The Winter 2018 issue of Messiah magazine has an extremely
important point to make and it’s featured on the cover and on page 6. The cover
depicts the Jewish Jesus standing in a synagogue surrounded by Jewish people in
various poses ranging from distracted to rapt attention. Page 6 has an article beginning with a picture
from Christian art showing an effeminate, non-Jewish looking Jesus, with a halo.
Above this is a title to grab your attention:
The Most Tragic Mistake – THE
TRAGEDY OF FORGETTING THAT JESUS IS JEWISH.
I wish, no – I pray that every person, every Christian would
read this article. Here is the first paragraph, written by Boaz Michael:
“Jesus is Jewish. The most tragic mistake the church ever
made was to forget that Jesus is Jewish. I use the present tense purposefully;
Jesus is just as Jewish today as he was when he walked the hills of Galilee. He
did not quit being Jewish when he rose from the dead or when he ascended to the
right hand of throne of glory.”
I urge you to get this magazine and read this article – and then
act on it. One way is to become a supporting friend of FFOZ (FFOZ.org). You will then get
this magazine and all of the materials FFOZ produces (this varies based on the
type of Friend supporter you are).
Many years ago I taught a Sunday School class called The
Jewishness of Jesus and went over some of the same things this article is
talking about. The church needs to WAKE UP to this tragic mistake and make some
changes. That is the main reason I am writing my Intriguing Love series of
novels. Wittenberg Encounter and Prague Rendezvous are currently available on
Amazon in eBook and paperback, and I encourage you to read these. I am working
on the third installment, Kazimierz Conception that will continue to get into
some of the things that need to change. It is also trying to show the
historical reasons why the church took the wrong turns.
Why is is important for Christians to recognize the Jewishness of Jesus?
ReplyDeleteThe New Testament was written entirely by Jews in the context of a Jewish culture. Their Bible was the Jewish scripture, consisting of the Jewish Torah, Prophets, and Writings. This was supplemented by the Oral Torah. The teaching techniques and idioms sometimes cannot be understood without understanding the Jewish context and culture. Sometimes the Gentile Bible translators, who were anti-Jewish or anti-Law did not comprehend the meaning of a verse or the references to other verses. So, my point is, that knowing the Jewishness of Jesus and his world, helps us to better understand what He said and how his audience understood Him.
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