As previously explained, there is no such thing as "Church" in the Bible but rather the Greek term Ekklesia (Hebrew: Kahal) refers to Israel. And we've discussed how Christianity, once a Judaism, became something totally different, something anti-Judaic. In fact, let's be frank: CHRISTIANITY IS ANTI-JUDAISM.
Now that statement is not entirely accurate. We now have Jewish Roots Christianity. But, in the main, the Christian system is 99.99999999999% anti-Judaic.
The message of Exclusionist Messianic Judaism is simple: Gentiles may not under any circumstances practice the sign commandments of Judaism. No Shabbat (that's an exclusive sign); No tefillin; No tzitzit.
If you read Isaiah 56 and you see that "turning" to the L-rd necessarily involves keeping the covenant (e.g. Shabbat, etc), then you will quickly understand that Exclusionist Messianic Judaism is based on the idea that Gentiles are excluded from the New Covenant (the New Covenant being the renewed national covenant of Israel, a.k.a. the Sinaitic Covenant) and, more importantly, excluded from Israel. The upshot of all that is that Gentiles are not, in the Exclusionist view, covenantally bound to follow Sinaitic Torah.
The typical Christian will say "That sounds good to me. You can have the law and I'll order up a ham for my Easter dinner." The message that Gentiles are not covenantally bound to do anything sits well with most Christians. It tells them that they are doing fine. They needn't change anything.
On the other hand, the Inclusionist will sound very hostile to Christians. "You mean we have to change what we're doing?" Yes, friend. The Prophets say as much. They say it--look in Zechariah!--that the nations will "turn" and suddenly desire Torah. Even Deuteronomy says that the mishpatim and chukim will become wisdom in the eyes of the Gentiles. This is also prophetic.
To the other Inclusionists out there, don't be discouraged by the recent publication of Rudolph's book, the so-called "Introduction to Messianic Judaism." We'll show him who is mainstream. One Law does not follow the dictates of the scholarly elite or the cronies leading the UMJC. One Law (Inclusionism) is a movement run by G-d. It's bigger than anything you have imagined. You'll see what I mean in just a few years time. : )
i pray you are right brother!
ReplyDeleteit's a hard message for those in the church to swallow but those who truly are being lead by the Spirit are open and some even eager to hear it (even though they do not yet know it lol)