Abrams's book in my blog post The Right Question, but the content fits right in with what I've been writing about more recently, so I'm repeating it in this post.

It makes me wonder about God's plan in first, establishing His covenants with the Children of Israel, and making them His "treasured splendorous people" (Exodus 19:5) and then commanding the Israelites to be a "light to the nations" (Isaiah 49:6). It also makes me wonder about this:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. -1 Peter 2:9-10

Of course, Peter was the "emissary to the circumcised", so you could say he was writing to an exclusively Jewish audience, except in verses 11 and 12, he says, Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

If he were talking to Jews; people who were already members of the covenant, why would he call them foreigners and exiles, since they clearly weren't such a thing. Yes, in verse 12 he tells his audience to live such good lives among the pagans, but as Messianic disciples, the Gentile believers in the audience would no longer be pagans. Also, in the original quote, Peter refers to his audience as Once you were not a people which makes absolutely no sense if his audience were Jewish covenant members.

Don't worry. I'm not saying that believing Gentiles are equal to believe Jews, except to the degree, as Rabbi Parry states, that Jewish men and Jewish women are equal, but with different obligations and responsibilities. To extend the metaphor though, if Gentiles and Jews are equal but different in the manner that the Talmud describes Jewish men and women to be, then can we say, like Jewish women, that Torah obedience is not specifically forbidden to Gentile Messianics (i.e. Christians) but is allowed on a voluntary basis?

I know some of you are thinking that there are sections of the Talmud that specifically forbid Torah observance by Gentiles or sections that praise Gentile obedience to the commandments, with the understanding that those mitzvot are limited to the Noahide laws, but wait.

Remember that the Talmudic sages, probably down to a man, would not have considered the status of Gentile disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) as relevant to their opinions, particularly because Jews and Christians were very much at odds while the Oral Laws were being documented and certainly during the time when the sages were writing their Gemara on the Oral traditions.

This is a limitation, perhaps a necessary one, that restricts some of the application of the Talmud to the current argument, but not completely.

Daniel on his blog "Christian for Moses" has illustrated that there is Talmudic precedent for non-Jews to perform the mitzvot, though with different motivation, and I've blogged on similar topics and presented further quotes of the sages in the opinions of Rabbi Mayer Twersky and my review of FFOZ's tefillin booklet.

If you start putting all of the pieces together, the picture of the jigsaw puzzle begins to become recognizable. Getting back to something I said earlier, perhaps it was God's plan all along, to create a "nation of priests" of the Children of Israel, and then to use them as a "light to the nations" to, in effect, "marry" the groom to the bride, creating "one flesh" or "one new man" out of the two "individuals", each being equal or co-heirs and co-citizens to one another, but with different responsibilities and obligations to God, the Torah, and each other, much as what you would find in almost any marriage. I liked what Rabbi Parry said here:

According to Jewish thought, marriage is considered one of life's greatest treasures. What's more, it's believed that the relationship that most closely parallels the relationship between man and God is the marital union between a man and a woman.

Both the Tanakh and the Apostolic Scriptures use marital metaphors to describe the relationship between the Children of Israel and God as well as the union between the Jewish and Gentile Messianic community and the Jewish Messiah.

“Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the LORD, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance. -Jeremiah 3:14-18

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. -Ephesians 5:24

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. -2 Corinthians 11:2

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” -Revelation 19:7-9

I don't think Kinzer's book is the final word on how this "mixed marriage" or rather God's plan for a "mixed marriage" between Christians and Jews is ultimately supposed to work out. Also, the One Law movement is very good about describing the "equality" between the "husband" and "wife" but not so good about describing the inherent differences in responsibilities and obligations that must exist, even between two people made into "one flesh" or two people groups made into "one new man". Clearly, no one has a "lock" on understanding how Jewish and Gentile Messianic relationships are supposed to operate.

I don't know how it works either, or rather, how it will work. I do think that we'll keep struggling with our relationship until the Jewish Messiah returns and straightens us all out. Then, we will all take our places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven together (Matthew 8:11).

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

The One Who Is Two

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. -Ephesians 3:2-6

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

I have to admit, in examining my understanding of non-Jews vs. Jewish distinction in the Messianic community, I hit speed bumps. The Apostolic Scriptures can seem pretty ambiguous as to whether or not Gentiles and Jews who have come to faith in the Jewish Messiah remain two separate things or, based on Ephesians 3:2-6 among other verses, we have become "one new man". The latter would be the argument, both of the traditional church and of the One Law movement within the Messianic realm, but it strikes a rather sour chord with those Jews who believe that, to be Jews in Messianism, they must retain a specific cultural and ceremonial distinction from their Gentile Christian brothers and sisters.

Ephesians 2:12-13 says:

...remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

This seems to say that both Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews are citizens, as well as co-heirs in Israel. Usually, if you are made a naturalized citizen of a nation in which you were not born, once citizenship is conferred, you have the same rights and responsibilities as any citizen born in that country. That again, is the rationalization both for the Christian church and One Law movements in saying that they are "Israel". The church says they're "Israel" and have taken the place of the Jews, and One Law says they are "Israel" and are identical to Jews in form, function, and identity. The former says that the Jews have been "unchosen" and that God subsequently "chose" the church. The latter says that God created a new, really big bucket called "chosen" and dumped all Jews and Messianic Gentiles into the bucket so that they're all the same anyway.

But is that what really happened?

I have to admit, when I reviewed an article written by Nazarene Pastor Jirair Tashjian called Did Christ Abolish the Law?, he used scripture to represent his position reasonably well (not that I agree and you can see my review for the details).

Then, in my review, I said the following, which momentarily surprised me as I realized the implications of my statement:

Yes, Paul said neither Jew nor Greek, but he also said neither male nor female (Galatians 3:28) and the last time I looked at my wife, I noticed that we were different in form, function, and role…yet we are “one flesh” (Matthew 19:5-6).

