Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Presbyterians and The Jewish People

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003399" TEXT="#080000" background="03cc8c00erkjxk.jpg"> <div> <B>The Church's commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ's stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament.</B></div> <div> <B>We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.</B></div> <div> <B>from </B><I><B>The Theological Declaration of Barmen</B></I></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B>Naming The Grace</B></FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Naming The Grace"><U>home</U></A>  <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>Articles</U></A>  <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Additional Articles"><U>Additional Articles</U></A>  <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact"><U>Contact</U></A>  <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Favorite Links:"><U> Favorite Links:</U></A> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books and Movies I Recommend"><U>Books and Movies I Recommend</U></A>  <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Creeds"><U>Creeds</U></A>  <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Few Pages of Poetry"><U>A Few Pages of Poetry</U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Presbyterians and The Jewish People</B></div> <bR> <div> By Viola Larson</div> <bR> <div> The debate occurring in the church over the issue of the State of Israel and divestment, as well as evangelization of the Jews, is a defining moment for the Presbyterian Church (USA). Some in leadership are approaching the issues surrounding the State of Israel and the Jewish people from a political point of view rather than a biblical one. They are also approaching the issues from a religious outlook that is wedded to pluralism and has little to do with Christianity. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B><IMG SRC="101128a0.jpg" border=0 width="274" height="394" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></FONT>Some in the church are seemingly divorced from any understanding of the complexity of the Jewish situation or of the rise of rabid anti-Semitism in the post-modern world. Sometime in the late eighties I began researching and writing about the various “Christian Identity” groups in this country, which were and are a part of the rising anti-Semitic groups here and in Europe.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >1</FONT> Since that time I have noted and written about pagan groups which are anti-Semitic.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >2</FONT> Now of course there are many Islamic extremists and some Arab states that are perpetrating the same anti-Semitic lies. Of course the issues in the Presbyterian Church are focused around the State of Israel and their relationship to the Palestinians, as well as `if' and `how' one should evangelize the Jewish people. It seems we are between a rock and a hard place and need to tread, in the light of Jewish history and biblical mandates, very carefully. I want to address three issues on this subject: biblically how are we to perceive and relate to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, evangelization of the Jews, and the future of the Presbyterian Church's relationship to the Jews in light of the Progressive and Evangelical divide and their separate views about scripture.</div> <bR> <div> Christian's are not alone in their divisions about Israel and the Jewish people. The Jewish people are also divided. Walter Laqueur in the preface to his book, <I>A History of Zionism, </I>writes of the younger anti-Zionist and academic Jews, that they belong to a generation, “that has never personally experienced anti-Semitism, for whom the Holocaust is not a real historical experience, who did not have to face the danger of destruction and to flee Europe to save their lives.” <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >3</FONT> He further writes of these individuals, that in their deconstruction of Zionism:                                                                                                       </div> <div> They found that many of the stories taught in school and based on the Old Testament were not rooted in fact but in mythology.  It was not a certainty that the Israelites had ever lived in Egypt or crossed the Red Sea, and Joshua's trumpet had in all probability not caused the crumbling of the walls of Jericho. King David's kingdom had not been a major nation but was most likely a small principality; and there was even some doubt as to whether or not King David had ever really existed.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >4</FONT></div> <bR> <div> The point is that the biblical text and different theological views about the text influence many sides of the debate. Those who call themselves progressive Christians would generally concur with the above Jewish opinion of the history of the Jewish people. As Frank Moore Cross suggests in an interview with <I>Biblical Archaeology Review</I>, there are biblical minimalists who “see no history in the Bible until Josiah.”<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >5</FONT> Without Abraham, without Moses, without David, the covenant between God and Israel as well as the Christian aspect of that covenant is grounded in myth. Laqueur suggests that the Jewish deconstructionists fail to understand that all religions are, “shrouded in myth,” rather than fact.