Chanukah Sameach!
Friday, December 15, 2006
Shalom, Shabbat Shalom, and Chanukah Sameach (a Joyful Hanukkah) to you, my dear mishpocha. I pray blessings upon you all and upon all Israel during this festival of rededication. Very often, Orthodox Jews will punctuate their prayers with requests to see the Temple rebuilt in their time, and so I will as well- in a twofold sense. I pray not only for the physical Temple to be rebuilt in my days, as it is a sign of Messiah's immient return, but I also pray for the spiritual Temple of Adonai to be rebuilt and restored to its First Century fullness; in other words, I pray during this season that we, as believers, would rededicate ourselves to each other in the same love that Yeshua commanded of us in Yochanan 15. In doing so, we would be bringing glory to Yeshua and edification to the body and to all Yisrael. May the spiritual Temple be rebuilt quickly, in our days, that we would be prepared to see the physical Temple in our midst!
As you may already be aware, the new edition of The Messianic Times is out. I received my copy via mail only yesterday and, ironically enough, was reading Rabbi Jonathan Bernis's commentary on Christian Zionism right when CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 decided to devote an entire hour to the growing movement of believers supporting Israel.
I have mixed feelings about Christian Zionism. Bernis does well to highlight my concerns regarding the Fallwellian concept of Dual Covenant Theology (that is, the Torah is the way to salvation for the Jews, while Jesus is the way to salvation for the gentiles-- a blatantly unBiblical theory) and the Christian Zionist caveat of not telling the Jewish people about Messiah in their relations with them (salvation belongs "to the Jew first"). However, I would like to set these two salvation-related issues aside for a moment and discuss what I like about Christian Zionism, which can be boiled down to one visual used in Cooper's report last night.
As thousands of Christians in some mega-church in the heartland praised G-d in front of an Israeli flag, I noticed that the crowning decoration on their stage was a Menorah. FYI: A Menorah is a 7-branched candelabra used in daily Temple services, while a Hanukkiah is a 9-branched candelabra used during Hanukkah. Along with a difference in the number of branches, a Hanukkiah also has one other distinguishing feature: a shamas or sevant candle that sits higher than the rest, and is used to light the rest of the candles in the Hanukkiah during the festival. (A servant who sits higher than the rest-- Yeshua is in all Biblically Jewis things!) Now, the Menorah the Christians were using was a sort of hybrid of the two types of candelabras: It had only 7 branches, but the center branch stood higher than the rest. I've only seen such an image once before, in an episode of Family Guy, oddly enough. When the writers commented on the scene depicting the hybrid menorah, they remarked that the series is animated in Korea, so the screw-up was essentially due to the fact that these Korean gentiles probably never saw a real menorah in their life, so they were working off of pop culture knowledge. The same could be said for a lot of these Christian Zionists; most have probably never met a Jewish person, let alone been exposed to Judaica to any great extend. So, how would they know the difference?
This is why G-d's thought process always focuses on the heart, not the head. Those Christians, dancing and singing in cowboy hats about going to Jerusalem, waving Israeli flags as they praised Jesus and looked at a hybrid menorah, were some of the most well-intentioned Christians I've ever seen. As a Jewish believer, you can't help but be charmed by gentiles who want to know so much and be such a part of your faith and your people. Many of these congregants filmed were wearing kippot and tallitot (head coverings and prayer shawls), evidencing (to me, at least) not only great support for, but an even greater desire to be a part of Israel. It is this kind of Christian Zionism that excites me; the kind that takes hold of the covenant of Ruth and seeks to live it out, not just pay Israel lip service in the name of receiving heavenly blessings for themselves.
Rav Shaul writes in I Corinthians 14:26, that whenever we come together, we are to "let everything be for edification." Bernis's article serves to highlight the deficiencies in the Christian Zionist philosophy, and rightly so. We cannot just gloss over evil in the name of good intentions- and truly, denying the message of salvation to the Jews is evil in its most wicked sense. However, we also need to compound our criticisms with solutions that bring about edification of the body. Bernis punctuates his article by arguing that if Christian Zionists took a stand for Messianic Jews, the Jewish people would have no choice but to accept Messianic Jews, too. This, after questioning, "After all, are we seeking to please men, or G-d," not two paragraphs prior!
The incessant whining of the Messianic Jewish population to be accepted and loved by their non-believing Jewish mishpocha is not only frustrating, it is appallingly ironic. It is frustrating because whining is an action that produces no fruit. It is ironic because, a mere 8 pages later, we're given to read that Chanukah should be celebrated because it paved the way for the first Christmas! What hypocrisy! You want to be accepted by the Jewish people, but you want to be accepted by the pagan world as well? The Christian Zionists, with their tallitot and their Israeli flags are more Jewish than you!