In Ephesians 2:15, it says Yeshua's (Jesus's) purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, which really bothers me. It seems to very much support the supersessionist position of the church and the position of One Law in joining Jews and Gentile Messianics as one unified and amorphous object, rather than two distinct objects encased in a single container (black and white sheep in a flock). How can this be reconciled? Is the Bilateral Ecclesiology faction of Messianic Judaism in error? What can they say to get past what Paul has recorded?

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. -Genesis 2:24

“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” -Mark 10:5-9

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:26-28

Follow the logic here.

An individual man and an individual woman are made into "one flesh". This is what happened "in the beginning" and it is confirmed by Yeshua in his teaching on divorce and marriage. Paul writes that there is no Jew or Greek and no male or female. But does a man and a woman really become one, homogeneous, androgynous being?

No, of course not. Anyone who is married knows that a husband and wife remain very much individual, distinct human beings from one another. They take on a singularity of purpose in a family, especially as parents, and they surrender some of their individual freedoms for the sake of the relationship and both must work to nurture and grow the relationship, but they don't surrender everything about themselves.

In other words "one flesh" isn't literal in an absolute sense. It describes a special sense of intimacy (in a marital relationship, this includes physical intimacy), but they don't morph into one, new flesh, leaving everything about who they once were behind. In fact, it's everything that they are as individuals that each marital partner "brings to the table", so to speak, that makes the marriage strong and thriving. And as most married people know, we don't marry our opposite sex clones.

Now let's take all that and apply it to "one new man". I'm going to assume (yes, this is my interpretation) that we can compare the "one flesh" and "one man" analogies. I'm going to pretend that we can look at them as functioning in pretty much the same way. If two different human beings can be "one flesh" (in purpose) in a family and yet retain their individual forms, functions, and roles, why can't Jews and Gentiles as "one man" also retain their individual forms, functions, and roles?

See where I'm going?

I'm not about to attempt to expand this metaphor into every practice and procedure used in Christian vs. Messianic worship at the moment (so this blog post doesn't become 20 pages long). I just want to show how it's possible, based on scripture, for Christians and (Messianic) Jews to be "one new man" and still be two separate and distinct entities. The "container" (whether marriage or the Messianic "flock") does change something about the individuals within the container, but it doesn't alter them or change them into something completely different on a fundamental, behavioral, and structural level. Married men are still men and married woman are still women. Messianic Gentile disciples are still Gentile and Messianic Jewish disciples are still Jewish.

Thoughts?

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Missionary Work

If we ever expect to change the church, which is needed, how do we intend to do that outside of relationship and without personal sacrifice? James, I applaud individuals like you mention above and see them in no different light that people that make a commitment to serve in desperate lands to bring the Gospel, food, care, and service to those lost and hurting. Everyone is called to be a missionary—I think a very valid question to ask oneself is, “How am I serving God, sacrificing my time and personal comfort for the sake of the kingdom.”
Anonymous comment on the
Searching for the Light on the Path blog post:
Bilateral Living

This is an extension of the discussion taking place in the comments section of my previous blog post (link above). I didn't intend for the previous article to be a conversation on the virtues of attending a church vs a synagogue (vs something else), but that's what it's turned into. It's also turned into a discussion over doing "missionary work".

Missionary work in the Christian church. A novel idea (though not the first time I've heard it). Thanks for the suggestion. -Me

Messianic Movement could use some of that too:) -Gene Shlomovich

I really must ask Gene what he meant by that. Who should do "missionary work" in the Messianic synagogue? I think the answer would be fascinating.

Anyway.

When we make a decision to attend a house of worship, most of the time, we're thinking about what it will do for us and our family. "Will I be fed?" "Do they have a good children's program?" These are some of the questions we ask when we're "church shopping".

But what about what we can give back?

That's usually a secondary concern but one that comes up after we're integrated into the community. Sure, there are plenty of folks who are "pew warmers", but I've found that if there's a job to do and you have the skill set to do it, the job will find you.

At the church I used to attend many years ago, I drove my daughter to a mid-week Bible class and had time to kill. The church was expecting a new Pastor soon and they were trying to make the place all spiffy for him. I noticed that there were a lot of weeds in the lawn out front. It was summer. I had time. Anyone can pull weeds. I started pulling weeds. I remember feeling self-conscious because I hadn't asked anyone's permission. Fortunately, no one got mad and in fact, someone came out on one occasion to thank me.

Later on, I was asked if I'd like to be an usher, which I accepted while still in a state of shock. I was actually getting pretty cozy in that church until my wife told me about "Messianic Judaism".

I think it's important to have a role in your faith community. That's probably one reason why I stopped going to the Reform synagogue. I didn't have a role.

I asked for one. There was a gal who took care of the synagogue's computers and network equipment and, knowing a little bit about that stuff, I asked her if I could help, particularly when she was on vacation. The email I got back was a rather terse "no thanks", so I figured I must have stepped on some toes. Like the church I had left, there were "in groups" and "out groups" in the synagogue, and I was about as much "out" as you could get.

Doing "missionary work" in the church or Messianic synagogue is an intriguing thought, but I can only imagine it would have to be handled with the greatest care:

He and his wife believe that, in addition to attending our local community, they must also continue to be in a church to promote love of Israel among the Christian community. They searched for a church in our area where the Pastor presented an authentic teaching rather than, in this fellow's words, "putting on a dog and pony show."

They've found a church (albeit one about 30 miles away) where the Pastor and congregation love the Jewish people and who view supersessionism as blatant antisemitism. This church sounds like a dream come true.

This guy (I'll call him "Bob") and his wife are retired and, as I mentioned on the other blog post, he has a long history with the UMJC and is an excellent Bible student. Frankly, it's a little embarrassing to be teaching him since he knows so much more than I do. Fortunately, he's gracious about it.

