Does Judaism Stand for Anything?

The shots that rang out in the Tree of Life Synagogue this past Saturday

wounded the entire global Jewish community. Precious lives were taken

and families were shattered at the hands of an evil hater of God’s people.

The memory of the men and women who were slain in this terrible massacre

will forever shine as “kedoshim,” holy martyrs, who lost their lives

because they openly identified as members of God’s witness nation.

So many members of the general community of mankind stood

with us in our grief and shared in our pain. People of all faiths joined

the Jewish community in condemning the evil and in remembering the dead.

This broad outpouring of support is a testimony to the inner goodness of

man and gives us hope that we will soon see the day when all of humanity

will live together in peace and brotherhood.

American politicians from all ends of the spectrum denounced the act of violence

and supported the mourners. As representatives of authority it is their

moral duty to publicly decry the crime that was committed in the land

that they govern. It was in this context that at a political rally

attended by Vice President Pence, a memorial prayer was recited to

commemorate the martyrs.

The sentiment behind the prayer is honorable and true. I believe that

the organizers of the rally meant nothing more and nothing less than to

show solidarity and support for the Jewish community. However, the man

chosen to invoke this prayer was the wrong man and the prayer that he recited was the

wrong prayer. Instead of inviting a rabbi of one of the prominent sects of the Jewish community, the coordinators of the event invited a Messianic “rabbi” to represent the Jewish faith.

This was a mistake. Messianic Jews worship Jesus as a deity, and Jesus

is not the God of the Jewish people. In short; Messianic Judaism is

Christianity, it is not Judaism.

I believe that this was an innocent mistake rooted in good intentions. I

would say; “I appreciate the sentiment, but this man does not represent

my people” and leave it at that.

However, when Dr. Michael Brown wrote an article

https://stream.org/mike-pence-ask-fake-rabbi-pray-synagogue-victims/

explaining why he believes that Messianic Judaism is a valid expression of Judaism I feel

that it is my duty to set the record straight and explain the position of those Jews who are loyal to the God of Israel.

Dr. Brown argues that the first followers of Jesus were Jews whose beliefs were

accepted by their contemporaries as a valid expression of Judaism. It is

only when times changed and “trinitarian beliefs were considered

heretical that these Jewish followers of Jesus were largely excluded

from their Jewish communities.”

Dr. Brown would have us believe that at some point in time Jews accepted

belief in the trinity as a legitimate expression of Jewish faith.

Indeed, Dr. Brown has written (Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus,

vol. 2, pg. 7) that the Jewish rejection of the trinity is the result of

a “gut level negative reaction to anything Christian.” According to

Dr. Brown, Jews in the past, accepted the trinity as a viable expression of their faith but it was their hatred for Christianity that induced them to reject this belief.

Dr. Brown’s words are a real slap in the face to the Jewish community.

Do we stand for nothing? Why are we called a witness nation? What is our

testimony? Is our worship of God rooted in a petty hatred for another

group of people and not in love for God?

The name “Jew” is something that we inherited and the people who

bequeathed it to us did so at great danger to their lives. It wasn’t

easy to be called a Jew in a world that believed John’s Jesus who

described us as “children of the devil” (John 8:44). And those who held

on to that name “Jew” with their very life blood told us what it means to

be a Jew. To be a Jew means to stand in a covenantal relationship with

the One Creator of heaven and earth. At the very least, this covenantal

relationship demands that we do not give our hearts in worship to one of

God’s subjects, and everything under God’s heaven is His subject,

including the Christian Jesus.

Many Jews have abandoned much of the meaning and significance of that

glorious inheritance that was granted to them by virtue of being born

into the nation of Jews. But as long as they haven’t bent their hearts

in worship to one of God’s subjects, they still stand together with their

ancestors on one foundational issue and that is the belief that no one subject of

God ought to worship another of His subjects.

The Christian belief in the trinity involves devotion to a man who walked God’s earth and

breathed His air; one of God’s subjects. This was never considered a

legitimate expression of the Jewish covenant with God. Every bit of historical

evidence that we have tells us that Jews always saw worship of a man, no

matter what the theological justification, to be the very antithesis of

what Jews and Judaism stands for. We reject the trinity because it is

the deepest violation of the covenant that we share with God.

If Dr. Brown would have done his homework he would more readily find

evidence that the first Jewish followers of Jesus were not real

Christians. It goes without saying that they did not believe in the

trinity. It took several hundred years for the Gentile Christians to

develop this theology. There is no reason to believe that the early

Jewish followers of Jesus accepted this idolatrous belief.

But it goes much deeper than that. There is solid evidence which tells

us that the Jewish followers of Jesus did not see his death as an

all-atoning sacrifice. After Jesus’ death, his Jewish disciples were still bringing offerings for the forgiveness of sin in the Jerusalem Temple that operated under the

jurisdiction of the broader Jewish community (Acts 21:23,24). Not only

were they bringing these offerings for the expiation of sin but they

used these offerings to represent their loyalty to the Law. Had they

believed in the core Christian credo which sees Jesus as the sacrifice to end

all sacrifices they would have no need for the offerings in the Jewish

Temple, much less use those offerings as an act that represents their

loyalty to God and His Law.

Messianic Judaism is not real Judaism. Dr. Brown’s attempt to rewrite

history does not change the testimony of the Jewish people. And our

testimony is clear and simple. All Jews who want to stand with their ancestor in this national covenant that we share with God testify to the following truth: That every cause for devotion resides with the One Creator of all and with Him alone.

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