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >6</FONT> Laqueur is seemingly unaware of a problem with this view of myth-based religion; all religions are equalized and lowered to a common denominator. The common denominator is faith in nebulous folk stories grounded in ethnic cultures and a belief system that can evolve any direction. Since within and among such religious groups there could be no historical foundation and no absolute truth to judge any religion or any ethical system such religious systems may in time evolve into repressive and unethical monstrosities. Any prophetic word against such systems would be groundless; who could judge what prophetic word is true? Only political action based on the prevailing ideology of the day would be possible. Still, what if the unethical monstrosity is connected to or the same as the ideology of the day? </div> <bR> <div> Progressive Christians will undoubtedly agree, among themselves, that the idea of the state of Israel was good since it met a humanitarian need; it provided a place of safety for Jews fearful of any government after Nazism. Yet, God's care for the suffering Jew really isn't in the picture. Likewise, Progressives would probably agree,among themselves, that since they perceive all religion to be human centered, that is, based on human stories that are mythical, it is both unwise and unchristian to attempt to evangelize Jews. Supposedly, Jewish myth, at least for now, is respected, but Jewish history is deplored. In such a scenario it is easy to make greater pronouncements against the sins of Israel than against the sins of Palestinian terrorist, the choice is connected to the prevailing ideology of liberal and progressive theology.</div> <bR> <div> On the other hand, Reformed Christians who consider themselves orthodox understand that Christ fulfills the ultimate meaning of the Hebrew Bible's prophecies concerning the messiah and the righteous coming kingdom of God. Jesus' words to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus emphasize this fulfillment. </div> <div> And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24: 25,26).</div> <bR> <div> Jesus became the suffering servant that Israel is called to in Isaiah (Isaiah 52:13-15; 53); he is the righteous king and priest who are constantly imaged in the text of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 49:10; Psalm 110; Jeremiah 23:5,6; 33:14-26; Zechariah 6:11-15). Jesus is the ultimate prophet, like Moses and greater than Moses (Deut. 18:15-19, Heb. 3:2-6). He is God in flesh redeeming his people (John: 1:14 Col. 1:19,20). The Church, both Jew and Gentile, grafted into Israel is given and fulfills, through Jesus Christ, the promises given to the ancient people of the covenant. Individuals of the Church are called into a relationship with Jesus Christ that redeems and gives eternal life. But this relationship with Christ, the new covenant, is grounded in the covenant and promises given to the Jews. The Christian's relationship with Christ is based on a historical covenant that God gave to a historical people; it is not grounded in myth.</div> <bR> <div> True to their belief that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promises of God to the Jewish people, the orthodox believer is bound to the biblical mandate of evangelizing the Jew. As Paul puts it, “to the Jew first, (Romans 1:16c)” and as Peter states in one of his sermons, “For you [the Jews] first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways (Acts 3:26).” But, as David Torrance reminds us, we must come to the Jewish people with the gospel in a different way then we come to others. We must “approach them as elder brothers who belong to the same family as ourselves, they by birth and we by adoption. Necessarily, we speak differently to a brother than to a stranger. The Jews are our brothers in spiritual things.”<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >7</FONT> Torrance also explains that for the Jew the “holocaust is regarded as the third most important event in the Jewish calendar, not simply because six million Jews (one third of their entire number) perished violently, but because it was an attempt to obliterate everything Jewish, once for all.”<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >8</FONT>  Torrance admonishes the Christian reader to love them for Christ sake, and to understand that “we need the Jews and we need believing Jews, in order that along with them we may grow up into the fullness of Christ.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >9</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Unlike dispensationalists who tie the state of Israel and the rebuilding of a Jewish temple to the fulfillment of end-time prophecy, Reformed believers do not place that kind of value on the state of Israel. But, generally among all Reformed Christians, who are orthodox, there is a deep respect for the Jewish people and a caring about the land of Israel, since it is the Hebrew Bible, and the promises given to the Jewish people that are the foundation of Christianity. They love Israel because they belong to her history. They are a part of the Israel that was always obedient to God.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >10</FONT> They are one with the patriarchs and prophets, with Moses, Aaron and Miriam, and they are those who have met the one particular Jew promised to Israel and have received him. In addition to this are the words of scripture, which admonish believers not to boast in the fact that God grafted them into the tree of Israel while some of Israel was cut from the tree. As Paul points out to them, “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:28, 29).” Remember, they are “beloved!”</div> <bR> <div> The Presbyterian Church stands at a crossroads; they must choose between the path of politics and the biblical path, which is prophetic. The political path is all to often co-opted by the prevailing culture and ideology. Israel and the Jewish people are experiencing another bout of grave anti-Semitism. In France it is as great in scope as it was before World War II. In the Islamic world it is horrendous, and not just because of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, but because of the lies being fostered by centuries old forgeries such as <I>The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, </I>and the myth of Jewish use of gentile babies in death rituals. In this highly charged world of anti-Semitism political actions taken against Israel play into the hands of anti-Semites. For instance, the racial forum of Stormfront White Nationalist Community, an extreme racist group, gladly received the recent actions of the Presbyterian Church.