Anyway, he didn't pick the church he and his wife currently attend at random. While he was wrapping up affairs and preparing to retire from his job in another state, his wife was here church shopping. I have no idea how she found the church they currently attend, but the criteria they had for a church was one where the Pastor actually "did his homework", really tried to teach "meat", and had a love for Israel and the Jewish people.

From Bob's description, they hit the jackpot.

So it's not just a matter of connecting with any random church environment. Plenty of churches probably wouldn't have accepted them and what they believe, but this church just attached to them. Bob says an older woman approached him recently and told him she regularly donates to "Jews for Jesus" because she loves the Jewish people. Say what you will about "Jews for Jesus", but this woman is doing her best, and with a giving heart, trying to support the chosen people of God.

But how can this be applied for the rest of us? Sure, you may get lucky and find a church like this in your community, but from reading all of the various comments, I get the feeling such churches are rare. Further, how would you extend Gene's idea in the other direction and provide "missionary work" in the Messianic Jewish synagogue?

Comments?

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Bilateral Living

Even if I could guide my congregation into a viewpoint more like my personal stance, I don’t think I could stay. The dissonance between that lifestyle and living with a Jewish wife isn’t something I can resolve over the long haul. If I’m going to be considered a Christian in relation to her being a Jew, I might as well try to own the label and see what our lives together are going to be like as we both continue to travel down our paths together (and that’s an odd image to visualize…two people traveling two separate paths together…I wonder if that’s “Bilateral Ecclesiology?”).
-My comment on the Daily Minyan blog post:
Bilateral Ecclesiology: Infrequently Answered Questions

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I'm not 100% sold on everything proposed by "Bilateral Ecclesiology" (BE) as presented in Mark Kinzer's book Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People. I understand and even support the need of the Jewish community contained within the Messianic movement to establish and maintain a uniquely Jewish identity and practice rather than assimilating into the Christian culture. However, I believe that BE may actually  be working against one of it's stated goals; to promote "unity" between the Messianic synagogue and the Christian church. Often, the blogosphere discussion revolving around BE seems to build a brick wall between Jews and Christians, rather than encourage an open exchange.

While Gene Shlomovich makes a compelling case for Bilateral Ecclesiology in his latest blog post, I still think the ideal has a long way to go before it can be effectively and practically implemented in a manner that doesn't automatically reject most churches and the vast majority of Gentiles who, in one fashion or another, have attached themselves to Messianic or Messianic-like groups.

That said, a rather odd thought occurred to me the other day, but you'll need a little background about me first.

My wife is Jewish. More accurately, her mother was Jewish (my mother-in-law passed away many years ago) and her father was a Gentile (which still makes my wife halachically Jewish). My mother-in-law became estranged from her Jewish family in Boston decades ago and my wife was raised without any awareness that she was Jewish. She knew she had Jewish aunts, uncles, and cousins living in Southern California where she was raised, but she didn't make the connection back to her mother and then back to her.

When my wife began attending university in San Francisco, her dorm roommate was Jewish. As they started to get to know each other, they talked about their families, and it was my wife's roommate who put the pieces of the puzzle together and figured out my wife was Jewish. On a school break, my wife went home and confronted her mother and it was confirmed. My wife discovered her Judaism. She has since gone through the local Chabad Rabbi and had her background looked into and found that all of her mother's deceased relatives are buried in Jewish cemeteries.

You'll need to know all this to understand what I'm going to say later on.

When my wife and I married, neither of us had a religious faith. My wife was even more vehemently opposed to religion and religious people than I was. By that time, she knew she was Jewish, but it didn't make any particular impact on her life. I spent a lot of my history having secular Jewish friends (including other Jewish girlfriends before my wife), so I was "familiar" with Judaism, but only within that context. I never met any of my wife's Jewish relatives from back east and I only met one Jewish cousin from California, and his lifestyle was completely secular (and by the way, when he passed away, we went to the funeral and he was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles).

In other words, as "intermarrieds", we had virtually none of the issues you'd expect in a Jewish interfaith marriage.

Time passed.

Long story short, we both came to faith in Jesus Christ in our early 40s and started attending a church. As "new believers" we had lots of questions but the church didn't seem to have lots of answers. Also, the "cliquishness" of the various "in groups" in the church gave us a very poor impression of Christianity, although we met many wonderful people who epitomized the grace and compassion of Jesus (I still miss Pastor Jerry).

My wife, by "accident" (if you believe in random events occurring within a created and purposeful universe) came into contact with our local "Messianic" (One Law) congregation and she was instantly hooked. I was finally finding a role in our church and it took some time for me to transition but eventually, I adopted a traditional early First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) One Law perspective on Jews, Gentiles, the Torah, and God. I never looked back.

Another long story short, I stayed with the "Messianic movement" as my preferred worship and faith lifestyle, while my wife shot out the other end, through conservative and reform Judaism (for decades, the only synagogue in Southwestern Idaho was comprised of a reform group and a conservative group which had merged to create a viable, single membership) and into the Chabad, where she studies and worships today (though she still has strong ties and friendships in the reform/conservative community).

Welcome to my Jewish interfaith marriage.

Now for the "odd thought".

I'm not telling you all of this because I think my life and marriage are generally fascinating to the blogosphere, but because I realized when I wrote the words on Gene's blog which I quoted above, that my life and the proposal of BE have something in common. Let's take a look at the core of my realization again. I'll edit my original comments to provide clarity:

I'm a Christian man married to and living with a Jewish woman. Our lives are like two people who are traveling down two separate paths together. How can two people travel down two separate paths and, at the same time, be side-by-side, sharing the same lives and even to some degree, the same lifestyles, but being two separate and unique beings?

It's an odd image, but maybe not as odd as you might think:

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. -Genesis 2:24

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. -Mark 10:7-9

Anybody who's been married knows that men and women seem to be so different from each other, it's as if we were originally supposed to live on different planets. We conceptualize our environments in fundamentally different ways. We use radically different neural brain paths to process the same information. Men tend to be linear thinkers and are task-oriented, while women tend to be global thinkers and are relationship-oriented.

