The fact Gentiles think they are the only Church is telling in itself. They did their best to weed out the Jews but there is absolutely no reason why said Jews cannot maintain their heritage and religion, while also following Jesus. Universal means all, not one group. That is how it was done in the beginning, and so it shall be in the end. The Church is truth from the Father, not Jew or Gentile.
Actually I think both sides pushed each other away and in some ways this was inevitable in that the majority of Jewish sects at that time and the climate of Jewish revolt against Rome anyone who did not side with the Jews cause was seen as an outsider.
So by the time of the
Bar Kokhba Revolt in the 130s AD The traditional Jewish sects which more or less bandied together against Rome were calling the Christians traitors and not supporting the revolt.
Which is exactly what the Christians should have done.
But we also see the influence of the Jewish tradition within Christianity up until around the 4th or 5th century and even beyond in some places. The archeological evidence of early churches that look more or less like Jewish synagogues with much of their setup and worship still in the traditional Jewish practice.
And so it should have been the case because Christianity is not a rejection of its traditional roots. Its part of Christianity. But like all positions of power once the church was in bed with the State and became political it began to regulate. Create a divide.
But I think in both cases this was a human created movement designed to make Gods Kingdom an earthly power. They just went about it in different ways. In some ways reactions and a consequence of the establishing of Christs church from all others.
I think the examples of the early church and especially maybe the first 100 years up to the Jewish revolt we see how we should be as a church. Still steeped in the Jewish roots and how this evolved and integrated and not rejected. The symbolism and ritual is very much the same but made so that all nations are able to come to Gods alter to sacrifice themselves as a pure offering to God in Christ.
I think if we lose this connection we lose the true representation and thats when I agree that the Gentiles go too far and try to recreate the church and Christ into their own rationalised and modernised image and not Gods.
So now more than ever the church needs to remember its roots and get back to basics before it lost its ways. .
