The Recovery of the Jewish Gospel
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Steve Petersen
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Yeshua HaDerekh
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I would think there were both...gentile believers who were in the process of conversion and just plain gentile believers.
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Open Heart
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I think it is important not to even appear to be putting down Trinitarianism on this forum. Yet your comments deserve reply. You might have better luck if you asked for Jewish answers in the forum called "Ask a Jew - What's Nu? Questions about the Messiah." It's in the Outreach section in the Jewish Community Center.
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Open Heart
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Again, vis, it depends on what Rabbi you ask. You've been talking to people who say Christianity is Avodah Zara. That is only one possible position. The more common position is that Christianity is Shi*tuf.
And if Christianity is Shi*tuf, then Christians are, by default, all Noahides. Whether they declare it or not.
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Yeshua HaDerekh
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Vis, I saw something regarding that the US Congress adopted Noahide laws and signed them into law???
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Open Heart
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It's not that they signed them into law, so much as they gave them an honorary position in terms of national morality.
"The United States Congress recognized the Noahide Laws in 1991 when it passed the Education Day Bill.
"Whereas Congress recognizes the historical tradition of ethical values and principles which are the basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded; Whereas these ethical values and principles have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws"
What are the Noahide Laws? | CARM.org
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Yeshua HaDerekh
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Steve Petersen
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Gil Student shows that the Jesus in the Talmud is not the Jesus of Christianity.
The Jesus Narrative In The Talmud
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Oldmantook
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Yes cheap grace and easy believism are the twin evils of modern "Christianity." The notion that the goal of Christianity is to get to heaven where we will reside with God eternally is a dumbed-down goal, in fact not accurate as the saints end up dwelling in the New Jerusalem which is on the earth. I would like your opinion on this matter since I have reflected on what the kingdom of God entails. On one hand it is a present manifestation as the kingdom is within us but in another sense the kingdom is yet to come. Could this be referring to the Millennial reign of Christ? Should our primary goal as believers be to rule and reign with Christ during the Millennium, and if so, do all true believers automatically obtain that status?The Recovery of the Jewish Gospel
by Dan Juster February 14, 2019
Why speak of a Jewish Gospel? Isn’t the Gospel universal and for all peoples? Yes indeed. We use the phrase Jewish Gospel to speak of the original context of the message. This context was the first century Jewish community. The Gospel not only was first spoken to Jews in Israel, but was taken to the nations by Jews who understood it in that context. This recovery of understanding the Gospel is not the result primarily of Messianic Jewish influence, though we have had some influence, but is the culmination of 100 years of Christian scholarship delving into the original context of the message of Yeshua. This recovery amazingly parallels the restoration of Jewish people to faith in Yeshua. This is God’s providence and has enormous consequences for us all.
The Recovery Turning Point
George Ladd’s Crucial Questions and the Kingdom of God published in 1951 was a great turning point in Evangelical Theology. His later publication, The Gospel of the Kingdom was given to me in 1970 by Chaplain Dr. Evan Welsh, my spiritual father at Wheaton College. It has had a formative influence on my understanding of Scripture. The late Ladd was a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. The same orientation is reflected in our book Israel, the Church and the Last Days. John Wimber emphasized some of the themes in his preaching. Finally in the 1990s several popular books reflected this theology: Jan Hettinga’s Follow Me, Scott McKnight’s The Jesus Creed and Dallas Willard’s amazing The Divine Conspiracy.
An Inadequate Gospel and the True Gospel
The essence of all these books is that the Evangelical Church of 20th century America (including Charismatics and Pentecostals) has, with few exceptions, preached and taught a partial Gospel. Sometimes, the very essence of the matter has been left out. The essence of the Gospel is the message of Yeshua Himself. It is that the “Kingdom of God is available to you.” Therefore the Good News is that in the coming of Yeshua, the Kingdom has come. Since that time men and women have been invited to enter into this Kingdom and to live in and from it. The grace of God makes this choice possible. Not our good works, but the death and resurrection of Yeshua are the foundation of our citizenship in the Kingdom. Saying ‘yes’ to the invitation, is however, a ‘yes’ to Yeshua being our leader. It is a ‘yes’ to a life of obedience, a ‘yes’ to discipleship, a ‘yes’ to community fellowship, a ‘yes’ to elder leadership as well. One leaves the Kingdom of darkness, of self, and of Satan, and enters into the Kingdom of Light.
Yeshua Really Brought the Kingdom
Yes, something really happened with the coming of Yeshua. The incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, brought the Kingdom of God to earth and made it available to us. This is a Jewish Gospel in context because Jews were looking for the Kingdom of God. For our people at the time, this implied the fulfillment of the hopes of the prophets, including deliverance from Rome, peace among nations, and the elevation of Jerusalem as the capital of the nations. They fully expected the re-establishment of David’s throne with his Son the Messiah on that throne. Of course, the fullness of these hopes has not yet been realized. Yet the Gospels themselves are a defense of the thesis that Yeshua in a real sense did bring the Kingdom in what Bible scholars call an “inaugurated sense.” His miracles, His preaching to the poor, and His resurrection are proof that the Kingdom has come. Its manifestation is in communities of his disciples impacting every realm of life. Committing to the Kingdom in the present will lead to the coming of the Kingdom in fullness at His second coming.