There are days when my wife just about drives me nuts...and I'm sure the reverse is true.

But what's all this got to do with Bilateral Ecclesiology? Plenty.

Despite all our differences based on being a man and woman, our different cultural backgrounds, differences in where we were raised, how we were raised, and now, differences in how we conceptualize God, the Bible, and faith, it's amazing we can live in the same house and still have a civil conversation.

But we love each other.

We share three grown children and one adorable grandchild. We live together, talk together, argue together, laugh together, cry together, drive each other crazy together, eat together, and we are married together...in spite of those things, including our interfaith marriage.

We are what God joined together.

As they set out from their place above, each soul is male and female as one. Only as they descend to this world do they part, each to its own side. And then it is the One Above who unites them again. This is His exclusive domain, for He alone knows which soul belongs to which and how they must reunite.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (2nd century CE)
Zohar, Book I, 85b

Now imagine that the Christian church and Messianic Judaism are married. I know. What a shock. I've probably just offended every Messianic Jew/Bilateral Ecclesiologist on the Internet. I hope I didn't, because this is the vision I have that, if such a thing is possible, would make the Bilateral Ecclesiology vision (I won't even call it a model because it's not that far along in its developmental process as yet) work. Read what I said again but in the current context:

I'm a Christian man living with a Jewish woman. Our lives are like two people who are traveling down two separate paths together. How can two people travel down two separate paths and, at the same time, be side-by-side, sharing the same lives and even to some degree, the same lifestyles, but being two separate and unique beings?

Two peoples progressing together like a man and a woman who are traveling down two separate paths but who are together.

I don't know how it will work, but I do know my marriage works. No, I don't have a "perfect" marriage. It has plenty of warts, bruises, and scars. But it also has the advantage of enduring for almost 28 years through terrific stresses and trials, and also through terrific joys and celebrations. If you can answer the question about what keeps a marriage together under far less than optimal and problem-free circumstances, you'll probably have the answer to what has to happen to make BE work.

A word of caution. My daughter told me something this morning. We aren't out of the woods by a long shot. Here's why.

A friend of ours (a Gentile Christian woman married to a Jewish man and who attends the Chabad shul together) was "babysitting" for the Rabbi's six kids (yeah, that's a lot for a father and mother to have who are both under the age of 30). She took the kids to the main branch of our local library and they spent time looking through the children's books. At one point, one of the kids realized she was looking at a book about Christmas. Suddenly, as if the book had just burst into flames, she threw it out of her hands and cried out, "It's goyishe!"

She didn't mean it as a complement.

This is my "concern" about Bilateral Ecclesiology. I don't know exactly how the Chabad community views things that are Gentile and people who are Gentile, but this child's reaction seems to indicate that she was taught that "goyishe" things are "bad"...really "bad". Kind of like picking up what you think is a pretty flower only to realize its what the dog left on the lawn. Yuk!

If any expression of BE depicts things that are not Jewish (and people who are not Jewish) as "yukky Goyishe" and behaves as if even touching them is disguisting, we are going to have a problem. This was the problem that Peter had to confront:

About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” -Acts 10:9-15

We can have a beautiful marriage together. Yes, it will be full of all of the special challenges and difficulties that any interfaith marriage faces, but with a lot of work, patience, and understanding, we can overcome those obstacles and be what God wanted us to be when He put us together.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. -Ephesians 3:6 (ESV)

Are we going to stay married honey, or are you going to ask (God) for a divorce? Your choice.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Adopted Heirs

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. -Ephesians 3:2-6

It's hard to see how the church believes it has replaced the Jewish people in God's covenant promises when you read these verses. It seems abundantly plain the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. That's "together with", not "instead of". These few words alone shoot down the church's argument for Christian supersessionism, but what about the One Law viewpoint? Actually, Paul makes an interesting point:

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. -Ephesians 3:6

Notice that Paul says in the promise in Christ Jesus, not in the promise in the Torah of Moses. The next logical question to ask is "What is the promise in Christ Jesus that makes Gentiles and Jews fellow heirs?"

I don't have a hard and fast answer, but tomorrow night, I'm going to ask a similar question: What did Jesus teach the Gentiles to obey? You can click the link to get the full summary of the class, but it's based on a series of articles I wrote on this blog some months ago. I'm trying to find out if it was the Messiah's intent to have the Gentile disciples learn and obey every commandment and covenant recorded in the Bible or if Jesus taught something that was more specific that was to be passed on to the Goyim?

The starting point for Gentile discipleship and "fellow heir-ship" isn't the Torah but the Gospels. Up until the Messiah came in human form, Gentiles could only fully access God and the covenants by converting to Judaism. Short of that, a Gentile who came to faith in the One God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, could become a God-fearer, which acknowledges God but doesn't give the non-Jewish person a standing before Him. I don't think (but I'm not a scholar) that the concept of a Gentile as a noahide existed in the First Century C.E., so that was the best a non-Jew could do if he or she came to faith in Israel's God.

Yeshua (Jesus) changed all that, but what did he do? That's the $64,000 question we all wrestle with.

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands) — remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. -Ephesians 2:11-13

"Formerly Gentiles"? What? I'm not a "Gentile" anymore? Does Paul mean that I'm a Jew by the blood of Christ? Oh wow!

This is where it would be helpful if I could read ancient Greek and determine what the original word was for what we read as "Gentile" in English. Does Paul mean that when a Gentile becomes a disciple of the Jewish Messiah, he or she automatically becomes a "spiritual Jew"? Or does he mean something else...like using "Gentiles" to mean "pagans"?

Paul seems to be using the former status of the Gentile disciples to illustrate that, in their (our) natural state, before coming to faith, we "were separate from Christ" and "foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." Coming to faith then, joins us with Christ and makes us joined to the covenants of promise, giving us hope and giving us access to God.