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >11</FONT> But prophetic words are different. First, such words will find their foundation in God's word, and they will engage real history, the history of the Jews and the history of the Palestinians. They will be kind toward Israel and kind toward the Palestinians. And in an equal measure they will be severe toward the Palestinians and severe toward Israel. But they will remember that Israel is the “beloved!”</div> <bR> <div> As I have stated, this is a defining time for the Presbyterian Church. She is disconnecting from her foundation: the Bible and the confessions. She is wandering from her Lord. Many liberal and progressive theologians, rather than contextualizing the gospel, are trying to reshape the gospel into the image of various cultural and ethnic folk myths. For instance many radical feminist are using the ethnic centered religions of other groups and nations to reformulate the gospel for women. Franklin H. Littell writing thirty years ago addresses the issues of a spirituality disconnected from historical faith. When writing about the church struggle and the holocaust in 1974, he stated of his own time:</div> <div> Even in America, behind the façade of statistical and institutional success, are heard the rumblings of the preliminary stages of a Church Struggle which affects even the budgets of the boards and agencies. Pathological study of the German Church Struggle can teach us a great deal about the political and theological realities of the twentieth century [place twenty-first century here]. One of these realities is that retrogression to sacral society, to mythical and therefore false harmony, is accompanied by outbursts against the historical people, the Jews, even before “the struggle of the church against the church for the church sets in.”<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >12</FONT></div> <bR> <div> As more and more groups form in the Presbyterian Church with differing versions of the gospel based on various cultural whims and ethnic lore, the Jewish people may find themselves both ignored, as far as evangelizing goes, and maligned, as far as politics goes. This is because Israel was chosen to bring forth the Messiah who would bring salvation to the nations. As long as our Christianity is rooted in the particular history of the Jews, in the Hebrew Bible, it cannot be severed from the Lord of the Church. This is an offense to those who are building different theologies based on different stories. It is time for the church to hear only the voice of the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ.</div> <div> * picture by Brad Larson</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >1</FONT> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >For examples see</FONT>: “<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >Identity: A `Christian' Religion for White Racists</FONT>,” </div> <div>   <A HREF="http://www.equip.org/free/DI100.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.equip.org/free/DI100.htm"><U><U>http://www.equip.org/free/DI100.htm</U></U></A>, and “Adam, Jews, Israel and the White Race: Identity's Mistake,” <A HREF="http://www.naminggrace.org/id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.naminggrace.org/id55.htm"><U><U>http://www.naminggrace.org/id55.htm</U></U></A>. </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >2</FONT> See<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Baskerville" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >The NeoPagan Movement and Racism</FONT>, <A HREF="http://www.naminggrace.org/id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.naminggrace.org/id59.htm"><U><U>http://www.naminggrace.org/id59.htm</U></U></A>. See also, Mattias Gardell, <I>Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism,</I> (Durham: Duke University Press 2003).</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >3</FONT> Walter Laqueur, “New Preface, 2003” in <I>A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel, </I>reprint, (New York: Shocken Books 1972) xx.</div> <div> 4<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" > Ibid. Laqueur goes on to address the problems on both the Arab and the Israelite sides. He does not mince words but he does present a fair case for both.</FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >5</FONT> “Contrasting Insights of Biblical Giants,” at <A HREF="http://www.biblereview.org/bswbOOinterview.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblereview.org/bswbOOintervi"><U><U>http://www.biblereview.org/bswbOOinterview.html</U></U></A>. </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >6</FONT> Laqueur, <I>Zionism, </I>xx.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >7</FONT> David W. Torrance, “The Mission of Christian and Jews,” in <I>A Passion For Christ: The Vision that Ignites Ministry, </I>Thomas F. Torrance, James B. Torrance, David W. Torrance, editors, Gerrit Dawson, Jock Stein, (Edinburgh: Handsel Press; Lenoir: PLC Publications 1999), 127.</div> <div> 8<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" > Ibid.</FONT></div> <div> 9<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" > Ibid., 128.</FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >10</FONT> For an excellent discussion of this see, Karl Barth, <I>Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, </I>Vol. II part 2, pages 195-305.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >11</FONT> See, <A HREF="http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1165256#post1165256" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthre"><U><U>http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1165256#post1165256</U></U></A>. </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Arial" >12</FONT> Franklin H. Littell. “Church Struggle and the Holocaust,” in, <I>The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust, </I>Editors, Franklin H. Littell and Hubert G. Locke, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press 1974), 27. Littell quotes, Arthur C. Cochrane, <I>The Church's Confession Under Hitler, </I>(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), 19.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>