In truth, the Messianic community has been in contact with the Christian world since 1967. Many Messianic Jews were saved in churches and continue to attend churches to this day. Read any newsletter that comes from a so-called "Messianic Ministry" (i.e. Jews for Jesus, MAOZ Israel to name two off the top of my head) and you will read continual justifications for the pagan Christian practices (Christmas, Easter, even communion) Christian Zionists are now trying so hard to distance themselves from! The Messianic Community has spent a great deal of time, effort, and money not only distinguishing between Jews and gentiles within the body, but justifying the blatantly pagan practices within Christianity. Now, they're saying that it's the Christians' turn to defend them to their Jewish mishpocha? I think not.
Instead of seeing the opportunity Messianics have to go into these Christian Zionist congregations and teach willing pupils the importance of Chanukah and the irrelevance of Christmas and the difference between a Hanukkiah and a menorah, the Messianics are whining and stomping their feet like children on the playground who want to be part of the popular club. Mainstream Messianic Judaism, the kind portrayed in the Messianic Times and through a variety of alliances and unions, is a Messianic Judaism of compromise between G-d and humanity in the pursuit of acceptance on human terms. It is vague. It is not of G-d, therefore, it is irrelevant, and it will not last. The institutions of men rise and fall, but the Truth of G-d remains forever. If the Messianics truly want to find acceptance, they'll stop making so many compromises and blaming others in the body for their feelings of failure and unworthiness. Our G-d is not a G-d of "Issues," He is a G-d of results; Christians who've never met a Jew in their lives, yet don talit to pray to Adonai-- that's a result. If you want to achieve results along with Him, criticize to edify, not to promote your own selfish agenda.
Judah Maccabee was blessed with victory because he and his army refused to compromise. They knew the command of Antiochus, to desecrate the Temple and sacrifice pigs on the altar to a false god, was wrong and they would not waver. In the end, HaShem blessed them with results in the form of a victorious battle and a miraculous rededication. Don't forget these truths in your pursuit of happiness, believers of Israel! When Yeshua walked the earth, He was a minority of One who could not even count on His own followers to remain loyal to Him. Did He whine and moan about being the outcast, or did He cry to HaShem in pain for the salvation of His people? Did He run to the Samaritan and say, "Tell them you think I'm cool, so they'll think I'm cool, too," or did He tell her, "salvation is of the Jews"?
When Yeshua encountered the Judeans that Chanukah, He told them, "The works I do in my Father's name testify on my behalf." Does your "Chanukah Bush" testify to your Jewishness on your behalf? Yeshua instructed His people, "If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father's power, don't trust me. But if I am, then, even if you don't trust Me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with Me, and I am united with the Father." Who is the Messianic Community united with? According to their deeds, I believe it is very clear that they occupy a middle-ground, a purgatory of their own making.
At the end of his second letter to the Corinthian believers, Rav Shaul writes, "I am afraid that when I come again, my G-d may humiliate me in your presence, and that I will be grieved over many of those who sinned in the past and have not repented of the impurity, fornication, and debauchery they have engaged in." Yeshua, although sinless, was given to die a humiliating death because of our sins. The sins of the body are the humiliation of its members. When we allow sin to go unchecked we are humiliated in the eyes of G-d. Moreover, when we allow sin to go unchecked, we do a disservice in our testimony to the truth of G-d, and He is humiliated in the face of the world.
We must hold each other accountable; for when one part of the body is ill, all the other parts are adversely effected. I believe that we are being given a great opportunity to glorify Yeshua at this hour by uniting with one another through worshipping Him in Spirit and in Truth. Believers are finally finding common ground, because they are escaping the denominational tenents of men and embracing the halachaic teachings of Yeshua. Yes, we must condemn the false teaching of dual covenant theology, and we must be bold in proclaiming the Truth of Messiah to the Jew first, as well as to the gentile. But, to accomplish both of these things successfully, we must seek to encourage one another, "through psalms, teachings, and revelations," in all our encounters with each other. We must use the positive to outweigh the negative; we must take the meat and leave the bones.
I submitted an article for publication in the current edition of the Times. However, my submission was rejected. Therefore, I give my words to you, dear readers, for your edification and the edification of the body of believers: an article on Jewish Identity and its implications for unification, in Adobe PDF format. (If you need Adobe Acrobat reader, you can download it for free here.) May the Spiritual Temple of the Almighty be blessed with many Ezras and Nehemiahs in her midst during this festival of rededication. May we all follow Yeshua's example and seek to be servants bringing His light to the Jew first, as well as to the gentile.
Chanukah Sameach!
Chanukah Messianic Times Jonathan Bernis Messianic Judaism Christian Zionism Jewish Identity
posted by Shoshana @ 8:40 AM