But does it make Gentiles functionally identical to Jews in every respect and thereby removing the status of "Jew" or "Israelite" from existence? If that were true, God would have to break every promise He ever made to the Children of Israel in the Torah and the Prophets that they would always be a people before Him.

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” -Exodus 19:5-6

I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high. -Leviticus 26:11-13

These are just two examples of God stating His intention and devotion to the Children of Israel as His "treasured, splendorous people". Of course, you could say that there were just a ton of non-Jews at the Sinai event, but as I previously mentioned, the "mixed multitude" lived identical lives to their Israelite counterparts and ultimately their offspring assimilated into Israel, becoming indistinguishable from the descendants of the Children of Jacob. If the "Ger" question were to apply to Gentile Messianic disciples, then the obvious answer is that we are to convert and assimilate into modern (Messianic) Judaism.

But that's not what Paul is saying. In fact, Paul was very much against Gentiles converting to Judaism in order to gain access to the promises.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. -Galatians 5:2-6

As far as I can see, that pretty much takes care of the "Ger" justification for identical Gentile and Jewish response to God and to the Torah. Now what about this?

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. -Galatians 3:26-29

The "neither Jew nor Gentile" part seems to confirm that Jews and Gentiles cease to exist under the Messianic covenant as distinct beings or people groups, which is not only the fear that every Jew has in relation to converting to Christianity, but is part of what the more conservative elements of Messianic Judaism have issues with in relation to One Law theology. However, Paul also says "nor is there male and female".

What a minute. The last time I looked at my wife, we had "distinctions" both in form and in function (and probably in role as well). Since God didn't blend males and females into one homogeneous, androgynous mass, what makes anyone think he took Jews and Gentiles and blended us all into one smooth, pureed mixture with no identifiable means of locating the original "ingredients"?

If, on the other hand, Paul meant that our standing in holiness and our access to God were the same, regardless of our gender, ethnic, or legal (slave vs. freeman) status, then we can be part of one body before the Messiah, and yet retain our individual forms and functions (kind of like a heart remaining a heart, the lungs remaining lungs, and a hippocampus remaining a hippocampus).

Does that solve the problem? Oh, heck no. I could write for hours (or days, or years) and not be able to "solve" anything. The neat thing about the Bible is that it can be interpreted in more than one way and therefore, different groups can use the Bible to establish different theologies, viewpoints, and worship patterns. While I believe there is one "right answer" to understand the Word, God is the only one who really knows it. The rest of us are dancing madly on the head of a pin trying to figure things out and guess what? We'll probably be doing that for the rest of our lives or until the Messiah returns, whichever comes first (that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying, but I wanted you to know what we are all facing together).

I can't get over the idea that the Messiah and his intentions are the key to everything. When Paul wrote the "grafted in" metaphor in Romans 11 he continued to make distinctions between the "natural branches" (Jews) and the "grafted in branches" (Gentiles) and the only thing they had in common is "the root" (Messiah) to which they were all attached. The two different types of branches remained two different types of branches. They didn't "morph" into a single type of branch. The commonality is the "nourishment" that fed them both.

That allows us to be "one body" and "one people" ("one tree"..."one vine with lots of branches") based on the source of our strength and our faith. We can "consume" the same God because the "alien" (former) Gentiles are now changed in status so that they (we) are capable of "eating" the "food of the Spirit" from which they (we) were previously unable to take in.

Like I said, I don't have all the answers. But I'd like to think that the questions are good ones. The journey along the path continues.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

All Scripture

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. -2 Timothy 3:16-17

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. -1 John 3:4

For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. -Acts 15:21

Back to Basics Tour, Part 3

I suppose you could say this blog post is a reprise of an article I wrote back in July called Is the Bible for Christians. I was trying to be ironic in the use of the title, since most Christians wouldn't think twice about whether or not the Bible is relevant in their (our) lives.

As in the first two parts of this series, I'm trying to establish some things that everyone who worships along the different points of the continuum of disciples in the Jewish Messiah can agree upon. It's been over 24 hours since I posted part 2 in this series, The Presence of Faith. Since comments of disagreement are very prompt to arrive and yet the comments section remains empty, I'll have to assume that everyone in the Messianic, One Law, Two-House and traditional Christian groups agrees with my point that we must all have a kind of faith in order to be "branches attached to the vine."

The point that I'm trying to make in today's blog is that the Bible is something we all have in common. I'll even take it a step further, just to add some spice, and say that the Torah is something we have in common.

That should inspire a few comments since Christians will disagree because "the Law is dead" and Messianic Jews (at least those on the more conservative end of the continuum) will disagree because the Torah is only for the Jews.

While I'd expect One Law and Two-House proponents to agree, based on their belief that grafted in Gentiles are obligated to the same 613 commandments as their Messianic Jewish counterparts, there may be another way of looking at this.

When I concluded my What Did Jesus Teach series, one of my findings was that it is impossible to understand the teachings of the Jewish Messiah and the Apostles who learned from him unless you have some grounding in the Torah. After all, Yeshua (Jesus) taught like the Jewish Rabbi that he was/is and thus, we can't understand the full measure of what he taught if we don't learn it from within that context.

Like it or not, for Christians to understand the teachings of Christ, they can't isolate themselves from the first two-thirds of the Bible (i.e. the "Old Testament").

Relax Messianic Jews, I'm not saying that Christians learning the Torah for the sake of Christ is the same as Christians trying to obey the identical set of Torah commandments that were set in place for Jewish Messianics (or Jews in general). But unless you're going to hunt me down carrying a pair of scissors and are prepared to snip out the bits and pieces of my Bible that contain content that only applies to Jews, I'm going to read it.

We've seen in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, and when Paul wrote that letter, the only written scripture in existence was the Tanakh or what Christianity calls the Old Testament. However, the very interesting comment James makes at the end of the Jerusalem letter in Acts 15:21, specifically references Gentile disciples of the Messiah and prominently mentions the Torah or "the Law". Why?