What is Available in the Kingdom?
The Gospel of the Kingdom delivers us from a watered-down gospel which both requires less and delivers less, a gospel that does not lead to discipleship and produces carnal believers who are believers in name only. The Gospel of the Kingdom as it is now coming to the fore is the only interpretation that fits the first century context. What is its distinctive importance and benefit? Here are some key points to summarize it. The true Good News of the Bible is an invitation to:
The Gospel is not an invitation to say a prayer so that we have assurance of heaven. Faith is not merely mental assent, but the right response to a Kingdom invitation — a response which demands faithfulness. In both Hebrew and Greek, one word stands for both faith and faithfulness. Heaven is part of the promise, but the promise is only to those who have submitted their lives to the King and his Kingdom. All of this is possible because of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- life in a new realm of the presence of the King though His Spirit;
- submission to the leadership of Yeshua, to His Lordship and a life motivated by the most radical love for God and others;
- fellowship in a new community;
- the transformation of our lives to conformity to Yeshua and obedience to His commandments. Commandment is a good and positive word. Transformation includes marriage, family, work, and all else in our lives;
- healing, deliverance, and signs and wonders are part of the manifestation
of the extension of the Kingdom.
Why is this so important? Because we in North America, recently, have had an anaemic Christianity that has done little to disciple. This is because we have preached a cheap grace, whereas the true Gospel saves us by a grace that motivates us to keep God’s law as taught by Yeshua. This is crucial for a Messianic Jewish understanding.
In my view, only such a gospel will be powerful enough to see a viable movement for Yeshua among the Jewish people. Only a Church conformed to such a gospel can make Israel jealous.
The Recovery of the Jewish Gospel - Tikkun TV
Rev 20
4Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.5The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
In this passage, those martyrs who persevered in the faith came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Quite obviously, the reward for their ultimate sacrificial obedience resulted in their being made co-rulers with Christ during the millennium. What if anything does this imply for Christians who are not true disciples and don't live sacrificially for the Lord? Do they get the same reward?
In the story of the rich young ruler who asked Jesus what he must do to enter into eternal life, it is instructive to note that the phrases "eternal life," "kingdom of God/heaven" are used interchangeably. In other words, eternal life and the kingdom are equated with one another. In order to obtain eternal life/the kingdom one must live sacrificially as Jesus instructed the rich young ruler to do by giving away his possessions. This story is consistent with those in Rev 20 who lived and died sacrificially in order to reign with Christ during the millennium. This leads me to believe that eternal life in reality refers to life during the kingdom age. Note that the Greek word for eternal is aionion, aionios etc. which refers to an age of time; not eternal. Thus when the rich young man asked about eternal life, he being a Jew, would have been referring to the Messianic age which the Jews had been expectantly waiting for and not "eternal life" (life in heaven) as Christians presume.
Then there is the account of the Hebrews in Heb 11:
35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two,* they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.
What does it mean to "obtain a better resurrection" in v.35? Again, these people lived and died sacrificially in order to obtain it. Does this mirror the typical mindset of the average Christian today? In my opinion the "better resurrection" referred to in this passage is that specified in Rev 20 previously cited; i.e. the "first resurrection" where the reward is to rule and reign with Christ during the millennium.
I think that this is confirmed by Paul in Phil 3:11-12
10to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from out of dead. 12Not that already I have obtained it or already have been perfected, but I am pursuing, if also I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing indeed: Forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Notice that Paul wrote that he had not yet obtained/attained to the resurrection from out of dead. He also described reaching his goal as a prize - not a gift. Thus it is unlikely that Paul was referring to his gift of salvation but to something else instead that he referred to as the "resurrection from out of dead." This term is translated from the Greek "exanastasis." The regular Greek word for “resurrection” appearing throughout the New Testament is anastasis. This different word exanastasis is made up of three parts (ex-ana-stasis). The latter two parts of the word (ana-stasis), means “to rise up,” or “to stand up.” But the preposition ex (from ek) prefixed to anastasis adds a new dimension. The first part, ex (the form that “ek” takes when prefixed to words beginning with a vowel) means “out of,” making exanastasis mean “to stand up out of [out-resurrection].” Exanastasis occurs only once in the NT in this verse and differentiates itself from all other occurrences of resurrection mentioned in the NT.
Consequently, what we have here is the fact that the Apostle Paul describes himself as not yet having obtained it which rules out salvation as we know Paul's doctrine and exemplary life qualified him as being saved. I surmise that the exanastasis that Paul sought to attain to is the first resurrection from the dead in order to rule and reign with Christ during the millennium. If this be true, then the goal posts in Christianity have been moved. We remain blissfully content with our salvation; not seeking to attain to the first resurrection and experience the kingdom of God.
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