One Law proponents say this is evidence that Gentile disciples were supposed to learn and obey the full list of Torah commandments and, for a long time, I thought this was the only way to interpret this verse. Recently though, I've come up with another way of looking at it.

“And if he wants to do [the additional commandments] while saying that it was commanded to them we dont allow him to do [them] rather if he does them in order to obtain reward like one who is not commanded but does [we allow it], and thus our master was precise and wrote “in order to obtain reward”. Nevertheless regarding the commandments that require holiness and purity like Tefilin, Torah scrolls and Mezuzah I argue to be stringent that they should not allow them to do them.”

The Radbaz, in his commentary to the Rambam
from Torah and Non-Jews
at Christian for Moses.

This is just my opinion, but it's possible that, with Gentiles being brought into Messianic discipleship but not required to fulfill all of the Written commandments, oral traditions, or halachah, they (we) would still be permitted to voluntarily respond to as many of the Torah mitzvot (perhaps within certain limits) as we desired to take on, but that, not taking on all of the commandments, we would not be sinning. Again, it's just "a theory", but frankly, so is every other interpretation of the Jerusalem letter and especially its famous "last line". Much of how we determine our responsibilities to God are based on how we interpret the Bible. If there were only one way to interpret God's word, we would only have one religion, denomination, or sect. And we know that's not the case.

I also previously quoted a source stating the following:

Let’s first examine this from a purely rabbinic perspective. Neither in the Talmud nor in any of the early rabbinic works do we find a prohibition against Gentiles wearing tefillin. There is a passage in the Tosefta that instructs Jews not to sell tefillin to Gentiles (t.Avodah Zarah 2:4), and as some scholars point out, this may actually indicate that tefillin were worn by some non-Jews. We also find the example in the midrash and the Jerusalem Talmud of Rabban Gamaliel’s Gentile slave Tobi wearing tefillin.

Assuming for the moment that this is a statement of fact, then we have a precident for a non-Jew performing a worship practice that otherwise would be considered "strictly Jewish".

I'm not trying to shove "Gentile observance of the Torah" down your throat, but we can see that it is at least a supportable position, though a minority opinion in Judaism, and it does speak to one reason, beyond what I stated earlier, why Christians can be allowed to read and study the same exact Bible as the Jews, right down to the five books of Moses.

The quote from 1 John 3:4 can be a problem because defining sin as "lawlessness" could be viewed as support for the Gentile disciples being required to obey the full Torah commandments in order to avoid sinning. Of course, if that were the case, the ambiguity about Gentile Torah observance built into the rest of the Apostolic Scriptures seems to be kind of contradictory. Of course, you could say that John was addressing an exclusively Jewish audience, but then, Christianity would have to completely re-tool how they (we) study the Bible. I don't know of a single Christian teacher in any church who says we must learn to recognize the "Jewish-only" parts of the New Testament vs. the parts that apply to Gentile Christians. If that is indeed what's required, then we have a long, long way to go in understanding who Christians are in Christ.

Do Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews (and everyone else along the continuum of congregations and theologies) share the same Bible? Yes. Do all of the parts of the Bible apply to all of those populations? No. An obvious example are those portions of the Bible which outline the duties of the kohens and more specifically the High Priest. Only a Jew who is a direct descendent of Aaron can be a High Priest, so most Jews (let alone non-Jews) can read these portions with the understanding that the commandments related to this population do not apply to them.

On the other hand, it's not valueless for a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin to read those parts of the Torah having to do with the Levitical priesthood because of their rich symbolism and the history of God's actions among His chosen people. I don't think it's valueless for the rest of us either.

So beyond the sheer history lesson offered by the Torah for Christians, we see teachings in morality, images of how God interacts with human beings, and the laying of the essential foundation for understanding the words of the Messiah, all from studying the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Christianity's New Testament is built on the foundation of all of the scriptures that come before it and we ignore or marginalize that foundation at our own peril.

Like it or not, we share the same Bible...all of us, if we call ourselves disciples of the Jewish Messiah.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

The Presence of Faith

In Your presence, thats where I am strong
In Your presence O the Lord my God
In your presence that's where I belong
Seeking Your face
Touching Your grace
In the cleft of the rock
In your presence O God.

Words and Music by Lynn DeShazo
Performed by Paul Wilbur
1995 Integrity's Hosanna! Music

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. -Matthew 8:5-10

Back to Basics Tour, Part 2

I'm trying to find some of those things in the Bible that everyone in the Messianic and Christian communities have in common without stepping on toes and tails. Issues of defensiveness and divisiveness often characterize the larger "Messianic movement", especially in the eyes of the greater body of Christian believers, and these arguments tend to discredit our chosen method of worship, even discrediting the Jews in Messianic Judaism. What do we have in common with our Christian brothers and sisters? How can we all say together that we are disciples of the Messiah?

I ask that question, though technically a Christian, as one who is off, slightly to one side, since my perspective on many matters favors Israel and Jewish worship styles rather than what you would find in a traditional church. As a Christian man married to a Jewish woman who keeps a Jewish home, my perspective and orientation tends to be more "Jewish". But see, even now, I can easily find ways in which the different members of the body of believers are different and apart.

But how are we together?

I just quoted the words of the Master as recorded in Matthew 8:5-10 and he said something amazing. He recognized the faith of a Roman centurion, a non-Jew, and praised the depth of his faith. The Jewish Messiah even held up this Goy's faith as an example to his Jewish disciples and followers. Can the Messiah of the Jews acknowledge the faith of a Gentile as an authentic faith?

I ask that last question somewhat tongue-in-cheek, because Yeshua's (Jesus's) words are plain. Jewish faith isn't of superior quality or better accepted by God than Gentile faith. We can agree that the Jews are God's "treasured, splendorous people" and nothing removes their status before Him, yet we who are not Jewish are not unloved by God. Paul said "neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; for in union with the Messiah, you are seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:28-29 CJB) Can we agree on that, or am I speaking in vain?

In Romans 11, Paul describes faith as the "glue" that attaches both the natural Jewish branches and the alien Goyim branches to a common root. Even an alien branch can be grafted in to the source by faith and even a natural branch can be knocked off because of lack of faith. It's the same glue.

It's easy to forget that we all have this in common, each and every one of us who acknowledge Yeshua as Messiah, Lord, and Master. Regardless of how we may view each other, there is only one "type" of faith that we have accessible to each of us. How we express faith and worship may vary between Jew and Christian, between one congregation and the next, between one tradition and the next, but the ineffable essence and quality of faith is the same. I pray no one sees this as incorrect.

There is also a need for persistence and endurance of faith as recorded in the following parable:

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” -Luke 18:1-8

The "birth pangs" of the re-association between Jewish Messianics and Gentile Christians is painful indeed and we're just seeing the start of it. I don't believe that God intends for our two communities, which are "united" by a single shepherd, to remain totally estranged and isolated forever, and we are someday to have fellowship in Him. Yet, looking at the entire continuum containing the various congregations of the Messiah, it would be easy to lose faith. Certainly mine has been significantly dampered in recent weeks and months, and I can see how the "Son of Man" can ask "will he find faith?"

There's so much confusion between who we are, what we do, what "Torah" to obey between Jews and Christians, and issues of faith. It's easy to confuse or substitute form for substance. Paul wrote about this:

..even so, we have come to realize that a person is not declared righteous on the ground of his observance of Torah commands, but through the Messiah Yeshua's trusting faithfulness. Therefore, we too have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua and become faithful to him, in order that we might be declared righteous on the ground of the Messiah's trusting faithfulness and not on the ground of our observance of Torah commands. For on the ground of observance of Torah commands, no one will be declared righteous. -Galatians 2:16 CJB

We need to define, not just what separates us, but what binds us. If we can't do that, we have no hope. We might as well continue to operate in two separate camps, being distinctive, and unique, and perserving our identities at the cost of the desires of the Messiah to also make the Gentiles into disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We have all been (and I believe this means all of us, not just Jews and not just Gentiles) commanded to love one another as the Master's disciples (John 13:34-35) and it's by this love that the rest of the world will know we belong to Yeshua.

This is a command we don't obey very well. However, love is even more important than faith in the Messianic realm:

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. -1 Corinthians 13:8-13

As Paul says, we don't see very clearly yet. That's probably why all the different denominations and factions in Christianity and the Messianic movement seem so confused. When Messiah comes, much more will be revealed, including how we have succeeded and how we have failed in matters of love and faith. I can only hope and pray that we all consider these words and question our own "self-righteousness" in how we treat our fellow disciples, no matter how different they may be from us.

There's a quote uttered by actor Harrison Ford in the film Air Force One (1997):

Peace isn't merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice.

Adapting the quote, I'd like to believe that righteousness isn't just the absence of sin, but the presence of faith. We can only be persistent in our faith and love if we are attached to the Master. In his own words, apart from me, you can do nothing (John 15:5).

In His Presence, we are strong, and we are the body of the Messiah...all of us.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Ten Words

God spoke all these words, saying:
I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods besides Me.
You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God; for the Lord will not clear one who swears falsely by His name. Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work — you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that the Lord your God is assigning to you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house: you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.

-Exodus 20:1-14 (JPS Tanakh)

Back to Basics Tour, Part 1

Before I get on with the main point of my blog today, I just want to introduce this "series" and why I'm writing it. As you know, the Messianic blogosphere is a volatile and sometimes even hostile place. Everybody takes their turn at fussing and arguing. Sometimes we're civil when we disagree and sometimes we absolutely aren't. It's exhausting and spiritually draining, but it's something else.

Many of these discussions can be woefully short sighted and focus on priorities that take away from the "big picture" and the One God. That sometimes drags me down and sometimes drives me crazy.

What to do? Yesterday, a friend, knowing I was discouraged, sent me the book of Luke via email (yeah, the whole thing) and suggested that I get back in touch with the Master.

While I didn't read all of Luke, I did wake up this morning inspired (albeit at 3 in the morning). After a workout at the gym, breakfast, and a shower, I drove to work knowing what I wanted to write today.

Getting back to basics.

Last July, Judah Gabriel Himango wrote a blog post called Some things We Agree On. I'd like to think that as disciples of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus), we all agree about some basic things. Hopefully those are the things we don't talk about in the blogosphere because we agree on them. Maybe that's even some of the reason why we see certain "gaps" in Yeshua's teachings in the gospels; because that information was "a given" to his Jewish audience. He didn't need to teach on those topics because they were already being correctly interpreted and performed.

Anyway.

This coming Shabbat (which is fast approaching), we read Torah Portion Yitro in which we witness the Mount Sinai event; the approach of the most awesome God to His treasured splendorous people and His speaking the "ten words" to the millions standing at the foot of Sinai in terror and wonder.

God was speaking to a mixed audience of Jews and Gentiles and every one of them accepted the Torah of Moses "as a single man" before God uttered even a single syllable. Within a few generations. the non-Jewish multitude, by virtue of performing the same mitzvot at their born Jewish companions, assimilated into the Children of Israel. They became fully Jewish in just the same manner as Ruth did. Up until the time of Yeshua, that was the only way to have a relationship with God.

Yeshua changed all that. But what about the "ten words". They were certainly given to a specific group at Sinai and not announced to the worldwide population of human beings. What do they mean to the non-Jewish people of the world today? What do they mean to Christianity? What do they mean to you and me?

I live in Idaho. We're conservative. I regularly drive by a rundown (former) farm house that has a sign out front listing the Ten Commandments for every driver and passerby to see. I'm sure the occupants of this house aren't Jewish. Christianity claims the Ten Commandments (or most of them).

What do they mean to us? Let's have a look. I'm using Judaism 101's list for reference:

1. Belief in G-d. This category is derived from the declaration in Ex. 20:2 beginning, "I am the L-rd, your G-d..."

Is this only for the Jews (and I know that different Christian traditions order the commandments in different ways)? Can Christians not believe in God? The first of the Master's two greatest commandments, which I believe are just as accessible to Gentile Christians as they are Messianic Jews, says to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". I don't have a problem applying the first "word" to my life as a believer. Hopefully you don't have a problem with me doing that, either.

2. Prohibition of Improper Worship. This category is derived from Ex. 20:3-6, beginning, "You shall not have other gods..." It encompasses within it the prohibition against the worship of other gods as well as the prohibition of improper forms of worship of the one true G-d, such as worshiping G-d through an idol.

I don't think anyone could argue that worshiping idols is applied just to the Jewish people. If you are a Gentile believer in Yeshua, should you be worshiping idols? The Acts 15 letter to the Gentiles, written by the (Jewish) Jerusalem Council specifically states, "You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things" (Acts 15:29). I'd say supports Gentile believers taking the second "word" to heart.

3. Prohibition of Oaths. This category is derived from Ex. 20:7, beginning, "You shall not take the name of the L-rd your G-d in vain..." This includes prohibitions against perjury, breaking or delaying the performance of vows or promises, and speaking G-d's name or swearing unnecessarily.

Should Christians and Gentiles in the "Messianic movement" consider themselves (ourselves) exempt from this? Is it not good if we too do not take the Name of the Lord in vain or treat His Name as something common? I don't see a problem here for me. Let's move on.

4. Observance of Sacred Times. This category is derived from Ex. 20:8-11, beginning, "Remember the Sabbath day..." It encompasses all mitzvot related to Shabbat, holidays, or other sacred time.

Depending on who you are, this could be a problem. Some strict interpreters from traditional and Messianic Jewish sources specifically state that the Shabbat is only for the Jewish people as a reminder of their liberation from Egyptian slavery (and never mind God sanctifying the seventh day way back in Genesis 2:2-3). On the other hand, you have Orthodox Jews like Rabbi Shmuley Boteach who have gone on record as saying the Shabbat has benefits for all God's people (that is to say, all people). I've recently read Jewish opinions saying that it's OK for Christians such as me to observe the Shabbat as long as we don't do it "Jewishly" (which means not observing the Shabbat according to halachah). I'm not sure what that exactly means, but I can always "cheat" since I'm married to a Jew who does observe the Shabbat. Frankly, based on Genesis 2 and in solidarity with my wife, Israel, and God, I don't have a problem resting on the seventh day.

5. Respect for Parents and Teachers. This category is derived from Ex. 20:12, beginning, "Honor your father and mother..."

Um...does anyone think that only Jewish people are supposed to respect parents, teachers, and other authorities? Next.

6. Prohibition of Physically Harming a Person. This category is derived from Ex. 20:13, saying, "You shall not murder."

Again, this one seems like a no brainer. Does anyone think that it's actually OK for a Christian (or anyone) to commit murder? In fact, Yeshua teaches this prohibition in Matthew 5:21-22.

7. Prohibition of Sexual Immorality. This category is derived from Ex. 20:13, saying, "You shall not commit adultery."

Yeshua teaching support not committing adultery in Matthew 5:27-30 and these teachings are re-enforced in a number of Paul's letters. You'll also find it in the Acts 15 letter.

8. Prohibition of Theft. This category is derived from Ex. 20:13, saying, "You shall not steal." It includes within it both outright robbery as well as various forms of theft by deception and unethical business practices. It also includes kidnapping, which is essentially "stealing" a person.

Again, this isn't really difficult to apply to all disciples of Yeshua.

9. Prohibition of Harming a Person through Speech. This category is derived from Ex. 20:13, saying, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." It includes all forms of lashon ha-ra (sins relating to speech).

My, this one has been in the "Messianic News" lately. As I recall, Yeshua also taught against hurting others in speech and his new commandment is that we disciples all love each other. I suppose means we shouldn't be gossiping about each other, spreading "evil reports", or "telling tales out of school", to borrow from a local Idaho saying.

10. Prohibition of Coveting. This category is derived from Ex. 20:14, beginning, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house..."

Are only Jews not supposed to lust over their next door neighbor's new skill saw or selection of other power tools (or his totally hot wife)?

As far as the halachah is concerned on how to obey these mitzvot "Jewishly", I'm not necessarily saying Gentiles should replicate those exact behaviors (although Rabbinic opinion says that Gentiles should not perform any mitzvot outside of the seven Noahide laws unless they do so halachally, so life does get confusing). Maybe there isn't a problem? But who knows?

Both Christianity and Judaism look at the "ten commandments" somewhat differently, but we also both view them as at the rock bottom core of our religious behavior.

Actually, there's considerable overlap between the ten words and the seven laws, since Noahides are prohibited to practice idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, and blasphemy (Name in vain). That covers a lot of territory in both codifications of God's desires for his Gentile and Jewish creations.

These are the basics. This is what we should all agree upon, at least for starters. Can I get an "Amen"?

In future blog posts, I'm going to try and discover what else we have in common and what other portions of the Torah and Yeshua's teachings apply to us all as people of faith. As I've mentioned before, I'm also starting a class on pretty much this same topic next Wednesday evening, so I expect further enlightenment to come along.

Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told that I'm unworthy, or unholy, or unrighteous, largely because I'm not Jewish. I'm also getting a little tired of people arguing with each other over the fence between us. Maybe there's plenty I can't do or can't do right because of this, that, or the other opinion, authoritative writing, or sage, but there's got to be some connection between me, the Jewish Messiah, and his other disciples. Otherwise, we might as well burn the Gospels and the Epistles.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh